Fairport Convention will release a new album to celebrate their 50th anniversary, featuring guest vocals from Robert Plant.

The singer joins Pentangle vocalist Jacqui McShee on the record, titled 50:50@50 and tentatively set for release in May. It will consist of both new studio recordings and live favourites.

Plant has collaborated with Fairport Convention before, including joining them onstage at their Cropredy festival in 1986 and 2008, at the latter performing a version of Led Zeppelin‘s “The Battle Of Evermore”, which originally featured Fairport’s Sandy Denny on vocals.

Fairport – whose lineup since 1998 has comprised co-founder Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Ric Sanders, Chris Leslie and Gerry Conway – will also perform at London’s Union Chapel on May 27, 50 years to the day since the group’s first ever live performance.

The group will tour in January, and then in May, before they hold their Cropredy event in Oxfordshire in August.

Fairport Convention’s last album was 2015’s Myths And Heroes.

The February 2017 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on Leonard Cohen. Elsewhere in the issue, we look at the 50 Great Modern Protest Songs and our free CD collects 15 of the very best, featuring Ry Cooder, Jarvis Cocker, Roy Harper, Father John Misty, Hurray For The Riff Raff and Richard Thompson. The issue also features our essential preview of the key albums for 2017, including Roger Waters, Fleet Foxes, Paul Weller, The Jesus And Mary Chain, the Waterboys and more. Plus Leon Russell, Mike Oldfield, Ty Segall, Tift Merritt, David Bowie, Japandroids, The Doors, Flaming Lips, Wilco, The XX, Grateful Dead, Mark Eitzel and more plus 139 reviews