Well, I’m back from the fifth Oxford Folk Festival.
Friday evening, saw the last few minutes of Jack Harris’s set, then saw Telling the Bees, who were good. Went over to the main stage and saw Three Daft Monkeys, who weren’t all that good.
Did the usual procession thing with Melomania on Saturday, then went off to the Old Tom and played in a session until about twenty to four, whereupon I went and got changed and had lunch. Got back to the Town Hall in time to catch the last ten minutes of Mawkin/Causley’s set. They were playing well, but the sound guy evidently didn’t know what he was doing. Then watched Martin Simpson and Danny Thompson, who were, predictably enough, fantastic. Then went over to the second stage to catch the end of Andy Turner’s set, and stayed to see Vinegar Tom, who were very good. Finally saw Wilber and Bellowhead in the evening. Bellowhead just keep getting better; that’s probably the best set I’ve seen them do.
Saw Brass Monkey on Sunday (very good), then watched Mawkin over on the second stage, again with Jim Causley. They played a better set than on Saturday from what I heard, with better sound, too. Later in the afternoon, saw James Bell, who was superb, and AMV, who were quite interesting. Then went over to the main stage to see The Kathryn Tickell Band, who were very good.
Then had dinner at the Old Tom, and headed home. The journey home took longer than expected, since I had to take a coach between Oxford and Didcot due to engineering work, but aside from the delay the journey went smoothly enough.
So, what was your favourite performance, do you think? Plus, how well did Melomania go?
Good to hear you enjoyed yourself though.
Overall it’s a toss up between Bellowhead and Martin Simpson, with James Bell a close third.
Melomania went pretty well. I’m glad we’ve dropped Swaggering Boney from the list of tunes; it’s always awkward and messy going into it from the other tunes. If we met up and practised regularly we could maybe get it a bit more polished, but for a group of musicians that only play together as a group twice a year that isn’t really an option.