Post by andyhowell on Aug 12, 2019 14:21:06 GMT
Somebody mentioned a review of this (maybe Keith). There were a couple of us there and maybe they can chip in with their thoughts!
I’ve mentioned before that I think this is the best festival in the country. The venue is superb, the size is effectively pegged to ensure they can service the crowd, there is only one stage, the sound is superb and they have the cleanest toilets around! Part of what makes Cropredy so good is that it is so professionally and efficiently organised. This year we had cause to celebrate this professionalism. Most festivals rely on a band of volunteers; at Cropredy everybody on the crew — techies, stewards and so on, get paid. During the early hours of Saturday morning the gales were dramatic and the crew had to work throughout the night to keep things safe. We were late getting into the festival field because of last minute safety checks but the music actually started ahead of schedule! Cropredy was the only festival in the land that didn’t cancel on Saturday, such was the professionalism of their set up and crew. But, on to the music.
Thursday
A half day which always kicks off with a half an hour ‘acoustic’ set fro Fairport; always a nice way to get us up and running. Next up was an accordion player from Derby Lil’ Jim. Jim was fabulous playing a mix of cajun and blues music. Apparently, he dad was in R-Cajun (for anybody who remembers that great Derby Cajun band). If Jim is playing at a club near you, don’t hesitate to go.
Next up was a band from Devon, TORS. A nice group of young lads who make a nice enough sound. It will be interesting to see how they’ve developed in five years or so.
Gogol Bordello are described as “leaders of the gypsy punk scene’. An amazing festival band, full of energy and drama; they really know how to put on a show. For those (again) with long memories they reminded me of Les Negresses Verse but singing in English instead of French. Exciting stuff but maybe the set was a little too long for me.
Headlining on Thursday were the Waterboys who were simply sensational. One of the things I admire most about Mike Scott is his ability to reinvent his soul while still being reasonably true to the originals (unlike his Bobness). The 2019 Waterboys have been transformed into a heavy soul band with Brother Paul outlandish on the Hammond organ and a couple of wonderful and soulful backing singers. I’ve seen the Waterboys three times over the last five years and they are always great value for money, but this incarnation is simply the best so far. At the heart of things remains Mike Scott’s songwriting and guitar playing and Steve Wickham’s fiddle but the hiring of Brother Paul was an inspired move. Brother Paul is a Nashville session man who even had his life story turned into a song by Scott, “My Soul is in Dallas but My Ass is in Tennessee’. If they are playing near you over the next few months don’t miss them!
Friday
We kicked off with The 4 of Us, a duo from the North of Ireland (the other two are their guitars). Some nice song writing here but the introductions went on forever. Their set was themed chronologically and covered their years growing up in Newry during the troubles. It was good stuff though — as something of a hack songwriter myself — I still feel it odd that the songs need such long introductions.
Next up were Will Pound (harmonica) and Eddy Jay (accordion). It’s nice to be guitar free and these two guys are amazing technicians. They played tunes from all over Europe in what seemed like a pretty blatant anti Brexit move! They’d be better to listen to in a club venue I reckon but I liked these two a lot.
Things took a dive for me with Wilson and Wakeman. It is now the Cropredy habit to make Friday a bit of a prog day. And I’ve never been into prog. Wakeman and Wilson had been here before as part of a bigger band and tried to con us into forgetting them by creeping in as a duo! Wakeman (Rick’s son) is a fine, fine keyboard musician but Wilson is as boring as hell. Prog public school rock gone mad. They kept taking about the Canterbury Scene — a music Scene which seemed to be based around golf clubs; go figure. Wakeman did one solo song on the guitar which was theist thing in their set.
Next up were Wildwood Kin, a three piece female band from Devon. Nice stuff and nice harmonies but as the set went on everything blended together in a rather bland way for me. I’ve seen them featured on Bob Harris’ You Tube channel a lot but an hour seemed just too much for them. Like with TORS I’d like to see them again in a few years.
Then we had the big prog booking, Caravan (again the oldies amongst you might remember them). I remember Caravan as not being quite as boring as the rest and here they were superb. These guys now look as if they live in the golf club as well but they know how to play and hold a set together. Whether they were your cup of tea or not you couldn’t help admiring their style. A pleasant surprise and a great act.
