Cropredy on TV tonight

[Big Dave]

I did sort of chortle a little when Bob referred to "a number of pubs in the village". Yes Bob, that number is 2! :-)

That rather did tickle me as well Andy! The boy neds to get out and about more.  

[Nick Reg]

I did sort of chortle a little when Bob referred to "a number of pubs in the village". Yes Bob, that number is 2! :-)

That rather did tickle me as well Andy! The boy neds to get out and about more.  

Most folk cant count the number of pubs when they've been to one too many.

[Nick Reg]

I wouldn't expect a promo film but a balanced representation of the festival would have been nice.  The sound quality was very poor and the parts Bob chose to show weren't, in my opinion, the highlights of each set.  Two numbers from both Little Feat and Quo were unecessary (although if I was a neutral I would have noticed that the crowd were enjoying themselves during Quo's set whilst Little Feat were a bit boring).  I'm not sure that it would put many on the gate but, then, who actually watches Sky Arts unless they have a good reason?!  I'm sure that most of the viewers were at or aware of the festival anyway.  A few shots of activities in the village would have rounded it off a little as Bob himself alluded to the fact that that the village is part of it.  It was nice to see Cropredy getting some further recognition but the film was a poor image of the event and not one I would be likely to show to anyone interested in attending the festival for the first time.

There are a lot of good reasons to watch Sky Arts. Mind you if you thought Little Feat were boring perhaps you ought to stick to the mainstream channels, theres always X Factor or Neighbours.

[Shane (Skirky)]

Mind you if you thought Little Feat were boring perhaps you ought to stick to the mainstream channels, theres always X Factor

Having watched both yesterday evening, I can confirm that X-Factor was rather more entertaining. I thought they'd confused Dixie Chicken with Sloth at one point.

[Jono]

You could hear Leatherat while Quo were being interviewed.    

  Good spot Laura... "Altruistic Hedonist" I believe

I will admit that selfishly, I was dissapointed not to see Leatherat on the show but I will also echo what others have said... no Bellowhead, no 3 Daft Monkeys, no Mabon, no LJE... no good if you ask me!   Ahab and Little Feat were good to see. Bob Harris should not be an ambassador of FCC as I don't think he 'gets it'.

I personally don't think it portrayed the festival at all like it really is - and for the worse overall. Still, if that keeps it less commercial in years moving forward then all the better says I

I will maintain though that in my opinion, the Excaliber set was great! Only really let down by Jaquie McShee's performance...   It was painful then, and it's still painful now! That 'chubby' dude in the black leather waistcoat was awesome on the guitar... Really cool stuff. I think that maybe in the right setting, with the stage show and hearing the whole story unfurl (as opposed to selected bits) a lot more people might enjoy it.

[Jono]

..... and another thing!

I think Simon Nicol would have been a better person to 'present' that show. I think it would have suited him and he'd have done a better job making it something special

The sound quality on field was better this year. This was (I'm lead to believe) down to a complete new PA rig that FC chose to use in an effort to overcome the wind-effect ( ). Worked well from my point of view.

Now again, this is only what I'm lead to believe... but the sound on the shockumentary was only 'poor' because it's not the 'live' sound we all hear when we're there on the field. I think (can't stress highly enough) that the sound was straight from the sound tower desk and as such it's been mixed to sound great in a big field, not on a TV show.

And finally - I still have "Unconventionally Fairport" recorded off the TV on VHS... Now THAT was a great representation of the festival. I used to watch that every year about a week beforehand just to get me in the spirit. Brilliant

[Chris]

I've been told that Sky did their own mix of the feed, and didn't take trhe live mix we heard on the field....

[Nick Reg]

 I still have "Unconventionally Fairport" recorded off the TV on VHS... Now THAT was a great representation of the festival. I used to watch that every year about a week beforehand just to get me in the spirit. Brilliant

We're not the only ones then

[tony the roundhead]

 That 'chubby' dude in the black leather waistcoat was awesome on the guitar... Really cool stuff.

