Venue:
Wickham, Hants
Date: 05/08/2021
Those of you who saw my taster for this will know the weather was neither clement or kind, proving that the returning of normality of festivals is underwritten not by covid but by the weather. But I have never been to a festival, if you will, quite this meteorologically normal. OK, yes, the wrong main stage had been supplied, rendering it a white elephant for the duration. This had the twin effects of muddling up all the clashfinder working outs, as helpfully supplied by the festival in advance, and the advantage of everyone being shuffled and shifted onto/into smaller tented venues. (Don’t panic, all open sides, loads of fresh air for the elderly doubled vaxxed, LFT negative punters.)
Arriving around midday, greeted by clear skies, this meant for an easy erection, pause for Moose, with the ground soft and pliable. Arena was huge and a bit like Australia, in that all the stages and all the stalls were scraped around the edges, nearly all the way around a large field, fresh ploughed too, given the furrows.
Bands started about 5pm, but logistics and laziness meant my show didn’t really begin until a bit later on, and then by accident. I confess I had always thought Tankus the Henge some sort of serious indie prog operation, i.e. dull as old boots. Wrongity wrong! Imagine a bizarre mix of Southside Johnny and Steely Dan, with the singer/piano player on steroids. And speed. And with ADHD. Great horns and an astonishing frontman. Uncertain how it may come across on record, but live made for a hell of a show. In a 200 capacity tent, better even still.
Off to the Big Top, and it was double bagpipes. First young Tiree guitar band, Tide Lines, who I had caught at Bearded Theory a few years back. The guitarist has all the Big Country style guitar licks perfectly and they have a whole lot more confidence than that slightly diffident earlier show. Plus they know better how and when to suddenly shift a change in instrumentation, as off comes the electric guitar and on go the pipes.Woo hoo! Again, foremost a live band, the records a little uncertain as to who they are aiming for. The first of a host of scottish bands playing, they were the first to thank everyone for the thoughtful provision of Scottish weather. And the first to be introduced, Gawd help us, by the compere as jock rock, a phrase he was clearly proud of. I just wanted to hit him.
I love Peatbog Faeries and this will have been the fourth or fifth time I have seen them. The township style of guitar play seemed more pronounced than usual, and provided a great contrast to the always exemplary bagpipe, whistles and fiddle that lead the proceedings, over a dense dance based rhythm section, where the keyboards provide electronic textures. Like many I saw over the four days, the return to live music has been so sorely awaited for them, as performers, to give a huge boost in the collective enthusiasm of the players.
The audience:
Mature. Is that the word, or does going camping and carousing in your sixties immature? Either way, I’m the demographic. Lots of grey, lots of beard, T shirts the main tool of one-upmanship. Oh, and I saw @jorrox of this parish, who sadly was driving home on day one, having had bad news from home. I’d love to say you didn’t miss much, but I’d be lying. A great first night. And the rain held off. And then it didn’t.
Day Two to follow.
It made me think..
I love live music and, boy, I have missed my festival jaunts these last year and a bit.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Glad you had a good festie return! Kind thoughts to @jorrox, hoping things improve there.
thecheshirecat says
I know exactly what weather you had, as we passed it on from Sidmouth a couple of hours earlier.
Peatbogs always pass muster. Must admit, their brand of militant hedonism was one think lacking down in Devon; Simon Care’s Banter came closest, but without a dance tent this year, there was sitting room only.
Looking forward to the rest of the report. Then I shall respond in kind from the beating heart of English trad, and it is definitely still beating – probably the only one in the town without a pacemaker.
Moose the Mooche says
An appropriate song (if not image)
Boneshaker says
Respect. One night out in Fareham is more than enough for most people.
Jackthebiscuit says
I spent a fortnight in Fareham one weekend.
retropath2 says
In a separate contact I have been asked what I thought of Spike’s All-Stars, who were the first night big ticket. Who they? Spike Edney, the, who knew, “musical director” of Queen, with his own band, with guest appearances from famous elders of UK chart fame. If not off-putting enough already, scheduled were Graham Gouldman, Steve Harley, Tom Robinson and Toyah. Now, to be fair, I like Steve Harley and Tom Robinson, and have seen each fairly recently. And Graham Gouldman has a massive Hollies songwriter to 10cc projectory that is pretty astonishing. Oh, and Toyah’s pretty shit at the best of times. Musical snob as I am, I knew I’d hate them and, boy, the fifteen minutes I gave them did not let me down. Opening with some godawful rock anthem featuring their guitarist, “the cowboy”, who I didn’t know, even if the cheering audience did or were supposed to. Over to Spike: “and here’s our first guest, the voice of Mike and the Mechanics…….(long pause)……..Roachford!!!!” Now Cuddly Toy I could understand and even accept, but Over My Shoulder? Fuck right off, I thought. And I did.
