I spent several hours yesterday, in Finsbury Park getting very wet. I enjoyed myself, nonetheless. The Fleadh is one of those festivals that’s quite small, and I suppose gets smothered, coming on the weekend between the Isle of Wight Festival and Glastonbury. Still, not a bad line-up.
I’d not seen Billy Bragg live before, but he was pretty good, and as trenchent as ever. The Delays were OK, as were The Counting Crows. Quite a few people were really there to see The Charlatans who weren’t bad, although I did sneak away to catch a bit of Kathryn Williams while they were on. But most people were really there to see Bob Dylan. I wanted to see some of his set, I suppose just to be able to say that I’d seen him. He was pretty good, and I enjoyed it much more than some of the music that had come before. For some reason Ronnie Wood joined his band on stage. I suspect that in reality the legend is bigger than the performances, but then the man is 63 years old. It might be heresy to say it, but there was a certain “sameness” to the songs that we heard, but I did recognise Highway 61 Revisited. Maybe I need to get hold of a few Dylan albums.