Shrewsbury Folk Festival got off to a fine start as the forecast thunderstorms didn’t materialise, instead ravaging the rest of the country. The music started early with sessions in the music tent, and on the village stage - the perfect accompaniment to the first festival pie and pint. Meanwhile the children’s activities also got busy with a lantern workshop and animal-shaped lanterns were soon to be seen all over the site.
In fact there was so much going on that we’ve split our coverage over three articles. Let’s start with part one, the headliners…
Headliners
Marquee 1’s music opened with Basque musician Kepa Junkera and his band. He is a master of the melodeon (trikitixa) and was accompanied by keyboards, drums and an unusual selection of percussion - notably a large txalaparta, a xylophone-type instrument which needed to be played by two people holding what looked like rolling pins. He had no English (apart from “Thank you very much”) but it was a compelling performance.Due to a logistical foul-up, 17 hippies (though I’m fairly sure there were only 12 of them) spent all of their hour-long afternoon set sound-checking. Although their front man did his best to keep the crowd entertained, he was on to a loser. Sadly, things didn’t improve much at their evening gig where by the end of the set the marquee was half empty.
By way of contrast, the only dampener on Bellowhead’s set was the steward’s insistence that the band couldn’t come on until everyone not in the far-too-small standing area were seated. At the end of a summer that has seen them take in 22 festivals, they are by now an astonishingly capable festival headliner. It makes you wonder what size of an audience they can’t captivate. The star of their high energy set was Jon Boden, who is increasingly relishing his role as frontman of this eleven-headed monster.
The recently-reformed Home Service played to a packed Boxfresh Marquee. Most of those there were fans of the band first time round, and would have enjoyed the show under any circumstances, but even for a newcomer they were a great band to watch. The 8 piece band includes an orchestral standard brass section. One particular highlight was John Tams’ song “Scarecrow” which ended with an excerpt from Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending”. A fine set of songs and tunes interspersed with anecdotes and corny jokes from John Tams. The standing ovation at the end of the set was no surprise.
The Imagined Village played with new member Jackie Oates (who rushed over from the Cecil Sharp Project gig with minutes to spare). Quite a lot of new material was included in the set as the band are currently working on a new album. Jackie is a welcome addition to the band, especially as Eliza was recovering from bronchitis and seemed to be struggling at times. On the whole it was a tight performance, but with some of the newer material needs to be bedded in. However, their encore of “Cold Haily Rainy Night" was well received and had the audience dancing.
Review by Shelley Rainey & Christopher Friedenthal