Am I too harsh?
retropath2 says
Moving on, more positively, to Day 2.
The rain began at midnight. The camping fields were, largely, at the bottom of the hill that housed the main arena. So, when the surface layers became full, as any lover of the Fast Show knows, you get a problem with the drainage in the lower field. And without Ted in attendance, the lower field fast became quagmire. Apart from where one particularly uninviting channel arose, the long lost River Wickham, which flash-flooded a whole row of tents, the occupants awaking to a foot of water around and above their sleeping bags. Eeek. Not me, I was lucky, with merely half a boot height of mud outside my front flap, if you will.
To music, though. Having taken need of a full english in Wickham village, I didn’t arrive until I caught the second half of Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman. Not having much heard Ms. Roberts since her debut with Kate Rusby, partly as I have an inbuilt antipathy to the brothers Lakeman, I was pleasantly surprised, her voice now a maturer instrument that she has grown into with some grace, the songs accompanied by her husbands guitar, she playing a keyboard. Glad i caught them.
Next up I flitted between stages, catching burst of Gary Stewart’s (me, neither) Graceland, a competent recreation of Paul Simon’s album of the same name, if a tad souless, and Talisk, who, talented as they undoubtedly are, annoy me by the sheer over-enthusiasm of the front man. If you can imagine the most look at me guitar shredder in the world, well, Mohsen Amini is that man, but on concertina. Sitting down.
Which led to the new to me Gadarene, who have the M.O. of reviving old English dance music and reinterpreting in modern idia. Don’t go, because they actually do it ever so well. With a front line of mandolin, fiddle and flute, with a cracking (double) bass and drums backline. Seemingly the brainchild of Matt Norman, the mandolinist, who, between introductions and explanations, sits in rapture, eyes closed, plucking away with abandon, before, suddenly, stepping onto his seat and doing a swift and unexpected clog dance. Mercurial. I know @kaisfatdad has already taken them to heart and recommend more of you do likewise. I found them a bit like an English Peatbog Faeries; the Millpond Sprites maybe?
Missing, by choice, the delights of the wretched Barsteward Sons of Val Doonican, I was driven to spend some time with Eddi Reader. And, @fentonsteve , yes, I am pleased that yer man Boo Hewerdine was by her side, as ever, a great big fuck-off beard now gracing his visage. Ms Reader is ever the trouper and was in full on Weegie fishwife mode, fully expecting her to ask the audience, individually, with an “are ye’ aricht, Hen?” Maybe she did, as I missed her apparent Amy Winehouse tribute, but caught, before drifting off, a rousing rendition of Perfect, the song she is destined never to be able to leave behind. She was good, but have seen it before.
Same really for Capercaillie, whose cutting edge of Scottish music is really now rather blunt. Funny that, in their three odd decades of existence, they have become the White Heather Club they were originally seen as the opposite of. Such is progress.
Who had called me away? I may have mentioned Peat and Diesel before on these pages, the Stornoway originators of Peatlemania, and their chaotic mash-up of English and Gaelic, AC-DC and Jimmy Shands. I bloody love them, and their appearance here was really my reason for being here at all. They were incandescent! Bemused by being so far from home, in a tent full of sassenachs who, bewilderingly to them, knew all the words, even singing the wrong ones in the same wrong order* as Boydie, the singer, writer and guitar mangler, a trawlerman by day. (*Their comment.) I will try and add a clip below.
To close for me, in preference to Show of Hands, I took Manran, another Scottish island band, playing gaelic folk-rock, with full complement of pipes, both highland and uillean, accordion, fiddle, flutes whistles, guitars with a tight rhythm section. A new addition is a female singer to add her gaelic vocals to that of other band members. Catnip on any other night, somehow, after Peat and Diesel, they were too clinically refined and classically attuned to the tradition. My tent was calling and my feet were aching.
