COPPULL FOLK FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW
COPPULL FOLK FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW
Friday 9 June JAN HOUGH supported by Ken Scally
The weather was glorious as the camper vehicles and cars rolled in. Witchy arrived with his food van. Tim and Ann and friends were busy setting up the sound. Phil was sorting the lights and Alice and I sorted the chairs. Old and new friends gathered around the pub and that lovely friendly atmosphere was there once again.
Jan Hough supported by Ken Scally opened the festival. Jan delivered a dynamic performance to a very full house. Her varied set from self penned funny’s like ‘the little spider in the bath’ to ‘Jolene please take my man’; to more serious songs about current topics like climate change, as well as some covers, were very well received. There was a lot of laughing and chorus singing. She had the audience gripped with her powerful and clear voice, wonderful use of the bodhran, guitar and ukulele, and patter. Ken Scally’s excellent mandolin playing accompaniment was an added bonus. Well done Jan. Your energy and enthusiasm and delivery was excellent. We loved your set.
Friday night TIM HILTON
Tim Hilton of ‘One Hand Clapping’ is a consumate performer and delivered the charismatic performance that we have all come to love. He had so many requests and he had to abandon his set list and sing the songs we love to hear him sing, ‘From Galway to Graceland’, ‘Raglan Road’, ‘Grace’, ‘This Town’, etc. Tim played at the very first Festival here in a group called Boxtie so Ken Scally who was also in that group, accompanied him playing his mandolin with many of the songs. As the set progressed, we had many reminiscences. It was like an audience with Tim. Sometimes he let us sing and he stood back, as we all knew the words. He sang from the heart with his powerful voice. Like a fine wine Tim just gets better.
All these artists were ably helped with the wonderful sound quality that Tim and Ann provided. Thank you Tim and Ann for all your hard work, and thank you Jan, Ken and Tim for giving us a great night’s entertainment.
The session in the bar continued the great music and was just brilliant. Thanks Brendan and Janet and your staff for all your hard work. You are working non stop all day and night providing us with such a welcome venue and bar facilities.
Saturday 10 June afternoon - THE KEN SCALLY SHOWCASE
Acoustic Dukebox from Standish opened the Saturday afternoon concert. This experienced duo delivered an up beat set of singalong songs from the 60’s and 70’s like ‘ Piano Man’ and ‘Mr Dreamseller’. Dave Cavey played bass guitar and was the lead singer whilst Jeff Darbyshire played guitar and mouth organ and sang the harmonies. They made a great lively sound.
The Brunnin of Howfen Mill written by Ken Scally and Lawrence Hoy was a combination of music, poetry, prose and drama about cottage workers revolting against the new power looms that were installed in Westhoughton. The mill was attacked and burned and 5 rioters (including a small child) were hanged and 9 transported to Botany Bay. This was a big presentation with 8 people on stage. John Pearson was a powerful clear narrator. Sheila Hinds and Jan Hough dressed appropriately for the time acted their parts brilliantly with song and verse. Steve Higgins, Dave Gaskell, Ken Scally, Lawrence Hoy all played and sang various songs and had acting parts. Bernard Cromarty was the judge and his accordion playing added a great sound to the chorus songs and incidental music. This was a great history lesson delivered well. A lot of thought and hard work went into this production and it was appreciated by the large audience who stayed to listen in the sweltering heat. The rousing ‘We shall overcome’ concluded the show. This is Ken and Lawrence’s third production and we learned another piece of very interesting local history. Well done to you all. It was really enjoyable and a very worthwhile project.
Thank you to all our performers for a great and varied afternoon’s entertainment. Ken Scally’s showcase is always a great event.
Thank you Tim and Ann once again. It was not easy to mic up 8 artists on stage with a wide variety of instruments instruments and you did it brilliantly.
Saturday Night 10 June DANDELION TRAIN
Dandelion Train opened the concert and we were treated to a class act. They have a unique sound with amazing guitar and mouth organ accompaniments from Gerry Kennedy, great guitar and voice from Steve Higgins and beautiful melodic singing, whistle, flute, and low whistle tunes plus cajon box percussion, from Sue Kennedy. We were being transported to somewhere else on the planet where everything is gentle and perfect. Then Mother Nature decided to produce a thunderstorm with a cloudburst that was so loud, that it stopped the lovely sound. The water ran off the Carpark into the tent and we sat in a small lake until the water quickly drained away. Another first for the weather problems that we always get at Coppull.
This did not deter Dandelion Train who took us back to that lovely place that we were in very quickly, and they just got better. There were many choruses well suited to a folk audience with beautiful musical interludes. Gerry played the ‘King of the Fairies’ brilliantly as well as many other fast tunes that demonstrated his guitar wizardry. He was ably assisted by Steve’s excellent guitar accompaniment. Gerry is also a whizz on the mouth organ. Steve’s version of ‘There’s never enough for the poor’, was such an apt song for today’s life in the UK and was very well received. Sue varied her singing with whistle and flute interludes and was accompanied by the wonderful guitar harmonies. Their versions of ‘Will you go lassie go’ and ‘Speed Bonnie boat’ were beautiful with the Audience singing along. Thank you Dandelion Train for a beautiful musical experience.
