10th Cambridge Rock Festival

One of the more minor dates on the festival calendar, held a week after the more famous Folk Festival, in a field just off the M11/A603 junction -- and this year I actually had the free time to spare to spend most of a weekend sitting in the sun, listening to music. Not being a major event, most of the bands were of "never heard of them" or "blimey! are they still going?" tier; but that didn't stop the music being good to listen to while chilling with friends, in what turned out to be very kind weather -- just a few spots of rain on the Saturday afternoon.

Of the "never heard of them" acts, my picks were Cornerstone (and not just because the singer dressed like she'd just stepped off the set of UFO), HeKz (operating in the same sort of space as Iron Maiden) and Mostly Autumn. The Temperance Movement, despite their regular airtime on Planet Rock, featured surprisingly low down the bill in a mid-afternoon set; and of the old hands, Eddie and the Hotrods and Praying Mantis showed that they still had it in them -- but the real top act of the weekend was Magnum, who I'd last seen live as support to Blue Öyster Cvlt back in 1980. Their set, the penultimate one on the main stage, was the one for going in and waving hands in the air, rather than sit outside the tent and just appreciate the music quietly.

In all, a great weekend of kicking back, having a little of the real ale (being on taxi duty every day but the Thursday evening), and a lot of really rather decent food from a variety of stands, while listening to a good solid program of rock.