A Review of Six English Festivals Ray Downes.
(Article written for Australian national folk magazine Trad and Now October 2007 edition)

Photographs Jason Downes
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The dismal summer in Britain did not deter the hordes of people attending festivals, in fact at some events numbers were up on previous years. Festivals are becoming so popular that shops are selling “Festival Packs” which contains all you need for the weekend’s camping. 2007 was the year of cheap $30 tents being abandoned at camp sites too wet to pack away.
My festival experience suggests there’s a core of some 40 top UK acts that do the festival circuit with a few upcoming, very talented, young performers, plus some overseas content. The most dynamic acts for me were from outside Britain.

My first festival was Dent in N.Yorkshire. Chris While and Julie Matthews were on top form and entertained us with old chestnuts we knew and loved, plus a few new ones, including one about the closing of the shipyards in Chris’s hometown of Barrow and a unique song ‘Feel Good List’ – exactly that, a list of Chris and Julie’s favourite things, including: “the Twelve Apostles, The Indigo Girls and any Beatles song”. They told us of their unusual experiences performing in Australia, like having to cope with a plague of locusts at Port Fairy Festival and playing in a marquee where the temperature was 54C. Scottish band Lau, featured guitarist Kris Drever (ex Fine Friday), the Horizon Award winner at this year's Radio 2 Folk Awards and fiddle player Aidan O'Rourke, Instrumentalist of the Year in Scotland's Traditional Music Awards. Lau’s was a memorable afternoon set of high tempo self-penned and traditional tunes interspersed with the occasional ballad from Kris. Highlight of Dent festival for me was the outrageously talented, unaccompanied trio Coope, Boyes and Simpson whose bracket included impeccable harmony versions of ‘Falling Slowly’ and a First World War song ‘Lloyd Georges Beer’.

Cleckheaton Festival in Yorkshire had New Zealand singer/songwriter Martin Curtis who was extremely well received. He performed songs about Tibet, his dad’s experiences in the 2nd World War, his famous Goldrush song ‘Gin and Raspberry’ and a few funny NZ/Aus yarns. Realtime was an accomplished quartet with Judy Dinning (ex Jez Lowe’s band) as their exceptional lead singer who did cracking renditions of ‘Crazy Man Michael’ and ‘The Water Is Wide’. I’d been looking forward to hearing USA/Ireland, 6 piece, all female band, Cherish The Ladies and they were a breath of fresh air. Traditional tunes and songs all done with passion and precision. The icing on the cake was the appearance of a world champion Riverdance male dancer. Other top acts at Cleckheaton were accomplished melodeon, concertina player and well informed singer, Brian Peters, and the rocky Duncan McFarlane Band who did a rewrite of the English trad. Song,’ The Beggar’ to include 21st century issues and a really clever spoof traditional song titled ‘PC’ using computer language terms.

Cumbria had two excellent but very different festivals. Brampton Live was a true folk festival and Solfest was more a blues/contemporary/dance/indi band affair. Roy Bailey and retired MP Tony Benn’s set at Brampton was their Social History of Britain presentation where Roy illustrated in song what Tony so brilliantly narrated. Scotland was represented by Eddi Reader and Dick Gaughan. Eddi was on great form with her band(minus John McCusker) promoting her new album and included her guitarist Boo Hewerdine’ s songs ‘Bell, Book and Candle’ and ‘Peacetime’ dedicated to the first Scottish soldier to be killed in Iraq, plus requested ‘Lucky Penny’ and ‘Patience of Angels’. Keith Donnelly and Les Barker teamed up this year to present their Idiot and Friend show round the UK. The seeds for this show were sown at The National Folk Festival in Canberra where rather than performing two separate slots they just ended up on stage together. Les had a new poem, an epitaph to a crossword compiler wittily titled “6 Down 3 Across” Renowned USA singer Steve Earl was top of the bill but he left me cold with his legendary songs like ‘Dixieland’ and ‘I Aint Never Satisfied’ and his drab stage demeanour. Only when his country singer wife Allison Moorer joined him on stage for a couple of songs, did the mood lift. France has a strong tradition of producing bands that delight in casually mixing languages, instruments and cultures. The exciting Loire Valley sextet Lo’Jo used French, Spanish and Arabic inspiration and leader Denis Pean and the Nid El Mourid sisters created music that mixed European, Gypsy and African instrumentation and influences. Lo’Jo was my best new act find this year and also my 10 yr old grandson’s favourite act at Brampton

