Fairport Convention: Rosie

THE NEW Fairport Convention LP is going to alienate some fans – a radical change in musical approach by a popular band will always do so. The new Fairport lineup that produced Rosie, Daves Swarbrick, Pegg and Mattacks and newcomers Jerry Donahue and Trevor Lucas (last seen with Fotheringay), has decided that the traditional folk idiom has been too thoroughly explored to warrant further time on the recording schedule. Swarbrick is convinced that it is time for Fairport to retreat from an overworked stance; hence Rosie, an album which barely flirts with the sort of thing Fairport Convention has stood for in the past. The results of a year of group turmoil are, alas, mixed.