Legendary folk rockers Fairport Convention present a solid and extremely entertaining return to the Oxford Playhouse.

The evening opened with a short set from Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage, a guitar and vocals duo offering an interesting and beautifully toned mix of traditional song and their own. I particularly loved seeing them playing with the main act, both at the end of the set and the encore - there was such a sense of the band as a family welcoming them into the fold, and you could feel the warmth of the community despite the freezing February temperatures.

Fairport Convention have now been performing for over 55 years, and the degree of stagecraft on display was remarkable. Not just musically - though this was incredibly impressive, of course - but also in terms of the business of putting on a show. I was mesmerised by Ric Sanders in particular, partly for the intricate and passionate fiddle playing, but also for the audience work. I’ve rarely seen a stand up comic deal with a heckler as well as he did, never mind a musician.

With such a huge back catalogue to run at, there’s always something I haven’t heard before from Fairport Convention - this time an extremely interesting track about space exploration. That, and Sloth, which closed the first half, felt musically fresh and innovative. They have 29 albums to choose from - an impressive stock to draw material from. This was also reflected in the extremely value for money running time - three hours including an interval, and the support act can’t have accounted for more than about 20 minutes of this. For me, this was a shade too long, but my husband disagreed - I think he would have happily stayed for another hour.

Eleven years ago, I took a boy I met online to a Fairport Convention gig because I had no one to go with. I’ve been married to that boy for seven years now. The true joy of seeing a band like this live is only partly the music. I can listen to music at home. The joy of live music, denied for a lot of us for a long time because of the pandemic and now fully returned, is undeniable. And there is a further, and very specific joy to seeing a band who’ve been with you for years, whose music you’ve been listening to for decades, who you might have been seeing play live since childhood, in a room full of people who have similar histories with the songs and with the band.

Fairport closed on Matty Groves and Meet On the Ledge, and musically they were both excellent. But the atmosphere was much more than the sum of the parts, and a Fairport Convention gig is not just a gig - it’s an invitation to spend time with over half a century of musical history. I look forward to accepting that invitation again next time they’re playing in Oxford.