(PS. Show of Hands are great and put on a top show, but I have caught them so often as to forgo their effortless mastery of their trade this night. Shamefully, as I had made request for one particular song, via Steve Knightley’s wife, who is a GP and is on a GP forum (blorum?) I visit from time to time. But I blame it on the schedule changes, so please don’t tell her……)
(Ach, well, vid didn’t work, but there’s a picture…..)
thecheshirecat says
I think the Health and Safety Executive may come knocking on their door after this one.
retropath2 says
OK, anyone still bothered, it’s Day 3, Saturday.
Local favourites Showers and the Rain continued to put in many an appearance this day, causing the earth to move ever more craggily underfoot. I went for another walk to buy me an umbrella, the hardware shop in the village doing a huge trade in both these and wellies. By the time I returned, folkie favourites the Young ‘Uns were on. Dreadful name, they know that, their explanation of how and why an integral part of the show. Largely unaccompanied singing, in the tradition, but also adept at writing their own songs, and willing to squeeze an accordion, strum a guitar or plonk a keyboard when required. I want to like them, I try to like them, but am always left a little adrift, mainly as their enthusiastic onstage patter rings all to much of history teachers who have been told they are characters, and the odd one who used to be their troublemaking nemesis on school trips to old castles. My problem, not theirs, I guess.
Much more my cuppa was the surprise discovery, over on the other stage, of the Alistair Goodwin Band. World famous in Fareham, Goodwin and band have been playing the circuit for decades, never cracking any next level. Which is a shame, the music a weird mix of psychedelia and raga rock, the main lead instrument being electric cello, in the hands of a wild, white haired shaman in flares, coaxing extraordinary sounds from his bow and strings, one moment smooth warm swathes of sound, the next glissandos of shrieking sonic outrage. AG sings, plucking his acoustic and comes over a cross between Robert Plant and Jackie Leven. Really. (I told him that after the set. I think he was pleased.) Wonderful backwards glancing music, with enough eye on the present to have a future, given half the chance.
Martin Simpson came and did his stuff. Always competent, always listenable, remarkable picking, and a few of his lockdown covers album played to change the otherwise sombreness of mood, notably a wonderful Angel From Montgomery, dedicated, obviously, the author, the late John Prine.
The plan had been then to see just how well the mix of Los Straitjackets melded with the songs and personality of Nick Lowe. But, inevitably, Los Straitjackets couldn’t make it, so Basher was on his own with his acoustic, and much the same set he did at Blenheim two years back. Great once, dull the second. (Sorry if I offend..)
With the rain sending me back to my tent, I listened to Moya Brennan, aka the voice of Clannad, from there. All pretty innocuous, with nice touches of harp. Worthy but, again, dull.
Van Morrison was the big name, top of the bill for the whole shebang, playing mid evening. Having already decided to boycott him, I couldn’t resist just sidling past his stage, the crowds spilling out the marquee and down the hill, mainly seated and watching, under umbrellas, the TV screens that had miraculously appeared. I stayed for three, maybe four songs, and am able to report that the bastard was on form and was nailing it. Usual Mr Grumpy Trousers of course, with no rapport or talking of any sort between much the same, apparently, modified greatest hits set he has been pumping out these recent years. I very much doubt he did his EC covid songs, and if he did any of his latest triple opus, well, it blended perfectly with the jazz-lite of the current band.But his voice was perfect.
Beginning to worry it was me, I scuttled off to catch Eliza Carthy, before he could seduce me further. She is another performer I want to like more than I do, tending to admire what she does than like it. With her Restitute Band, a six piece featuring melodeon stalwart Saul Rose, as well as a standard enough rock band format, Eliza featured on vocals, general exuberance and fiddle. Whilst a lot of the material came from the pen of trad arr, other writers were represented, as well as herself, yet it all seemed to merge into a very Brecht & Weill Threepenny Operatic ambience, becoming all bit too mannered.
