Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011

WOWWWW!! What a weekend! I spent 3 days in a field in North Oxfordshire at a festival called Fairport's Cropredy Convention. This has been running for  over 30 years and brings in somewhere in the region of 25,000 people currently. There are generations of 'Croppers' people. Couples meet there, get engaged there, celebrate wedding anniversaries, and bring along their children from tiny babies to young adults. Ther are many mature Cropredy attendees, aging along with the 'boys' of fairport Convention.

The gates are open

Is it a folk festival?  a little. A rock festival? a little. Is it good fun? Oh YES!! It's warm and friendly and highly enjoyable. Are there chemical toilets? Yes rows of thunder boxes, kept clean and well stocked with tissues! There are also posher flushing loos on trailers for the priviledged, as well as showers for all. There are acres of camping, well laid out and organised, and stacks of food outlets for the hungry masses.
The music? Well....we had an opening set from Fairport themselves in their acoustic mode to get everyone in the mood. Some younger performers then held stage, Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts, followed by Blair Dunlop who's only 19! Kat & Jamie are lovely and performed a wide variety of songs delightfully. Some more senior artists followed in the form of the Home Service, headed by John Tams (he who sang in 'Sharpe') supported by a group including a brass section which gave them a real depth to the sound. They have been apart for nearly 25 years and recently reformed, and had the crowd at Cropredy ecstatic. The 'mosh pit' really came to life with them in full swing.

 The next band were Hayseed Dixie - a hill-billy AC-DC style band. Rocking with amazing banjo playing. They were loud, funny, clever, and highly entertaining. A great find for Cropredy. Headlining the thursday night were UB40. THE UB40 (Red red wine etc) Lovely music! So easy to listen to and so polished. A great set to go to sleep too after a long day LOL I could not make the end of the set so I headed to bed.

We were camped in the guests field just in behind the stage area along with many of the artists, just a short walk from the main stage field. So it did not talke me long to stagger to the loo then fall into my bed. Even with the band still blaring out I was gone in minutes. I did wake a few times but just to roll over and sleep on. The group of young ladies in the tent next to us were late night chatters and seemed to be still talking around 2 am +.



We had a an early wake up call as the first train of the day went past at 6.30am full of poor commuters heading to London no doubt. But I managed to sleep on after that excitement. The next tent the other side had a very new baby who demanded a feed at 6.30 too so it was all go! We finally gave in to the noises around us at about 8. A full bladder necessitated a hurried dressing and a short walk to the toilet trailer. We had a great coffee and some breakfast before relaxing for an hour or so listening to the sound checks.



Filling up!



We had planned where we were going on the field, a different spot to previous years. We used to head to an area near the front of the seated bit and in the middle to get a good view. This was a nightmare once the field filled up around us and we found no clear pathway through the masses to get to the bar/loos/food. We also had problems come the evening when the mosh pit standing crowd spread back up the slope and engulfed us. My crook knees stopped me standing for more than the odd song and sititng down on a chair in the middle of a standing, dancing crowd was scary and stopped me seeing anything on stage.

This year we sat further back, almost twice the distance from the stage but so much more civilised. We had a great view of the stage and BIG screen for the whole weekend, and by sitting by the walkway across the field, it was easy to get in and out and meet and greet people walking past. We only had the occasional stander-upper and they got shouted down by those sitting behind them! Yayy seated oldies rule!! The stewards and safety officers kept the walkway clear so it was a super spot to sit. It was also closer to the bar so got a big tick from John. He spent most of the festival 'networking' with other festival organisers, and various artists at the bar :-)

Friday was THE day for great bands and top music. The music went from mid-day to midnight and not a dud anywhere. We had this year's BBC young folk musicians award winners Moore, Moss & Rutter opening - very folky and great young musicians. The Travelling band followed them with something much more rock than folk or country and had the mosh pit jumping. Great stuff! Steve Tilston and the Durbervilles gave us something more sedate but no less enjoyable, a bit more folk and not quite so rock but still lively.

Charlie Dore was on next and gave us a lovely set of her own songs plus a few covers.
One of the highlights of the weekend for me personally was the Dylan Project, just superb music - Bob Dylan's songs but done the Dylan band style, more rock than anything else - not a cover band - just great music. Following them we had The Urban Folk Quartet who were very folky and brilliant!
The Coral - yes THE Coral followed them and were noisy and very rock and good.
The night closed with the wonderful Seasick Steve, highly entertaining and enjoyable.
We slept like logs despite the noises around us - usual camp site stuff, dogs barking, babies crying, all night drinkers, girls chatting etc etc.
Saturday dawned bright and warm - we were so lucky with the weather all weekend - cloudy mostly but dry! with occasional sunny spells.
Saturday's programme was  Richard Digance, The Shee, the Blockheads, Lau, Horslips, Badly Drawn Boy, and the big final set from Fairport Convention & friends.



Hankie waving with Digance

 Richard Digance makes a very funny warm up man and got the crowd going. He told stories and jokes and sang a few songs, including one with actions for the crowd to participate in (see photo) everyone waving hankies.

The Shee were an excellent all girl folk band, fairly traditional with a Celtic touch now and then.

The Blockheads were brilliant and got everyone rocking.
Lau were technically superb but oh so boring with their long drawn out Celtic tunes. Watching 3 men sitting on stage is not visually entertaining for an hour, even if they were brilliant musicians.
The act everyone wanted to see were Horslips. This is an Irish rock band from the 70's, reformed in 2007 and now packing venues. There was a passing nod to Celtic folk but most of it was just pure rock n roll! They were amazing and loved by everyone. The queue for autographs was half way up the field by the time they came off stage.

Badly Drawn Boy now has a new name - Foul Mouthed Badly Behaved Boy. A great singer-songwriter BUT way too much bad language for a family festival with loads of children. And he swore at the sound guys!

The final set with Fairport was brilliant! Ralph McTell joined them and a few more friends for a great finale.
Roll on 2012.!!