…is that you get to go to festivals for free. Yes, I’ve finally got around to posting about O.F.F. two-and-a-half weeks after it actually happened.
Friday night, saw wRants, Sue Brown & Lorraine Irwing, John Thompson and Short Drag Roger, all of whom were enjoyable but none of whom stood out as particularly outstanding. Then moved on to the session at the Half Moon, which turned out to be rather disappointing, partly due to the fact the place was absolutely packed.
Saturday started out with the street parade, led by Melanoma Melomania, the seven-piece melodeon marching band of which I was a part. I’m still not sure what madness inspired this idea of Tim’s, but in the event it actually worked quite well. Plus I got a free top hat and tailcoat out of the deal, which was a plus.
After this I had been planning to watch On English Ground (in which Jessica was featuring), but instead ended up going to the pub with other members of Melomania. Met up with Jessica after lunch and worked out a setlist for our spot in the evening, then went back to the festival in time to catch most of Waterson:Carthy’s set. As usual, they were good, but not as good as they ought to be. Separately they have all done some fantastic stuff, but as a group they somehow only manage to be quite good (with the notable exception of their superb first album).
Considering that we hadn’t really done any preparation for it, Jessica’s and my set went very well. We were perhaps a little ragged here and there (the fact neither of us could remember the beginning of Abraham Brown was slightly embarrassing), but the (surprisingly large) audience seemed mostly to enjoy it.
Spent a little while afterwards recuperating and having a drink, causing us to miss Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, but we were still in time to see Bellowhead, who were, unsurprisingly, fantastic. In particular, they have developed since last I saw them into a more cohesive 11-piece band, rather than just being Spiers and Boden with an enormous number of backing musicians.
The Half Moon was even more packed than the previous evening, and though there was a small session underway, it would doubtless have been very difficult to get to and sounded far too fiddley-diddley and Irish, so Jessica and I decided to ignore it, and instead went upstairs and played a few tunes together in the kitchen (including Abraham Brown, which we managed to remember this time).
Unfortunately, lack of sleep meant that by Sunday I was absolutely knackered, and some trouble staying awake. I did still manage to catch most of Black Umfolosi and Steve Ashley (with Chris Leslie and Al Fenn) on the main stage, before nipping over to the second stage to see Spire, followed by a second performance from the Winterset, which was apparently the better of their two performances at the festival, and who were certainly very good. Then went back to the main stage to see Bill Caddick and Flook.
All in all, a good festival, although possibly not as good as the previous two.
Next festival in the diary is Cornbury at which Melomania will be appearing, meaning I get in for free again. It’s good, this melodeon-playing lark.