Overview

After a year’s hiatus, Mean Fiddler resurrected the Fleadh for it’s 14th outing. It did, however, appear to be a watered down version of the Fleadh.

The early Finsbury Park Fleadhs lived up to their name and were predominantly Irish affairs. They became decreasingly so over the years, changing their focus in the late nineties into a celebration of songwriters. This year’s event appeared to keep the songwriting theme to a certain extent in the Borderline Tent, but the main stage appeared to have no focus at all, featuring diverse acts such as The Delays, The Stands, Christy Moore and The Charlatans with Bob Dylan the headliner. Perhaps it was falling revenue that dictated the change away from it’s celtic roots but for me it appears some of the atmosphere is lost as a result.

The highly rated Stands opened the main stage and were a little disappointing sacrificing their catchy tunes for a five-minute plus jam towards the end.

Paddy Casey was better and more in keeping with the originals Fleadhs. His latest album, Living, appears to have attracted quite a bit of interest. It was easy to see why. What we had here were appealing poppy folk tunes performed with an Irish lilt that suits them well.

Billy Bragg performed songs amongst his usual political rhetoric. Though from my vantage point he did appear to have chosen his more morose numbers. Mind you, with September 11, Iraq and Europe he has more than usual to complain about. For those scurrying away from the hard left, Fionn Regan’s set in the Borderline tent was a much more attractive proposition.

A much talked about band are the Delays. Their short set here lived up to the hype. Sandwiched between the radio friendly minor hits, Nearer To Heaven and Long Time Coming, were more excellently crafted songs of the same ilk. In my opinion, this was the festival’s first success story.



Christy Moore, a stalwart of many past Fleadhs returned the festival to its roots. Hearing the crowd sing along to Ride On took me back to a more celtic time. An added bonus was being accompanied by his old Planxty buddy, Donal Lunny, and Declan Sinnot.



The Charlatans seemed out of place, if well received. The introduction of Ronnie Wood for a rendition of The Faces’ Stand By Me was met with rapturous applause. He stayed for the rest of the set and appeared to enjoy himself.



For me, The Counting Crows were the heroes of the festival. Adam Duritz was in fine vocal form. Hits, Mr Jones and Big Yellow Taxi were of course the best received. My personal favourite, however, is the lovely Long December and he really did it justice this evening. Then the Crows were gone and people gathered in anticipation of the legend that is Bob Dylan.

It may be committing some kind of heresy to suggest that Mr Dylan is perhaps his best. It did appear like that tonight though. Hiding behind a piano with Ronnie Wood reappearing and taking centre stage, we were treated to a succession of dirgeful bluesy repetitive music. It was easy to realise why The Counting Crows’ Mister Jones wished he was someone a little more funky. He may have performed some of the more appealing well known of his numbers towards the end, but I wouldn’t know. The tedium along with the cold from the soakings of more than frequent showers had sent me scurrying for the exit.

I didn’t dream of Dylan that night I dreamt of days of yore and of crowd lighting sets from the Proclaimers, the Saw Doctors and the Waterboys. Ah well perhaps next year.

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