Do You Like Golf?

Do you like golf? No? Me neither. I'm definitely in the "good walk spoiled" camp although every couple of years my interest does increase slightly when the Ryder Cup is played. Match play pits person against person, team against team and, in this case, country against countries. Add to that the psychology of the captains you get all the excitement that is lacking in stroke play. Yet we take the concept of playing against the course and being scored up or down against parity with us whenever we pass any kind of opinion or judgement. "Par for the course" is used in all walks of life and we make a continual series of adjustments, setting our own standard of 'par', on how we think a performer has fared before proclaiming our verdicts.

Two acts who were very much level par were The High Kings and The Young'uns. I knew of neither band before the festival and relied on the programme for background. "...irish ballad group..." and "...a rousing acoustic interpretation to new songs as well as old favourites" told me all I needed to know; this was the Guinness tent (sorry, Irish Bar) on a big stage. I do love an Irish drinking song, and their rousing versions of McAlpine's Fusiliers, Whiskey in the Jar and Rocky Road to Dub-er-lin made me wish for a pint of the black stuff. The Young'uns (unsurprisingly, not that young) a Teeside Trio have "...irrepressible humour, bold vocals and gripping story lines."which summed them up nicely. Their humour was of the self deprecating kind, preffering to refer themselves as headlining over the Archers - they opened Stage One on Sunday - rather than at the bottom of Van Morrisson's bill. Very English, very traditional, very folk. You can see the progression from playing the clubs to playing the big stage. Jack Ironside was a huge, sprawling opener, John Bull their traditional closer and A Lovely Cup of Tea was inspired by events in York when Muslims from a tiny Mosque in York met right wing protesters with a cup of tea.

Most of the artists were actually on par; Loudon Wainright III, Martin and Eliza Carthy, Cara Dillon, Oysterband. None mailed their sets in but none enhanced or devalued their reputation. They are all class acts, worthy of inclusion in the 50th Cambridge and they showed it. There were very few over par (in golf, the more over you are, the worse you are) performances. Rosanne Cash was dealt with in an earlier piece. Naomi Randall and Tom Gaskell at times looked like rabbits caught in the headlights. Whilst they were on early on the Thursday night in the Club Tent they didn't exude confidence and looked like they would have been happier with 15 minutes in the same place on Friday afternoon. Fisherman's Friends were lacking something. The bawdiness was there - childish I know but I do laugh at references to 'Brest' and 'Cockermouth' - but at the business end South Australia seemed subdued and that bit in Cousin Jack went AWOL.

Where there were more bogies than birdies it was not music related. The Mojo interview was poor. Martin Carthy, Eliza Cathy and Richard Thompson have plenty of Cambridge experience between them going back to the first one in 1965 (Martin was there but didn't play - his début would be a year later) and yet they spoke relatively little about them. The best stories came from Irish or Canadian festivals most of which involved drunken revelry. Enjoyable though they were, I wanted to hear about their Cambridge experiences. Whilst an interview such as this should not be rehearsed it would seem that a greater level of planning was needed to get tales more suited to the occasion.

It seems churlish to offer up any criticism about The Den. The programming is superb (better than the Club Tent) and has done much to inject new life into the festival. But, it is a pain to get to. Take your copy of the programme, open to page 47 and there you will find the site layout. Take a ruler and measure, both as the crow flies and along the proper routes, from the front of Stage One to the front of the other three stages. I make it 35mm and 50mm to Stage Two; 45mm and 45mm to The Club Tent; 20mm and 110mm to The Den. This means that if you wanted to get from Stage One to the Den it would take twice as long as getting to either of the other stages, and, you have to get through the main entrance which slows you down even more. You can't really just pass by the Den you have to make a concerted effort to go there which I think needs addressing. The quality of the music is equal to the Club tent and it shouldn't be lumped in the same place as the children's workshops. If some of the camping behind the Club Tent needs to be sacrificed then I think it's a price worth paying.

I've long been an supporter of the food on offer at Cambridge. Maybe it's because I'm vegan and most vendors offer at least one vegan option that I have defended the festival against the critics of both the quality and quantity of the food. This year I'm getting to thinking that they may be right. With the honourable exception of the black bean chilli with fresh salsa and guacamole everything else seems to have gone down hill. The choice of three burgers (veggie, soy and bean) has gone down to one, the salad has changed (not for the better) and the falafel was borderline inedible. It was pointed out to me that the festival experience now should include top quality food and that most others do it better. I am now minded to agree, the choice at Cambridge has remained static for a good few years now so maybe it is time for a change.

And so to those who came in under par I didn't see Skinny Lister but wish I had. There were barriers erected in front of the Club Tent stage and all the talk after the show was of their double bass player crowd surfing on his instrument.

I was told that Hazmat Modine were not a "typical New York band" but I beg to differ. Whilst there is nothing typical about them, the coming together of styles and cultures, the independent attitude, the attention to detail and the showmanship (chairs are for standing not sitting in Wade Schuman's world) meant that they are the perfect New York band. They accurately reflected my experience of the Big Apple.

Van Morrison may have been the festival's big name and he delivered a crowd friendly greatest hits package but the star of the weekend hit the same stage in the same slot two days earlier. Things I knew about Sinead O'Connor could be counted on the fingers of one hand; Mandinka, Nothing Compares 2 U, a shaved head and ripping up a picture of the Pope on live television. In other words, everything was two decades out of date. I did not know if she had a band or would be solo, if she would be electric or acoustic, if she would play anything I knew.

Normally at Cambridge the artists are announced so when Sinead came on stage, barefoot, mic in hand and quietly singing I didn't know if this was the start of the show or not. The volume gently increased and then, she roared. I don't think that I've ever felt anything quite like it; well, not since my first gigs as a teenager (a very long time ago). The adrenalin, the excitement, the noise, the things that, ordinarily, you don't get at a folk festival. The track was Queen of Denmark a cover of the title track from John Grant's debut album and the first of four tracks from 2012's How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?

There was plenty of material from her new album (annoyingly released a week after the festival; was I the only person looking for it the next morning?) Thank You for Hearing Me and In This Heart from Universal Mother and, from I Do Not Want What I Have Not Gone, The Emporer's New Clothes, The Last Day of Our Acquaintance (possibly the most beautiful song of the weekend) and, Nothing Compares 2 U casually slipped in halfway through the set.

Loudon hasn't got much to be worried about when it comes to between song banter. Sinead thanked the audience repeatedly, introduced her band and thanked the audience some more. Loudon got a heckler; he suggested - as this was a folk festival - we should sing Kumbaya then beat the crap out of him. If any one dared heckle Sinead (and I don't count asking for Troy or declarations of love as heckling) I think she'd skip the singing...

To finish with another golfing term, this was the hole in one - that rare example of perfection.

John Hawes