So,my summing up
(tl;dr lovely jubbly but hard work with the heat. Roll on next year.

So I was dreading being badly incapacitated with a gammy knee but an injection I had 2 weeks before finally kicked in (excuse the pun) and made the whole thing doable.

Big shout out first to Trad Arrr, who gave their official final bow on Wednesday at the Mill in Banbury. A stonking set from a bunch of first class musicians and all round good eggs, who carried the torch for folk rock and will be sorely missed.

The oppressive heat changed my usual strategy this year and I didn't even see the village - I conserved energy by staying between F8 and the field. Weird kind of annoyances abounding like phone not charging because it was too hot added to the whole thing being just harder work than normal (but well worth it). So, to the bands:

After a lovely acoustic start from the chaps, Banter were very enjoyable folk rocky stuff. Soft machine were a no-brainer for a tent break, but I was glad to hear some of it over the hedges as  I walked back, as it confirmed my suspicion that it wasn't for me. I'll stick to Caravan for my Canterbury fixes.
(random canterbury scene trivia - Robert Wyatt's next band Matching Mole was a play on the French Machine Molle, or Soft Machine...)

Missed Matt Bragg and Turin Brakes - I'm sure the latter would have passed an hour pleasantly but wasn't to be. But Thursday was topped off by the magnificent Vent du Nord, even better than my memory of the last time. Brilliant stuff.

So, the relatively Siberian Friday was opened with the lovey experience of the local schoolkids. To see the looks of awe and glee on their faces was heartwarming and a lovely start to the day. Danny and the Champions sounded Ok from under the shade of the trees. Danny Bradly is one to watch, with flashes of brilliance and occasional hints of Roy Harper Lite. I feel like he hasn't truly found his niche yet and is still exploring, but defo one to watch.
Celtic Social Club were enjoyable though it seemed to me they had to keep remembering to put some Celtic bits in to honour their name.
MGW I missed for a tent break, but I was lucky to catch the second half of Breabach  and a welcome bagpipe fix. The highlight of my day (if not the festival) was the Spookies - a truly class act who've simply got better and better. ... pity they couldn't have switched billing with RT (***heresy alert**) for while I appreciate his guitaring and songwriting genius I simply can't stand his voice, and it gets worse with time (IMHO of course...). As for Zara Philips, not sure if she's worthy of a billing - she just seemed to be an OK backing singer to me.

So, the positively Arctic Saturday with no car boot or Digance started OK with Gerry Colvin (feathers instead of hankies - a kind of surreal and (presumably intended) touch; and the day got better with Rob Jones etc - energy, intelligence and nice feelgood stuff.

The Haar - a one-trick pony that could have been so much better given their obvious talent. They could have used more original or diverse material for their brooding treatment that might have suited better than a cliched list of songs obviously not meant to be treated that way. I had to choose between Barbara and Hayseed Dixie and I'm glad I chose Barbara. For the reviews they seem to be very marmite, but I love marmite. Where better to be irrepressibly quirky and English than at an irrepressibly quirky English festival. Stackridge meets Divine Comedy - what's not to like?

Pound and Butterworth brushed over me as I happily put faces to a few more avatars at the toast. Yes, he can play a mouth organ and she can play a guitar. Grand.

So the chaps themselves - on fine form IMO. No real complaints about the setlist apart from that bloody Bankruptured - they have hundreds of tunes to choose from, time to switch from that one. Nice to See Ralph. Vicki Clayton, I'm sorry, was tweer than some of Rick's worst songs (is tweer a word?) - and I hate it when people sing "and" at the start of every line for no particular reason. MOTL once again made it all worth while, and I can't wait till next year.

Big shout for F8/Cream of the Crop, my base for about 5 years now and now meeting some good regular friends there. Nice to have background music around the site, and I was delighted to catch Leatherat for the first time. The buzz on F8 was brilliant on Saturday - they're really getting their act together.

So, a lovely weekend, hard work but well worth it. As for next year? Well, first I'll be happy just to get there (as I'm sure will many other of that certain demographic). Maybe it will be the last one, and if so, as Mick says, I hope with a bang not a whimper. Personally, if the chaps want to bow out, I'd be happy to see the mantle passed on to a younger crowd if they could still keep alive the spirit of all that's good about Cropredy. I'd call it the Ledge - where people meet in a beautiful place in a spirit of love to celebrate and contemplate the past, present and future (as I believe was RT's original concept of the song).

