Fairport Convention and Matthews Southern Comfort were two bands with a common thread. Ian Matthews. Ian Matthews had been a founder member of Fairport Convention and performed on the bands first two albums Fairport Convention and What We Did On Our Holidays. When he left the band in early 1969 he formed his next band Matthews Southern Comfort. By the time the summer of 1970 had rolled around Fairport Convention had also undergone many changes and the line up now included founder members Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol alongside Dave Swarbrick Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks. The band had recently released the album Full House and this particular line up became known as the “Full House” line up

In July 1970 Fairport Convention found themselves alongside Matthews Southern Comfort playing at the Maidstone Fiesta an open air concert. This concert was captured on film by the renowned British film director Tony Palmer. The restored film was released on DVD for the first time in 2007.

This CD is the audio portion of the concert performance and captures the Full House line up at their height. The band performs the song Sir Patrick Spens alongside various jigs and reels and also the song Now Be Thankful which had been released as a single at the time.

Matthews Southern Comfort is also featured performing two songs and at this point in their career just a few months away from a number one single with a cover of Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock. Alongside Ian Matthews the band featured Carl Barnwell, Gordon Huntley, Ray Duffy, Mark Griffiths and Andy Leigh. Songs performed by Matthews Southern Comfort are; My Front Pages and Southern Comfort.

This performance has never been released on CD and as such will appeal to the large and dedicated following that both Fairport Convention and Ian Matthews enjoy.