Never mind, I thought, Merry Hell were next, and I was eager to see why they seem to be such darlings of the folk world these days. And I sort of got it. Basically the core of the old Tansads band of old, they plough a solidly bucolic field of assertively northern working class principles, anthemic singalong songs that praise the NHS and looking after those who need our help. Reading that back, it sounds trite, even patronising, but isn’t supposed to be. Those songs are all well constructed, with rousing choruses of gravelly voices, strummed guitars, excellent fiddle and thumping bass and drums. For contrast they do more light hearted songs, sung by Virginia Kettle, who is married to one of the three Kettle brothers who provide vocals, guitars and mandolin, which grate a little in their rose tinted whimsy. Again, my issue, and they went down a treat with the audience, closing the night. I think I was having a bad day…
thecheshirecat says
Well, I’m still listening. But don’t worry, when I do my Sidmouth post, the thread will be dead in seconds. Maybe I should just do it as a PM.
retropath2 says
Well, @thecheshirecat , I’d like to read about Sidmouth!!
hubert rawlinson says
As am I, would have been at Cropredy this weekend but alas…..
@thecheshirecat are you going to Shrewsbury too?
thecheshirecat says
Shrewsbury and Bromyard. On the train south as we speak for a Cropredy replacement weekend with those mates I would normally see there.
Freddy Steady says
@thecheshirecat
Shouldn’t you be driving?
thecheshirecat says
The shortage of train drivers is nowt to do with the pingdemic.
Blue Boy says
Great reviews retro. Mrs BB is from Fareham and was stunned to hear that there was a thread on here extolling four nights in (or near) the place – she couldn’t get out quickly enough.
re The Young Uns I can’t say the music particularly floats my boat, but they did do a very good early edition of the Folk on Foot podcast – I had never heard of them at the time but they made for a very entertaining hour’s listening.
Looking at Van’s setlist online, it looks like he got a couple of songs from the triple magnum opus (not amongst the better ones, naturally) out of the way right at the beginning and then settled into a largely familiar crowd pleasing set, which I suppose is fair enough for a festival. Like Dylan, though, he seems generally to be making less interesting song choices in his setlists than he used to.
retropath2 says
So then, finally, Day 4, but I recall I forgot to recount my adventure (zzzzzzzzz-Ed.) of saturday afternoon. Mindful I was parked in the pit of Paschendaele, I felt a tactical move ahead of Monday might be worth a few hours, seeing as it was tractor in and tractor out by Friday. I proudly walked to the trusty motor, and started driving toward the exit, getting a good 150 yards before the inevitable wheel spin of inertia. Hailing a passing tractor, I got a haul up and out, it being one of the highlights of my clearly limited life thus far. A farm shop carpark had been requisitioned for festival use, with that tarmacadam as its surface. Terrific.
Sunday, then. As reader (aka @thecheshirecat) will recall apparent sense of ennui sinking in. Thankfully this was soon dispelled by a full day of pleasure, kicking off with Will Pound. This harmonica and melodeon maestro has a well recommended CD, A Day Will Come, his response to the threat of Brexit, being tunes collated from across the full gamut of EU countries. With much the same musicians, this was the live show, and was a joy. Even Bogdan, a Polish poet from Birmingham, whose spoken word pieces were in a mix’n’match of polski and brummy, annoying on the record, was uplifting today. The tunes were fearsome, led by Pound but with sterling fiddle, guitars and bagpipe accompaniment. And very, very good double bass.
Merry Hell cane back and did the same set, if in acoustic mode, which meant I could grab some lunch ahead of the next act, keenly anticipated.
Old Blind Dogs are an institution, around for several decades, if with a slow ebb and flow of members. I have some early stuff and it is fine, if a little dated. However I knew that Ali Hutton, of Treacherous Orchestra, was now their man on highland pipes. This man, the Bear of the Bagpipes, as I will henceforth think of him, has dragged the band into the forefront of righteous Scottish reive culture. This was a tremendous set, Hutton blowing himself up like his bag, and putting all his strength and soul into torrents of God’s finest instrument. With stalwart of the band Jonny Hardie on fiddle and vocals, and Aaron Jones, also vocals and bouzouki, the presence now of the redoubtable Donald Hay on a peculiar drum kit was the icing on the cake. Hay has been the man on drums for any and every scottish folk based band since Capercaillie onward, and is the regular drummer on the Transatlantic Sessions. This hour went by in a whizz of awe and rapture. Highlight of the weekend, even above Peat and Diesel.
Follow that? Well, if anyone could, Duncan Chisholm could. The erstwhile Wolfstone fiddler has built up a fine body of instrumental music, and can surround himself with the best. Today he proved that, with Innes Watson on guitar and the stupendous Jarlath Henderson on uillean pipes amongst others, including some lad on first class electric piano. Another hour of sonic nirvana, auditory heaven.
