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The latest releases reviewed

FAIRPORT CONVENTION & MATTHEWS SOUTHERN COMFORT
Live in Maidstone 1970 Voiceprint ***

By 1970, Fairport Convention had been together for more than three years, a period in which they had recorded and released five studio albums, including the folk/rock classic Liege and Leaf. This rediscovered performance was recorded by director Tony Palmer at the quaint Maidstone Fiesta in the summer of 1970. Fairport Convention had just recorded Full House, which featured the sterling line-up of Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, and Daves Pegg, Swarbrick and Mattacks. The performance is as you'd expect from a bunch of rangy folkies - rough as a briar patch but exuding more swagger than a pack of prowling skinheads. A couple of songs from FC-connected band Matthews Southern Comfort (My Front Pages, Southern Comfort) sit well with the likes of FC's jigs, reels and songs such as Sir Patrick Spens and Now Be Thankful. A curio snapshot of a different era; extras include a 2007 interview with Palmer.

TOM JONES
This Is Tom Jones: Rock'n'Roll Legends Time Life ****

Aside from Top of the Pops and Top Gear, in the late 1960s and early 1970s there were few British TV shows showing halfway decent rock, pop or soul music. Stars such as Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield and Lulu had a certain remit in their respective series, but mostly the content was hidebound by the word "variety". Tom Jones was one such star with audience-pulling power, but this compilation of his hit 1969-1971 UK series (with strong US input) strikes a far better balance between embarrassment (Peter Sellers's comic routines) and invigorating (duets with the likes of Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin and Little Richard).