Cropredy 06 bands announced

[Paul]

I really enjoy the Wallingford Bunkfest, but one thing I don't find so good about it is the fact that often good bands, that I want to listen to, will clash. Last year I had to mis Chumbawamba to see Arlen for instance.

I like the Cropredy arrangement where you only have to stay in one place to see all the good acts.

Paul

[barryanorak (Julian)]

Second stage?




Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[Anna]

Succinctly put there, Mr Anorak.

Chalk me up a "no" vote.

[bernief]

 I would say this wouldn't I but with reference to Jono's post, could I just point out that Tiny Tin Lady were also considered to be Glastonbury material this year? And a dozen others besides.

There's a great review of the album in the new Mojo & there was a cracker in the Telegraph as well as several regionals.

I'm not clear why you felt the need to drag us into a discussion about W'rants (who are GREAT & will burn many a bands tail) but good luck to them - I'm sure they'll be brill.

[Nuthouse]

The Wrants may well be talented but other festivals would surely give them the opportunity to play on smaller stage rather than going straight to the main stage with X thousand people

In a similar vein to bernief.....

There seems to be a suggestion that the W-Rants do not deserve to be given a spot in from of x thousand fans - b*ll*cks !

I am sure that Fairport would not have given the billing to the W-Rants if they had not considerd them to be 'up to the job'.

They have the billing, they deserve it..... good luck to 'em 

[Taliesin]

Well personally I cant understand what all the fuss is about, looks like the worst thursday line up since the festival went three days to me, looks like i will be watching PJ Wright and spending the rest of the night in the Brasenose

Hi Soolntr

I have to say I and a number of others that I know will be joining you in the pub.

I have seen Steeleye Span twice in the last 2 years and just cannot get excited about them (or even just casually listen to them). Still, it would be awful if everbody liked the same bands, and I suppose that the chances are that there will be a headliner or two that just do not push your buttons every now and again. At least there is a fall back position.

We will, however, make the effort to see the WRants who I have now seen several times and whom I do think warrant support.

Lets wait and see what Friday and Saturday have to offer

Sandra

I could quite easily get excited about Steeleye Span every year. If I had my way they would play Cropredy with Fairport every year. After all Fairport is on every year, after all its their festival & that is whay we go.

Steeleye Span in my opinion are just as important & influential in British Folk Rock as any band on the curcuit today.

My dream lineup for any year would always include Fairport Steeleye & Jethro tull. Infact I would have the main act for each night as one of the above. & make up the space with other bands.

[Mix (Mic)]

I haven't seen the W-Rants yet.....but I'm really looking forward to seeing them at Cropredy. I have, however, seen the many reports and reviews of their gigs, from those it seems to be that their place at Cropredy has been well and truly earned and deserved!!

I realise that it's good that we don't all agree on everything all the time, but to say that they aren't deserving of the set at Cropredy is a bit sweeping I think.

Mic

[Taliesin]

well I'm intregued by the idea of wRants, so I will reserve opinion unil I've managed to witness their performance.

So I'm also looking forward to them.

[kevin]

Please dont fix what is not broke,,if I say funfair,,dont need to say any more.

[PhilB]

Although the lineup in any one year is never going to suit everybody I love Cropredy just as it is. I really like the way the lineup changes from year to year and I can't help feeling Richard Digance needs a couple of years rest.

The thought of additional stages/big screens/Steeleye and Tull headlining every year would probably mean i wouldn't attend regularly any more. I've been just about every year since 1989 beacause it's wonderful how it is.

phil (set in my ways and proud of it)

[Sandra]

I could quite easily get excited about Steeleye Span every year. If I had my way they would play Cropredy with Fairport every year. After all Fairport is on every year, after all its their festival & that is whay we go.

Steeleye Span in my opinion are just as important & influential in British Folk Rock as any band on the curcuit today.

My dream lineup for any year would always include Fairport Steeleye & Jethro tull. Infact I would have the main act for each night as one of the above. & make up the space with other bands.

I did not suggest that they were 'unimportant', nor that they were not 'influential' (and I think at my age I can say I had the luxury of seeing all of these bands at every stage of their careers so saw influence in the making). I merely stated that I, personally, do not like them in their current mode, but there again I have never been a big fan.

The point I was making was that there can never be a line up that everybody is perfectly happy with, but that that is not a reason (for me at least) not to go to Cropredy.

However, if SS (or anyone else apart from Fairport) appeared every year then I CAN see a situation where I would no longer attend, and I guess many others might feel the same.

Also, I would dispute your contention that Fairport is the reason that everybody attends the festival. I know of people who know nothing of Fairport, or who are not really fans of theirs, who go. People attend fro many different reasons.

Cropredy works as it is. It does not need changing or fixing. A changing line up every year, with some old favourites (or not as the case may be) mixed with some new talent and a few (usually nice) surprises is just fine.

Sandra

[Taliesin]

I could quite easily get excited about Steeleye Span every year. If I had my way they would play Cropredy with Fairport every year. After all Fairport is on every year, after all its their festival & that is whay we go.

Steeleye Span in my opinion are just as important & influential in British Folk Rock as any band on the curcuit today.

My dream lineup for any year would always include Fairport Steeleye & Jethro tull. Infact I would have the main act for each night as one of the above. & make up the space with other bands.


I did not suggest that they were 'unimportant', nor that they were not 'influential' (and I think at my age I can say I had the luxury of seeing all of these bands at every stage of their careers so saw influence in the making). I merely stated that I, personally, do not like them in their current mode, but there again I have never been a big fan.

