The clouds were back over Shrewsbury for day three of the festival but a few brief showers here and there didn’t dampen the mood and we were treated to a fine day of music.
There are few better ways to start a Saturday morning than seeing Megson. Leaning heavily on last year’s essential Take Yourself a Wife they mixed their trademark harmonies on slower songs such as the yearning ’O Mary Will You Go’ with crowd-pleasing faster songs such as ’Fourpence a day’. The main stage was surprisingly full for the first gig of the day and a broken belt and mandola string didn’t stop them turning in a first class performance.
Continuing on the main stage, Jez Lowe and Kate Bramley played a fine set of songs rooted in the social history of the North East. Tales of the 1980s meshed well with new material written for the credit crunch, such as the call to arms of ’Bare Knuckle’. Following on, Chris Wood played an heartfelt and very personal set, focussing on themes from his own life. Downsizing, allotments and carrots all featured alongside traditional folk themes of love and loss.
The Maerlock played in the middle of the craft field and deservedly caught the attention of many passers by with their canny arrangements of dance tunes and boundless enthusiasm. A slow and funky version of ’I drew my ship’ also marked them out as ones to watch for the future.
The newly repaired Dance Tent was reopened and played host to a variety of styles. As ’Malmabygdens Spelman’, Oysterband’s cellist Chopper brought five Swedish fiddle players with him to lead the room in traditional Swedish dancing.
The main stage was packed well before the start of the evening programme which began with Australian male voice choir ’The Spooky Men’s Chorale’. All in black, with a fine collection of hats and beards, the spooky men entertained with perfect harmonies and great comedy timing. The audience learned of such mysteries as ’the feng shui of man-lions’ and that one should never get between a man and his tool.
Winner of the open mic competition, Julie Disney, had no need to be nervous as the quality of her songs spoke for itself. Her singer-songwriter material was based around traditional folk themes and her take on the Irish maiden throwing herself into the water over an errant boyfriend had her find that there were plenty more fish in the sea when she got there.
Hannah James and Sam Sweeney played a set from their marvellous new CD Catches and Glees. Opening, as the album does, with the forthright Gaol Song they proved themselves to be a fine duo in their own right. Their allotted 45 minutes passed in an instant and took in clog dancing, a Polska inspired by Sam’s recent sojourn in Norway and even a happy song on the way. It was revealed that that song, The Young and Single Sailor, had been recorded a corridor of Sam’s old school, described by Hannah as ’a bit like Hogwarts’.
Next on the main stage were old favourites Show of Hands. Phil Beer, newly returned from a few months away winning a tall ships race and getting a suntan, was in fine form, rejoining Steve Knightley and Miranda Sykes. The atmosphere in the big marquee was almost like a stadium gig, with the band mixing up crowd pleasers like Country Life with up to date material excoriating bankers & MPs or addressing terrorism and war.
With deft changes of pace, Show of Hands also at times created the intimate atmosphere of a folk club, leading audience sing-alongs of classics such as The Larks They Sang Melodiously. At one point, the Spooky Men joined them as backing vocalists which worked brilliantly for Cousin Jack and hilariously for a cover of The Human League’s ’Don’t You Want Me’. The crowd loved it and the band probably got the loudest applause of the festival.
If you’ve only heard Lau on record, you’re only seeing a fraction of the picture. Live, the slow parts are slower and more tender and they attack the fast passages with a ferocity that has to be seen to be believed. They flail around in their chairs like men possessed and Martin Green’s fingers blur as the accordion is played with scarcely believable speed and precision. At times the melody is interrupted with passages of barely controlled dissonance. Add to all this Martin Green’s random humour and you’ve got a fine way to round off day three of the festival.
Also worthy of mention are the workshops, children’s activities and dancing events that filled every inch of the venue and spilled out into pubs and open air locations around Shrewsbury. Surely something for everyone.