Musically varied and unpretentious Solfest took the prize for the most scenic festival site with magnificent views over the Solway Firth to Scotland and east to The Lake District mountains. The folk content was outstanding. The Emily Smith Band from Scotland was very busy playing festivals this summer and it’s a shame that their afternoon time slot at Solfest didn’t attract more punters. Emily’s material ranged from the touching song ’When First I went To Caledonia’ to lesser well known Burns songs and some of her quality self penned songs about her home area of Dumfries. Their dynamic traditional tune sets, led by Emily’s skilled driving accordion, included striking tunes written by her brilliant fiddle playing New Zealand partner Jamie McClennan.
Legendary English group Chumbawamba doing their ‘traditional radical English rebel songs’ delighted the huge crowd with back catalogue material such as ‘Time Bomb’ and ‘ Hard Times of Old England’ and had two new songs lampooning internet issues ‘Add Me’ (chorus line “me mother says she wished she’d never ‘ad me”) and ‘On EBay’. Italian band Fiamma Fumana were specially flown over for this their first ever UK gig. They blended roots, techno, dance and trad Italian folk, were bursting with energy, got the whole crowd dancing and were the hit of the festival. The awesome Devon duo, Show Of Hands were playing their 17th festival this summer. Their performance at Solfest was a lesson in “how to do it right”. It wasn’t just the skill and versatility of the powerful Springsteen edgy vocals of Steve Knightley, and Phil Beer’s enormous instrumental talents, but how the delivery had such unique flair and passion. Having the talented and attractive bass player Miranda Sykes on tour with them was a bonus as was being able to relax on stage knowing that their lighting and sound guys had it perfect out front.

Regulars at the week long Sidmouth Folk Festival are knowledgeable folkies. Many of them are players and singers and make a holiday of it in this divine part of Devon, and go for the whole week. The festival was firmly back on track following a rocky period a few years ago. The town was taken over by festival activities with the sea front promenade full of morris dancers, buskers and stall holders each day. Talk of the festival was Australia’s Spooky Men’s Chorale who received a standing ovation at Sidmouth and Brampton. Nancy Kerr and James Fagan excelled in their sets. They sounded superb through the pristine Ham marquee sound system in their performance of Al Hulett’ s ‘Sons of Liberty’ and ‘Dance To Your Daddy’. Kate Fagan will be welcomed back to Britain after her hugely successful inaugural UK tour following her solo performance which oozed charm, confidence and skill. Other acts that appealed were Eliza Carthy and The Ratcatchers, although Eliza’s voice was sounding rough, and the chosen songs I found sombre. French Canadian band Yves Lambert (he of La Bottine Souriante) and Le Berbert Orchestra played their infectious brand of Quebecois music. Veteran Yves led the young band, some of whom looked young enough to be his sons, in a medley of gentle tunes, love songs and bucketfuls of infectious Cajun music. It wasn’t just the major concerts that made Sidmouth. There was so much going on with workshops, presentations and all day pub sessions at countless easy to reach venues through the town. If you are considering going to Sidmouth Festival I’d advise you to book accommodation early as the numerous b and b’s and hotels in town get booked out.

Fleetwood is a quaint seaside town with delightful old fashioned cafes like The Tramways where a wholesome meal can still be had for $10.The town has hosted Fylde Folk Festival for 35 years in the capable hands of the renowned Alan Bell. Cloudstreet had just arrived from Queensland and were busy performing their own unique show and gaining more fans. They also shared the stage with the distinctive sounding George Papavgeris and added harmony vocals and instrumentation in his varied set, which included a song about a pioneering Australian farmer plus his passionate ‘The Miracle of Life and ‘The Ending of The Day’. Watch out for this wonderful performer when he tours Australia next year.
Grace Notes were three women in perfect harmony who have been together for 13 years and perform mostly British songs plus gems like Loudon Wainwright’s ‘White Wine Red Wine and Steve Tilston’s ‘The Dewy Ones’. Vin Garbutt had dropped his “when I was in hospital” act and was back doing his long hilarious introductions, like the one for the Beggars Bridge song. He joked with the audience about getting into film making - “Dancing with Whippets!” The Award Winners concert had Celtic Connections 2006 winner David Ferrard who had a stunning voice and performed a choice act of self penned songs. Also on the concert was the 2006 BBC Young Folk Awards winner Last Orders who were four outrageously adept and delightful young traditional music uni students. The band’s intelligent, professional arrangements, included some vigorous Irish and Swedish polkas. As with Sidmouth Festival, Fylde had just so much happening all day (I counted a hundred acts in the programme) and lived up to its reputation to ensure that local folk artists appeared at the festival as part of the community spirit.

The UK festival season runs from early June to mid September with a weekend ticket costing around $130 including camping.
My thanks to the six festival committees who were so welcoming and generously supplied me with press passes.

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