Cambridge Rock Festival 2011, 4th - 7th August

[mikeb]

Well ... it's that time of year again: The official announcement of the long awaited Good News ^TM that the Cambridge Rock Festival will be taking place at the Haggis Farm venue again on 4th - 7th August 2011 has very recently appeared on the CRF website

There's not a huge amount more to say at the mo other than confirming the date is definitely now official and that Supersaver advanced tickets are now available for those of us who not only know what we like but also know from past experience that the CRF Team will without doubt have it all ready and waiting for our enjoyment come August ! There might not be even the merest hint of a vague rumour as to who could possibly be playing this next year but suffice it to say that Mr.Credit-Card has already done the honours and bagged my tickets despite being somewhat more than a tad stressed out at the mo. Must say that I'm not entirely sure what the VAT implications are mind you (seeing as it goes up on 4th Jan of course) but seeing as I've already made been made *very* well aware that the financial 'diet' starts promptly on the 1st January regardless, it defo looks like I managed to sneak in just before that deadline if nothing else which (hopefully !) means that I've avoided completely the "what the $%^* have you been buying now" Spanish Inquisition stylee discussion that would have inevitably come furiously marching in my direction no doubt brandishing several very unpleasant looking blunt instruments various into the bargain otherwise

Much more info including any good rumours or self-confirmations, sneaky details of any new stuff plus of course full details of the official confirmed line-up will appear below as and when it becomes available. Until then, please take a wander over to the The Official CRF Website for more details about this great family-friendly festival and all the very latest news.

Complete ticket information and prices are available HERE and the Booking/P&P Fee for any number of tickets is just £2.50 per order. Ticket prices start at just £69 for a Full Festival adult ticket providing entry to all 4 days of the Festival. Camping tickets start at £20 with van/camper tickets from £40, individual day tickets and U16 tickets etc. are also available if required. As usual, any Day Ticket purchased also gets you entry on Thursday night for FREE plus for 2011, students holding a valid ID card (e.g. CURAS, CUSSC, UEA and NUS) and CAMRA members with a valid membership card get entry on Thursday for the reduced ticket price of £5. Prices, in general, appear much the same as for 2010 - or at least I've just paid exactly the same as I did for my tix last year anyway.

Edited February 19, 2011 by mikeb

[mikeb]

Seems like I either stupidly kinda missed the sneaky list of 2011 bookings when I checked the CRF site the other night or perhaps it's been rather sneakily added since then of course ! Anyways, after another quicky look and a li'l research, here's some of the bands appearing so far and in no particular order:

• Eddie and the Hotrods (Friday, according to their website HERE)

• John Otway Big Band

• The Hamsters

• Ebony Tower (Saturday, according to their myspace HERE)

• Jebo (Unknown day, confirmed by Dave Roberts (CRF) on their myspace HERE

• John Young Band (Sunday, according to info HERE)

• Crimes of Passion

• Swans in Flight (Saturday, according to their website HERE)

• Slam (Saturday, according to their myspace HERE)

• Ben Poole

• Credo

• Mr So&So

• Marseille (Saturday, according to their website HERE) date no longer on website

• Final Conflict

• Split Whiskers

• The Bizzarros

• Cherry Lee Mewis (Saturday, according to her Agent's website HERE)

• Steve Boyce Band

• Mister Pink (Sunday, according to their website HERE)

It's Eddie and the Hotrods' 35th anniversary this year of course so that should pretty much guarantee an even more bl**dy excellent gig than the normal bl**dy excellent gig that you always get from these guys ! I'm also defo very well pleased at seeing The Hamsters on the bill as they're a band I've wanted to see for years but never quite seem to have managed to get around to. Plus that complete loony highly entertaining Mr.Otway chap is always a *very* welcome addition to any festival of course and esp so as it's been quite a few years now since he last graced us with his presence. Hmmm, anyone else getting a Saarrfend tinged with Canvey Island kinda feeling coming on what with all these (in)famous Essex boys on the bill so far ... and then wondering just how long it might be before a Dr.F or some Blockheads turn up to join 'em Hope so

I'd also totally recommend Crimes of passion and Slam having see both of them before as well as Credo, Ben Poole and John Young Band ... on the assumption that they are who I think they are anyway ! Ebony Tower sound pretty good too. All looking good so far I think and absolutely loads more d@mn fine bands yet to be added of course. I mean there's quite a long way to go before we get even remotely close to the customary 70+ bands needed to fill 3 all-weather stages for 4 days ... and conveniently providing a near perfect match for the customary 70+ Real Ales lovingly racked, tapped and awaiting the pleasure of meeting your tankard behind the Main Stage Bar of course !

