FAIRPORT'S CROPREDY CONVENTION
August 7th. 8th and 9th 2025
日本語で読む
1st Day
Fairport Acoustic
Joe Broughton's Conservatoire Folk Ensemble
Rosalie Cunningham
Albert Lee
Peatbog Fairies
Preface - Wednesday
Gil is a bit flustered. Driving from her home in the Malverns, she got lost, finally navigating her way here using a combination of Sat Nav, Google Maps and a good old-fashioned road atlas. ‘Here’ I should explain, is the home of our dear friend Tony Mottram, esteemed Rock photographer whom we have known since the 80s and our planned rendezvous. He lives a half an hour from Cropredy village so it’s a good opportunity for a catch-up before the three days of frivolous frivolities Gil and I have planned at the festival. Somewhat later than she expected, she’s made it even though at one point her Sat Nav sent her into Coventry airport. After hugs, Tony’s suggestion of a pub seems like a good idea.
“I didn’t even know there was an airport in Coventry” Gil says to Tony somewhat indifferently as I deliver the drinks to the table. Jacqui, Gil’s pet lurcher, is basking in the sunshine and the conversation moves on rapidly, bouncing between our current lives, old memories, ‘Are you still in touch with...’ etc and all those things that old friends natter about when they haven’t seen each other for years. There is nothing quite like sitting in an English pub, preferably the beer garden, with nostalgia and we could have sat there all day but all good things come to an end. We leave Tony to have one more pint of Guinness. A couple of hours of catching-up has soothed Gil’s earlier tizz but I suggest I take the lead as I know roughly where I am going and we set off for the festival. Keeping a close eye on her car behind as we wind through England’s green and pleasant, some twenty minutes later, we are turning off the A361 onto the Williamscot Road. It feels good to be back at Cropredy again and this time we’re doing it in style - glamping.
Wrist-banded and shown to our accommodation, we unpack, after which I go to check-in at the press tent. The stewards on the way greet me with smiles and such phrases as ‘Not you again!’ All in good humour of course with the friendliness that I have encountered every year and that the festival prides itself on. Parking just a minute from the arena and backstage area, I see a couple of guys sitting at the press tent and go over to introduce myself. This is Rich and his crew from One Fell Swoop media, the team that have taken over the publicity from Iconic Media who closed last year after the loss of their much respected and loved leader, Stevie Horton. One Fell Swoop have a big job on their hands here as Stevie was a large part of the festival and so far, in correspondence, they’ve done well. There are handshakes and thanks and ‘Good to finally meet you’ greetings. They are quick to explain that they want feedback, good and bad, about what they’ve done so far and the events of the next few days; they respect Stevie’s legacy. I like them all instantly and with my interview schedule in hand, I leave them to meet other media folk.
It's a ten minutes’ walk across the field back to the glamping site. The temperature is dropping and the moon is visible even though it’s not yet dark. Settled in and with nothing more to do, we have a couple of beers each and talk about the days ahead of us. Due to the layout of the land, tonight’s soundchecks can clearly be heard so we have an aural teaser of what is to come on Saturday and also realise that if needs be, we are in the perfect spot to at least listen to any of the bands we may not have the opportunity to watch. An hour later, the night has crept in. It’s been a long day and sleep beckons. Glamping and having an actual bed with someone to be with as opposed to the solo campervan experience last year, suddenly takes on another charm. Lights out, goodnight.
The Glamping site
Jacqui makes herself at home
Day 1 - Thursday
I’m awake at 5:30am, so is Gil. For me, it’s partially jetlag, partially my natural waking up time but also because it was so cold last night. Jeez! The sun is up and although not warm yet, it’s certainly more comfortable than the inflatable fridge we slept on. Note to self: extra blankets next year. All around us, people are emerging from tents, yawning, stretching, nodding and all that. After thawing, we stroll up to the hospitality tent for a coffee and for Gil to charge her phone. By the time we leave, half an hour later, we’re hungry and decide to walk up to the village for breakfast. On past visits, I’ve noticed that The Village Hall seems to be the place to go so we head in that direction. I’ve never actually been to the village before and it’s a lovely short walk further west along the Williamscott Rd. There’s an interpretation panel, just before the village itself, that describes ’The Battle of Cropredy Bridge.’ I glance over it and the lyrics to Ralph McTell’s song “Red and Gold” start to make sense to me. Note to self No, 2: Read up on the Civil War for next year.
