Friday

I turn up at the press caravan at just the right moment to blag a Danish (thanks Neil). It's still too wet for an appearance of the trademark Panama, but a baseball cap manages to keep the rain off.
That said it's starting to ease up. There's a distinct warming in the air as the sun trys to burn up the remaining mist in the air. The skies are lighter than earlier and there are rumours of blue skies off in the distance.
I bump into Ollie, the manager of the Saw Doctors. It turns out the regular bass player Anthony Thistlewaite is missing for personal reasons. Davy Carton's son David is filling in.
Well that was it the foreplay over, time for the Friday proper to kick in. Opening up on Stage 1 was a band from the North East, Bob Fox and the Hush.
Bob and co play traditional North East Folk Music with a contemporary edge, in this case aided by keyboards and sax. To be honest this really isn't my cup of tea.
The music of the North East has a gritty edge or should have. This is true of new as well as traditional tunes. Bob Fox and the Hush seem to have taken the personality out of it.
It's not for the want of trying. Bob has a good, if not great voice, the sound is well constructed, it's just that as a whole it doesn't work with the subject matter. At times it almost sounded cluttered with too much instrumentation, too much arrangement
It's almost compulsory for a band from the North East to perform "Byker Hill" Without a doubt this was the blandest version that I've ever heard. More than a little too polished this stripped away the last vestige of patina and then some.
The audience seemed appreciative rather than enrapped. This was well polished and inoffensive and I think I was expecting more, like an edge. No, I think I'm being a bit kind. Bob Fox and the Hush are the most insipid band that I have ever seen in all my years of visiting Cambridge.
Time for the Stage Crew to get on with the first change on the fly. It's a quick one, the next act up is John Spiers and Jon Boden.
The two Jons are an acoustic duo that did a showcase in the club tent last year and make the move up to Stage 1 this year. They are one of two acts that will be playing all stages during the course of the festival. In addition they will also be playing the Session and taking a workshop, officially making them the hardest working band at this year's festival.
Ironically, the band forged their partnership on the Oxford folk scene. The audience don't seem to hold it against them as almost from the off they're clapping away to the beat.
As it happens whilst I'm back stage I bump into Bob and Alan the guys that do the between set djing. Regular visitors to the site will know just what an important job these guys do. A full listing of the tracks that they played at this year's festival can be found in the articles section.
Meanwhile Spiers & Boden are delivering the sort of set that's shaking the crowd out of their torpor. This is a set that's delivered with passion and energy. English based roots music as it's supposed to be.