Pat O'May - well known Breton guitarist.

[Jim]

 That 'chubby' dude in the black leather waistcoat was awesome on the guitar... Really cool stuff.

Pat O'May - well known Breton guitarist.

he was stopping in our hotel, nice bloke as well
we seemed to meet up for brekkie most days

[Paul Mitchell]

yeah, little feat were really boring, and status quo are the greatest band to have graced the cropredy stage.

[Chris]

Oh dear, I believe you are in a minority...

[richardkendell]

yeah, little feat were really boring, and status quo are the greatest band to have graced the cropredy stage.

Well I enjoyed both which must make me a total outcast from both camps.

[PeterW]

I wouldn't expect a promo film but a balanced representation of the festival would have been nice.  The sound quality was very poor and the parts Bob chose to show weren't, in my opinion, the highlights of each set.  Two numbers from both Little Feat and Quo were unecessary (although if I was a neutral I would have noticed that the crowd were enjoying themselves during Quo's set whilst Little Feat were a bit boring).  I'm not sure that it would put many on the gate but, then, who actually watches Sky Arts unless they have a good reason?!  I'm sure that most of the viewers were at or aware of the festival anyway.  A few shots of activities in the village would have rounded it off a little as Bob himself alluded to the fact that that the village is part of it.  It was nice to see Cropredy getting some further recognition but the film was a poor image of the event and not one I would be likely to show to anyone interested in attending the festival for the first time.

There are a lot of good reasons to watch Sky Arts. Mind you if you thought Little Feat were boring perhaps you ought to stick to the mainstream channels, theres always X Factor or Neighbours.

I did a quick straw poll at work today (all graduates from all fields) and not one watches Sky Arts so were very unlikely to come across the programme by accident.  I would be interested to know how many on here are regular viewers.  My opinions of Quo and Little Feat were hypothetical comments based on someone watching the film with no prior knowledge.  In my opinion Quo looked to be giving the audience a good time while Little Feat came across as musical Mogadon.  That may not be a true reflection of the festival but on that showing I wouldn't be going out of my way to attend a festival where Little Feat are headlining.

As for sticking to mainstream channels, I assume that was a tongue firmly in cheek comment.  In 40 years of folk music and festival going I don't need to be told who is hot and who is not.  One of the joys of growing up is you can make your own mind up.  Just for the record I don't watch Neighbours or X Factor.

[Goaty]

I would be interested to know how many on here are regular viewers.

I watch it several times a week, they have some good and varied stuff, minimal adverts and it's nowhere near as irritating as the likes of MTV, VH1 etc.

[Shane (Skirky)]

 I would be interested to know how many on here are regular viewers.

(Sky Arts) or BBC3 tends to be my default channel to check to see if there's anything on worth watching purely because they do include a lot of music-based programming, whether it be coverage of the festival season or exhumations of stuff from the vaults. Last week we watched a very nice Terry Gilliam interview over supper, which certainly beat another episode of Come Dine With Me. It happened to be included in one of the packages we signed up for when the evil empire started supplying our phone line and broadband, and the more I talk to friends about what I watched over the weekend while they were stuck in front of Strictly Come Dancing, the more there are who raise interested eyebrows and look into investigating - especially if they find out they've missed an advert-free Elvis Costello gig featuring Allain Toussaint's horn arrangements, The Who at the Isle of Wight or Springsteen in Hyde Park. One of the boons (as we have seen this weekend) is that they tend to repeat things for a short period and so there's usually time to catch something if you missed it the first time round. Many's the happy early shift I've spent with my ten-month old in front of a 1969 Led Zeppelin TV appearance with a cup of tea and a rice cake.    

[Dan O.]