Saturday night VISION THING
Vision Thing had to follow this excellent set and they stepped up to the mark immediately with their first number ‘Coming Home’. Shelley’s (Cherlene Walmsley) outstanding voice with accompanying deaf sign language, was backed by Pete Cunliffe on guitar, Martin Wilson on bass guitar, Paul Cunliffe on harmonium, and the haunting fiddle playing by David Windsor. They produced a full, melodic, confident, together sound like an orchestra. They had set the bar high and kept the momentum going all night as they played and sang all of their own compositions apart from Shelley singing Sandy Denny’s ‘Who knows where the time goes’. Pete Cunliffe’s poetry and song writing skills and singing knows no boundaries and he has crafted this group around his words to produce this creative and innovative band. Shelly’s rendition of A Woman like me’ written by Pete for her (and also on that CD) was just brilliant. It was great to hear old favourites like ‘The Trysting Tree’, ‘Magic Hour’, ‘Silver Darlings’, ‘There is a seam’ and many more written by Pete. I can still hear the amazing bass guitar and the haunting violin harmonies, backed by Pete’s clever guitar chords and Paul’s melodic harmonium which pulled the sound together. Shelly was outstanding. Her beautiful voice can be strong, controlled and soft to suit her songs and her diction is excellent. Vision Thing were in top form and I think they knew that by the sound of the appreciative audience.
Both of these groups were at the top of their game tonight. We are so lucky to have heard them.
Tim Marris and Ann Mace helped by Graham and Alice Fletcher had a busy night sorting out the sound for both groups and it was excellent. Thank you for all your hard work for most of Saturday.
Thank you Brendan and Janet and all your staff for your support with the bar facilities, Linda Armstrong for managing the daytime session and Andy Shute and Witchy for the lovely food.
Thank you to all the artists who help to make Saturday such a memorable live music day and to the large numbers of people who came to listen and enjoy the atmosphere
Sunday 11 June OPEN MIC
The Open Mic event was very popular and we had a big variety of excellent performers from Steve Winstanley’s medieval stringed instruments to Bad Grandad’s (Dave Gaskell) rendition of Sultan’s of Swing, to the colourful and melodic songs delivered by AD Cooke and Netty (Jannette Hunter). etc etc. It went in for over 3 hours.
Everybody sounded great. Thank you Tim Marris and Ann Mace, and Graham Fletcher for sorting the mics. Thank you Ken Scally for organising that marathon. Open mic.
Sunday Night HAZY JANE
Celia Ketchell and Rosie Clegg opened Sunday evening’s concert to another full house. Both Celia and Rosie are strong singers in their own right and so took turns in being the lead singer and their clever harmonies complimented every song they sang. The musical instrument accompaniment, with Celia on piano or guitar and Rosie on banjo or guitar, demonstrated their together musicianship. We had some of Celia’s self penned songs such as ‘Coming out of lockdown’ and ‘You’re never too old’. These cheerful upbeat songs with lovely introductions, had us joining in the choruses and singing along. Rosie’s appachian banjo style accompanied many of her Americano and bluegrass songs songs and the harmonies lifted these songs to a different level. I particularly liked ‘Milkman’ and ‘Hey mister blackbird’.
Thank you Celia and Rosie, you were a confident, polished and class act, and delivered a very entertaining set to a very appreciative audience.
Sunday Night JON BRINDLEY and farewell
Jon Brindley was the final act of the weekend and together with his wife Mary treated us to an outstanding performance. Jon was on fire and displayed his talents in so many ways from self-penned quiet reflective songs to loud cheerful dittties to piano jazzy bluesy numbers. There were a few singalongs with the words twisted to make them funny, as well as folk classics such as ‘Early morning rain’ and ‘Green grow the rushes o’. These were interspersed with rambling tales, some of which related to the songs and some not, but they were all original and highly entertaining. He had Sunak sailing down the river in a kayak, a wonderful reflective but positive song about climate change ‘The brightness of the dawn’, a song about blood (or red wine??) delivered in a foreign Dracula accent with facials and animation to match, etc etc. We never knew where he was going to take us next! Each journey was so different. The brilliant guitar, piano and piano accordion accompaniments were always spot on to match the songs.
He introduced Mary from time to time, duetting with her ukulele and his guitar, letting her sing harmonies to some of his songs and vice versa. Mary added a very colourful presence and her mainly uptempo solos such as ‘I can shimmy’ were done with gusto and panache. Jon and Mary were very together and complimented each other with ease.
They were just a class act. There was such a lot of work involved in delivering such a wonderful set with so many different and beautifully written, thoughtful and funny self penned music and songs. Jon is a talent that knows no boundaries and we are delighted to have the privilege of seeing him again and being appreciated by a wonderful audience. You could hear the silence as he drew us in and took us to his magic places with such a beautiful voice and wonderful varied accompaniment. Then we would be treated to a loud off the wall number like Sunak’s Kayak and Dracula’s blood, or to a beautiful folk singalong. He had us charmed.
Thank you Mary for being such a great complimentary talent to your musically gifted other half. Thank you Jon for putting your heart and soul and everything else into that brilliantly crafted set. It was a privilege to have been on that journey with you.
Again Tim Marris, Ann Mace were tested with the sound work. Hazy Jane changed instruments several times and Jon moved from guitar to piano to accordion often. Thank you for all your hard work all weekend and to Alice and Graham for helping them. You all worked hard and the sound was excellent.
Thank you to all the artists who came and entertained us so well.
Thank you to Brendan and Janet and staff of the Alison Arms who worked tirelessly to provide us with a friendly venue and well needed refreshments all weekend. Thank you to Ken Scally who did an excellent job of getting such a good line up of artists and keeping the show on the road. You were brilliant. Thank you to Andy Shute and Witchy for all the lovely food. Thank you to the Peter and the staff at the rugby club for providing camping facilities and Ken for the stage.. Thank you to all the other helpers, the raffle ticket sellers, the people who donated raffle prizes, Phil Regan and the tent team, who worked so hard on Thursday and Monday. Thank you Coronet Hire for the chairs. Thank you to Ken Scally and Kevin Brady for selling fund raiser tickets so that we could even make this happen. Thank you world for the 99% of beautiful weather. Lastly thank you, the audience, for coming and listening and creating the friendly atmosphere that this festival always enjoys. It was another brilliant weekend.
