Next week (7 December), after a two-year break, tickets go on sale for Cambridge Folk Festival 2022. Today, we rewind the clock 48 years to a different time and the 10th Cambridge Folk Festival. The first festival was held in 1965 on a budget of £1,000 and organised by Labour activist Ken Woollard. Half of that budget went on booking The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. It apparently attracted 1,400 and almost broke even.
By 1974, the Newport Folk Festival was in hiatus, the last Newport Folk Festival by this point was held in 1969 and wouldn’t return until 1985. In comparison, some found Cambridge a more intimate festival experience, as mentioned in the BBC archives video below by Argo Guthrie who felt Newport had grown too big.
Even though the 60s are often referred to as the heyday of the folk revival, the 70s was also an exciting, if under-appreciated time.
Bill Leader had not long started his Leader and Trailer labels in 1969. Now armed with a proper Revox and a distribution deal with EMI and Transatlantic, Bill Leader was raring to go, which was just as well as there weren’t many outlets in the early 1970s signing folk artists. The likes of Robin and Barry Dransfield’s ‘The Rout Of The Blues’ did incredibly well on his label and just carried on selling.
Some absolute gems were released, including an incredible album by Ray Fisher (The Bonny Birdy – 1972) – The line-up was something else. It featured Martin Carthy, Tim Hart, Ashley Hutchings, Alistair Anderson, Peter Knight, and Bobby Campbell, Liz & Stefan Sobell and Colin Ross. You can hear a track on our latest Folk Show here.
Not all were great successes. Lal and Mike Waterson’s Bright Phoebus was truly ahead of its time, which was planned for release around Christmas, but there was an issue with one of the stampers at the RCA pressing plant, which led to problems with many of the albums, a complication which inevitably ate into its potential success at the time.
So what was happening musically in 1974 for those that played at the festival? Planxty released Cold Blow And The Rainy Night; Arlo Guthrie released his self-titled album; Martin Carthy released Sweet Wivelsfield; Boys of the Lough released their simply-titled Second Album on Trailer Records; Pentangle had split, and John Renbourne & Jacque McShee were now touring together, Loudon Wainwright III had four albums under his belt.
In the video, the roving reporter is Whispering Bob Harris, who was causing a fair stir for not allowing certain punk bands onto the Old Grey Whistle Test, which was about to enter its fourth series. That year, the likes of Joni Mitchell, Captain Beefheart, Rolling Stones, Horslips, Roy Harper, Can, Van Morrison, Canned Heat, Rab Noakes, Cat Stevens, Strawbs, Tim Buckley, Bridget St. John, Pink Floyd and Paul Simon were among those that appeared on the show.
The Cambridge Folk Festival line-up looked like this:
Arlo Guthrie & John Pilla, Martin Carthy, The Boys of the Lough, Planxty, Mickey Baker, Diz Disley, Archie Fisher, English Tapestry, Pete Stanely & Roger Knowles, Allan Taylor, Rosemary Hardman, Issac Guillory, Echo Mountain Band, Ian Anderson, George Deacon, Bully Wee, Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra, Dick Gaughan, Jon Betmead, Alan Stivell, Loudon Wainwright III, John Renbourne & Jacque McShee, Alex Campbell, Bill Clifton, Pete Sayers, Richard Digance, Gordon Giltrap, City Waites, Betsy Jefferson & The Ridgerunners, The Crofters, John D.Byrant, The Radio Cowboys, Paddy Gray, Anne and Nick Barraclough, Decameron, Alex Atterson.
From the canvas tents to the impromptu laid-back performances, this video is dripping in gorgeous folk nostalgia.
More details about the festival can be found here: https://www.cambridgelive.org.uk/folk-festival