Cropredy « Life is just a bowl of All-Bran…

Dreadzone: when the great Marc Riley was asked what genre of music he detested, he replied: ‘Cod white reggae’. This largely white band did reasonable reggae in a bit of a Big Audio Dynamite manner, which went down very well indeed. And for a festival, in bright sunshine, I would agree.

Churchfitters: Breton/British heavy folk with a rattling home-made saucepan bass. Really good, and little-known in the UK. Would consider a (legal!) download or two of theirs.

Nik Kershaw: yes, really. And yes, he played all the hits, including The One And Only, which he wrote for Chesney Hawkes. When you hear NK do it, it doesn’t sound at all out of place compared to his other song, both old and new. The new stuff was pretty good too. Best line – after playing Wouldn’t It Be Good: ‘I wish I got a pound every time I played that. Oh wait – I do!’ Only objection: he should have been introduced thusly:

‘CAUTION: THIS SET CONTAINS SLAP BASS’

Ralph McTell: didn’t catch much due to family scurrying. He played Streets of London. Nuff said.

And while we are at it, any excuse to include this:

WPvideo 1.10

Fairport Convention: Yusef guested and played few songs old & new, most of which I didn’t know. Biggest guest of the weekend I suppose. Richard Thompson played a couple of numbers on electric, which were magnificent – bring that band next time RT!

A great weekend. We tend to describe Cropredy as a folk festival, but as I hope I’ve shown, it’s much more a music festival – an eclectic, single-stage one at that. Weather was good too. Roll on next year!

The YouTube videos are beginning to appear, so I may post one or two.

Posted by Wordmobi

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August 14, 2009

Fairport’s Cropredy Convention: Thursday highlights

Filed under: Cropredy, Music — bogl @ 6:36 pm

Harlequinn: an unknown local band always kicks off the festival. This year, a Banbury group that cites Fightstar and Incubus as influences. Above-average landfill indie, with three covers: a weird version of All Along The Watchtower, and no less than two Michael Jackson covers. Beat It was well done, but I Want You Back was even better. Perhaps they have a future as an all-female Jackson 5 covers band?

Buzzcocks: due to fatherly duties I missed the first half. When I came in, they were on to the better-known stuff: What Do I Get, Ever Fallen…, Orgasm Addict, et al. They were hot! Perhaps the only punk era band who are still really punk? Ashamed that I know so little of their stuff. Anyone point to me in the right directions for stuff of theirs I should hear?

Steve Winwood: quite a big Thursday headliner, but then Cropredy does get them in. Robert Plant has been here both as a guest and a star act on a number of occasions. Winwood had a really good band, especially the sax player. Some great tunes of course, like I’m A Man from the Spencer Davis Group, couple of Traffic numbers like Dear Mr Fantasy, a Blind Faith song and some solo stuff. Took me a while to realise he had no bass player, and was providing all bass using pedals on his Hammond! How could you do Keep On Runnin’ or Gimme Some Loving without a decent bass riff to kick them off? He did the latter – and it lacked. Still, the man can sing and play as he always did, and put on a good show.

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August 13, 2009

Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2009: Day 1

Filed under: Cropredy, Music — bogl @ 2:58 pm

After a huge hiatus, I thought it would be good to blog from Cropredy again. Last time, I used a Psion 5mx and a Nokia phone with infrared and a modem, and sent blog entries via email. Today: just a Nokia E71 and accessing WordPress via Opera Mini. How technology has moved on!

We are set up tent-wise and now installed in the arena, not too far from the stage. And there is only one stage by the way – no trekking round here like Glastonbury.

As I don’t have a charger or spare batteries I will only blog once a day.

Not that I expect anyone to be reading…

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