Cropredy 2023 Thursday review

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

What a day!

Was blown away by Toyah & Fripp. Brilliant choice of songs, superb showmanship, huge energy. I’ve never been a fan of Toyah’s voice but she was ace & I’m smitten   My favourite act so far

I missed FC - sorry guys, I was snoozing after getting up at 2am!

I only heard Merry Hell as we were faffing about with the camper awning, but they clearly went down a storm. As good as everyone says they are  

Wilson & Wakeman we’re ok, 5th time I’ve seen them recently & tbh they need some new jokes   but I’m a huge fan & Damien can certainly eke every last bit of emotion from a song. I’m glad he did Bring Him Home. It’s a special song & they do it justice.

And then Nile Rodgers & Chic - consummate professionals. Funky, tight, knew exactly how to work an audience, and looked like they thoroughly enjoyed it, as did we. Bloody brilliant way to end a Cropredy Thursday. I’m aching all over from dancin’ but it was sooo worth it  

[StephenB]

I agree it was a slick, professional show. Did you know he'd won some awards and collaborated with lots of people?
Oh, that's right, he told us...
Merry Hell for me, a great main stage debut for them after years on the fringe.
Fairport are in blistering form, can't wait for tomorrow night.

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

I agree it was a slick, professional show. Did you know he'd won some awards and collaborated with lots of people?
Oh, that's right, he told us...
Merry Hell for me, a great main stage debut for them after years on the fringe.
Fairport are in blistering form, can't wait for tomorrow night.

Ha! He may have mentioned it once or twice… definitely designed for the US where every mention would have had the audience on their feet whooping & hollering Jerry Springer-style  

[Wandering Steve]

I agree it was a slick, professional show. Did you know he'd won some awards and collaborated with lots of people?
Oh, that's right, he told us...
Merry Hell for me, a great main stage debut for them after years on the fringe.
Fairport are in blistering form, can't wait for tomorrow night.

Ha! He may have mentioned it once or twice… definitely designed for the US where every mention would have had the audience on their feet whooping & hollering Jerry Springer-style  

Re merry hell
Their set was ok but didn’t  seem to suit the main field imo.
I preferred them at the fringe where they sounded better to me.
It just goes to show that some acts transfer and some struggle.
To me after all the fuss it just showed me how good FC are…

This isn’t to say they won’t be rocking big venues in the future, they probably will but not quite yet for me.
Give it a few more years and I’m sure they will be the real deal.

Just to clarify
I’m not knocking their musical ability because they’re good but just a little rough round the edges when you see the likes of FC or FF from Friday night.

[davidmjs]

I agree it was a slick, professional show. Did you know he'd won some awards and collaborated with lots of people?
Oh, that's right, he told us...
Merry Hell for me, a great main stage debut for them after years on the fringe.
Fairport are in blistering form, can't wait for tomorrow night.

Ha! He may have mentioned it once or twice… definitely designed for the US where every mention would have had the audience on their feet whooping & hollering Jerry Springer-style  

Re merry hell
Their set was ok but didn’t  seem to suit the main field imo.
I preferred them at the fringe where they sounded better to me.
It just goes to show that some acts transfer and some struggle.
To me after all the fuss it just showed me how good FC are…

This isn’t to say they won’t be rocking big venues in the future, they probably will but not quite yet for me.
Give it a few more years and I’m sure they will be the real deal.

Just to clarify
I’m not knocking their musical ability because they’re good but just a little rough round the edges when you see the likes of FC or FF from Friday night.

Lol...they've been going for 13 years as Merry Hell...and for over 30 if you include the Tansads

[Wandering Steve]

I agree it was a slick, professional show. Did you know he'd won some awards and collaborated with lots of people?
Oh, that's right, he told us...
Merry Hell for me, a great main stage debut for them after years on the fringe.
Fairport are in blistering form, can't wait for tomorrow night.

