The next of our multi-part previews of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2024 sees us zoom in on three more acts on the bill.
We are huge supporters of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. The annual event is one of the great British festivals. There are many reasons why this is so. To get a flavour of the festival, check out our reasons why it is one of the best, here.
The festival has been taking place for the best part of 50 years and we hope that there are many years of life left in the old feller yet. One thing’s for certain, as long as there is a Cropredy Festival, At The Barrier will be there to absorb, report and – most importantly, enjoy the event. It’s a musical highlight of the year.
However, with the constraints of the world being felt, the UK festival industry is finding life tough. The expenses involved in organising and running a festival are vast and many festivals have sadly folded. Fairport Convention haven’t had to do this, and they won’t – provided that they continue to attract lovers of great music in sufficient numbers.
Fairport co-founder, Simon Nicol, recently shared a message about the potential plight of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention in the future. You can read the full message here. Please take the time to read his vital message.
Here, we will take a look at some of the artists who will be treading the boards at ‘The Friendliest Music Festival in the Country’. In the meantime, look out for more previews from us in the build up to the festival. To secure your ticket, you can click here.
Next up, we put three more acts in the spotlight. You can read part one of our preview here and part two is here. To read part three, click here, and for part four click here.
BLACK WATER COUNTY
One of the joys of every Cropredy festival is the discovery of new groups, some already established making their Cropredy debut like Merry Hell and The Young’uns. Also young new artists like Josh Burnell and Morganway make their appearance and blow everyone away. Last year was outstanding in giving a large profile to unfamiliar acts. Yet again a plethora of artists enticingly spring onto the Cropredy platform.
Amongst them are Black Water County with their brand of modern folk to ska punk anew listening experience is hugely welcomed although no stranger to the festival scene British festival appearances have included WOMAD, Beautiful Days, Tunes In The Dunes, Camp and hundreds of smaller UK festivals and festival slots across Europe in the last decade. They are guaranteed to raise spirits with music from their two recorded releases which have wowed festival goers and audiences at their many headline tour gigs.
Cropredy is life affirming, a beautiful event, bringing people together to share their love of music, and being immersed in collective positivity… I’d love to bottle it and send it round the planet!
Chris Leslie, Fairport Convention. June 2024
BIG BIG TRAIN
A band we touted for Cropredy 2023 and the magic wand is waved twelve months on. Big Big Train, marshalled by Gregory Spawton have a long history, theirs being slow build via a series of confident albums guided by the songwriting partnership of bassist and founder Gregory Spawton and the late David Longdon (know to many Fairport followers from his Between A Breath And A Breath album with Judy Dyble).
Their new album, The Likes Of Us, the first to feature new singer Alberto Bravin, appeared back in March to much acclaim as the band took on their first US dates with a UK tour in September to come (Manchester is already sold out!). Oft labelled a ‘international prog rock collective’, Big Big Train’s unique musical pallet bring together one of the world’s top drummers, Nick D’Virgilio, guitarists Dave Foster and Rikard Sjoblom, Dim Gray keyboard man Oskar Holdorff and violinist Clare Lindley – not to mention a four piece brass section.
Maybe more used to festivals of the Prog Rock variety, BBT’s Gregory Spawton recently told us: “Cropredy will be interesting as it will be a different audience for us. We love prog rock but we think our material can be enjoyed more widely so it will be interesting to see how we do there. It probably isn’t a festival where we will play too many 15 minute tracks!” Shame…but hopefully at least one…
Knowing the way that the Cropredy audience appreciate quality musicianship and have an affinity with folk tales and storytelling, the Big Big Train take on Prog Rock should see them adding a triumphant Cropredy set to their own folklore. Expect to see plenty BBT Passengers and BBT tour patrons at the barrier…
Cropredy has been a lifetimes work for me. As the founder of the event along with Chris Pegg all those years ago, it’s still something I am immensely proud of and love playing at. Plus, I love listening to all the fantastic performers who are handpicked to play because of their musical talent.
Dave Pegg, Fairport Convention bassist and festival founder. June 2024.
SILVERBLUES
Silverblues sees another Fairport related offshoot on the bill – Ric Sanders in a Fairport-free guise along with Tom Leary, Ray Jackson and Vo Fletcher who make up the ‘2 from Lindisfarne, 1 from Fairport Convention and 1 ‘mysterious other’ quartet. A band who have yet to commit any of their music to record, tape or CD, their appeal lies in the simple fun they have just making music. Living for the moment.
Expect to hear interpretations of traditional material plus some of the earlier Lindisfarne favourites alongside some of the newer ones which feature Ray’s blues harmonica. Some early Fairport numbers have also been given a new lease of life as have newer Fairport tunes composed by Ric.
The Silverblues website promises: “Every gig is different. These guys aren’t bound by any convention – Fairport or otherwise – Improvisation, inspiration and excitement abound at every show.” As the Stingray command centre in Marineville would say “anything could happen in the next half hour!“
Here’s a familiar one:
I sense it is a special place. I’ve only (I say ‘only’…) been fortunate enough to play here twice but I just sense it’s a great gathering of like-minded people. I play a lot of these ‘folk festivals’ and this is a big one but it doesn’t feel like a folk festival. It’s more like some of the ones I play in Canada like the Vancouver Folk Festival which are also on a large scale with several stages. I love the fact that it’s just one stage here though so if you get booked to play, you get on there and get to play to everyone. You never get any sense that there was so much wrong in the world…which is what you can say about a lot of places, but that sense of hope, joy, goodness, people gathered to celebrate common interests, different accents; just a broad spectrum of people gathered and making them feel like they’re not alone in the world which is beautiful.
Martyn Joseph. August 2022. (Full Cropredy interview here).
Here are three more acts we can’t wait to see at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. For a great weekend of music, fun, revelry, community and guaranteed good times, you can get your ticket here. If you are a first timer and wondering what it is like at the festival, check out our First Timer’s Guide written by Fairport Convention themselves! You can find that here.
Check out our Spotify playlist of artists appearing at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention below.
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