Saturday, August 15, 2015

Cropredy Day 2

It absolutely hammered down with rain on Friday night. On Saturday morning it was misty with a very light drizzle, but at least it wasn't cold. 

We headed to the main arena in the afternoon, where we soon spotted the hippies of the day ...

Amazingly we bumped into Elaine's sister in law Jill.  We had only just heard that she was here and Elaine literally bumped into her - not bad in a crowd of 20,000!

Conehead in the crowd ...

The first band we watched was Judith Owen, who we had never heard of, but she was an incredibly talented lady and a brilliant vocalist.  She was joined on stage for a couple of songs by her husband Harry Shearer, who was in the comedy band Spinal Tap and is also the voice of many of the Simpsons characters including ... Mr Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders and Rev Skinner to name a few ...

We then took a break from the arena and took a walk down to Cropredy village with Jill.  The last time we were here was two years ago on the boat.  They certainly turn it on with various street markets and stalls, the pubs have bands playing, it is a really great atmosphere.

We bought a beer in the Red Lion, but went across the road to the graveyard which was a bit quieter!!
Elaine wanted to have a chat with Jill and catch up on all the goss. 

Having a beer on a gravestone!   (Not very 'pc' I suppose, but it is accepted in this cemetery.  All the stones are very, very old - felt kind of nice to give a bit of 'life' to the place for a while!) ...

Comparing muddy wellies ...

Back to the arena we caught the end of Skerryvore, who were brilliant, and happened to be Scottish.

Next up was Fish who also happened to be Scottish.  Once again, a great performance!  He was the lead singer for the band Marillion.  His real name is Derek William Dick so was pretty keen to find a nickname early in his career apparently! ...

He really got the crowd going ...

20,000 people ballet dancing ...

Scottish Hippy ...

In the evening yet another Scottish band...The Proclaimers.  They were good but not brilliant, they just seemed to go through the motions and not interact with the crowd ...

The evening sky was a cracker and hopefully a precursor to a sunny Saturday ...

The Proclaimers predictably finished with 500 miles ...

Last up for the night were Level 42 who came on stage at 22.30 and blew the audience away!
We watched  and listened to the last few numbers from the comfort of the van as we were getting a bit weary and chilly.  This wrapped up another brilliant day at midnight!

As the red sky predicted today is a cracker lets hope it lasts!

Today's thoughts on Cropredy ... if we are in the country next August we will definitely do it again!

PEACE - LOVE - JOY xx

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