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Preview 2003 January 2003
Dave Pegg has confirmed that David Hughes will perform at this year's Cropredy Festival. 5 PM Friday 8 August David, a stalwart Cropredy-goer, has made some memorable appearances on stage at the festival, not least his Tango with Fairport Convention or his "Shouting At The Radio" with half of Folk-Rock. But this is only his second "official engagement". His first, with Gerry Conway on drums and percussion; and Jacqui McShee, vocals; was seven years ago, in 1996. " It changed some people's lives I reckon. Changed mine. I've been every year since that first set and performed on many of those visits. But, playing or not, I love the weekend, you get to meet many friends and hear some awesome playing." The Cropredy Festival, Oxfordshire, takes place from Thursday 7th August to Saturday 9th. Apart from Fairport Convention, acts booked already include Procol Harum, Lindisfarne, Albert Lee with Hogan's Heroes, Richard Digance, and Blue Tapestry. The festival is likely to coincide with the release of David's fifth solo album which he starts recording at the beginning of February. The first signal that an album is imminent is when David phones Mark Tucker (co-producer and engineer for all his solo recording since 1998) to book session time. "I rang him over Christmas. It doesn't mean I've written all the songs. Normally I'll have half a dozen before I book time with Mark. This year I've got three. But it's the impetus I need to write the rest, booking Mark. I work best to a deadline and I need one now." The work will extend through to the Spring. "I've got some basic idea of what I'm going to do. I'll have more when the other songs are finished. One thing for sure, for the first time, is to record an album with backing vocals by Chris While and Julie Matthews as well as Jacqui McShee. In fact it's bound to be the finest bv's imaginable because Chris and Julie have recruited Helen Watson to be on it as well which I'm very excited about. It would be great performing the songs at Cropredy with that kind of line-up and, as it happens, everybody will be there." Chris While and Julie Matthews are currently in Australia and won't be available to record until after their Blue Tapestry tour in March / April. There are some exciting performances coming up in 2003. Suffice to say at this moment that as soon as other festival and "significant" venues are confirmed, the dates will be announced on this site. "There will be some solo appearances and others variously augmented with the likes of Gerry Conway, Spencer Cozens and the aforementioned ladies. I'm looking forward to performing, hope to see a lot of people there too." Homepage Back To Chronicle Front Page Site Map