Time for a lie down. To accompany that, I could catch the strains of Cregan and Co, wafting across. Cregan being Jim of that name, Rod Stewart’s right hand man on guitar and songwriting after he first went crap. So it was all Rod the Mod stuff of that era, Baby Jane, Do You Think I’m Creepy, all of that. Dunno who sang, but it was as passable as Stewart now can manage, with the guitar, understandably, miked high. Lumpen bass and plodding bass detracted enormously, so I wasn’t missing much or even that bothered by doing so. Their encore, however, was a reminder of another band he was in, and was Steve Harley/Cockney Rebel’s Come Up and See Me, a song I have a lot of time for. Quite what this also back in their tents thought of my sudden ejaculation of GUITAR at the apposite moment thought, I don’t know. I expect Harley had also done it with the Spike Edney rabble a couple of nights earlier, but i bet this was better.
Fortified with a large glass of merlot, forgoing the beer for bladder purposes, I made my way back and to the very front of the Big Top, ready for Lindisfarne. I had never seen them and was in two minds, not least as I had been told they were a bit ‘tired’ these days. Certainly Rod Clements, the last man left standing from the original line-up, looked frail and none too well. Stick thin, with a deep curve to his back, I felt sorry for him having to set up his own kit. Worry i needn’t. They were incredible, kicking back the years to the early 70s with ease. From starter All Fall Down, they played the lot. Clements on mandolin, fiddle, slide guitar and 12-string and some vocals, his bass duties were taken over by another fella, with Alan Hull’s son in law on guitars and channeling the voice of his late father in law. No great Paul Thompson tonight, sadly, the ex-Roxy tubthumper a member since 2013, another chap, perhaps dipping, given he was playing to charts. Finally a keyboards man adept also on harmonica, so all the bases were covered. Lady Eleanor, We Can Swing Together, Alright on the Night, Fog on the Tyne, all of these and more. Oldies but solid oldies. To see all the greybearded oldies in the audience, and me, singing along was a delight. Catch ’em while you can!
And so to end, the old codgers, drawing me back yet again, every time me saying it’s the last. Fairport Convention took no chances, and played to their strengths, with very little new, bar a couple of Chris Leslie songs to remind he actually can write well. More electric guitar from Simon Nicol, including a beaut of a custom 12-string that drew admiration from many. Richard Sanders was much more in the thick of it that recently, Cosmic Ric was back, his jazz-fuelled barrages around the tune, if never quite the tune, a delight. Even Gerry Conway seemed alive and in the same time zone, his drumming back where it should be, given his track record. Peggy? Well, he was just Peggy, unchanged and holding it all together, even if he has to sit down to play Dirty Linen these days. It was a great show, ninety minutes of pleasure, with an excerpt of the Full House set that was die to be played at Cropredy this very weekend. A special mention for Sloth, where Nicol showed off quite too how good a guitarist he is, reproducing, if on acoustic, Richard Thompson’s guitar solo. Pins were dropping noisily amongst the jaws littering the arena floor. All too soon it was Matty Groves, the banjo led version they have touted awhile, before finally and inevitable we all, band, audience and departed made plain our promises to Meet On The Ledge. End of the night, end of the festival. Happy, happy, happy.
It rained all night.
hubert rawlinson says
Just to prove someone else is reading.
“the forefront of righteous Scottish reive culture.” Is that revive or reiver culture?
retropath2 says
Reive, as I feel you well know, but thanks for reading 😉
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_reivers
thecheshirecat says
Thanks Retro. As the cliché goes, you experienced Wickham so we don’t have to. Cropredy weekend, by contrast, was Brigg Fair weather (‘fair and mild’ for the non-trad-folk). A number of us were curious why Fairport could play Wickham, but Cropredy couldn’t work, with lack of festival insurance cited as the stumbling block.
You have given me confirmation of a couple to anticipate. I too was cautious about such a late incarnation of Lindisfarne, but you give me cause for Shrewsbury optimism. Glad that Will Pound came up trumps; I enjoyed the album on release and its pleasure has sustained over the delay to seeing it live. Will is a proper festival stalwart, one of the few who can be found as easily in a beer tent session as on stage, not to mention getting the ceilidh rocking, once we are allowed to dance again.