Caravan were follow by Seth Wakeman and his band. I bought few of Seth’s albums early on and saw him a few times but drifted away as too much of it sounded the same. But this band is a very fine band and the material seemed more fared live. Seth still does his solo fiddle and singing spots which are remarkable. A great performance I thought and far better than I’d expected.
And then came Richard Thompson. Watching Thompson at Cropredy is a bit like listening to God in Heaven only probably better. The first half of his set was solo, mixing old classics with stuff from the new album. Thompson was on fire although from my mosh pit vantage I couldn’t help but be disturbed by the state of his Lowden. I suppose he beats the shit out of this guitar every other night; in a year or two it will be out doing Willie Nelson’s guitar. And then Thompson was joined by his old mates Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks. From the moment the struck up ‘Bright Lights’ you just knew you were watching something very, very special, a group of guys who have been playing together for most of their lives. For me I doubt there is any band in the world who can really better this lineup when they are firing on all cylinders. And they were. This lineup played together a couple of years ago for the 50th Anniversary of Fairport. They were stunning then and even better now. I hope I live (and they live) for me to see them again. You can probably tell I enjoyed myself.
And then came the headliner Frank Turner, who I knew little about. It’s a hard act to follow Lakeman and Thompson in the form they were in. I didn’t like it at all. I was pressed by friends who’d gone back to their tents to describe him and I came up with “posh boy trying to be the Clash”. Very loud, lots of energy but basically as boring as hell. (I wait for the more positive response from others). I suppose you have to look to the future with a younger audience and there were many young people around me who clearly love Frank. But I didn’t.
Saturday
As is traditional we started with Richard Digance. Some find Digance more than over the hill now but I doubt anyone else could have opened up in such stormy conditions. Apparently the stage was like a wind tunnel and it was almost impossible to stay in tune. But he kept us going and had us all engaged int he biggest Morris Dance in history (look up Digance and Cropredy on YouTube).
And then we had the wonderful Daphne’s Flight, an all woman super group of Chris Wile, Judy Matthews, Helen Watson, Christine Collister and Melanie Harold. I saw them bak in 1995 and then they had a rest for over 20 years. But they are back. Wonderful songs, amazing harmonies and an absolute credit to the oldie generation.
Tide Lines were interesting, a young band from the Scottish Highlands. Early on in the set I though they were a bit too derivative of Runrig but as they progressed the rounded out and varied the sound and ended up having the whole of the festival behind them. A band to watch.
Next it was kind of back to the prog. In recent years Fairport are trying another tack, inviting famous musicians and session musicians to form a band and play. Last year it was Jim Cregan (that Cockney Rebel acoustic guitar solo and Rod Stewart). This year it was Zal Cleminson’s Sin Dogs. Old codgers will remember Zal playing with the Sensational Alex Harvey Band back int he day. This band was sensational not least because of the alcoholic intake of Alex Harvey which did for him sometime before the turn of the century. I found thus turgid heavy rock though my mates at the front reckoned it was all a piss take of heavy metal but I couldn’t detect this from back in the fied.
Then it was another of those oldie festival tactics, a band celebrating 50 years of a band but without the lead singer. A few years ago we saw Steve Hackett playing Genesis without, well, genesis. This time is was Martin Barre and band playing 50 years of Jethro Tull without Ian Anderson. Tull heads were ecstatic but it all left me a little cold.
These days, before Fairport’s set, there is a classic, oldie, solo performer. This helps the roadies set up for a quick turnaround for Fairport. In the last few years we’ve had Al Stewart, Chas n’ Dave and Ralph Mctell in this slot. This year it was Martin Simpson.
Amazingly Simpson has never played Cropredy before (this was its 40th year). He reckons he said something to upset them in 1988. I remember Simpson back then and it is distinctly possible that he did and they have ignored booking him. Steve Knightly said something similar a few years ago when Show of Hands played the festival. But that’s rock and roll and, of course, we all mellow as we get older. I think.
