Nestled in the grassy grounds of Hatfied House, three and a half thousand people erected their camping chairs, unpacked their picnics and settled down to a eminently civilised and exceptionally organised day of music. The wonderful sounds of The Shee started things off and their live performance lived up to their reputation and more. Their purple electric harp looked and sounded exceptionally funky and laid down the bass. It was a shame it was so early in the day, as they should by rights have had the crowd up and dancing, but failing that, they did get us all doing a slightly odd seated dance.
Moving swiftly on, The Shee were followed in short order by Chris Wood, a singer who well deserves the title folk-singer of the year. Understated guitar accompaniment matches perfectly with his mellow voice. The songs varied from the traditional (Imagined Village’s stalwart Cold, hailey, rainy night, which felt strangely chilling in a quiet field surrounded by trees) to a love song via a number of Chris’ self-penned stock-in-trade songs of England, often with a political bent. A highlight of this set has to be the song ’My daughter’s hard’. A truer story of modern life it might be hard to find. It certainly found some common ground of familiarity with the audience!
Chris and Karine Polwart graced us with a song from the Darwin Song Project before Karine started her set. Her wonderful clear voice and insightful songs are perfect music for a chilled out sunny afternoon. Shame it wasn’t as sunny as all that, but it didn’t detract from her music at all.
Jim Moray was up next to kick-start the livelier end of the afternoon with a guesting Saul Rose in place of convalescing melodeon-player Nick Cooke. The band set off into an exploration of the boundaries between pop and folk. The audience seemed to have warmed up by this point, and Jim managed to get some of us joining in with the chorus of the XTC cover All You Pretty Girls to finish his set.
From there on the mood stayed upbeat – Kathryn Tickell and her band stunned us with some fabulous Northumbrian pipe tunes (there were definitely people dancing now!), despite the weather turning worse. A highlight was provided when she slowed down her usual frenetic pace and an unnamed apocalyptic lament echoed mournfully across the field in the drizzle. To curse us all, she finished off with a tune (written by piper Andy May) about, you’ve guessed it, the rain!
Well, rain it did for most of the rest of the night, but it certainly didn’t dampen Lau’s set as they blew through the weather with a set of lively and exciting tunes. They get better each time I see them and (unusually for them) they played mostly standing. It really suited them and they overflowing enthusiasm is infectious. There were some beautiful slow breaks that showcase their exceptional musical talent. Guitarist Kris Drever seems to be the glue holding them together and also provides wonderfully Scottish-lilted vocals. Superb.
The evening finished off with a heavily pregnant Kate Rusby, her last performance before some maternity leave. Her voice well suits the down-to-earth songs, and the fantastic musical accompaniment from Andy Cutting, Andy Seward and Damien O’Kane had the crowd who had stuck out the rain pleased that they had done so. A wonderful day’s music – here’s hoping they have better luck with the weather next year!
Review by Ellie and Christopher.