I too have mixed feelings about The Young ‘Uns. One the one hand they have, literally, been an inspiration to me to sing out; there’s quite a few songs I now sing that I first heard in their repertoire. But none of those are their own, so I would never end up buying an album. I find Sean Cooney’s compositions a bit (lazy condemnation alert) worthy, rather than moving. For me, a band to enjoy live, and again, like Will, their credit rises with appearances in informal singarounds.
Old Blind Dogs come under the ‘new to me’ category, but Ali Hutton’s presence would always catch my eye – he’s a powerhouse. I shall watch out. As for that Duncan Chisholm gig, that must have been a belter. Innes Watson and Jarlath Henderson – what a band! Oooh, you have whetted my appetite for the festivals still to come, away from the (necessarily) distanced and rather sober environment of Sidmouth.
thecheshirecat says
You see? I told you. Thread-killer. Barely even mentioned ‘the Devon festival’, but it’s all over.
retropath2 says
Nah, a late entry by @kaisfatdad and we’re off: one whiff of the pipes and he’s in!!
hubert rawlinson says
Ah the skirl of the pipes, the rattle of the claymore.
Jorrox says
Thanks for the good read and it was good to see you for a couple of minutes. I didn’t try to give you the full story, too long and too sad.
Basically, my mother passed unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago. Two days later Faither John was taken into hospital and we were told he would go soon. Both passed within just over a week of each other. John passed on the Tuesday and me and the burd decided to use our long paid-for tix and drive the 450 miles to Wickham on the Wednesday. We got in around tea time, pitched up and listened to the “secret gig” from our campsite.
On the Thursday it poured down most of the day time and by the time the music started the whole site was a total shambles. The climb from the entry gate to the music tents would have been hell at the best of times but with the rain it was just fuckin awful.
At this point it was either John Otway in the wee tent or yon Peatbog dudes in the big top. I cannot stand that whole “I brought my bagpipes to a rave” thing that they do, so it was Otway for us. He was great apart from the noise bleed from the feckin faeries!
I was up for seeing the Spike SAS band but the thought of yomping back to the tent in the dark just put us off. But we could hear it fine and I have to say I thought it sounded superb. I’m much happier with old shite that I know. I have no desire at all to hear anything new these days.
Come Friday morning it was obvious that with the cars being abandoned everywhere and the state of the ground we would probably not get out on the Sunday morning (our planned drive home day). We had a double funeral on the Tuesday and I needed to be back home for that. I was able to get my car out of the car scrum, load up and drove home. 11 hours. Solid traffic until after Preston. Holy crap, the roads are busy in England eh?
So, 900 miles and 500 quid to see John Otway. But I’m glad we went for a’ that. I love the whole rock/pop oldies headliners with folky stuff in support and I’d think about going again. I’d like to try it under normal circumstances even though I’ve never been to a worse run event in my life.
retropath2 says
Catch you in better times and better weather, I hope!
fentonsteve says
One of my favourite ever bands, The Dawn Chorus, came from Fareham. Two, if you count The Retrospective Soundtrack Players, who were basically TDC with a different drummer (after tub-thumper Matt moved to Watford).
I know Sir greatly enjoyed playing with Eddi, after being couped up in his home studio for 18 months.
Great review, btw Retro.
retropath2 says
Here’s an abridged version, a little bit kinder……… https://atthebarrier.com/2021/08/16/wickham-festival-2021-4th-7th-august-review/
Kaisfatdad says
I enjoyed your At the Barrier review which, to my surprise, made me think I would have thoroughly enjoyed the festival despite the weather.
You mention lots of bands I’ve never heard of. I need to do some research!
Very glad to hear Kathryn Roberts is still going strong. I too loved that album with Kate Rusby.
A couple of songs from her and Sean Lakeman.
Manchester Folk Festival
Live at Cropredy.
Kaisfatdad says
Let’s have a listen to some of the artists you mentioned. Your review is an introduction to lots of new names.
Along with a convincing frontman, The Alistair Goodwind Band have a remarkable cellist.
Manran – here doing their bit for the Tourist Board but the music sounds very promising.
And here live with the new female singer, Kim Carnie, who you mentioned. Very agreeable voice.
https://www.kimcarnie.com/about
Merry Hell – Exuberant! Very easy to see why they go down well at festivals.
Old Blind Dogs
I want a second helping!!
Kaisfatdad says
In your review you were rather disparaging about Capercaille and likened them to a modern White Heather Club!
