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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.

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.

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.

Muxtape is a good way to waste an hour or two. Basically, it uses mp3s to make the sort of mixtapes that were the common currency of friendships/relationships in the long-lost days of the analogue teenager.

Nick Hornby documents the tortuous rules of mixtapes in High Fidelity (a great summer read BTW, I remember consuming it in less than 2 days in a tent in between tropical cyclones at Mount Maunganui). One hopes that mixtape construction is not totally a lost skill…

I’ve put together a Summer Muxtape. Hopefully the mix is a little brighter and warmer musically than the weather’s been so far here in England. It’s a little all over the place stylistically (Common, Sharon Jones, Wilco, Vampire Weekend…), but it might just work.

Based in Kaikoura in the South Island, Salmonella Dub is one of our longer-serving dub outfits, riding the line between singalong reggae, electro dub and dance electronica. They’ve been remixed by Mad Professor and Adrian Sherwood. They are also possibly the loudest band I have ever heard, with basslines that are positively bowel-loosening.

Salmonella Dub – For the Love of It
From Killervision: Virgin 847608 [Buy]

Salmonella Dub – Longtime
From one drop east: Virgin 592471 [Buy]

Derek Bailey In Memoriam
I must also note the passing on Christmas Day of Derek Bailey, a key pioneer of improvised music in Europe, and one of the greatest innovators on guitar, ever. David Fenech offers a short appreciation, there’s an excellent personal reaction on Rod’s wordsandmusic blog, and John Fordham also writes an obituary in the Guardian.