The crowd loved Simpson (not least as he wasn’t prog). His set lent heavily towards the blues with the slide to the fore. I was impressed. I have one of his slides and it is so heavy I can only hold it for 5 minutes. From what we heard his new album due at the end of the month should have some very good stuff on it. Some great story telling about his days in the USA as well.
You guitar nerds might like to know there wasn’t a PRS in sight. He played two guitars. He mainly leant on a Sobell. The second guitar looked like a Martin 000 but with a slotted headstock. I couldn’t make out what it was — the headstock logo didn’t appear to be Martin at all. My best guess was that it was a Fylde of some sort. Does anyone know what this guitar was? Whatever it was it stood up with the Sobell.
And then Fairport. I’ve said before that this lineup stands up with any of their past lineups. These days they are more acoustic focused and a bit more folksy but they can still rocks when the need to and in Nicol, Pegg, Conway, Sanders and Chris Leslie they have a fine musical band. They enhanced the sound with a number of guest musician in order to do stuff that they haven’t done for years. PJ Wright played music of the set on his telecaster. Anna Ryder played accordion, keyboards trumpet and French Horn, fan Edmund Whitcombe on trumpet formed a brass section with Ryder, Phi Bond from the Dylan Experience added keyboards and myths and drummer Dave Mattacks was back to hammer away in unison with Gerry Conway. This year the Fairports had clubbed together to bring over Georgia Denny — Sandy and Trevor Lucas’ daughter from Oz, the first time she had been at Cropredy (and I think in the UK as well). Sally Barker sang two of Sandy’s songs that you don’t here much live now, Dark is the Night and John The Gun. Barker was simply stunning. The biggest surprise of the night was Dave Pegg’s singing of Polly on the Shore which sounded fabulous. There was also a nice tribute to Maart Alcock who died last year just weeks after his last Fairport appearance with his widow reading out a very moving message from Maart to the festival. Dave Pegg played his set with an EU flag attached to his base. Cropredy was not a Brexit festival!
And then — as ever at Cropredy — things were rapped up with Matty Groves and an ensemble rendering of Meet on the Ledge. This Meet on the Ledge thing — played all of those who left us — is very, very moving. As you stroll away from the field there is no doubt that we’ll all be back again next year.
If you have never done Cropredy. You should treat yourself.
I’ve mentioned before that I think this is the best festival in the country. The venue is superb, the size is effectively pegged to ensure they can service the crowd, there is only one stage, the sound is superb and they have the cleanest toilets around! Part of what makes Cropredy so good is that it is so professionally and efficiently organised. This year we had cause to celebrate this professionalism. Most festivals rely on a band of volunteers; at Cropredy everybody on the crew — techies, stewards and so on, get paid. During the early hours of Saturday morning the gales were dramatic and the crew had to work throughout the night to keep things safe. We were late getting into the festival field because of last minute safety checks but the music actually started ahead of schedule! Cropredy was the only festival in the land that didn’t cancel on Saturday, such was the professionalism of their set up and crew. But, on to the music.
Thursday
A half day which always kicks off with a half an hour ‘acoustic’ set fro Fairport; always a nice way to get us up and running. Next up was an accordion player from Derby Lil’ Jim. Jim was fabulous playing a mix of cajun and blues music. Apparently, he dad was in R-Cajun (for anybody who remembers that great Derby Cajun band). If Jim is playing at a club near you, don’t hesitate to go.
Next up was a band from Devon, TORS. A nice group of young lads who make a nice enough sound. It will be interesting to see how they’ve developed in five years or so.
Gogol Bordello are described as “leaders of the gypsy punk scene’. An amazing festival band, full of energy and drama; they really know how to put on a show. For those (again) with long memories they reminded me of Les Negresses Verse but singing in English instead of French. Exciting stuff but maybe the set was a little too long for me.
Headlining on Thursday were the Waterboys who were simply sensational. One of the things I admire most about Mike Scott is his ability to reinvent his soul while still being reasonably true to the originals (unlike his Bobness). The 2019 Waterboys have been transformed into a heavy soul band with Brother Paul outlandish on the Hammond organ and a couple of wonderful and soulful backing singers. I’ve seen the Waterboys three times over the last five years and they are always great value for money, but this incarnation is simply the best so far. At the heart of things remains Mike Scott’s songwriting and guitar playing and Steve Wickham’s fiddle but the hiring of Brother Paul was an inspired move. Brother Paul is a Nashville session man who even had his life story turned into a song by Scott, “My Soul is in Dallas but My Ass is in Tennessee’. If they are playing near you over the next few months don’t miss them!
