Napton Music Festival 2023 (Saturday) - Fun, Great Music and a Downpour
Review
Saturday at the Napton Music Festival had it all, wonderful live music, a fantastic vibe but unfortunately also traditional festival weather which hit at 7.30 ish which made the front of stage standing area a mud bath and the stage itself soaked, not quite Woodstock 1969 but you get the picture.
This unfortunately led to the final two bands of the night having the plug pulled for safety reasons so no The Badgers or headliners Spicey Girls who will both hopefully perform another year.
We still had around 8 hours of great music on the Saturday though (and the Friday of the festival was fine) and even when the event had to be cancelled the crowd remained in good spirits with the beer tent packed to the rafters many joining in mass sing-a-longs.
The main stage performances (really strong line up this year) started with three fine tribute bands ‘Seven Hours Behind' a high octane trio who included an early doors AC/DC number in their set to wake us all up, ‘No More Moaning' with an acoustic set embellished with the enchanting sound of a cello and ‘Bob Phillips Dylan Rhythm Band' with an original spin on the master songwriters classics.
Mixing originals and covers '4th Labyrinth' made a welcome return to Napton with the ace bass work and always colourful dreadlocks of Claudia Mckenzie adding sparkle to the bands 70's style sounds, ‘Room17' a power packed female fronted rock covers band really beefed up the sound of tracks by the likes of Blondie and Radiohead.
Punk also featured with the self proclaimed "best-worst band you have ever seen" ‘Dead Frequency' with their zippy short Ramones-esque original numbers performed while darting all over the stage and closing with a punked up version of B*Witched classic ‘C'est La vie'.
Amazing vocals next with ‘Rhythm Street' and Helen's phenomenal voice shined during the bands eclectic set of covers which included a wonderful version of the Stereophonic's track ‘Dakota', and for what turned out to be the last set of the day it was bluegrass heaven with the fab sounds of The Folly Brothers' now a four piece with the introduction of a mandolin player and they had the crowd dancing even with the rain pouring down on the likes of ‘Jessie James'.
Indoors on the Lounge stage it was a more chilled affair with mainly acoustic sounds from the likes of local singer/songwriters with from Coventry ‘Danny Ansell', ‘Andy Beglin' and ‘Caitlin McCarthy' who with her band wowed us with her powerful vocals.
Also indoors ‘Monday Nights' a 5 piece with folk roots and the soothing, soft vocals/guitar work of ‘Abi Rowberry' from Leamington Spa mixing covers with original numbers including the moving ‘Patients' written after she visited Myton Hospice and played for them.
Well the rain came down but still a great festival once again.
Here's to next year.
Andrew Lock