The queue at the Village Hall moves swiftly. I have a bacon roll; Gil goes for an egg one. We still have the rest of the morning and a good part of the afternoon to explore as the festival traditionally begins at 4pm so we explore the remainder of Cropredy. Aside from the festival and for reasons I never found out, Cropredy is also famous for scarecrows so every year, the is a Scarecrow Trail put on by the Cropredy Primary School’s PTFA. We don’t walk the trail as such but it’s hard not to see them dotted throughout the village and it must be said, they are rather wonderful. They have a theme every year – this year’s being ‘Circus’ – and give an extra sense of community to the whole area.
Back at the tent, we prepare for the day. Our dear friend Ash has supplied us with a mini-keg of Harvey’s Sussex Best bitter and a half a dozen tins (most of which went last night) which we decide would be better left until tomorrow so with just a few bits and pieces, we make our way to the arena. Securing a spot close to the bar, Gil gets the first round in as I check my notes for my first interview of the festival. The Cropredy bell rings at 4pm and the Fairport Acoustic, namely Ric, Simon, Peggy, Dave and Chris get us underway with “The Festival Bell” and “Walk Awhile.” A quick “Happy Birthday” to Michelle Plum (Plumhall – we’ll see them tomorrow) and then “The Happy Man” followed by the quintet being joined by forty or so members of Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble. The stage crew had done their work on this one, it being less than a minute before everyone was in position to play “The Lark in the Morning” medley. That, was quite an opening act.
Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble stay onstage. It’s safe to say that every person in the audience wanted this to be something special for the kids playing up there and it was. A musical ensemble of the most varied you can imagine, they never let up and were all smiling from beginning to end. Joe leads the way but he’s not the star and he’s happy with that. It was a delightful, uplifting performance, the plumes enthusiasm rolling off the stage like dry ice at a Prog gig. Fantastic stuff that had everyone on their feet to applaud. The world needs more people like Joe Broughton and there were over forty potential candidates right there to step in and take over whenever he decides to hand over the baton.
I miss a couple of songs of that set as I’m backstage talking to the lady who released my favourite album of last year…
Rosalie Cunningham
Q: Thanks very much for your time. You're an incredibly busy lady these days.
RC: Yeah.
Q: We talked, I think it was late October, early November, just before the album was coming out. Since then, you've been out around the world, great reviews, the band sounded great, the new material sounds great live. Pleased with everything so far?
RC: Yeah, it's all been a bit of a whirlwind, actually so, I’m looking forward to some time to sort of decompress and think about the next phase.
Q: You're off to Germany tomorrow, then you're back to the UK, you've got more shows in Europe, then more in the UK, into 2026. When does it end?
RC: Well, I've got some time off in October and November, but that's for writing and recording, which I'm really looking forward to, because I just don't have the time in the day at the moment and in between the touring, there's so much admin to sort of do at home and things that you don't really get any time to do the creative side so I'm really looking forward to just designate time for that.
Q: When we talked before, you mentioned that you're really into the social media and it takes up a lot of time…
RC: Well, the simple fact of the matter is that you have to do all of your own. I have to do all of that and I just find it really all-consuming. It’s like the only way that anyone I know contacts me and so you're just forced to be attached to this thing. I mean, as you walked in, I was on the phone, and it's just... yeah, it's a real pain in my life. I think everybody's just going through it, aren't they?
Q: They are. Lots of gigs around Europe and the UK: Any sniffs about Japan?
RC: No, but you may have seen that I've joined a band called Lucifer.
Q: I have.
RC: They've played Japan from time to time. I don't know if it's on the cards for us going there any time soon because they have just been there, so I don't know if that's an any-time-soon thing but hopefully I can make that contact, make that connection with my own music because I'd love to go there.
Q: How did the Lucifer offer come about?
RC: Johanna got in touch with me saying, her band was dis-inspirated essentially, and she still want to continue it, but thinking of creating an all-female line-up. I said that would be an amazing idea, but where are you going to find these people? “I don't know”, she said “Do you know anybody for bass and guitar?” I said, I can think of a few people, but they're going to be busy, and if I wasn't so busy myself, I'd put myself and Claudia forward. Johanna said “Well, I'm not planning on doing too much, it's not going to get in the way of your schedule and actually if you wanted to do it, I'd absolutely work around your schedule.” I said, okay, as long as it does, as long as I can keep the two things afloat, I'd love to do it. It seems to have gone down well overall and I was really nervous about that, because the last band were Nicky Anderson - you know, big boots to fill - and they were a really, really tight live band that had been going together for a long time. We had four rehearsals and then had to do shows and nobody could be prepared for that and we weren't. We're still rough around the edges, and I was expecting so much backlash, but people forgive things like that in the moment, They just want, they're there for a good time, they want to hear the songs, and they just want to hear live music.