Shameless and almost totally unsubstantiated rumour of the day: I see that Wishbone Ash are playing one of the CRF Gigs in the the run-up to this years festival (Saturday April 2nd) so that could perhaps mean more than the merest hint of possibility they will also be playing the Festival. That would be rather good to say the least Have a look HERE for all the info on the other CRF Gigs to help get you warmed up nicely for the festival season. It's never too early to make a start and the first gig of the year is The Pure Floyd Show on January 22nd. Also, don't forget that many of the gigs feature a curry supper included in the ticket price to ensure that you're suitably warmed up in all respects as well the usual opportunity to indulge in a fine ale or 6 from the bar so they make a *very* reasonably priced good night out at a time when the pennies might well still be in short supply !

Finally, fancy seeing a bit of 'AC/DC' ? Well now you can ! ... but I do have to admit straight away that unfortunately we're not talking about a certain very well known bunch of Aussies here but rather Marseille who were originally called AC/DC until *THE* AC/DC appeared on the scene Still real good stuff tho:

PLEASE NOTE: Marseille no longer appear to be playing as the CRF date has fairly recently been removed from the gig listings on their website and from the bands booked list on the CRF website as well

Edited January 26, 2011 by mikeb

[mikeb]

Hmmm, it would appear that CRF is no longer listed on the Marseille website gig diary and their name has now totally disappeared from the list of bands booked on the CRF website as well. B*gger, was defo kinda looking forward to seeing them

However, on the positive side, it does seem to mean that the most excellent Quireboys have replaced them on the Saturday night *AND* not only but also, Caravan seem to have been quietly sneaked onto the list of bands booked to play sometime recently(ish) as well ! Exxxxxcellent Here's hoping that it is *THE* Caravan mind you and not someone else jumping on the caravan bandwagon so to speak as there's nothing mentioned on their website at the mo other than them playing High Voltage

Quireboys were bl**dy brilliant last time they played even after various false starts and at the stupid o'clock on a Sunday morning (rather than Saturday night !) that it ended up as due to big technical and weather-related issues and huge delays on the CRF Main Stage at the time. Purveyors of the finest English good time rock 'n' roll since 1984 ? ... Oh yes indeedy, good old Spike and Co most certainly do exactly what it says on the tin and all that !

Edited January 27, 2011 by mikeb

[mikeb]

The legendary Canterbury band Caravan are now confirmed for the Sunday night it would seem according to the recent news item on their website HERE

30 min interview/docu/promo with some quality footage from 35th Anniversary Gig in 2003:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFc18MO6pek

BTW ... SuperSaver tickets usually disappear as soon as the line-up is almost ready to be officially announced in reasonable detail so with what very much appears to be significant if not headline acts for Friday, Saturday and Sunday now revealed, they might not be around for very much longer !

Edited February 2, 2011 by mikeb

[mikeb]

A few more bands have recently been sneaked on to the 'booked' list:

Now, I'm not a huge fan of tribute bands in general TBH although they do obviously have their place and some tributes such as Australian Pink Floyd, Bootleg Beatles and Limehouse Lizzy for instance are bands not to be missed. However, when I stumble across another previously unheard tribute band that sounds as good as Ultimate Eagles do then I'm also way more than a bit happy to see that their place is going to include CRF this year ! Yup, it seems as though we're in for One Of Those Nights at some point in time over the 4 day festival and that's just fine and dandy by me as the chances of me ever seeing the Real Thing^TM live is pretty slim to say the least. With Danny Vaughn (ex Tyketto), Chris Childs (ex Thunder), Christian Phillips, Michael Lawrence, Ryan Aston and Jamie Moses there's absolutely no shortage of talent to play what is almost certainly going to be an amazing set from the extensive Eagles back-catalogue featuring no shortage of hits ... you just know it's gonna be all good stuff

Ultimate Eagles Promo:

It's also really good to see that Chantel McGregor will be back playing the festival again this year. If you haven't heard of her before or maybe even think that girlies playing guitars is perhaps not such a good thing then shame on you and you'd better engage that brain (if you actually have one that is) and think again pretty d@mn soon ! This Yorkshire lass is in an entirely different league to all those who reckon they can play and if you haven't seen her live then you *really* don't know what you're missing. Expect to be seriously impressed with some brilliant covers (especially her versions of Hendrix tracks various) as well as her excellent own material.

