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Summer in Oxford: a rock band plays to the cows in Port Meadow

Over the weekend I was back in Oxford to catch up with some friends. While I don’t miss England that much, I do miss Oxford and its mix of grand architecture, rural landscapes and casual intellectualism.

While I was walking around town, I took some video of life on the river and in Christ Church Meadow. Hopefully it gives an impression of a lazy summer weekend in the most beautiful town in England.

The song I’ve used as soundtrack is “Summer’s Here” by Zim Grady, a band from Abingdon.

Crowded House have an “ace up their sleeve” for the wet, final night of a music festival. They can cheer up the crowd by opening their set with a singalong about the weather.

And so with a rousing rendition of Weather With You led by Neil Finn, Crowded House pulled the audience out of any depression brought on by damp socks and muddy trousers, and provided a great closing act of Cornbury. (The song was filmed by salsbury15 and posted on YouTube.)

“The sound of Te Awamutu had a truly sacred ring…”

In contrast to Paul Simon the night before, Crowded House was definitely there to give the people a good time. Neil Finn knows how to create an experience of “the moment” that goes beyond just hearing all the hits on a rainy Sunday evening.

At one point, a giant soap bubble drifted across the stage, and Neil stopped the band mid-song, saying “Oh wow, check out that bubble!”. And 7,000 people looked up and watched a bubble float above their heads. You had to be there.

More Crowded House fun was had a week earlier at Glastonbury, (but without the rain). Watch the band lead tens of thousands in what was likely the best public singing of the festival. And the best mexican wave…

So yeah, Crowded House played all the favourites: Don’t Dream It’s Over, Four Seasons in One Day, World Where You Live, Distant Sun, Fall At Your Feet… they are unashamedly a popular band gathered around an expert writer of popular music. No pretension, just great songs and good times.

A welcome addition to the band for their 2008 summer tour of Europe is Don McGlashan, who augmented the music with a menagerie of instruments including ukulele, euphonium, toy piano and pocket trumpet.

The few kiwis in the crowd were hoping that Don would step up to the front with his guitar for a Mutton Birds or Front Lawn number, but it never happened. But perhaps there is no more typical Don McGlashan performance than to stand at the back of the band, tinkling on a glockenspiel on someone else’s songs…

Paul Simon – short, and blurry.

The past weekend was spent at Lord Rotherwick’s rather lovely deer park at Cornbury in west Oxfordshire, getting wet in a tent, catching up with friends and watching a few bands play. The Cornbury Festival is a relaxed family affair, with most of the crowd travelling from the local Oxfordshire area.

It was funny to (literally) bump into Conservative Party Leader David Cameron (the local MP for West Oxfordshire) in the VIP loos. He said “sorry”- but whether that was for bumping into me or for being an Old Etonian, I wasn’t sure.

A rueful David Cameron at Cornbury, shortly after apologising to the author
(Photo: BBC Oxford)

Music at Cornbury is generally oriented towards happy artists with established pedigrees (10cc, The Bangles, Toots and the Maytals…). The only indie kids to be seen were those tagging along with Mummy and Daddy in their Range Rovers. So Paul Simon fitted the bill perfectly.

The question to ask at a Paul Simon gig is “Which songs is he NOT going to play?” Because, like Dylan or the Beatles, Paul Simon has written so many great songs that it’s not possible to include them all in a single concert.

Graceland, At the Cornbury Festival 2008 – Filmed by BruceBoogie

When you’re Paul Simon you can flick off a perfunctory Mrs Robinson as the third song in the set, not even play Still Crazy, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover or Bridge Over Troubled Water, and the crowd will still return happy to their tents.

His new songs sounded good too, and I got some funny looks singing along with How Can You Live in the Northeast, a personal favourite off the 2006 album Surprise.

Overall, it was a good gig, but Paul Simon didn’t really acknowledge the crowd that much – you got the impression that he was going through the motions. Everyone was elated with the stomping version of You Can Call Me Al that closed the set, but if the band had really put some effort in, it would have been a very memorable evening indeed.