Oysterband

Spokes had originally been due to work today but her colleagues were kind enough to give her the day off so she could accompany me over to Southport to attend the Love Folk Festival and experience a fantastic day of music. Hurrah!

For a folkie such a me, it was bliss. We saw 5 terrific acts over 9 hours kicking off with the amazing guitar playing and voice of John Smith who puts me in mind of a young John Martyn. Spokes first saw him play in a Liverpool basement about a decade ago and his star really seems to be in the ascendant these days.

Next up were the raggle-taggle punky/folkie/gypsy stylings of Cornwall's finest, 3 Daft Monkeys. I was really looking forward to seeing them after hearing a recent live radio session they did for Mark Radcliffe and they didn't disappoint. We had a nice chat with the band's Tim Ashton after their performance just before they headed down to Bristol to play their second gig of the day!

Then it was time to see the lovely Luke Daniels who stole our hearts with his beautiful songs and gentle soul. He's recently made the leap from acclaimed melodeon player to singer-songwriter with a social conscience and admitted when I spoke to him later that he's finding it quite a scary transition. But he really shouldn't worry. He was brilliant, despite feeling distinctly under the weather, and gave a superb performance. 

As if that wasn't enough, the next act was the ever-enchanting Jackie Oates, whose voice, fiddle playing and engaging stage presence with her trio (as today) or with folk/world/electronic supergroup The Imagined Village always brighten my day. She has a new album out soon and promises that it will represent a change of style for her, I can't wait to see what she comes up with...

And finally to the headline act. I've been an Oysterband fan for 30 years and have seen them play on a number of occasions but tonight was special as it marked the return to the stage, after a nasty bout of illness, of singer and melodeon player, John Jones. He noted that he'd be refraining from crowd-surfing but he gave a terrific performance - as did the whole band - and I sang along heartily with the band (and audience) as they encored with a beautiful rendition of Put Out The Lights without aid of microphones or electrics of any kind. Much like this!

I took photos of all the performers and, in the absence of the Blipfolio feature, have posted some of them here if you're interested. But the night belonged to John Jones, so I really had to blip him.