Allan Wilkinson Goes Walkabout
Sunday

After the storm of Saturday came the sun drenched Sunday. For the first time in living memory, I ducked out of the Cherry Hinton camp site after Saturday's storm, to the comfort of a warm bed in Cambridge, courtesy of my niece's kind hospitality. I'm not sure it was an entirely honourable thing to do; I usually stick it out through thick or thin, even though camping at my time of life is becoming difficult. So the thought of a warm bed, a shower, a bottle of wine, the late night re-showing of Never Mind the Buzzcocks and the pretty certain possibility of a cooked breakfast this morning was just too good to decline. I did weigh up the situation and gave it some consideration. I think it was the sight of my tent standing in a paddling pool by the light of the moon that tipped the balance.

So, after returning to the festival site just before noon, refreshed and smelling like the contents of Barbara Cartland's handbag, I made my way through the crowds to catch Bella Hardy's main stage set. At Cambridge every effort is made to ensure you get to see your favourite act, with multiple appearances by some of the key players. The headliners are often booked for just the one appearance, but other acts can be seen at least once on both of the two main stages. I was determined to see both of Bella's sets.

Why I left it too late to see both Lau and Crooked Still I have no idea, so I found myself running from one stage to the other during Sunday afternoon, in an endeavour to see highlights from both bands' sets. Crooked Still were on excellent form, with the additional words of wisdom between the songs and tunes courtesy of banjo player Greg Liszt.

The combined force of Kris Drever, Martin Green and Aidan O'Rourke has always been enough to excite audiences who attend Lau gigs for the last couple of years or so, but with the release of 'Arc Light', the band have expanded to include pedal steel guitarist Stuart Nisbett and on backing vocals Bella Hardy and Corrina Hewat, bringing to the highly orchestrated set several pieces of music that appear to be more trance-like than previous compositions. Although I consider myself a Lau fan, I do have a softer spot for Kris Drever's singing and the inclusion of "Winter Moon" was most welcomed.

Martin Simpson played two sets at this years festival, one with a full band on Stage One and then again on Stage Two solo. I chose Simpson's solo set for a good reason. Although Simpson's many collaborations have proven to be successful, it is as a solo performer that I feel we get the best out of him. It's the style of guitar playing that is uniquely his that brings out the pure soul of this extraordinary performer. Simpson can have the best band in the land and it still couldn't possibly match the intense beauty of his single weeping note in the opening few bars of "The Greymore Hare" in a darkened room. Having said that, the guy is only human and it's good to have your friends around and the friends he chooses are probably the best you can possibly get. On stage with him throughout this weekend were Andy Cutting, Andy Seward and Keith Angel, with additional help from BJ Cole and Jon Boden. Pretty good company.

Paul Brady returned to the Cambridge Folk Festival on Sunday, the first time since 1995, although his very first appearance at the Festival was way back in 1969 when he made an appearance with his then band The Johnstons. Well known on the traditional Irish music scene for many years before embarking on a career as a contemporary song writer, Brady has become one of Ireland's most enduring singer-songwriters, having recorded several albums with The Johnstons before joining Planxty in 1974, replacing Christy Moore. After establishing himself as one of Ireland's premiere folk singers, Brady went through an extraordinary career change emerging as a contemporary songwriter and performer in 1978. Since then, a series of fine albums have emerged and many of his songs have been recorded by many artists including Tina Turner, Bonnie Raitt, David Crosby and Trisha Yearwood.

I spoke to Paul backstage before his set and asked him how he feels about the fact that so many artists have picked up on his songs and have subsequently recorded them: "I'm pleased that people like the songs that I wrote; I didn't really write the songs for other people though, I wrote songs for myself and for my own records but at the time, although my records weren't going out of the stores in zillions, they were going around the artistic community like wildfire and a lot of people were picking up on songs of mine, so that was a very exciting time".

Some of those songs were included in his Stage One set in the final couple of hours of this years festival such as "Crazy Dreams", "Nobody Knows" and "The World Is What You Make It".

After such an excellent festival, I would sincerely have liked to have written a more positive review of headliner Lucinda Williams' performance on Stage One on Sunday night. The thought of that particular spot each year at Cambridge, the last five years for example being Beth Orton (2004), Christy Moore (2005), Emmylou Harris (2006), Nanci Griffith (2007) and Joan Armatrading (2008), seems to show an emerging pattern of excellence. Unfortunately, this year, either a bit of stagefright or soap operatic drama Queen histrionics led to the first failure during this slot. I was in the pit taking notes when the singer announced "I hate cameras" before launching into her first song, stopping less than ten seconds into it and going on to say "I can't do this, I can't handle the cameras". None of the photographers waited around to be politely asked to leave, they had all already made up their minds that they didn't particularly want to take a picture, quickly gathering up their bits and bobs and vacating the front of stage area immediately. I was probably free to stay and continue to take notes but I decided to make a speedy exit just in case she started on the journalists too. I therefore cannot comment on the set but there again, I don't think anyone will particularly miss it.

The only blemish on an otherwise excellent festival, which I look forward to returning to next year.

Allan Wilkinson
Northern Sky