# MC signals to Rory McCloud that he has ten minutes left. Rory begins to chat about which song he will sing, which song he would have song, who this song is about, what someone once said to him about the person who the song is about. MC signals that he now has five minutes left.
# If you’ve never heard Rory, look him up. He’s been described as a folkie Ian Dury. There is a rappish digressiveness to his songs, wild free association about people he’s kissed and fruit at Spitlefield market. An utter one off.
# The final Oysterband gig was of course wonderful. But even better was the “pearls from the oysters” session in the morning, in which story teller Taffy Thomas told anecdotes about the band’s history, while the Oysters themselves chipped in songs. For all the eighties rock stylings, they are still very much a folk band. Hearing Hal En Tow Jolly Rumberlow acoustically in an intimate setting may be the highlight of the festival so far.
# Rosie Hood opened for the Oysters in the big tent. I will be singing the song about the ladies of Versailles who persisted for the rest of the weekend, and Roy Bailey’s “everything possible” never fails to evoke a tear. Her own song writing is exceptional: the one about the Norman monk who flew (or at any rate, plummeted) from the monastery clock tower I have heard before, but the one about the Victorian lady who was mauled to death by a circus tiger she had poked, told from the tigers point of view, was new to me.
# Rory’s set was followed by Robb Johnson, who plunged straight in with a song about racism (“the tories outlawed Robin Hood, cut down the hundred acre wood, but blame it on the refugees) and a presumably week-old song in which a woman in the Blitz wonders which city the Nazis and going to bomb tonight, while a contemporary person wonders which city the far-right are going to riot in. He finished with Be Reasonable And Demand The Impossible Now. The MC described him as the best political song writer who is also a primary school teacher. I expect the revolution to start any day now.
#Two talks about folk music and Child Ballads by Brian Peters
#Rory turned up to the campfire session on the top of the hill at midnight. He did three songs, joined the tune players on a plastic orange trombone, and listened to all the other singers. The lady who gestilicuates a complicated pagan reimagining of the Twa Magicians. The man who sings funny songs about people in his morris dance group that no one could possible know. The couple singing banjo accompanied songs in possibly Welsh. The big guy in the black hat who sings out of key sea shanties. It is even possible that he assayed The Day The Nazi Died.
Beer 3.5
Pasties 1
Lofty Talls Ships 2
Lakes of Cool Flynn (or somewhere else where there is deep and false water) 2
Didn’t We Have A Lovely Time The Day We Went to Bagor - Very definitely none at all
Total Hours 8 hours
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