Co-Operative Cambridge Folk Festival
Thursday
I last saw Ruairidh MacMillan with elements of the Paul McKenna Band busking in a cafe in Moniave. In such a restricted space they put on a heck of a performanch so the thought of catching him on a full stage was mouth watering indeed, you don't get the title Scotland Young Traditional Musician Of The Year lightly, or draw the level of praise from Brian McNeill that Ruairidh has, describing him as "A stylist of Scottish fiddle second to none."
Ruairidh, took the title from his band's guitarist, Ewan Robertson of Breabach and his band also includes multi-award winning Adam Brown of No I.D. on bodhran. The instrument Adam using onstage being one that he made himself. It's difficult to work out how you can squeeze so much talent into a trio and so young. Ruairidh is in for a busy weekend as he's also playing the Brian McNeill Session on the Saturday and doing a workshop over in The Hub.
It was a set well worth waiting for, it had all the essential ingredients, with the possible exception of the kitchen sink. It was a set played with verve and passion. There are some people that are born having kissed the Blarney Stone whilst in the womb, MacMillan is one of them. It was standing room only in the tent and not enough room to dance, but there was plenty of bobbing up and down. You can feel the emotion Ruairidh puts into the slow and delicate pieces, but it's the fire he and his band puts into the faster songs that really get the audience going.
Both of his musicians get to showcase their individual talents during the course of a set that flipped between banter and beautiful music. MacMillan is a real showman, shouting encouragement at both his band and the audience.
Having given Ewan the stage to showcase one of his own songs, Ruairidh returns wearing a pork pie hat, a hat that soon finds itself being frisbeed into the audience. Adam gets the same opportunity to give the audience a solo performance and an understanding of where the awards came from. It's back together as a unit for the close of one of the best Thursday night sets I can remember.
Genticorum are up next and they've got a lot to follow, they are also opening Stage One tomorrow, whilst Ade Edmundson And The Bad Shepherds are only playing tonight. A quick comment to Ruairidh and the band over a great set ad it's time for the first hike across the site to Stage Two.
Ade Edmundson And The Bad Shepherds are a difficult band to describe, they're not quite novelty, but not exactly serious either, well except about the music they bring a professional approach to. I guess in many ways they're the English equivalent of Hayseed Dixie. Hayseed do bluegrass covers of rock songs, Bad Shepherds folk(rock) versions of punk and new wave classics.
They've had an extensive year of touring, as well as releasing their debut album, "Yan, Tyan, Tethra, Methra" It's said, mainly by the band to be fair, if The Ramones had come from Cumbria, all of their songs would have started with a count of yan, tyan, tethra, methra.
Ade Edmundson & The Bad Shepherds are a four piece, Ade, Maartin Allcock, Andy Dinan and Troy Donockley, of whom only Ade has sheep and he didn't bring any with him.
The band were last on and did a cursory check about the number of children in before kicking into their set. They are a good time band out to have fun and take the audience with them. It's a great criteria to be judged against and the lads scored well.
The majority of their songs came from the album, no surprise there, but live does give them a whole new dimension. It's also worth pointing out they are one of the few folk bands that include an artist with a fully credited appearance on a number one single.
With all covers type bands choice of material is the key. Bad Shepherds work at their best covering the punk songs, rather than the new wave, mainly because of the simpler structure of the songs. Punk is viewed by some as being the folk of it's day and the Clash have been described as being the world's best folk band. I digress.
It's the Clash that provide three of the strongest songs of the night and the ones that get the most audience participation bar one and I'll come to that later. "White Riot", "London Calling" and "I Fought The Law", which is a song the Clash themselves covered, so a cover of a cover, all had the audience joining in. Only a punked up version of a folk song, "All Around My Hat" had more people singing along, right up until it went off at a distinct tangent at the chorus.
Some of the new wave songs, such as "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" didn't seem to work quite so well, maybe because back in the day, they weren't so instant, a theory given some support by the audience reaction to "Once In A Lifetime".
The other thing about this sort of night is that you can have so much fun playing spot the intro. Different arrangements make the familiar familiar no more. It's amazing how many times you catch yourself out by second guessing what was actually the correct answer.
It wasn't the most sophisticated gig you were ever going to see, but as an end to the Thursday night, day one of the Co-Operative Cambridge Folk Festival it was absolutely on the mark. It'll be a sad day for music when there's no space for bands that are just about having a good time.
The music finishes relatively early on the Thursday, but on the way out of Stage Two, I bump into Peter Buckley Hill, something of a festival legend. Peter plays the Cambridge Fringe, arguably Peter is the Cambridge Fringe, often regaling punters with his music comedy way into the night after the official entertainment has come to an end.
Peter normally performs later in the weekend, but it's a dry night and we're not sure if there's going to be another one. Either way we both know there's going to be enough time for a pint before he starts and we head off in our respective directions.