Levellers, and 3 Daft Monkeys, folk Friday at Cropredy

Sleeping next to a river weir meant that we didn't know it was raining until we unzipped our tents on the Friday morning. And what rain there was. Not to be disheartened though, the waterproofs came out, and with the clouds being blown over, we headed arena bound to find Radio 2 DJ, Mark Radcliffe, and his band The Family Mahone (with special guests from, you've guessed it, Fairport Convention) getting everyone's spirits up with their rousing drinking songs. A good start to what was to be the strongest day, musically, and followed by Dave Pegg & PJ Wright who received rapturous applause after their amusing set.



Next up were 3 Daft Monkeys, who played their hi-energy, fiddle-driven Cornish folk music. Youngsters compared to whom the stage was being shared with that day, but they went down a treat. The younger audience members loved them, and there was much jigging and bouncing for the duration of their unfortunately too short set.

The afternoon saw better weather, so we gave the rest of the bands a miss and headed into the village. Little did we know that there was a whole other festival going on. Nominally known as the Cropredy Fringe, there were tents selling clothes, handicrafts, food, etc. throughout the village, and bands in gardens. Even the local church was getting in on the good vibes, and seemed to be a chill-out area for escapees from the nearby pub.

The evening was going to be an interesting one, so we headed back to the main site to check out Joe Brown and Dave Edmunds who were to be playing an extended 2 hour set, rather than the originally programmed 1½ hours. With the 'scandal' of Levellers headlining the Friday night, I do wonder whether this timing change was to calm some of the audience and give the more mature audience members their own 'headliner' before the actual one.



Whatever the reasons, the 2 hour set flew by, with Joe Brown and Dave Edmunds playing an assortment of more traditional Rock 'n' Roll and folk tinged songs. Many covers were played including U2's – 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' and Everly Brothers 'Claudette', as well as some of their favourites including Elvis Costello penned 'Girls Talk', 'I Hear You Knocking', and 'Wonderful Picture of You'. A wonderful piece of Italian wedding music closed things nicely, before the stage was cleared to make way for the final band of the day.

So, Levellers headlining Cropredy. What is going on? Apparently they're not proper 'Folk', and they don't wash...so say some of people on the (unofficial) Fairport Convention forums. These doubters complaining that the Levellers don't play proper folk music seemed to be ignoring that the festival would also be hosting Rock 'n' Roll, Ska, and even Reggae.

I was intrigued as to how they would go down, especially as I'd heard this nonsense.



Well, they rocked. In fact they didn't just rock, they Folked! They Folked more than many of the other bands on the bill.

After their somewhat lacklustre performance at Cambridge Folk Festival the weekend before, Cropredy saw the Levellers on top form. Commencing the set with 'England My Home', Mark, Jez, Simon and co. thundered through many favourites ('The Boatman', 'Men an Tol', and 'Carry Me') and also played a good selection of songs from their new album, 'Letters From The Underground'.

Amusingly, Mark Chadwick got a little frustrated at one point with the big TV's operator, and had to tell him to turn off the advertising (for their own albums), and instead "show us jumping around". 'Dirty Davey' was cause for more laughter, as Chadwick started the same verse twice, then realising with a shout of "he's already done that hasn't he", it was back on with the song as we know it.

New song 'Cholera Well' was aired and went down very well. Of the tracks played, this is probably the most akin to the old Levellers 'style', and was followed by crowd favourite, 'Riverflow'. Then, following the obligatory going off and coming back on again, a four song encore took in 'Far From Home', new song 'Eyes Wide', 'Liberty', and finally the explosive 'What You Know', joined on stage by Athene Roberts from 3 Daft Monkeys.

Worn out from frenetic jumping up and down, we headed back to our campsite before we turned into pumpkins as midnight approached.

Latest Updates