Friday
We kicked off with The 4 of Us, a duo from the North of Ireland (the other two are their guitars). Some nice song writing here but the introductions went on forever. Their set was themed chronologically and covered their years growing up in Newry during the troubles. It was good stuff though — as something of a hack songwriter myself — I still feel it odd that the songs need such long introductions.
Next up were Will Pound (harmonica) and Eddy Jay (accordion). It’s nice to be guitar free and these two guys are amazing technicians. They played tunes from all over Europe in what seemed like a pretty blatant anti Brexit move! They’d be better to listen to in a club venue I reckon but I liked these two a lot.
Things took a dive for me with Wilson and Wakeman. It is now the Cropredy habit to make Friday a bit of a prog day. And I’ve never been into prog. Wakeman and Wilson had been here before as part of a bigger band and tried to con us into forgetting them by creeping in as a duo! Wakeman (Rick’s son) is a fine, fine keyboard musician but Wilson is as boring as hell. Prog public school rock gone mad. They kept taking about the Canterbury Scene — a music Scene which seemed to be based around golf clubs; go figure. Wakeman did one solo song on the guitar which was theist thing in their set.
Next up were Wildwood Kin, a three piece female band from Devon. Nice stuff and nice harmonies but as the set went on everything blended together in a rather bland way for me. I’ve seen them featured on Bob Harris’ You Tube channel a lot but an hour seemed just too much for them. Like with TORS I’d like to see them again in a few years.
Then we had the big prog booking, Caravan (again the oldies amongst you might remember them). I remember Caravan as not being quite as boring as the rest and here they were superb. These guys now look as if they live in the golf club as well but they know how to play and hold a set together. Whether they were your cup of tea or not you couldn’t help admiring their style. A pleasant surprise and a great act.
Caravan were follow by Seth Wakeman and his band. I bought few of Seth’s albums early on and saw him a few times but drifted away as too much of it sounded the same. But this band is a very fine band and the material seemed more fared live. Seth still does his solo fiddle and singing spots which are remarkable. A great performance I thought and far better than I’d expected.
And then came Richard Thompson. Watching Thompson at Cropredy is a bit like listening to God in Heaven only probably better. The first half of his set was solo, mixing old classics with stuff from the new album. Thompson was on fire although from my mosh pit vantage I couldn’t help but be disturbed by the state of his Lowden. I suppose he beats the shit out of this guitar every other night; in a year or two it will be out doing Willie Nelson’s guitar. And then Thompson was joined by his old mates Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks. From the moment the struck up ‘Bright Lights’ you just knew you were watching something very, very special, a group of guys who have been playing together for most of their lives. For me I doubt there is any band in the world who can really better this lineup when they are firing on all cylinders. And they were. This lineup played together a couple of years ago for the 50th Anniversary of Fairport. They were stunning then and even better now. I hope I live (and they live) for me to see them again. You can probably tell I enjoyed myself.
And then came the headliner Frank Turner, who I knew little about. It’s a hard act to follow Lakeman and Thompson in the form they were in. I didn’t like it at all. I was pressed by friends who’d gone back to their tents to describe him and I came up with “posh boy trying to be the Clash”. Very loud, lots of energy but basically as boring as hell. (I wait for the more positive response from others). I suppose you have to look to the future with a younger audience and there were many young people around me who clearly love Frank. But I didn’t.
Saturday
As is traditional we started with Richard Digance. Some find Digance more than over the hill now but I doubt anyone else could have opened up in such stormy conditions. Apparently the stage was like a wind tunnel and it was almost impossible to stay in tune. But he kept us going and had us all engaged int he biggest Morris Dance in history (look up Digance and Cropredy on YouTube).
And then we had the wonderful Daphne’s Flight, an all woman super group of Chris Wile, Judy Matthews, Helen Watson, Christine Collister and Melanie Harold. I saw them bak in 1995 and then they had a rest for over 20 years. But they are back. Wonderful songs, amazing harmonies and an absolute credit to the oldie generation.