Ha! He may have mentioned it once or twice… definitely designed for the US where every mention would have had the audience on their feet whooping & hollering Jerry Springer-style  

Re merry hell
Their set was ok but didn’t  seem to suit the main field imo.
I preferred them at the fringe where they sounded better to me.
It just goes to show that some acts transfer and some struggle.
To me after all the fuss it just showed me how good FC are…

This isn’t to say they won’t be rocking big venues in the future, they probably will but not quite yet for me.
Give it a few more years and I’m sure they will be the real deal.

Just to clarify
I’m not knocking their musical ability because they’re good but just a little rough round the edges when you see the likes of FC or FF from Friday night.

Lol...they've been going for 13 years as Merry Hell...and for over 30 if you include the Tansads

I didn’t realise that but it makes you wonder why it’s taken that long for them to breakthrough on the main stage….
Personally I wish they’d just concentrate on their music rather than political musings ( that goes for ANY band)
I don’t need telling if the countries on its arse and what a musician thinks of it, I want to hear your music, that’s the reason I’m here.
Leave claptrap like that for the pub

Cut out the politics and you’ll have time to play us a couple more songs.


I guarantee they’d hardly sell any tickets for a merry hell politics talk….

People turn up to hear them play.

[StephenGiles]

"Cut out the politics and you’ll have time to play us a couple more songs."

Presumably they were contemplating the potential hellish nightmare of a Starmer government!!!

[davidmjs]

I just knew that (their politics) what was what was being meant about Merry Hall-absolutely nothing to do with their musical ability at all

I must admit it was why I thought they'd never get a slot on the main stage. My strong suspicion is that, despite many of the artists being at least moderately left leaning, the vast majority of the Cropredy audience is now getting increasingly conservative (I'm talking small c, but then again...).  I'd love to know the order numbers for the various newspapers at the Bridge Stores!

More power to Merry Hell's elbow say I.

A more general point would be that, isn't it strange that it's only 'right of centre' people who go on about 'keeping politics out of' music/sport/x/y/z...  Funny that...    Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed waving their hankies in the air at lunchtime  

[Nick Reg]

I just knew that (their politics) what was what was being meant about Merry Hall-absolutely nothing to do with their musical ability at all

I must admit it was why I thought they'd never get a slot on the main stage. My strong suspicion is that, despite many of the artists being at least moderately left leaning, the vast majority of the Cropredy audience is now getting increasingly conservative (I'm talking small c, but then again...).  I'd love to know the order numbers for the various newspapers at the Bridge Stores!

More power to Merry Hell's elbow say I.

A more general point would be that, isn't it strange that it's only 'right of centre' people who go on about 'keeping politics out of' music/sport/x/y/z...  Funny that...    Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed waving their hankies in the air at lunchtime  

to put it in a nutshell Merry Hell smashed it and Nile Rogers represented everything I have hated about music for the last 60 odd years, just nonsense. Moving on Morganway were sensational, what a vocal performance.

[StephenB]

Although I did love Merry Hell, the one thing that does grate on me is the jingo politics. Then a thought struck me today after hearing Digance - while he and Merry Hell are apparently at different ends of the political spectrum and ne'er the twain, etc., they're both at their most cringy IMO when they do songs about i) the country's in a mess and politicians are ****, ii) listen to the young people we're killing the planet, and iii) isn't England bloody great? Just sayin'...
A plus for Digance, the white hanky moment was brilliant from the top of the field and great to see the look of surprise on the virgins' faces

 

[ColinB]

Although I did love Merry Hell, the one thing that does grate on me is the jingo politics. Then a thought struck me today after hearing Digance - while he and Merry Hell are apparently at different ends of the political spectrum and ne'er the twain, etc., they're both at their most cringy IMO when they do songs about i) the country's in a mess and politicians are ****, ii) listen to the young people we're killing the planet, and iii) isn't England bloody great? Just sayin'...

I agree with you there. They could take a lesson from The Levellers in how to put your point across without sounding banal and irritating people. Roving Crows are similar in their politics (both bands have recorded songs titled Bury Me Naked) but they are a lot less cringy though I must admit I haven't seen them live.

I'll be seeing Herry Mell at Towersey in a couple of weeks so will report back from there.