Dear me! I find it hard to believe that a band of that calibre could ever sink to the depths of that ghastly sanitised caricature of Scottishness.
Dreadful beyond words. And not a word of Gaelic spoken I suspect.
Aaaargh! I need some real Scottish music to get over Andy Stewart!
Kaisfatdad says
I’ve been giving Manran a good listen today and am well impressed. and
Let’s try few more of your choices…..
Tankus the Henge
“Like a crazy mix of Steely Dan and Southside Johnny, their brassy N’Awlins funk on steroids, and with the frontman a sweaty whirlwind of attention deficit disorder, jumping on and off his piano, to which on one hand, almost impossibly seemed ever also able to be playing, they are a revelation. I won’t make the mistake of missing the beginning again.”
Tide Lines
“young western highland and island guitar band who take the “bagpipe guitars” of Big Country a step further, the lead guitarist swapping his guitar, at the end, for actual pipes. The second time I have caught them, they have developed into a solid act who can mix strong Hebridean melodies with a sterling backbeat of guitars, bass and drums, with that special extra added ingredient for added authenticity, pleasing both the indie kids and the folkies.”
In for a penny, in for …Will Pound
“Will Pound opened the day with a bang, his ‘A Day Will Come’ project and band on stage. Provoked by the coming of Brexit, this is a cycle of dance tunes sourced from all over the EU, played consummately by Pound and his band, along with spoken word interpolations by Bogdan, a poet based in Birmingham, by way of Poland; his poems switching, mid line, between Polski and Brum. ”
What an interesting chap!
retropath2 says
Charles Mackay has never made chicken black pudding. Yet…..
Yes, I was very unkind about Capercaillie. But, shhhh, they are dull by comparison with most of the new crop. Even if the new crop were triggered by them, Runrig and Wolfstone to even ever consider a career in Gaelic music possible. Loved the band back in the day. And the old records still pass muster. But I have now twice had to make my apologies and leave their live performances.
Kaisfatdad says
I’ve never seen Capercaille live and would love to, so I suspect I would stay for the whole show regardless.
Re-reading your review, I was amazed how many top notch Scottish artists were playing.
According to this article, Peter Chegwyn, the festival organiser, head off to Celtic Connections every year to look for new talent.
https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2021/08/wickham-festival-2021-review/
Here’s another wonderful Scot who played last weekend: Duncan Chisholm.
Gorgeous! Yet another artist who was new to me.
I know nothing of Chegwyn and am intrigued. Here’s an interview from 1998.
http://www.folkworld.eu/5/gosporti.html
Easy to see why he is liked:
“Peter remembers another great emphasis of the festival, to treat the artist well. Says he: “English, Scottish, Irish artists, when they go to Europe, they get very well treated, well paid, well treated back stage, plenty of food, drink, decent hotels – they don’t get that in Britain.
They go round, and they sleep in someone’s back room, or on a floor, and they are lucky to get a cup of tea. We at the festival always have very good back stage catering, hot meals, whatever they want to eat and drink. We give them good hotels, and treat them with the respect they deserve, and it seems that Gosport gets a good name as well. Certainly people seem to want to play here particularly, so we must be doing something right.”
A slightly more recent interview from the local paper.
.https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/people/wickham-festival-behind-scenes-people-only-notice-organisation-when-it-goes-wrong-1311790
Something of local hero.
“And the festival supplies we try to source as much as possible locally. All of our tentage comes from Bishop’s Waltham, our cabins are from Winchester, electrics from Gosport, all our sound and light team come from Southampton – it’s about keeping the money in the area.”
fentonsteve says
Ditto the early works of Capercaillie. Secret People is the one to start with if you’re not sure, recorded by The Blue Nile’s producer of choice, Calum Malcolm. I’ve seen them live and either been in rapture or – they can be a bit worthy – bored to tears.
In a parallel with – stay with me – Fairground Attraction, the best thing about them is the vocals and what they bring to the songs. FA’s Mark Nevin & Boo Hewerdine are a fabulous songwriters and guitarists, but Eddi Reader does things with their songs they could never do on his own.