Tide Lines were interesting, a young band from the Scottish Highlands. Early on in the set I though they were a bit too derivative of Runrig but as they progressed the rounded out and varied the sound and ended up having the whole of the festival behind them. A band to watch.
Next it was kind of back to the prog. In recent years Fairport are trying another tack, inviting famous musicians and session musicians to form a band and play. Last year it was Jim Cregan (that Cockney Rebel acoustic guitar solo and Rod Stewart). This year it was Zal Cleminson’s Sin Dogs. Old codgers will remember Zal playing with the Sensational Alex Harvey Band back int he day. This band was sensational not least because of the alcoholic intake of Alex Harvey which did for him sometime before the turn of the century. I found thus turgid heavy rock though my mates at the front reckoned it was all a piss take of heavy metal but I couldn’t detect this from back in the fied.
Then it was another of those oldie festival tactics, a band celebrating 50 years of a band but without the lead singer. A few years ago we saw Steve Hackett playing Genesis without, well, genesis. This time is was Martin Barre and band playing 50 years of Jethro Tull without Ian Anderson. Tull heads were ecstatic but it all left me a little cold.
These days, before Fairport’s set, there is a classic, oldie, solo performer. This helps the roadies set up for a quick turnaround for Fairport. In the last few years we’ve had Al Stewart, Chas n’ Dave and Ralph Mctell in this slot. This year it was Martin Simpson.
Amazingly Simpson has never played Cropredy before (this was its 40th year). He reckons he said something to upset them in 1988. I remember Simpson back then and it is distinctly possible that he did and they have ignored booking him. Steve Knightly said something similar a few years ago when Show of Hands played the festival. But that’s rock and roll and, of course, we all mellow as we get older. I think.
The crowd loved Simpson (not least as he wasn’t prog). His set lent heavily towards the blues with the slide to the fore. I was impressed. I have one of his slides and it is so heavy I can only hold it for 5 minutes. From what we heard his new album due at the end of the month should have some very good stuff on it. Some great story telling about his days in the USA as well.
You guitar nerds might like to know there wasn’t a PRS in sight. He played two guitars. He mainly leant on a Sobell. The second guitar looked like a Martin 000 but with a slotted headstock. I couldn’t make out what it was — the headstock logo didn’t appear to be Martin at all. My best guess was that it was a Fylde of some sort. Does anyone know what this guitar was? Whatever it was it stood up with the Sobell.
And then Fairport. I’ve said before that this lineup stands up with any of their past lineups. These days they are more acoustic focused and a bit more folksy but they can still rocks when the need to and in Nicol, Pegg, Conway, Sanders and Chris Leslie they have a fine musical band. They enhanced the sound with a number of guest musician in order to do stuff that they haven’t done for years. PJ Wright played music of the set on his telecaster. Anna Ryder played accordion, keyboards trumpet and French Horn, fan Edmund Whitcombe on trumpet formed a brass section with Ryder, Phi Bond from the Dylan Experience added keyboards and myths and drummer Dave Mattacks was back to hammer away in unison with Gerry Conway. This year the Fairports had clubbed together to bring over Georgia Denny — Sandy and Trevor Lucas’ daughter from Oz, the first time she had been at Cropredy (and I think in the UK as well). Sally Barker sang two of Sandy’s songs that you don’t here much live now, Dark is the Night and John The Gun. Barker was simply stunning. The biggest surprise of the night was Dave Pegg’s singing of Polly on the Shore which sounded fabulous. There was also a nice tribute to Maart Alcock who died last year just weeks after his last Fairport appearance with his widow reading out a very moving message from Maart to the festival. Dave Pegg played his set with an EU flag attached to his base. Cropredy was not a Brexit festival!
And then — as ever at Cropredy — things were rapped up with Matty Groves and an ensemble rendering of Meet on the Ledge. This Meet on the Ledge thing — played all of those who left us — is very, very moving. As you stroll away from the field there is no doubt that we’ll all be back again next year.
If you have never done Cropredy. You should treat yourself.
