Bringing the Yearlings Home

Just gotten back from Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2010 (known unofficially and previously as Cropredy Festival), and feel tired, but no longer dirty, thanks to a nice hot shower. Camping for two days in a wet field near Banbury hasn't opened my eyes to the joys of camping any further. I still hate it. I partially think this might be because the tent I was in was a small two-man one which we've had since I was seven and doesn't have room to swing a cat in, but I think mainly camping doesn't appeal because I like the creature comforts. As much as I complain on this blog about the pervasiveness of technology or consumerism and how bad it is, most of the spare time I had when I wasn't listening to the music at the festival was spent camped out in the back of my Dad's car, eating Blue Ribands (I pronounce them rye-bands, and I don't care) and enjoying the fact that the rain was getting the car wet but not me. Nevertheless, the festival was a great experience, despite the poor weather. For one thing I saw one of my favourite bands from the 1960's and early 70's, namely Fairport Convention. Never mind that half of the original members are now dead or not involved (Richard Thompson is still very much alive), it's still Fairport. They took to the stage on Saturday evening, after Martyn Joseph, who I will dub as a Welsh Bruce Springsteen meets Bob Dylan's acoustic days. He was actually my favourite act, because he actually had a message to give alongside his music. Still, Fairport were also very good, but only when they played their old stuff.

On Friday, my favourite artist was the 60's American band Little Feat, who had the previous day lost their drummer Richie Hayward. He had been absent from the band for several months, and even though such a close friend of theirs had recently died, they played magnificently. I enjoyed very much their rendition of The Band's "The Weight". The headliners on Friday were Bellowhead, who I suppose would call an experimental folky Rock band, and whilst the small orchestra of members which made up the band sounded great, some of their slower songs weren't so good. It was their fast jigs that really got everyone moving. Moving back to Saturday, and half of Fairport's own headlining set was dedicated to putting on the highlights of "Excalibur", a Celtic Rock Opera which was so over-the-top and Hard Rock it seemed mightily out of place at a Folk/Indie Rock festival. Fairport were assisted in this endeavour by a variety of guests, but the "Excalibur" extravaganza lasted far too long, and the rain seemed to mirror the dramatics of the music by coming down even harder. Still, former Fairport member Dave Swarbrick made several unscheduled appearances on stage near the beginning of their set, and even coaxed the other members of the band into a great unrehearsed rendition of "Sir Patrick Spens". Finally, at the end of the night we were treated to the classic "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?", which still can never sound so good without Sandy Denny singing it and is now indelibly linked in my mind to my recently deceased Godfather. Then it was the stormingly great "Matty Groves", to which I sang along loudly, before finishing with "Meet on the Ledge". For some reason the final song left most of the audience in tears; I guess I'm not yet old enough to reflect on the inherent sadness of the lyrics. All in all, an excellent musical experience, where I listened to a lot of new acts (which I have conspicuously failed to mention at all in this posting). Just a shame about the weather.