NAPTON FESTIVAL 2016 - AN OVERVIEW

by Andrew Lock, 14 Jul 2016 My favourite local festival came around again this year with as usual it's set of top draw performers both local and from further afield and speaking of fields I managed to find myself (after saying never again for years !) in a tent which meant I could attend both days.

Weather held out again this year and the new stage looked impressive and as for the artists hard to know where to start with the musical highlights as so many and so to avoid writing a ‘War and Peace' length epic piece here are a few of the bands that made an impression on me but there were many other fine performances.

On the Friday ‘Jolly Rogers' must have been looking through my iPod playlists to put together their corking classic rock set which included numbers by ZZ Top, Black Sabbath and many more and great to have on stage someone I loved to see and hear (and photograph !) at the Cambridge Rock Festival (back in the day !) the lovely lady with the colourful flying dreadlocks (and fab smile !) Claudia 'Beads' Mckenzie with her new 70's style prog rock band ‘4th Labyrinth'.

Also on Friday a manic but entertaining glam/punk set by ‘Dead Frequency' and top tribute band ‘The Total Stone Roses' had the crowd in the palm of their hands as headliners.

Saturday started brightly with a blues rock set by ‘Bombadiers' with a couple of Doors moments, talented singer/songwriter ‘Sophie Debattista' was impressive and charismatic and 14 year old ‘Matilda Pratt' coped really well with the main stage nerves delivering a professional sounding set of originals and a beautiful version of Radiohead's "No Surprises".

I am running out of good things to say about family outfit ‘Robinson Stone' one of my favourite bands these days and their set went down a storm as did the Americana stylings of ‘Rosellys'.

‘Grace Solero' turned it up to 11 with their brand of rock with at times an Eastern influence and really impressed with London indie band ‘Feral Ghost'.

To close the festival it was singing and cheesy dancing all the way as ‘Take That Live' performed all the hits of you know who.

This festival has the knack of finding a fantastic line-up so hopefully back there in 2017.