Having finally got to watch the programme today, it's not the total nightmare hatchet job described in the previous posts, even though it is flawed in many ways, the very least of which is the absence of Mr Wakeman from the final cut (would've been great to have his thoughts on the festival). Too much emphasis placed on Quo, no vox pops from the punters, no view of the involvement of the village as described by WBH, Digance played better songs than the one selected. Thea Gilmore and Martyn Joseph accredited themselves well too, as did Ahab and the Dixie Bee Liners, and this show gave The Tindalls the sort of exposure they'll treasure for a long time.There are many reasons for the final cut being what it was : permission from the artists involved to show their slot may not always be granted, there may not have been usable footage of some artists, time constraints of the show, WBH's choice, etc.
FC themselves didn't really come across very well on the final cut, but, this is how I remember it from the front row on the night (they did seem to take a while to warm up and get going on the night, so Walkawhile wasn't a great opening number to show compared to how good they became later on). Jacqui Mcshee's song from the Excalibur segment was as majestic as I remembered it, and Martin Barre and Pat O' May looked as if they were having great fun. Am I imagining things or did the editors chop out the entire second verse of MOTL ? May have to watch it another time to make sure.
As I've said, it's not a complete catastrophe, I'm very thankful that the programme was made at all, but as such would mainly appeal to the converted. I don't have Sky myself, hence having to watch the show on a friend's Sky Plus today, but I'm with Ewen on this one, the listings on Sky Arts would be a bit of a selling point for me were I to consider installing Sky TV.
And yes, I did spot the TAW-ers on BD's list, myself included (kascade kid can be seen during Martyn Joseph's set)

[Pete Gray]

 I would be interested to know how many on here are regular viewers.

(Sky Arts) or BBC3 tends to be my default channel to check to see if there's anything on worth watching

I'm with you all the way on this, there's some great archive stuff. Recent good ones from memory being James Taylor/Carol King circa '75, Queen, Status Quo from Montreux (yes, it was identical in almost every detail to their Cropredy appearance) The British Invasion series - Dusty Sprigfield, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Hermans Hermits - The Isle Of Wight 1970 The Who, Tull, Hendrix, Moodys ...... and so it goes on. Good stuff indeed

This channel appeared in front of us in the same way - it came with SKY Phone/B Band/Sky+ HD package, all for a much lower cost than our previous set up with basic SKY/ BT phone and B Band. This of course lead us into a new flatscreen telly but I have to say that despite reservations at the time the viewing experience especially for music programmes is hugely better and if broadcast in HD, WOW.

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

We haven't got Sky Arts, so have yet to see this...  Delphini, Tarda and myself are most likely on the cutting room floor I imagine...  but funnily enough when the interview was over I said to the lady asking the qyuestions 'I haven't got Sky Arts'... she grinned and said 'Neither have I!'

[GubGub (Al)]

 I would be interested to know how many on here are regular viewers.

(Sky Arts) or BBC3 tends to be my default channel to check to see if there's anything on worth watching purely because they do include a lot of music-based programming, whether it be coverage of the festival season or exhumations of stuff from the vaults. Last week we watched a very nice Terry Gilliam interview over supper, which certainly beat another episode of Come Dine With Me. It happened to be included in one of the packages we signed up for when the evil empire started supplying our phone line and broadband, and the more I talk to friends about what I watched over the weekend while they were stuck in front of Strictly Come Dancing, the more there are who raise interested eyebrows and look into investigating - especially if they find out they've missed an advert-free Elvis Costello gig featuring Allain Toussaint's horn arrangements, The Who at the Isle of Wight or Springsteen in Hyde Park. One of the boons (as we have seen this weekend) is that they tend to repeat things for a short period and so there's usually time to catch something if you missed it the first time round. Many's the happy early shift I've spent with my ten-month old in front of a 1969 Led Zeppelin TV appearance with a cup of tea and a rice cake.    

Yes, I watch it regularly too, for many of the reasons stated above. They also permiered the first season of the fantastic HBO series In Treatment with Gabriel Byrne and I believe will shortly start showing the second.

Most of their music coverage is very good. I haven't watched the Cropredy show yet but if it was poor I suspect it was the exception rather than the rule. Whispering Bob's production company may have to shoulder the blame for that but you do have to wonder, if he hadn't decided to cover the festival, would anybody else have bothered?