We have the mighty Fairport festival in one of our dear local villages of Cropredy. In their 45th anniversary year, Fairport have turned their Cropredy reunion into the weekend of my year and the highlight of many others' calendar too.
With a stand-out folk music scene living strong in Oxfordshire today, new guitar-led bands and acoustic musicians are thriving as a result of organic musical roots engrained in the people. Local venues and pubs are constantly showcasing raw, beautiful and pure music that has no hint of fake production about it. The unwritten ethos seeming to be that if you don't have a guitar in your band, there really is no point.
A plethora of bona fide pubs reside in the many villages that bask in Oxfordshire's life. Each with their own unique heritage and each with their own bespoke and authentic food, real ales and rums (yes please). The pubs being the the identifying factor for the villages of these parts.
One of the most incredible features of the Banbury area of Oxfordshire is how well connected networks of people are. Nobody is solely tied to their own collage-based friendship circle for example. With healthy rivalry between collages but welcome camaraderie between friends: everybody seems to know everybody here. Whether you bump into an old mate in town whilst enjoying the limited but cherished nightlife, whether it be on the football pitch playing your rival team or whether it be in the Fairport field... either way, it's almost impossible not to bump into somebody you know.
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| The Brasenose Arms on Fairport weekend |
I could go on listing the many factors of my home county of Oxfordshire (or more specifically, the town of Banbury) that make me miss it so much but make it so bloody good. It can't be the sole countryside gem in the UK. There must be other places to settle down with a similar music scene, traditional pubs, a busy nightlife and inter-village community, but how do you go about finding them?
Most people will grow up and appreciate their 'home', and many people will then continue to reside or revisit this place throughout their life, without much deviation in geography. It's quite a daunting prospect to move somewhere completely fresh, with it's unknowns, differences and ideals.
My passion in life is music, so I'm trying to get my head around what else is out there. For example, over the Easter weekend, I brought my girlfriend down to my beloved hometown to introduce her to the family for the first time and spend some time soaking up what Banbury has to offer. On Sunday we were in A.K.A. for a drink or 5 and saw some outstanding local talent. Firstly Nijinxky and Frances Mitson, who we'd seen the day before recording a live music video in a local church.
Being shot by my mate Connor, that finished film looks set to be quite a breath-taking watch. The fresh sound of Nijinxky's new music is very welcome too, Frances is a brilliant influence on his music. You can have a listen to their new tune on the fifth Source podcast here....
Then when those two had finished, an old pal of mine Luke May took to the stage to blow my girlfriend's socks off and perform a sweet 30minute set of folk-infused acoustic magic. The guy is so talented, and his new band Highway Alaska (also Banbury based) are sounding incredibly natural and promising. Either way you look at a small cross-section of Banbury bands, there is such talent that I relish.
But Banbury isn't the only town in the UK and presumably there are hundreds... thousands of equally talented musicians who are only being recognised locally? Surely. That's both very exciting but gut-wrenchingly sad and daunting. I want that music in my life, but where do you start looking?! I said at the weekend some pals of mine should do a musical tour of the UK, a road-trip cum holiday if you like. I've always been under the impression York has a phenomenal acoustic scene.
Trouble is, I can talk freely, for hours, with passion about Banbury's musical offerings because they've been a part of my life for the last 19 years. So perhaps the only way to truly appreciate a whole array of fabulous, organic UK musicians who are hidden away in their respective counties is to make that daunting jump out of your home territory to live and breath the new battleground, rather than digest a nugget of the musical wonders via a slap-dash 'holiday'.