The point I was making was that there can never be a line up that everybody is perfectly happy with, but that that is not a reason (for me at least) not to go to Cropredy.

However, if SS (or anyone else apart from Fairport) appeared every year then I CAN see a situation where I would no longer attend, and I guess many others might feel the same.

Also, I would dispute your contention that Fairport is the reason that everybody attends the festival. I know of people who know nothing of Fairport, or who are not really fans of theirs, who go. People attend fro many different reasons.

Cropredy works as it is. It does not need changing or fixing. A changing line up every year, with some old favourites (or not as the case may be) mixed with some new talent and a few (usually nice) surprises is just fine.

Sandra

I was not sugesting changing of fixing anything. However saying that Cropredy should not simply have a band because that band was there the year before is ludicrous. The thing is for me Although I still enjoy Fairport & will continue to attend cropredy I no longer see them as a pure folk band that they were at their zenith. Your Point about Steeleye span is also valid. I must admit I prefered musch of their earlier work, though I must say they even today seem to stay truer to the folk feel I've come to know & love.

My only problem with the even is now that the prices are escalating ever higher, I do have to think ever harder each year I come. to the extent that I often have to make it a last minute thing, by doing overtime at work & therefore pay over the odds on the gate. This year was the first year I really couldn't afford the event at all. I only hope I can save up enough in the interim to come in 2006

For myself & many other who have been attending the even as long as I have the initial reason has always been Fairport. hence my opinion & continued opinion that a Folk even such as this is too important not to have the likes of Steeleye Span. Or is Cropredy to join the fate of many other outdoor events & to become simply a mere pop festival like so many others have become. I do hope not, as if it does, then for me it will be truely broken.

[Sandra]

Ah. The perennial debate. Is it a folk event?

Fairport have often said that Cropredy is a music festival, not a folk festival.

There have been many arguments in the past as to what constituted both. There will undoubtedly be many more.

However, I do not think that Cropredy would ever sink to being a 'pop' festival.

It is unique, as are the attendees, and I hope it will stay that way. Vive le difference.

I hope that you do manage to get there this year. I am sure we will both enjoy it in our own ways.

Sandra.

[Chris]

My dream lineup for any year would always include Fairport Steeleye & Jethro tull. Infact I would have the main act for each night as one of the above.

I was not sugesting changing or fixing anything.

Sorry, Taliesin, yes - you were.....

However saying that Cropredy should not simply have a band because that band was there the year before is ludicrous.

Sorry, I don't agree....even with the best bands, the secret of a good festival is the mix & match. There are plenty of good bands out there that you could programme the likes of Cropredy for at least 5 years without the need to repeat anybody (other than FC, of course)
I suspect that Digance is due for a rest unles he's willing to write some new material....

hence my opinion & continued opinion that a Folk event such as this

Ehhh? Cropredy hasn't been a 'folk' event for at least 10 years, and probably longer than that. As has been evidenced by various members of the band saying so over the years....

[Barry]

Ehhh? Cropredy hasn't been a 'folk' event for at least 10 years, and probably longer than that. As has been evidenced by various members of the band saying so over the years....

Very true.

Which is when it started to get boring for a lot of people.  Turnover of punters has kept it going.

[jones the steam]

everything changes before it ends, even bands themselves.
it isn't going to be 1974 forever.
i'm just glad that we have an alternative to attend at all.
it wouldn't matter exactly who were on, as long as robbie williams and girls allowed are left in top of the pops teenage scream land.
or something.

[Steve]

No, it's not a folk music festival. It's a music festival with some folk music. That's fine. In fact it's great. The sheer variety is what keeps me coming back (5 years now).

I've seen ghosts from my youth (Procol Harum, Jethro Tull) new and exciting bands (Muffin Men, Debora Bonham) and breathtaking talent (Eddie Reader, Richard Thompson)

I've seen totally unexpected stuff like the Hamsters playing Purple Haze (definitely NOT folk music).

I have also been introduced to folk music in a form I don't recognise from my early memories of it (Si Tu Dois Partir etc.). Bands like Uiscedwr, Show of Hands and, of course, FC.

Of course with such variety there will always be bands that don't appeal to everyone. For times like that there is the bar, the food stalls, the clothing stalls, the pubs in the villiage...

It's great as it is. Long may it continue. 

[jones the steam]

No, it's not a folk music festival. It's a music festival with some folk music. That's fine. In fact it's great. The sheer variety is what keeps me coming back (5 years now).

Of course with such variety there will always be bands that don't appeal to everyone. For times like that there is the bar, the food stalls, the clothing stalls, the pubs in the villiage...

It's great as it is. Long may it continue. 

and amen and halleluya(sic?) to that..
i'm going to keep turning up, year in year out, knowing that there will always be the better proportion of the weekend dedicated to less than the mainstream, whether it be folk, blues, gospel, jazz, i dunno, welsh voice choir, the point is, there will be no robbie williams!
and that, for me, is the point, i don't expect to be perfectly sated all day every day, but i know i will not be forced to leave by my ears and my eyes for the sake of my fragile sanity.
respite from the concrete i live in, that's all i ask, and all i expect.
thankyou crop for showing me another side(s).

[Tony H]

Máire Ní Chathasaigh.


Anyone know how to pronounce this person's name properly? ( I know she would herself)

[PaulT]

Moira O'Cassidy?