Sorry for the long stream of consciousness, my mouse got carried away. How many sleeps now?

.Yes, smaller festivals are definitely likely, but we have to be able to take seats so that’s no 1 consideration. The line up is no 2 - we’re a broad church musically but it’ll need to be over 50% to get us there.
But first we’ve got to sell the house with all that entails (getting rid of 65 years of accumulated junk treasures…) a busy year!

Signal Meridian,  a band I've only just heard of, are releasing a Strawbs tribute  soon   . They aren't actually calling  it that,  but a 'reimagining' but you get the drift.  

This is just brilliant! Well done all.

here you go:

Saucy Sailor* The Lark in the Morning; Blessed Quiteness ;Sheath and Knife; We Shall Wear Midnight; The Blacksmith*; Three Drunken Maidens*; I am an Oak Tree; Sheep Crook and Black Dog;  I live Not Where I Love*; Mother and Child*; From a Lullaby Kiss; Mad Tom of Bedlam;  (Encore) Betsy Bell and Mary Grey

This will also be the set list from which the album will made from (they recorded 3 of the concerts to use for the album) . Whether they use every track or not I don't know

I only discovered today that there was briefly a 4-piece line-up of ZZ Top before Frank and Dusty joined. They cut a couple of tracks which were released as a single. The songs are available on the Goin' 50 boxed set.

But very sad to hear of Frank's passing. I first saw them at the Donington Festival back in 1985 and more recently at the Manchester Apollo. Must admit I still mainly listen to the pre-Eliminator albums. I've put together a tribute mix to go out on the radio next week.  

It was great to meet up with everybody (even if I did leave my fez at home!) and I can see a bit of the back of my head and straw hat in the first picture!)

I enjoyed Hayseed Dixie and Richard Thompson (although his set wasn't as glorious as I would have expected) I thoroughly enjoyed Banter, Spookies,  Danny Bradley, Celtic Social Club, Beabrach, Turin Brakes, Le Vent Du Nord and Rob Jones and the Restless Dream.

Gilmour Marshall Webbs were obviously very talented, but I was underwhelmed by their material and their stage presence. I wasn't impressed with Barbara, even though they were obviously well received. I just found them annoying, sorry.

If this festival (and by extension Fairport themselves) is slowly coming to an end, I hope it goes out with a bang.

I have been going to Cropredy, on and off, for forty years.  It's always been an incredibly friendly festival - well organised and set in idyllic countryside.  I think Andy has caught the slightly different mood this year - a sense of an ending, or the beginning of an ending.  I have been a Fairport fan since the first album, and followed them through all the line-up changes and dramatic events through the years.  This is a remarkable band, with a quite remarkable track record, and an almost uniquely loyal following.  But we - the fans - and the band itself, are all getting old.  The programme notes echoed that this year - and though I thought it was a bit of a downer, it was only facing up to reality.  Andy captures the lack of energy in the field, almost a sense of going through the motions.  I would exclude RT from this - and it was heartening that his two best songs were the new ones. A 6500 max festival is limited in the acts it can attract - and this year it showed.  Le Vent du Nord were amazing, but too many seemed to be going through the motions or just repeating a tired format (Hayseed Dixie for one).

Dave Pegg will be eighty in October.  The others are not far behind.  They have given us some of the best music of our lives - and they are still magnificent musicians.  But I for one hope that that next year will be both a glorious celebration and final farewell.

Tonight, 9pm 'til 11pm : Scattering The Roots with Dan Ogus...two hours of the finest folk, roots, blues, etc...plenty of etc...

I've rifled through my vaults to bring you some excellent music both new and vintage every Wednesday evening...

This week's show features the following artists :

The Weight Band, June Tabor & Oysterband, Malcolm Holcombe, Michael Jerome Browne, Wild Ponies, Roseanne Cash, Teddy Thompson, The Puss Puss Band, Fink, Leo Kottke, Abi Moore, Hummingbird, Steve Wallis, Kate Rusby, Lou Reed, Michael Nesmith, Jeffrey Foucault, Mike Edel, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Robert Johnson, Ahab, Bert Jansch...

Listen tonight, 9pm 'til 11pm on Portsmouth's Express FM, on DAB and online here :

https://www.expressfm.com/programmes/scattering-the-roots/