All Saints sparkle on the second day of Cornbury

Cornbury Music Festival 2016

Friday 8th to Sunday 10th July 2016
The Great Tew Estate, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, OX7 4AF, England MAP
£200 with camping

Daily capacity: 20,000

Hannah Grace was the first on my radar on Saturday so I immediately head over to watch her when I arrived. Hannah Grace draws upon her many influences including Jazz, soul & pop and has the backing of one Gabrielle Aplin who was to later appear in the day - with backing vocals from Hannah Grace. As I walked past the stage, I stopped in my tracks to just listen & embrace her music. I wasn't the only one!

Teeside quintet Cattle & Cane deliver perfectly crafted and delivered songs. Cattle & Cain are without weak links and the musicianship throughout is outstanding. With Cattle Cain, there are many different elements flowing through their music and so it's unfair to pigeonhole them into one. What they do is brilliant & refreshing for Cornbury.

London-based quartet Hidden Charms had this relentless energetic grunge style with huge riffs with each song they performed being belted out. All these bands seem to have long hair?! Nightmare to photograph! I enjoyed what I heard of them & I enjoyed the voice that lead singer Vincent had. Turin Brakes disappeared for a while and they've come back with a bang. Their set made you realise why you liked them before. It brought back memories for many of the audience as you watched this band whom were at such ease with one another. Tunde - you know of Lighthouse family fame? My god the man can sing! He knew what his audience wanted and that was the greatest hits of the Lighthouse Family.

Gabrielle Aplin: Cornbury Music Festival 2016

Gabrielle Aplin was a big surprise. Known for her John Lewis advert "The Power of Love" & songs such as "Please Don't Say You Love Me" you could be forgiven for thinking that's all she could do. Alpin was fantastic. Armed with a guitar and a beer stashed on her microphone stand, Aplin showed an audience a completely different side of her and won herself a lot of new followers. It's always hard to beat a stereotype but Aplin did it beautifully.

Corinne Bailey Rae was lovely. Her voice was nice but to be honest, everyone was just waiting for "Girl Put Your Records On". Looking around at the crowd, it was obvious that people weren't there to hear her new music. They wanted that one song. She's very charming & pleasant and for a lazy Saturday afternoon worked well. She was positioned well in the bill but Aplin should have had the main stage.

All Saints: Cornbury Music Festival 2016

I saw All Saints perform a few weeks at a work event and I was pleasantly surprised. I had told a few of the photographers, so I hoped that I wasn't just remembering it wrongly...nope, no I wasn't. All Saints are a proper girl band. I don't mean as in Girls Aloud style...god no. They all look fantastic, they nail the dance routines but the one difference is that they can actually sing! I really like their new music including "War" and "One Strike" is a great move for them to reconquer the charts.

Booker T. Jones the American multi-instrumentalist and all around music hero performed on the Songbird stage on Saturday afternoon. Bit surprised that he wasn't on the Main Stage! Supported by his son on guitar, Booker T was such an easy listen & is a musical prodigy. Green Onions - of course!

Living Legend Bryan Ferry closed the Saturday at Cornbury. Known for his role in Roxy Music, for the audience at Cornbury he felt like the perfect fit. Not for me personally but the majority of the women around me! Unfortunately, Ferry's voice isn't quite the same. It's fading slightly and just reminds you that everyone has grown up including your musical heroes. Saying that, he played a really good set list of old Roxy Music & a few old solo pieces.

Bryan Ferry: Cornbury Music Festival 2016