Fairport's Cropredy Convention – Day 3

I was woken during the night by very strong winds. I knew my tent would survive, but it was whipping about a bit, which meant that I didn't get a very good sleep. I got up about 6 and had a shower, it was still windy and some people were starting to pack up and I saw a number of tents in a sorry state.

For some reason I was feeling really down and seriously felt like packing up and going home. I knew the mood would pass, so I had breakfast and went for a walk along the canal and back through Cropredy.

Only in Cropredy would you see a bicycle drawn record shop - it's that sort of place!

I got back to the campsite about 9 and had a sleep for a couple of hours in the car as my tent was still flapping about a bit. More tents had collapsed and there were a number of spaces where people had left. I made my way down to the performance field to find a crowd waiting. Due to the high wind, the opening of the field had been delayed for 45 minutes for checks on the stage and lighting to see if it was safe to proceed. Eventually the crowd was let in and announcements were made saying that the crew had been working on the stage since 4 am to get it ready and the Safety People had given the OK for the Festival to continue. A number of the food and clothing stall looked a bit worse for wear and apparently a caravan had blown over!

As they were running a bit late the first act came straight on and the festival was back on.

 Richard Digance - has opened the Saturday session at Cropredy for the last 16 years!

Daphne's Flight 

Tide Lines - young band from the Highlands showing there's not enough bagpipes in rock music! 

Only really bad band at Cropredy - Zal Cleminson's /sin'dogs/ (that's how they write it.) I'd seen Zal over 40 years ago with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. SAHBs were a really interesting band, they took music from a wide range of backgrounds, Jacques Brel, stage musicals, etc and performed then in a rock vein. I was expecting something similar, but the /sin'dogs/ were just a really poor heavy metal band. I texted a friend saying there was a 'Spinal Tap tribute band' on stage, but at least Spinal Tap had a sense of humour! It gave me an excuse to go for a walk and look at other things.

 Martin Barre Band. They were billed as 'plays 50 years of Jethro Tull'. Martin had been a member of Jethro Tull for about 50 years, so I expected a sort of 'tribute band'. However, they performed modern interpretations of Jethro Tull songs and were much better than expected. Band included ex-Jethro Tull members Clive Bunker on drums and Dee (formerly David) Bedford on keyboards, and Fairport's Dave Pegg, himself ex-Jethro Tull joined them on stage for a couple of songs. 

 Martin Simpson

I had filmed a number of acts with a GoPro clone action camera but it hadn't really worked out as the lens is too wide and the microphone a bit poor. During Martin's set I filmed him using the video function of my still camera and was very impressed with the result.

Now was time for the hosts, Fairport Convention to close the festival. They played a two and a half hour set and invited a number of guests they had played with over the years onto the stage.

 Cropredy residents Joe Brown and a fiddle player who's name I didn't catch joined them for a couple of songs.

At the end of their set all the guests joined them for a traditional singalong version of 

'Meet on the Ledge'.

After that we all made our way back to our tents for a well deserved rest - it had been a long but enjoyable 3 days!

Fairport's Cropredy Convention – Day 2

I was woken at about 4:30 by wild thunder and lightning, and very heavy rain. This continued on for a few hours and I didn't really get much of a sleep after that. I got up about 6:00, had a shower (pays to get to the showers early as they had long queues later), had breakfast and went for a wander around Cropredy.

Very nice village with well preserved houses. It must be quite a strain on a small village of 600 people to have 20,000 festival goers descend on them for a weekend, but it seems to go smoothly and breakfasts were available in the local school, church and town hall.

Back to the festival site and a full day of interesting acts, although the weather was a bit mixed – periods of rain and sunshine alternated all day.

 The 4 of Us - (2 voices and 2 guitars)

 Will Pound and Eddy Jay

Wilson and Wakeman - played a version of David Bowie's 'Life on Mars', Adam Wakeman's father played piano on the original!

 Wildwood Kin - really hard to photograph as they stand so far apart!

One of the stalls was BBC Radio Oxford's 'live lounge' – it was a small gazebo with the technical people and presenter, and various of the performers played there to an audience standing on the grass outside! I imagine listeners at home think it was some sort of indoor venue. One of the performers was Scottish folk singer Fraser Nimmo, who did a very good and funny impromptu show – he wasn't appearing at the Convention, he was a customer but was spotted in the crowd, handed a guitar and put in front of a microphone!

