Allan Wilkinson Goes Walkabout
Thursday

Allan Wilkinson is the newest member of the Fatea that cover the Co=Operative Cambridge Folk Festival. Based on the premis that there isn't one Cambridge Folk Festival, but thousands all in close proximity, Allan's brief was simple, 'Get out there and describe yours.'

At any other time of the year, the grounds of Cherry Hinton Hall would more or less echo the tranquility of other more well known city locations, such as the various college gardens or the handful of idyllic beauty spots down by the river, where you might be tempted to idle away a few hours punting or alternatively wander over to Parker's Piece for a bit of a reality check. During the last weekend of July however, Cherry Hinton Hall craftily camouflages itself amongst the foliage, whilst fences divide up the grounds into several familiar sections to be inhabited over the next few days by marquees of varying sizes. Once the structure of the village is in place, then it's down to good old fancy decoration, with colours a-plenty being added, either by children's paintings, lofty flags and bunting, or a selection of cheeky folksy artworks by the artist David Owen; not to mention the huge wicker fiddler who precides over the weekend's events.

All this initial effort is provided in order to bring a sense of belonging to the visitors who temporarily claim this village as their own year upon year. In such a setting, the sun is more welcome than the rain, but throughout the weekend both usually come in equal measure. If the Weatherman chooses Sunday to be the sunniest day of the festival, then the rain is normally forgiven for its previous intrusion on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday, or any combination of the three. At around lunchtime on each subsequent day after Thursday, a few thousand people traditionally congregate in front of each of the three stages to bring themselves up to date with all the music they've been listening to over the previous few months. This is how it is with me at any rate. To keep the body functioning properly over the next few days, there are food stalls of all descriptions, providing either spicy or not so spicy dishes, whilst ice cream stalls are kept on their toes as they quickly run out of wafers and two sufficiently sized beer tents rattle out a selection of fine beers as if it's going out of fashion.

Fashion, now there's a curious aspect of Cambridge. The brighter the colours or the weirder the shape, and I'm talking mainly of hats here, the better. Brightly coloured flowery Wellington boots normally come in handy at the festival and on this occasion, no more urgently required than during Saturday afternoon, when the heavens opened at the beginning of Diana Jones' Stage Two set. Speaking to Diana later she described the sound of the rain above her head: "the sound of the rain on the tarp gave energy to the whole set; I felt a little more like a rocker than I am now".

Earlier though, the weather was kinder. If you arrived at the festival site on Thursday morning, you would probably have got your tent up and your wine box opened before a single grey cloud came over. I missed the Thursday afternoon shower by taking refuge in the VIP bar to the side of Stage One, where I helped decorate the interior darkened walls with colourful photographs of previous festival artists. That done, it was time to venture out into the muddy fields to hear some music.

Having enjoyed Laura Marling's Thursday night set a year ago it seemed only right to check out her bloke's band Mumford and Sons who kicked off proceedings on Stage Two. The young quartet led by Marcus Mumford appealed to the large contingent of young female supporters hugging the safety barrier just as Laura and their contemporaries Noah and the Whale had done the year before. With youthful zest and energy, Mumford and Sons provided a good start to the festival.

Kent born Pete Molinari was fresh back from Nashville when he took to the stage on Thursday night. Described as a young country blues artist from the Medway Delta, Molinari brought his own brand of country folk to an eager audience. "It's a bit tough going on after a band like that" he said, and I guess it was, especially having been let down by his harmonica player who was "stuck on the M2". I suspect it was the M11 actually and he was confuzzling his Roman numerals. No matter, Molinari's voice was in fine form as he opened with "Love Lies Bleeding", maintaining a fine quality falsetto throughout, reminiscent of a young Phil Everly.

As an avid reader of fRoots I am often bewildered at the inherent disdain for American visitors in the letters pages, especially when it comes to the Cambridge Folk Festival. I personally like the variety the programme offers and I'm in favour of the inclusion of a handful of song based artists such as Diana Jones, Hayes Carll and Beth Nielsen Chapman. I guess this has more to do with the fact that if these artists were excluded, then we would surely have even more fiddle bands, and crikey there's enough of them already. So it was a delight to finally see Alela Diane at the festival on Thursday night. Completing her forty date tour, Alela took to the stage with newly cropped hair, performing songs from her two excellent albums 'The Pirate's Gospel' and the more recent 'To Be Still'. Songs like "Dry Glass and Shadows", "Tatted Lace" and "Tired Feet" were performed by a band who showed signs of both fatigue and relief, but also a good deal of satisfaction. Personally, I could have done with another half hour or so before she ran off back to California.

The most anticipated appearance of the opening night, which curiously I still consider the bonus night of the festival, having been so used to the festival starting around about Friday tea time, was that of Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds. Earlier in the evening, just as the sun was beginning to set on Cherry Hinton, the former Young Ones actor returned to comedic form by jumping in puddles just for the benefit of my camera. Festival organiser Eddy Barcan was a little less eager to mess up his Levis but was willing to pose with his mate nevertheless.

Brandishing his mandolin, and surrounded by some exceptionally talented musicians including Maartin Alcock (Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention) and Troy Donockley (Mostly Autumn - but just about everybody else), Edmondson brought the festival to life as the Shepherd's rocked the Casbah with the band's own blend of folk-tinged punk-heyday classics such as "I Fought The Law", "Hurry Up Harry", "London Calling", "Once In A Lifetime" and surprisingly enough "All Around My Hat".

Continued...