Karl Walker reviews last weekend's annual Fairport’s Cropredy Convention which first launched back in 1976
If you’re like me and the idea of a three-day music festival in 35C heat, camping in a shoebox-size tent in a sloping field is enough to drive you to washing the car of a weekend, then think again - Cropredy could be for you! Consider this: it’s only 35 minutes down the M40, there’s loads of delicious food, there’s a massive beer tent run by Hook Norton, the sunsets and moonrises are beautiful, everyone’s friendly and in a good mood (the stalwart festival stewards take a bow). You’ll see some hilarious stuff (one of The Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonican hairily crowd-surfing in a dinghy will hopefully find its way on to YouTube), and experience some unusual phenomena (shower gel being hotter than the hot shower, having been left in the car all day). And the toilets aren’t bad either; you really don’t have to try and hold it in for 72 hours. And the music? Well, that was great too.
It would be impossible to do justice to every act that performed, suffice to say I watched just about everything from 7.30pm Thursday to midnight Saturday with no regrets. OK, I found Steve Hackett’s Genesis Revisited a fairly tough listen but thousands didn’t and lapped up the progmeister’s technically explosive performance. I’ll willingly give Hackett 11 out of 10 for guitar ability, and myself full marks for endurance.
Everything else ticked all the right boxes for my ageing ears, from The Trevor Horn Band’s 80’s banger, hit-box extravaganza (faithful renditions of the Horn-produced Two Tribes and Relax absolutely went off) to the perfect sounds of Clannad as the sun set on Thursday evening when their music and the natural world seemed in harmony.
Newcomer Maddie Morris got things started on Friday and was as impressive in the early slot as seasoned festival folk star. Seth Lakeman was the following morning, both engaging performers who carried the crowd with them. Holy Moly and the Crackers delivered a barnstorming folk-ska-polka-pop-punk party-starting musical riot and you can expect to see them on many a future festival stage.
The Slambovian Circus of Dreams are not an east European troupe of sleepy acrobats but a mightily impressive blend of the Black Crowes and British ‘60s psychedelia while Rosalie Cunningham nailed the accessible side of prog with the sound of Wuthering Heights-era Kate Bush fronting Deep Purple. And it was better than that sounds.
Martyn Joseph ignited a fiery solo performance of classic, powerful storytelling, matched in intensity by Home Service’s devastating finale of their Sorrow/Babylon, while the aforementioned Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonican proved music and comedy do mix when done right. Who’d have thought that changing the lyrics to some familiar songs while wearing lurid tanktops and wigs would be so funny. It is when done by this trio.
These are just some of the goodies that were on offer but as Simon Nicol, the last remaining original Fairporter said to the Herald recently, all the bands, singers and performers have the Fairport seal of approval. If you’re playing at Cropredy, it’s because FC like you and you’re part of the family.
The finale of course, was Fairport Convention themselves, and if the start of the two-hour-and-40 minute-performance seemed fairly low key and a little subdued (and it would be perfectly understandable if a few nerves were being felt), by the epic climax of Meet On The Ledge the emotion levels were sky high and I’m sure tears were shed both on and off stage. It’s the band’s Hey Jude moment as friends past and present joined for a celebratory release of the tough times of the last few years (I imagine the survival of the festival itself was in doubt at some points.) Yet as the chorus refrain echoed around the arena and a full moon shone down, everyone was on board, in the moment and it really did feel special.
The show started with the current line-up (and there have been many over the years) playing a retrospective selection that encompassed tracks from 2020’s Shuffle and Go and stretched back to the Sandy Denny-penned Fotheringay from 1969. Every song was well received but the energy really kicked in when Richard Thompson and Dave Mattacks took to the stage for a whole album performance of 1970’s Full House. This was 4/5th’s of the line-up that made the record 52 years ago, with Chris Leslie taking the fiddle parts of the legendary Dave Swarbrick who passed in 2016. It was the 50th anniversary performance that had been promised and it delivered tonight. From the jaunty Walk Awhile to the wild Dirty Linen, the sombre Sloth to the haunting Flowers of the Forest, all driven along by Thompson’s intricate guitar and Leslie’s devilish fiddle and mandolin. It was worth the wait and set a fevered anticipation for what was to come.
So, I’ve done Cropredy but will I be going again? Our campsite neighbour Eddie has been going since 1996 and was showing no sign of retiring yet. Maybe I’ll see him next year.
