Cropredy 2022: A Few Final Thoughts

Just a few final thoughts about this year's Cropredy Festival.

First, it was an honour to finally get to see Richard Thompson live, both his own set and coming on stage for a bit with Iain Matthews and BJ Baartmans:

Loved the above trio's version of the Joni Mitchell classic, Woodstock, and during Thompson's own set, for obvious reasons, the Fairport Sandy Denny classic, Genesis Hall, sent almost cosmic tingles down my spine.

Only listened to the Fairport Convention set while dozing in my tent, I'm afraid to say, so I sadly missed the opportunity to catch Thompson on stage for a third time.

Must also mention the wonderful Cream of the Crop Field Eight where we saw a wonderful kind of Hendrix-influenced band called Blues Machine late Wednesday night, a day before the main stage started operating.

Field Eight seemed to be designed for the Cropredy locals to have a drink and good nosh-up:

 

At Field Eight, we also caught a great kind of traditional folk/pirate song band called Reiver's Gallows at the end of their set:

Really wish we'd caught more of this band.

Also, Field Eight had a compere with fantastic, old school (pre-woke) humour who had my friend and I almost peeing our sides on one occasion. This compere did brilliant 2-3 minute comedy sketches before introducing a band on stage.

And, of course, Field Eight had a big chess set:

Finally, a big shout out to Steve Hogarth who was brilliant singing Bowie's Life on Mars?; Joe Jackson's It's Different for Girls; 10cc's I'm Not in Love etc. with the Trevor Horn Band on the main stage. Enjoyed Hogarth's contribution so much that I've decided to try to catch one of his traditional Christmas H Natural shows. Love Hogarth-era Marillion (as well as Fish-era Marillion), of course.

And, of course, who'll ever forget Toyah and Robert Fripp's guest appearance doing Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way with the Trevor Horn Band. The whole place simply went ELECTRIC when Fripp and Toyah were on stage. Once had the honour of seeing Robert Fripp and David Sylvian at Manchester Apollo in the early 1990s.