Cropredy Essentials and #55 on my 64 Things to Do

We`d been to 2 days of Cropredy 2016 but I`d made it an aim to go to all 3 days of a music festival. Now obviously I`m not talking camping here but attending all elements of a 3 day event. Cropredy has a reputation of being "the friendliest festival" and is largely based on folk music (70-80%) To spice it up a little Fairport member Dave Pegg adds a few acts that can challenge folkies. This years "extras" were The Divine Comedy, Marillion and somewhat bizarrely Petula Clark! It was to be a challenge for me to sit through those 3!
Now to enjoy Cropredy you need to take a few essentials and despite our previous experience we failed abysmally.

1. You need to take comfortable seats and sit outside the inner circle reserved for dancing / standing. This we did,  though we managed to break / nurse through one of the chairs

2. Flags are useful. In a crowd of 20,000  having a reference point when getting back from the loo is great

3. Funny hats are de rigueur - we failed to take ours having had forecasts of rain. We were to regret that and our lack of suncream!

You could always buy one!

4. If you cannot do hats be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...Sue managed this one

5. Colourful waistcoats and clothes also work well but a pewter beer mug is a must!

A grey pony tail hits the spot too

6. Make sure you have safe places to store those valuable drinks. 4 and 8 pint empty milk cartons save you going back to the bar repeatedly!

Specially brewed ale is a bonus

Regular trips without your big milk bottles!

7. Don`t forget your white hankies for the traditional last day wave about!

Look out for old friends...you never know who might be there. Not 30 yards away from us was my old mate Tom, with brother Steve, that I met at Uni in the 70`s and see at reunions every 5 years or so usually.

I knew he was coming but didn`t expect to bump into him  so soon. he introduced me to folk festivals over 40 years ago when taking me to Chorley festival. It was in the grounds of a big stately home. I called him in advance to ask what I needed as I had no camping gear. "Don`t worry - I`ll sort it all" he said. In torrential rain on the first night he "sorted it" by presenting me with my very own bin bag to sleep in a hedge. Luckily in the early hours we found that some had broken into the homes splendid , covered, drained swimming pool which soon became home to a large number of festival goers!

But most of all it is about the music and much of it was splendid.

Fairport Acoustic set to start us off

Feast of Fiddles

Show of Hands - great band

Trevor Horn doing his Les battersby impression

 Trevor Horn band were great

Lol Crerme

Trevor Horn produced such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood, 10 CC, The Buggles, Seal, genesis, Paul McCartney, Grace Jones, Tina Turner, Pet Shop Boys and was known as the man who invented the 80`s. Here he played with Lol Creme throughout as well as bringing in guests

Russ Ballard - of Argent, and many other bands

Matt Cardle guested, especially for Sue

 Friday started with a great set by  BBC Young Folk Artists of the Year 2017 Josie Duncan and pablo Lafuente. Great guitar and perfect vocals sang in an Isle Of Lewes accent. Such a pure folk sound - see them if they come near you.

Josie Duncan and Pablo Lafuente

Gerry Colvin  Band were nergetic if a little manic!

Quill

BBC Oxford tent featured smaller acoustic sets

Gigspanner were fantastic

Peter Knight (ex Steeleye Span) heads Gigspanner

This band featured the additon of      and     

Fantastic steel guitar and sitar playing from


Of course with the forecast we had to get some rain and a fine drizzle punctuated CC Smugglers set. Still you had to keep cheerful

 and hope the sun would get out again...

CC Smuggler did a good job of getting the crowd going again, just as they had at Glastonbury

The next act really made the crowd sit up and take notice! I say sit up but I reckon all 20000 were soon stood up for the fantastic Pierce Brothers from Australia who had taken the previous years festival by storm and been invited back after calls from the festival goers to Fairport.

Petula Clark was for me the totally wrong choice to follow! Bizarre selection... although only me and Sue seemed to not rate her performance. Did her own songs OK but when she tried covers of newer songs it sounded like an 84 year old doing karaoke...which is pretty much what it was!

  Such a relief for me then when we finished a great day of music with Richard Thompson - quite simply the finest guitarist you`re ever likely to see! fantastic set starting off acoustic and then moving onto electric guitar in his own inimitable style. Wonderful!

Quite how I`ve managed not to see him solo in all these years is beyond me. An early part of fairport he left and had successful musical partnership , if not marriage,with Linda Thompson before going solo in both ways and even leaving music for a while. He popped up throughout the weekend of the festival playing with Fairport as well as Morris On , Ashley Hutchings  created band but this solo session was his finest hour and I`ll be sure to see him play again in the future.













The last day had to be an anti-climax after Fridays day of great music. Morris On were entertaining enough if traditional. Judy Dyble showed why , having been out of music for 30 years, she should have stayed out - quite the dullest, most boring set i`ve ever seen! Plainsong were an entertaining trio and Cats in Space and |Marillion were the "something different" sets who did what they did well but did not appeal to me. Then it was up to Dougie MacLean and Fairport to end the festival. Dougie MacLean I really enjoyed. Writer of Caledonia he put on a great show with a lot of humour and good songs. he thought he was the frst to play guitar and didgeridoo at the same time but the Pierce Brothers had beaten him to it the day before. fairport`s last set took us through their 50 years together bringing on guests as they went through the years. Phenomenal musicianship and singing with various female singers in the role of the unforgettable Sandy Denny who were good without quite recreating the magic. They played for over 2 hours before culminating with the usual Meet on the Ledge anthem. A fantastic way to end the festival.

Then it was a short drive through the back country roads to our hotel, a good nights sleep, our first full breakfast and home. A fantastic few days that makes you think "I`ll come again". next time I`ll have the hat and sun cream though - most of my face peeled off over the next 2 days so burned was I! You`d think I`d have learned by now!






If you want to check out any of my favourite performers follow these links:
Pierce Brothers Cropredy 2017 live
Richard Thompson - Gethsemane
Gigspanner with Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin
Show of Hnads - No secrets
Josie Duncan and Pablo Lafuente - Rise