I haven't seen this since I was in the audience. It was the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2003, it rained and rained, Jim contracted a bizarre chest infection only allieviated by whisky, and it was magic to see John Prine. Joe Strummer was there too, it was the year he died. He used what they call 'very strong language', as I recall.
It seemed then that we had an almost unremittingly bad time - the mud got tedious, and a very complacent and stubbornly seated audience was infuriating. We would charge over to a particular tent to see someone (it was a great line up that year, Eliza C, Bragg, Be Good Tanyas, etc) only to be foiled by a bunch of bastards on picnic blankets and camping chairs stuck in the way. But, the music and the beer were brilliant, and I would like to go back soon...with a blanket and a camping chair of course. On Sunday morning they broadcast the Archers omnibus across the campsite and festival arena...it's that kind of event..
2 comments:
Thanks for posting this. Memories of watching John Prine, with Raya aged 18 months (it was 2002, not 2003) on my shoulders will stay with me for life.
It was a miserable weekend, and not just because the Banana Bread beer never showed up on draft. I have a photo of you and Jim looking cold, damp, unshaven and pissed off (you had been bitching about picnic chairs for a solid 48 hours by that point). On paper, it was a solid lineup, but by the Sunday morning I had written it off as the worst festival I’d been to.
There had been some highlights – the Tanyas were very good. But the weather was awful, there were some very weak sets – we walked away from Mike Scott, and Jim Moray was almost unlistenable. Come the Satuarday, and the arrival of the family; Lorna’s mood not helped by the combination of rain, a small tent and a smaller child, which meant that I missed seeing Strummer (who died just 5 months later).
So Sunday was an unexpected joy. The weather did pick up (a bit), the kids concert by the Chipolatas was a lot of fun, and then saw good sets from Coope Boyes & Simpson, the Dubliners and Kate Rusby (incidentally, when checking my memories, I found the DJ list for the main stage - http://www.ursasoft.com/bob/cambridge02.htm - I love the internet).
But John Prine was outstanding. Certainly the best act I’ve ever seen at Cambridge, probably one of the best live artists I’ve seen anywhere. I recall that he should have been there 12 months earlier, but that a broken elbow had meant that he had to delay. He was worth waiting for. Opted to forego the Indigo Girls and get Lorna and Raya home to bed.
And then on the way home there were reports of two small girls missing from their homes in Soham, just a few miles away…
You should send the photo - I'll post it on the blog.
The banana bread beer did appear for about an hour on the first day, never to return...I'd forgotten about Mike Scott and Jim Moray - he was at WOMAD the following year and was just as bad then.
I had no idea it was as long ago as 2002; somehow I convinced my self it was only 4 years ago, not five...
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