Warsaw Village Band bring Oxford Folk Festival to a close on a high note
Oxford Folk Festival 2010 review
Friday 30th April 2010
Another glorious spring day of Morris displays and confused shoppers in the town. Concerts start off at midday with Simon Care followed by Geordie songmasters Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies. Concluding the lunchtime session happy chappy Chris Wood confesses he is not used to playing in daylight but nonetheless delivers a thought provoking series of true songs definitely not aimed at ghastly, snivelling, whining young people.
His improvised set includes many familiar songs; 'Hollowpoint' about the de Menezes shooting, 'Cold Haily Night' made famous by the Imagined Village, - his tribute to Mad John the peasant addicted to poetical prosing. The demographic has shifted dramatically since Friday night to favour the older audience, although they are bit slow to get to their feet Mr Wood receives the most heartfelt standing ovation of the weekend.
Musicians love to jam together so it's no surprise that the weekend's workshops are very popular. Harp, Indonesian Gamelan, Fiddle, Accordion, Pipes and Ukulele are all work shopped in the Faculty of Music. Alice Little takes a group for an umbrella session of English Tunes which seems to be greatly enjoyed by the melodeon and concertina players attending.
The festival draws to a close on Sunday after noon with a change of focus from the English tradition to Arab with the hypnotic sound of Maqam and eastern European with the final act Warsaw Village Band. Although the village band's words are incomprehensible the raucous energy of their 'Barbarian' music is unmistakeable. The audience reduces at every opportunity but those remaining to the end enjoy an epic blues dirge and willingly accept the invitation for one last chance to dance manically as the pink legging-ed lead cellist goes into overdrive to conclude the weekend's proceedings in the main hall on a high note.
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