Q: There's a lot of talk these days about AI, the creative, it's attacked the creative industries rather than the heavy lifting, which was what we thought it was going to do. Mm-hm. Do you worry about that so much?
RC: Yes, I do. It's really freaky, actually. There's a band that have come out that have got 200,000 followers overnight, and they've just released songs that aren't even bad. I couldn't listen to them because I felt queasy. They've got a soul singer, enough information of somebody's voice - and it has to be somebody that sold their voice to this company because it is a voice a fairly decent soul voice – and it doesn't feel AI, it feels real. If they can do that now, what can they do in the years to come?
Q: I appreciate what you're saying but I really don't think AI could write a Rosalie Cunningham song.
RC: Well, I mean, I listened, first impressions, I was terrified but then after about 30 seconds, I went, no, I couldn't listen to this. But people are stupid and they will.
Q: Good point. You’re still promoting To Shoot Another Day but told me that last time, you're always writing, you're always thinking, always creating…
RC: It's finding the time to actually bring the ideas to fruition that's the problem. The nucleus of ideas are always coming, they're always there, but it's the time that it takes to actually make it happen. I don't go into a studio with a band, I have to piece it all together myself, at home with my partner, Rosco, so it's a long process. So when's it going to happen? I don't know, I've got demos for almost a full album now, that I hope will come out at the end of next year, but then before that, we've got the Rabbit Foot album, so that's coming first. We were supposed to record that this summer but the summer's flown by and we haven't had the chance, so we're recording that October and November.
Q: How different is that going to be to a Rosalie Cunningham album?
RC: It's quite different. Rosco’s fronting it, he's the lead singer, I'm producing and arranging and writing with him, but it's his baby, so it's got a different tone anyway. You can hear my influence I guess, but it's more of a straight-ahead Rock thing, it's less frilly bits and stuff, less keyboard heavy, less theatrical and live we want to go out as a three piece. I'm really looking forward to that because there's so much going on with my band, I just want to strip it down to basics and just be a bass player. I'm really excited about that.
Q: One last question: Where do you get those wonderful clothes?
RC: Well, this is just my band clothes, this is nothing special. (smiles)
Q: Did you design it?
RC: Yeah. I, so, I work with a couple of people who make the clothes, I tell them what I want but it's stuff that's already in their repertoire, so, yeah, I've sought out the right people.
Q: Rosalie, thank you very much for your time.
RC: Thank you.
Rosalie Cunningham
Just the one interview for me today so I’m back out seated with Gil and Jacqui, another pint and a new layer of 50+ sun cream when Rosalie Cunningham begins her show with “To Shoot Another Day.” She looks terrific, suited and booted in a black, fringed and flared catsuit but it’s her music that captures you. The set features a lot of the album (Yeah!) and several months of touring has honed the band - there is certainly nothing rough around the edges to use her earlier words. So confident they were that they debuted all three parts of Donovan Ellington, with Ric Sanders, without rehearsal. They nailed it. Another of those ‘Magical Cropredy Moments’, a list that will get longer before the weekend is out.
The octogenarian, guitar-picking pioneer, Albert Lee, returned to Cropredy after a twenty-two years absence and played, as he always does, a blinder. He knows how to choose a set list as well. From his last album, Lay It Down, he played the title track and Bobby Darin’s “18 Yellow Roses” which he mixed in with the crowd pleasers, “Country Boy” and “Runaway Train”. That his playing was sublime on all is a given but what is not mentioned very often is his voice. Sitting at the piano, the pathos that he puts into Jimmy Webb’s “Highwayman” and Glen Campbell’s “A Better Place” is extraordinary. He can clean your tear ducts out as well as tear up the stage with a guitar. Speaking of which, Albert ended with one of his favourite’s, Johnny Burnette’s “Tear it Up” and suffice to say, Albert tore it up.
Unique is a word that is often overused in music but if you owned a record shop, you would certainly have to make a new category card for Peatbog Fairies. Quite what that would be I don’t know their combination of pulsating-provocative beats and Celtic melodies left us all in no doubt that sleep was no option until the end of their set. The field bounced, pints were poured at an amazing rate by smiling and nodding bar staff as the Fairies fiddled and strummed at an astonishing rate – I’m pretty sure they use fireproof strings. Gil and I left before the last number and walked back to our tent with their music flowing over us from the field behind, down to and across the glamping site. A party ending to the first day, the last notes of “The Folk Police” escorted us into bed. Drifting off to sleep, my thoughts were along the lines of ‘first days at festivals don’t get much better than this’.
