Shed 2 (The Gazebo)

Neil wrote: Just finished Creocoting my shed.  That's them both done again for another year.

I thought you were at Cropredy with Jimberly?

Like Old Spice?

Or maybe Hai Karate.

I almost said that but I didn't want to remind myself of Paul Gascoigne.

Neil wrote: Just finished Creocoting my shed.  That's them both done again for another year.

Dean wrote:

Woolly Bully!

James wrote: Neil wrote: Just finished Creocoting my shed.  That's them both done again for another year. I thought you were at Cropredy with Jimberly?

Only on the Friday for the cross country walk to the pub and a bit of socialising.  Can't afford the whole weekend; I'm not as affluent as the Gartens.

mystic fred wrote: nay, give thee Black Pudding every time 'ee by gum..

That pud looks a little anaemic... check out the pud in this shot:



Now that's black pudding

Aaaaanyway - turns out my worrying about the weather was un-necessary; we had perfect weather all weekend for Cropredy & for a change, Vicky and I spent no time at all in the village pubs, but stayed in the main arena with our friends most of the time.

Saw some excellent music every day... some highlights:

Thursday:

The Buzzcocks - great fun, they can still do it live, but what the dyed in the wool folkies thought of songs such as 'Orgasm Addict' and 'Oh sh*t' is anyone's guess

Steve Winwood - for me, one of the highlights of the whole weekend; 90 minutes of Hammond frenzy, extended jazz-rock workouts & a great backing band; songs from Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith, Traffic + solo career & encoreing with 'Gimme Some Loving' - wonderful.

Friday:

Ade Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds (including Maart Alcock) - again, great fun, but also very high quality folk versions of punk/new wave songs, including Kraftwerk's 'The Model' - full on grin mode for 45 minutes

Richard Thompson - never been into him in the past, but this time it just clicked & the video screen showed exactly what he was doing on guitar, making me think "eeer Richard, that's actually physically impossible..."

Saturday:

Dreadzone - another major highlight; full on dancey dub mid afternoon in blazing sunshine which even won over the bearded folkies in the front rows if the big grins on the vid screen were anything to go by - I predict they will return to Cropredy in future and with a much higher billing (felt really sorry for Nick Kershaw, who had to follow them on stage...)

Fairport Convention - not an obvious choice, as they have been somewhat insipid in previous years, but this year's set was focussed, stripped down & didn't rely on special guests, just a good setlist, tightly played, usual humour from all the band, Simon Nicol's voice on top form; and no, Neil, Maart was not with them, but neither did it turn into the Chris Leslie show. There was however one special guest with them for about 30 minutes who threatened to steal the show from them - simply introduced as 'Yusuf', the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens walked on stage to an ovation they must have heard in Daventry. He played none of his famous hits, but the voice is still there & backed by Fairport, he played his usual brand of deceptively simple songs; absolutely fantastic.

Bottom line - a great weekend, one of my best Cropredys for many a year & I didn't even mention sets by Ralph McTell, The Churchfitters, Feast Of Fiddles etc etc etc).

Sounds like an excellent Croppers this years,Jim.

I once saw Richard and Linda Thompson at the Woolwich Tramshed and they were awesome. I then saw them on the Sunnyvista tour at the same venue and they weren't much cop.

I then saw Richard Thompson solo at the Wigmore Halls and he was superb but a year or so later I saw him at Greenwich Town Hall and he was indifferent at best. I've seen him at some weird and wonderful venues including the tiny Drill Hall just off of Tottenham Court Road and as Chris says, 'he can be a bit hit and miss live'.

The roses are looking nice this year