Also saw Wildwood Kin, about 15 minutes after their stage performance – they had to stand a bit closer together so were easier to photograph!

Back on stage and the only disappointing act so far – Caravan. They seemed popular with the crowd, but I find 70s prog rock a bit dull, so it gave me a chance to wander round some of the other things at the event.

Caravan

 Lots of food stalls

 Stalls selling 'hippyish' clothing

 Sort of exotic food on sale!

A lot of people had brought their children, so there were some entertainers at the back of the field

Back at the stage and a performance by Seth Lakeman and his band. It rained fairly heavily during their set, but the crowd just put their waterproofs on and carried on watching.

During Seth's set the rain stopped and we were treated to a wonderful rainbow

Richard Thompson - did half of his set solo, then half with Ex-Fairport bandmates Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks, plus Zara Philips on vocals. 

Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls

I only watched about half of Frank Turner's set – I was starting to get a bit tired, so headed back to my tent.

One more day to go!

Fairport's Cropredy Convention - Day 1

Sorry for not posting earlier but I've been very busy since I got back and have only just been able to go through the hundreds of photos and numerous videos I took.

Set at about 07:30 for the fairly boring drive to Cropredy. Not much to report about the journey other than it was fine weather and the traffic after Lancaster, and particularly through Birmingham, was heavy and slow. Eventually got to Cropredy about 14:30, and drove through the village, which was full of festival goers, until I managed to find one of the camping fields which wasn't yet full.

Eventually I was led to my camping spot by a group of hardworking Boy and Girl Scouts who were managing the traffic. Unusually for a festival, you can park next to your tent so you don't have to lug your stuff across a field. Tent was quickly put up and I headed down to the performance area to get my wristband for the weekend.

The performance area is a gently sloping field with he stage at the bottom. This means that people who want to sit do so behind a line which allows them to see over the heads of the people standing in front of the stage.

Festival started at 16:00 with a short introductory performance by Fairport Convention.

After that there was a sequence of performers, very quick half hour equipment change, and the festival ended that night at 23:00.

 Lil'Jim

 Tors

 Gogol Bordello

The Waterboys

All really good acts with Gogol Bordello putting on an amazing, energetic performance. I hadn't heard of them before, so that was a treat.

More later........

Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2019

Tomorrow I'm going to my first weekend music festival - Fairport's Cropredy Convention.

It's a mostly folk festival and I've seen 3 of the acts - Fairport Convention (the hosts), Seth Lakeman, and Wildwood Kin already this year; I've seen Richard Thompson numerous times; and I saw Martin Barre (with Jethro Tull) and Zal Cleminson (with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band) over 40 years ago.

Cropredy is about 350 miles / 560 km from me, so I'll leave early in the morning and hopefully will get there and set up before the festival starts at about 16:00.

I'll be camping, I'd camped for the first time in about 10 - 15 years earlier this year (wet weekend in Wales), so I know my 36 year old tent is still waterproof! Weather could be a bit unpleasant, Thursday and Saturday look reasonable, but Friday looks a bit miserable.

Another festival this weekend, Boardmasters in Cornwall, has already been called off due to weather, but Cropredy still seems to be going ahead.

More later!

Distinguished Gentleman's Ride 2019

I'll be taking part in the Glasgow Ride of the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride again this September. Last year I rode with my friend Jane on the pillion (only her second time on a bike!) and the weather was a bit kinder to us than in 2017!!!

From the website:

'Riding Dapper for a Cause

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride unites classic and vintage style motorcycle riders all over the world to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer research and men’s mental health.

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride was founded in Sydney, Australia by Mark Hawwa. It was inspired by a photo of TV Show Mad Men’s, Don Draper astride a classic bike and wearing his finest suit. Mark decided a themed ride would be a great way of connecting niche motorcycle enthusiasts and communities while raising funds to support the men in our lives.'

Last year we raised US$6.2 million, with 114,000 riders in 648 cities in 102 countries taking part. This year's target is US$7 million, so I'm asking for others to take part and/or donate.

You can find details of the rides on this page, use the put down menu to find your country, then choose a ride from it.

Alternatively, you can donate to any ride or any rider taking part, so pick one near your home town,

OR you can donate to me! 😊 

Donate to my page here.

Distinguished Gentleman's Ride website here.

Some photos from last year: here.

Video shot by Jane from the back of my bike:

Triumph Glasgow's video of last year's ride - spot me!

****Updated photo of my donating page as my friend Jane will be riding pillion again****