That Strange Throat Singer

[PLW (Peter)]

Have a look at Gareth's article on the Fairport website, here:

http://www.fairportconvention.com/cropredy_news.php#news2

Among the responses you'll find some by a person called "Ruth", who clearly hated the whole experience, especially Fairport. Fair enough, but she repeatedly refers to the appearance of "that strange throat singer" on Saturday night. You'll need to read down the postings a bit.

According to her it prompted a mass exodus of the field. What is she talking about? Any ideas?

[Andrea Freebury]

I have just been reading the mentioned comment(s) and I am as puzzled as you. She can only be talking about Simon Nicol, I suppose.In my response I suggested that maybe she was rejected by either Simon or another Fairport member in the past and this is her revenge. .Sounds like a woman I don´t want to meet ever in my life.

[Tertonmike]

  Beats me!   Rarely has my gob been so smacked.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion all right, but some people just have very strange opinions!  I have no idea who the "throat singer" was and there certainly weren't any people anywhere near me leaving at the start of, or during Fairport's set.  They are the main reason we go and OF COURSE they should always close the show on Saturday.   As someone else posted in the comments on Gareth's article, the clue is in the name "FAIRPORT'S Cropredy Convention".   Still baffled!  

[MikeB (Mike)]

Having just looked over Saturday's lineup and read Ruth's comment I am also puzzled.

Unless she meant Ralph or Nik (unlikely), the most obvious suspect would be the front man from Dreadzone when he was doing his deep-voiced-growl "RIGHT" but a) that was in the afternoon, not the evening and b) I don't think there was a mass exodus when Dreadzone were on.

[Bob Barrows]

I thought she was talking about Chris Leslie, myself. I guess it can sound like he's not using his diaphragm at all ...

[Keith]

I reckon it was Sid Kipper - couldn't understand a word of Black Bonnie Hare.

I think she's a sad, lonely person who just likes winding people up to get noticed.

[PaulT]

Perhaps there was a wormhole in the space-time continuum and Ruth was hearing Dave Cousins from a couple of years ago (only joking, folks!)

[GubGub (Al)]

To be fair, some of what she says in her various postings is not unreasonable and she clearly enjoyed the festival in general. I think she has just hamstrung herself through having no previous awareness of Fairport or their significance to the event, finding them not to her taste and with her mystifying reference to the "strange throat singer".

I suspected she meant Ralph McTell but if, as she contends, it was part of the Fairport line up and prompted some sort of exodus, at least on her part, it must have been Chris as he took the lead vocals on the early part of the set. It is a peculiar and wildly inaccurate description though.

I wonder if Keith might be right and Mr Kipper's rendition of The Bonny Black Hare might have been the culprit. I can certainly understand how that might have driven people away and Ruth may not know that he is not actually part of the band.

[Buddy Freebury]

Well I did read this report and even though I was not at Cropredy this year I am still baffled as to who the "throat singer" could be certainly not one of Fairport

As for Fairport not playing the final gig of the festival as this Ruth suggests .... it is like giving someone a Birthday Cake and then saying .... "but you can't eat any of it"  

[JeremyRS]

I think that's exactly right GubGub, Ruth does say right at the start that she enjoyed the festival and the experience but didn't like Fairport's set.  To be fair to her, outside people who post on this and other boards, I have known over the years a lot of people who go to Cropredy for the event or for band X or Y and really aren't bothered about Fairport at all.  They may not be a majority but I think they're a significant minority.

Fairport aren't the biggest act at Cropredy, but they will always headline (unlike Oysterband at Big Session), and perhaps someone who'd seen who'd seen Steve Winwood, Richard Thompson, Seth Lakeman etc was expecting someone "bigger" for want of a better word.

[KascadeDan]

I'm sorry, but my first thoughts about this are 'What is she on?!'

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

I read her comments.. and responded to them...  I wondered if her throat singer reference was meant to be Sid Kipper.

She quite clearly knows nothing about my fave band!

[MikeB (Mike)]

Perhaps there was a wormhole in the space-time continuum and Ruth was hearing Dave Cousins from a couple of years ago (only joking, folks!)

Ahahaha! Glad it's not just me...

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

There have been a lot more comments...  Ruth hasn't made herself very popular!

[Brendan]

Did make a comment on a previous link that certain people in certain bands are beyond criticism, clearly I must have been wrong.

[Dave B]

Leave it in the playground, eh?  

Quite agree... I like a bit of debate as much as the next TAWer but some of the Cropredy threads have been a bit, well, sour this year...

[JeremyRS]

Thirded.

This is not the first thread that I've noticed where "it's nice to be nice" appears to apply only to members of this board and Fairport while anyone in the wider world, particularly those like Ruth (whose not unreasonable points have clearly touched a nerve for some people here) are fair game for any and all comments.  The smell of double standards is not a pleasant one.

[Keith]

I was simply referring to the possibility that she was a troll - that's the staple of "sad, lonely people who like winding others up". Whether through brute clumsiness or malice, she managed, in a short comment, to denegrate both the organisers and everyone who likes Fairport. No mean feat.

[JeremyRS]

Saying Faiport were dull doesn't denigrates everyone who likes them, and if you thought she was a troll why not say so instead of attacking her personally?

I repeat, double standards, but just to be clear (and obviously I don't think this), imagine the opprobrium that would descend on my head were I to say, apropos Amethyst's comment that Faiport were her fave band that there are hundreds of better bands so she must be bonkers and a sad lonely old woman who needs to get out more.

[Keith]

Here's her first comment - you decide:

8 showers for two fields of campers or more is dire to say the least. Far too many dogs at the festival as well. Was my first time, loved the crowd and the atmosphere, food and the shopping...the music was mostly enjoyable and I know its their gig and the long term festival goers won't like me saying it but....the field started to clear as soon as that strange throat singer started on Saturday night and as Fairport started their set. Play at some point by all means but they killed the atmosphere at the end so maybe its time they let one of the younger bands/artists take that spot to finish with a high. One man I talked to on the way back to the tent said he'd been coming for years but would not come again and the number of people who left as their set went on said it all.

And then her second comment contained this gem:

I loved 90% of the music but not Fairport or for want of a better word the 'throat singer'. Fairport were dull dull dull and the night ended as flat as their music.

That's about as close to trolling on the Fairport web site as I've ever seen.