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

I’ll start a new thread for Friday & Saturday

I used to like The Old Days when we had a new thread for each Cropredy, but a new topic will do!

[Nick Reg]

Although I did love Merry Hell, the one thing that does grate on me is the jingo politics. Then a thought struck me today after hearing Digance - while he and Merry Hell are apparently at different ends of the political spectrum and ne'er the twain, etc., they're both at their most cringy IMO when they do songs about i) the country's in a mess and politicians are ****, ii) listen to the young people we're killing the planet, and iii) isn't England bloody great? Just sayin'...

I agree with you there. They could take a lesson from The Levellers in how to put your point across without sounding banal and irritating people. Roving Crows are similar in their politics (both bands have recorded songs titled Bury Me Naked) but they are a lot less cringy though I must admit I haven't seen them live.

I'll be seeing Herry Mell at Towersey in a couple of weeks so will report back from there.

the last time the Levellers played Cropredy they didn't get their point across they sent us all to sleep.

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

A plus for Digance, the white hanky moment was brilliant from the top of the field and great to see the look of surprise on the virgins' faces
 

I love that everyone was prepared and just started the hanky waving when prompted! A great start to the Saturday proceedings.

[GubGub (Al)]

It does seem fantastically naïve to suggest that if Merry Hell cut out the politics there would be time for more songs. If they cut out the politics there would not be any songs and more power to them say I.

[StephenB]

I don't think they should cut it out - just that it should be more nuanced so that it couldn't be accused of taking an easy middle ground and ending up with a simplistic message indistinguishable from Digance's.

[PaulT]

FC acoustic - cracking mini-set to kick off proceedings, especially enjoyed the "Come Haste To The Wedding" medley, as my sister sang CHTTW at Elly's and my wedding reception.

Merry Hell - apart from a problem with Andrew's mic, a fine set. Did anyone else think that Simon Swarbrick's playing is very reminiscent of his uncle?

Toyah and Fripp - excellent feelgood party session, loads of smiling faces off and on stage.

Chic - slick. Too slick for my taste. Nile comes across in interviews as a really nice guy... but the onstage persona? Who knew he'd worked with so many people, and won so many awards? As my field 7 neighbour said "he's a bit up himself, isn't he"?

[Sue & Chris]

Enjoyed Fairport Acoustic - good energy to get things started.

Merry Hell surprised me. I've seen them before and I thought the vocals might be a bit exposed on the Cropredy stage. But I was wrong, they were very good in all departments.  As for the politics, well, politics in its broadest sense has been part of music since the first performer picked up an instrument, so it seems a bit unfair to single them out!

Wilson & Wakeman were okay, a bit of a luvvie overdose.  Wilson's wander round the field was fun.

Toyah and Fripp are basically a posh covers band, but they were damn good at it! Very entertaining, amazing band.

Also enjoyed Nile Rogers - so many hits and delivered with real verve. The brown haired singer was brilliant.

This weekend must also have smashed the record for the most Bowie songs at Cropredy - five on Thursday and at least the same number on Friday from the Easy Stars.

[hendo (Dave)]

"Cut out the politics and you’ll have time to play us a couple more songs."

Presumably they were contemplating the potential hellish nightmare of a Starmer government!!!

I don’t remember anyone having a go at Alice Cooper about his politics being slightly to the right of Ghengis Khan…..
Folk music, whatever that is….has always been about politics ……..

[Dubai Danny]

I didn’t realise that but it makes you wonder why it’s taken that long for them to breakthrough on the main stage….

People have made cryptic comments about this before, apparently alluding to some unspecified bad blood between FC and MH, but when asked were never willing to expand.

Personally I wish they’d just concentrate on their music rather than political musings ( that goes for ANY band)
I don’t need telling if the countries on its arse and what a musician thinks of it, I want to hear your music, that’s the reason I’m here.
Leave claptrap like that for the pub

So you're one of those "I don't listen to the lyrics" types? You'd probably hate some of the most popular folk-rock bands like Oysterband, whose songs are very much from a left-wing perspective. After all, folk music traditionally sides with the ordinary person against wealth and power.