I realised that working alphabetically through my ticket and programme collection won’t cover the festivals that I’ve been to over the years, so I have decided to skip out of the alphabet now and then to cover a festival or two. Hence I’m having a rest from covering artists starting with the letter D and will write something today on the Cambridge Folk Festival.
I’ve only been to Cambridge once, and greatly enjoyed it and have often fancied returning, but have never done so. I drove down in 1975 with my mate Norm to the event at Cherry Hinton Hall. We drove down on the Saturday, which was the second day of the festival and paid at the door, driving back on Sunday night, and arriving home early Monday morning. I think the attendace was around 15,000 and over-crowding was becoming a problem for the organisers. It was one of the friendliest festivals that I’ve ever been to; with music all around. Everywhere you turned someone was playing a guitar and singing, from local artists, through to impromptu sets by some of the headliners. We ran into some friends from the North East and had a great time taking in different sorts of music. We were both much more used to rock festivals, and found this laid back folk event a very refreshing change. Great atmosphere, and great music. Highlights for me were Leo Kottke and his incredible impressive slide guitar on Vaseline Machine Gun, Stefan Grossman, seeing Bert Jansch sing to a small crowd outside one of the tents, Richard and Linda Thompson playing a superb set drawn from their albums I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight and Hokey Pokey, and headliner Dave Bromberg. The line-up was quite strong and included: Tom Rush, Vin Garbutt, Richard and Linda Thompson, Brillo, Robin and Barrie Dransfield, Harvey Andrews and Graham Cooper, Stefan Grossman, Bert Jansch, Tony Rose, Nic Jones, Stefan Grossman, Dave Bromberg Band, Leo Kottke, Jack The Lad, Five Hand Reel, Country Gazzette, Spud.
20 Sep
Vintagerock's Weblog. 
Posted by harvey andrews on September 20, 2012 at 10:08 pm
I think you’ll find it was 1975
Posted by vintagerock on September 21, 2012 at 8:14 am
You are right! My memory gets worse. I have revised accordingly Harvey Many thanks Peter
Posted by tzatz on November 19, 2018 at 6:58 pm
I was there … I remember being AMAZED at Leo Kottke and David Bromberg … just after the Festival I saw David Bromberg again at the Roundhouse in London
Thanks for the memories …
Posted by tzatz on October 15, 2021 at 12:47 am
Wow … I was there as well
Leo Kottke was transcedant and David Bromberg a virtuoso
I was at the Roundhouse in London for David Bromberg as well
I had a job at the Green Park Hotel and took my ‘girlfriend’ to the Cambridge Festival
Posted by vintagerock on October 15, 2021 at 11:35 am
Happy days Cheers Peter
Posted by Tony Rees on June 15, 2019 at 7:48 am
I was there too – with a little tape recorder – filled 3 C90s with bits and pieces, still in the drawer, audio quality generally not fantastic but listenable… will let out my recording of the R+L Thompson set(s) shortly, stay tuned…
Posted by Tony Rees on August 7, 2021 at 8:00 am
My R+L Thompson tape now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDTbEhCWD2s&t=0s
Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI0TjipJs08: Häns’che Weiss Quintett, same weekend
I recorded David Bromberg and some other stuff, need to check if the quality is listenable still (possibly not…)