Capercaillie’s singer Karen Matheson’s (non-Gaelic) solo albums are well worth a listen as the songs are largely written & played by another of my guitarist chums, James Grant (the Love & Money – “the Scottish Steely Dan” – man).
retropath2 says
Turning into a conversation, @kaisfatdad, but Chisholm really is a class talent. Uncertain if you appreciated it, but he was initially “just” the fiddle player in Wolfstone, the purists preference to Runrig, seen initially as Ivan (father of Kris, of Lau fame) Drever’s band. They had a superb run of albums in the 80s, ahead of Drever leaving. Chisholm kept the flag flying and, very intermittently, still does. But it is his instrumental and largely fiddle based album that have nailed him to the map and to be a perennial in the Alba Trad awards. The triad of Farrar (2008), Canaich (2010) and Affric (2012) are almost transcendently good. But he doesn’t bask in none but his own prowess, always having alongside him the cream of the best instrumental players at hand, giving them also space to shine, on record and, especially, live. He added a 4th, Sandwood, to that run, in 2018, it being the bulk of his current live set. Interestingly, while he can pen a decent air without effort, or, probably, a great deal of it, he his happy also to showcase the music of others and of, old favourite, trad. arr.
Decent bloke too, it seems. Spotting him wandering through the crowd, ahead of his show, at Wickham, with a small box of merch for the selling table, I took the opportunity to have a brief chat, he coming across as quite shy and astonished to be recognised. (I dare say not the case in Edinburgh or Inverness.)
Kaisfatdad says
And what’ wrong with a conversation??
(I spend most of my time here muttering to myself about marimba ensembles from Mexico, so it is great to have some company.)
Thanks for all that background on Duncan Chisholm. My jaw just dropped listening to him.
Here’s another wonderful clip.
Your weekend in the mud is doing wonders for my Spotify playlists!!
retropath2 says
Nowt wrong, enjoying it!
Good to see the great Phil Cunningham in that clip, the accordion king, once of Silly Wizard and oft paired with Aly Bain. For all his jolly joker japes, a fine player and a finer composer. The number of his tunes that have become part of the trad idiom is huge. Also a great producer and mentor to many of the bands you have drawn attention to, inthis strand and in others. He was still on the sauce in that clip, judging by his face and the distance of his box from his spine, having lost a couple of stones of belly since abstaining.
One day, @kaisfatdad, we must meet and have a noggin. I haven’t ruled out a future trip to one or other of the Danish festivals, knowing you cross the bridge out of Sweden for Roskilde, so you never know!
By the way, the “fella on piano” at Wickham, whose “name I didn’t catch” was Michael Biggins: https://www.rcs.ac.uk/news/michael-biggins-wins-bbc-young-traditional-musician-2021/
I should have remembered as I recall one or other of us posted about the online Trad awards “final”.
He’s, um, rather good:
thecheshirecat says
Don’t worry. I’m still earwigging your conversation.
I first saw Duncan Chisholm at Folk at the Hall in 2014, just as his straths trilogy was coming out. I’m pretty sure he had Jarlath with him then as well. I was awestruck. It had the quality of a classical chamber performance, yet with roots authenticity.
FATH is a family run festival of no more than 200 audience in a village hall in Denbighshire. Basically, the Manleys book who they would like to see, and sod the rest of us. The following year, Chisholm was back with Wolfstone and it was party time. Pa Manley was grinning from ear to ear, hoofing it like a good’un.
Kaisfatdad says
It sounds wonderful, Cheshire. And it’s already almost sold out for 2022.
http://www.therecordjournal.co.uk/
Here’s Karine Polwart from 2016.
And my new faves Manran.
thecheshirecat says
Oh that Karine Polwart show was one of the most memorable. She had taken part in a Celtic Connections collaboration where Joni Mitchell’s Hejira was reimagined in Scots tongue. She brought the title track to North Wales. My mother had died a few weeks earlier, which I took in my stride, but Karine singing Joni had me in tears.
retropath2 says
Wickham 2022 at the very early bird of £100, until the end of this month. Anyone joining me?
hubert rawlinson says
Very kind offer but I am hoping I can still physically go to Cropredy next year and think that I can only cope with one festival a year now.
May try and make Derby this year if I can suggest that a friend drives.
Kaisfatdad says
I would love to BUT…
My domestic responsibilities prevent me. I’m like Cinderella but without the pumpkin and mice!
Kaisfatdad says
I was just looking at Gadarene’s Instagram page, Retro. They thank you for what you wrote about their music.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrXPY_MlhM/
I do hope that others have heeded your words. They are a cracking band