23/02/2010

Stellar line-up for Fairport’s Cropredy Convention

International flavour in festival’s thirtieth year

Fairport Convention has announced the line-up for its annual music festival, Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. The festival organisers have also announced that tickets will go on sale on Monday 1 March.
 
The event is celebrating its thirtieth year and will take place on Thursday 12, Friday 13 and Saturday 14 August 2010. The festival will be held at its usual site in countryside north of Banbury, Oxfordshire, three miles from Junction 11 of the M40 motorway.
 
Headliners include rockers Status Quo, 2 Tone ska star Pauline Black of Selecter, folk orchestra Bellowhead, keyboard maestro Rick Wakeman and Jazz guitar maestro Martin Taylor (whose CV includes a long stint with Stephane Grappelli).
 
America is represented by country rock legends Little Feat and alt-bluegrass band Dixie Bee-Liners. Local acts include Thea Gilmore and Little Johnny England. Wales is represented by singer-songwriter Martin Joseph and fiery Celtic folkrockers Mabon. Footstomping reelers Breabach fly the flag for Scotland and high octane Cornish trio Three Daft Monkeys return to the festival by popular demand.
 
As usual, Cropredy will warmly welcome the winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award; this year the lucky youngster is Dorset-based singer-guitarist James Findlay.
 
"It's a real coup to get the mighty Status Quo at last," says Simon Nicol, Fairport's lead singer and festival co-organiser. "Lots of our festival-goers have asked for the band down the years. We're equally delighted with the rest of the line-up: it's one of our most eclectic mixes ever and has really broad appeal across genres and generations. We've pulled out all the stops for Cropredy's thirtieth year and we've got a strong international flavour with something for every musical taste. When tickets go on sale at the beginning of March, we expect demand to be heavy so we advise people to get their orders in quickly.”

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