Chantel McGreggor - Red House:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAhVx2WGLOU

... continued in next post

[mikeb]

Another returnee who will apparently be back by popular demand again this year is Larry Miller who, despite holding the record for the most encores at the festival a couple of years back, still left a huge crowd demanding even more !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tO7nQ4Joqo

Other bands recently added to the booked list or who have self-confirmed are Empire of Fools (Sunday), The Skynyrd Experience (Thursday) plus Neuronspoiler with some particularly fine sounding metal and whilst they're a band I haven't heard of before, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be enjoying a lot more of them in the not to distant future

Neuronspoiler - Words, Words, Words

Finally, there's a great promo vid for the festival on the Cambridgeshire audio/visual arts website cbscene.co.uk which appears to have been provided by one of last years festival sponsors, Cambridge Audio. It features some of the bands confirmed as playing this year, footage from previous festival performances and some general shots from around the site at last years festival. Check it out - I've added it to the first post in this thread.

[mikeb]

NEWS: THE OFFICIAL LINE-UP RELEASE IS IMMINENT

Taken from the most recent CRF News/Update e-mail:

CRF 11 - 4-7th August 2011 - Supersaver Tickets @ £69 will be replaced by Earlybird Tickets very shortly, when the majority of the line up is posted (in days not weeks).

CRF 11 Earlybird Tickets (still great value) will then go on sale @ £79 or if left until Jul/Aug £89 all inc of VAT (+ £2.50 Booking fee per order).

Click HERE for more info or to order tickets.

[mikeb]

Here's a few more bands to add to the ever growing list and whilst not in any way intended to be even remotely derogatory, they're all fully paid-up members of the somewhat incestuous Mostly Autumn Clan so to speak !

1. Mostly Autumn (Confirmed on CRF website)

2. Heather Findlay (Confirmed on CRF website)

3. Panic Room (Self-confirmed)

4. Stolen Earth (Looking very promising but not actually confirmed as yet)

Not too sure how to sort-of explain the rather complicated relationship between them all but here's my best shot. We're getting the brilliant Mostly Autumn with Olivia Sparnenn on lead vocals (previously on backing vocals with Mostly Autumn and lead vocals with Breathing Space), the most excellent Heather Findlay with her new solo project (previously on lead vocals with Mostly Autumn for many years of course), Panic Room with Anne-Marie Helder on lead vocals and guitar (currently on backing vocals and more with Mostly Autumn) and Stolen Earth who have risen from the ashes of what was Breathing Space after Heidi Widdop (previously on vocals with Mostly Autumn many years ago) took over lead vocals when Olivia Sparnenn (and others) left the band and not long before Breathing Space officially disbanded towards the end of last year.

Confused ? ... well I certainly still am and I wrote it But no matter who's actually playing with who in this seemingly long-term and never ending personnel swap-a-roo or where they originally came from, the most important thing is that the end result is several excellent bands/artistes that whilst similar in many ways are also completely different beasts so it's definitely all very good stuff ... esp for all the progheads amongst us needless to say Must say that I'm particularly looking forward to hearing Heather Findlay's shiny new solo material tho

Mostly Autumn @ CRF2010 - Evergreen

Edited February 23, 2011 by mikeb

[mikeb]

No real updates for ages so mostly a shameless bump just because I can

However, there's apparently some news/updates coming real soon so the line-up graphics and other info in the first post in this thread will hopefully be getting some gaps filled very shortly. Really pleased to see that The Enid are back to do the much shouted for but sadly missing encore from last year ! As they're Sunday's headliner and the Licence is generally speaking good until 0300 hours (I think) that should hopefully leave plenty room for SEVERAL encores this year

Whilst not exactly 100% representative of The Enid's work in general, here's "Mockingbird" which is a studio recording by The Enid as a tribute to the late Woolly Wolstenholme using the original score created by Robert John Godfrey for the Barclay James Harvest album "Once Again":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sft1ID_jtqo

Edited June 21, 2011 by mikeb