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Oyster Ceilidh Band with ace caller Gordon Potts (left)
A
h yes, the busking challenge. This is where Billy
invites the audience to vote on which of his old busk-
ing favourites they want him to play. The choice? The
Carpenters or Bob Dylan. Naturally, everyone pleads
for The Carpenters – as he knew they would – and Bill
goes into Superstar before berating them for trying to make him
look ridiculous and switches to Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright
instead (“Actually, Superstar was written by Delaney & Bonnie, so
it’s not just any old cheesy Carpenters song,” he tells me later).
Completely solo, Bragg is in vintage form, having lots of fun at
politicians’ expense(s), hectoring the audience for not joining in
with enough gusto (“You’re not at Cecil Sharp House now,
y’know”), introducing a brilliant new song Constitution Hill, doing
lots of Woody Guthrie stuff and belting out all the hits, including
Between The Wars, reintroduced into his set with a rambling
introduction about how he stopped singing it because it had nos-
talgic connotations, but now it doesn’t so it’s alright to sing it
again – or something.
The Big Session’s all-embracing values are confirmed by the
idiosyncratic canvas of styles laid out for our delectation on the
sunny Sunday: Beat poets and jug bands in the bar, high jinks in
the garden, angel wings all over the place. In layout and atmo-
sphere it’s a little reminiscent of the old folk/ roots festivals in
Bracknell, lacking only Bill Caddick’s Rough Music sessions. What’s
the definition of folk music? Who bloody cares?
See, some get Alasdair Roberts – who opens Sunday’s proceed-
ings – plenty don’t. Personally I think he’s godlike and the Big Top
continues to spin all day under the beguiling Austrian whirl of Fati-
ma Spar & The Freedom Fries and Bristol’s Spiro, not so much straight
tunesmiths, more benign and surreptitious sound anarchists.
Which sets us up nicely for the Bad Shepherds, who’ll wind up
not just as the hit of this festival, but probably every other festival
this summer (after all, they do seem to be on them all). It’s not a
totally original idea to play punk classics in a folkie stylee (Simon
Ritchie and The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain have both done
memorable versions of Anarchy In The UK) but there’s something
engagingly sincere, almost touching, in the way they deliver every-
thing from Whole Wide World to She’s A Model. Sure, it’s part nov-
elty act, part nostalgic trawl, but nobody spits and surrounding him-
self with musicians of the calibre of Maartin Allcock and Troy
Donockley is an Ade Edmondson master stroke which lifts it far
beyond a comedic level. Not that there isn’t comedy too – their rein-
terpretation of All Around My Hat proves that and Ade’s irreverent
asides are very funny. Then again, he’s earned his corn for the last 25
years as a comedian so they should be. Are all folk music fans ex-
punk rockers? Best not analyse Bad Shepherds too thoroughly, just
enjoy the ride. And The Big Session does, by God it does.
Kathryn Tickell is another revelation, delivering the best live
show I’ve seen from her, duelling fiddles with brother Peter in a
thrilling, illuminating set of the finest playing, even encoring with
a rare vocal. But it’s the Oysterband’s party and they can play if
they want to… blasting us home with wall-to-wall anthems and
blazing goodwill.
“Thanks for coming,” says the man at the gate as we bid
adieu. “Who do you reckon we should put on next year then?” he
asks. Hmmm, I ponder. See if that Woody Guthrie character is
available. I hear he likes a Big Session.
www.bigsessionfestival.com F
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