 |  | | | | | Sunday Festival Diary
The sun didn't shine as much as we hoped but the music was stunning with a wonderful performance by Christy Moore
FRIDAY | SATURDAY | |  | |  |
| | | | | | | |  | | Cambridge swings like a pendulum doo-oo, Bobbies on bicycles, two by two-oo … The global village at Cherry Hinton is patrolled by cool coppers on mountain bikes and they seem to be having as good a time as everyone else. Weather report Sunday: grey and warm with scattered melodeons. Mike Harding has just found an amazing electronic accordion at The Music Room and is so impressed with its saxophone and harmonica sounds that he plans to interview it on his show. At this point John Spiers of Bellowhead turns up with his own 'digital' melodeon made by a chap in Ripon and a crowd gathers to ooh and aah at the techno-wizardry. It's Music Room's John Turner's opinion that there are fewer musicians and fewer impromptu sessions at the festival this year but it doesn't appear to be spoiling anyone's appreciation.
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| | | | | | | |  | | Meanwhile, Johnny Dickinson has opened on the Main Stage with some skilful slide playing and songs about his native Northumberland coast. The Duhks (pronounced Ducks) follow him with a blistering set of tunes and their own Winnipeg versions of trad-gospel-funk. An excellent performance! Then, while Shemekia Copeland shakes up the afternoon with some blues-rock from Texas, the Old Crow Medicine Show stir in a bit of their magic potion jug band sound at the other end of the site.
A huge queue has formed at the MOJO tent for the signing of Kate Rusby's new CD and members of her band entertain the crowd in true busker fashion. Kate meanwhile sups champagne and discusses hair mousse with her fans. Rumour has it that 1000 copies of her new album have been signed, sealed and sold in minutes.
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| | | | |  | | The Old Crows hand over to Altan, who whip the crowd into a frenzy. Dancing in the aisles (or well-worn turf as it's called) is de rigeur. Mr and Mrs Rusby and Associates are next take up their places and surprise their second audience of the weekend not only with their Coldstream Guards brass ensemble, but also a guest appearance on vocals of Idlewild's Roddy Woomble on Kate's own song 'No Names'. No sooner have the Rusby's vacated the stage than Blazin' Fiddles, arguably the Led Zeppelin of the Scottish folk scene, blast everyone off their closely guarded piece of turf with some astonishing formation fiddlin'.
Although the sun isn't as blazin' as the fiddles, the ambience is anything but gloomy. BBC presenter Verity Sharp is found practising her own fiddle technique backstage, the ice-cream van is doing a brisk trade and it's rumoured that Vic Reeves is somewhere on site. 22,528 is the total number of pints of Guinness sold at last year's festival and there's a chalk-board with a running total so far this year. Will they make it? Who's counting?
The legendary Christy Moore is announced and is accompanied by guitar supremo Declan Sinnott. A receptive roar goes up as the main man fires up his perceptive political lyric and emotive delivery. But a glitch in the programming means that those wanting to stay and pogo in agreement with the sage's words of wisdom miss out on the Idlewild acoustic set further down the field.
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Roddy Woomble et al have already taken their seats - yes, a sitting down gig, maybe to qualify their presence at a folkfest - and seem a tad all at sea in these uncharted waters. But the crowd loves 'em and they deliver a solid set to much adoration. A battalion of twenty-somethings are eager for an encore but also eager to make a dash for the final act on the Main Stage. Jon Boden and John Spiers' eclectic light orchestra is to wind up the weekend with trad songs and morris tunes.
But with a brass quartet, sousaphone, pipes, oboe, melodeon, cittern, fiddles and a percussion kit like a tinker's caravan, their unique sound lies somewhere between Spike Jones and the Russian State Orchestra … and with the frontmen (and woman - let's not forget the not inconsiderable talents of the band's lone female, Rachael McShane on vocals, fiddle and cello) whirling like chained escapologists under strobing traffic lights and stage smog, the sensory overload is magnetic. Cambridge Festival ends as it started - with a wow factor of 110%. | |
| | | | VOTE | | | Who did you enjoy the most this year? | |
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