Cambridge Folk Festival 2003 - Review

United Kingdom | by John Bownas | 01 August 2003

Cambridge Folk Festival 2003 - Friday

Cambridge, home of a great british institution...not for us the university though - rather the Charles Wells Folk Festival. A megalith amongst UK folk gatherings. Always a sell out. The spiritual home of the cut down deckchair, and purveyors of fine jugs of pimms!

Cambridge Folk Festival occupies a special place in the hearts of Britain's folk community. It is where the phrase "cool as folk" finds itself most at home, and with next year seeing the event enter its fourth decade, it's nothing if not a mature gathering.

Household name acts blend over three and a half days with more grass roots bands, but whoever is playing, they all set out to showcase traditional musical values and skills to an audience made up of converts and newcomers alike.

The Waifs for instance - sisters Donna & Vicki and guitarist Josh - started out their musical career touring Australia's many outback towns, playing anywhere and to anyone. Now they have recorded four independant albums, the last of which went gold out in Oz in no time at all. They have found a sound of their own in songs like Fishermans Daughter, Crazy Train and Lies, Lies, Lies, that melds up-tempo bluesy folk (courtesy of vocals reminiscent of Michelle Shocked), with slower, more thoughtful and soulsy tunes that provide a refreshing lull to punctuate a heartfelt set on a grey Friday here in Cambridge.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band grabbed the previously sedate and largely seated main stage crowd, picked them up, shook them awake and brought funky hip-hop preacher-man sunshine into the lives of a few thousand Cambridge festival goers who clearly have ears for far far more than traditional anglo-saxon folk melodies. 'I Don't Know' was Chuck Berry on amphetemines and a keyboard, and the whole set proved an electrifying immersion into a wild sea of steel guitar and hammond organ.

If you are going to say Galicia properly then it has to be with a heavy lisp. Berroguetto are Spanish through and through, and like their pirate forebears they plunder musical treasure chests wherever they find them, looking for the booty that can be blended into their growing melange of contemporary and traditional rythmns, riffs and lyrics. Given their shameless acquisition of musical heritage they can also be excused for lifting imagery made famous by the Red Hot Chili peppers for their press pack photos...

Bob Fox and the Hush take northeastern folk melodies and traditional narrative stories about characters like Geordie Black (with his sorry tale of unrequited love in a pub toilet) and give them new life and relevance in a far too cynical world. Bob is old school in his style and his manner - a gentleman troubadour teacher, his other festival appearance this weekend is running a harmony and melody workshop for budding vocal stars...catch him again at Cropredy Festival.

La Bottine Soriante almost manage to steal the show as second headliners. They need every inch of the large stage, as their are a lot of them, and there 'percussive dancer' is a whirling ball of frenetic energy in micked up tap shoes.

The night is rounded off in exceptional style by the exhuberant and well received Saw Doctors, whose set includes the anthemic Tommy K, the retro titled Red Cortina, and is capped off with a final encore of Tiger Man.

Back at the campsite - just a short bus ride away - it's time for a really great kebab and an open mic session that offers a stage to all comers...