Singer-songwriter, John Jenkins, was once part of Liverpool’s ‘80s post-punk scene as a member of The Persuaders and Come in Tokio but as the decades rolled on it was as a solo performer and on the Americana scene where he began to really make his mark.
I reviewed his third album, the extremely promising Growing Old (Songs From My Front Porch) back in 2020, noting “Jenkins’ lyrics have a nice turn of phrase to them and he can clearly turn out some really, strong memorable melodies, too.”
A further album, If You Can’t Forgive You Can’t Love followed in 2021. However, it was his next album Tuebrook, that appeared to be something of a gamechanger and cemented his reputation as a critically-acclaimed figure on the UK’s Americana scene. Following a well-received EP, Weary, in 2024, Jenkins is back with a new full-length album.
John Jenkins: “My previous album, Tuebrook, was deeply personal, with most tracks drawing inspiration from significant moments in my own life. For this new album, I aimed to return to storytelling, crafting narratives that were less autobiographical yet still rich in character and emotion. Even while consciously creating fictional personas, I found that elements from my own experiences and the lives of those around me naturally wove their way into the fabric of the songs. The result is a blend of truth and fiction, where distinguishing one from the other is often challenging.”
Drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album and Nanci Griffiths’ Last of the True Believers, Restless Hearts explores the theme of restlessness with songs about those who, in one way or another, are searching for more in their lives.
Restless Hearts demonstrates just what a gifted storyteller John Jenkins is. Its twelve tracks hit the sweet spot in capturing that enigmatic blend of sadness, longing and hope, set to some instantly appealing melodies and with a crack squad of A-list musicians, bringing depth, emotion and sheer class to this gorgeous collection songs. Highly recommended.
Psychedelic indie alt-rock band, Innocents Abroad, were formed in Liverpool by four students in the 1980s: Martin Malone (guitar), Peter Mills (vocals), Stuart Hilton (drums) and Steve Goodrich (keyboards). After recording two albums (Quaker City in 1986 and Eleven in 1988) the band went their separate ways and, like many other bands of that era that was seemingly the end of the story.
But improbably, they released their third album back in March of this year. Three of the four original members (Hilton, Malone and Mills) are back in the fold, each bringing their different musical perspectives and life experiences. These days, Hilton occupies the drum-stool for the band, Cult Figures, alongside running a degree course in animation; while Malone has pursued a solo career as well as recording with both Eskimo Chains and The Scaremongers and is also an award-winning poet. After spending time in Eastern Europe, meanwhile, Mills returned to the UK to teach music at English universities. Around ten years ago, they started occasionally playing together once again, with Malone and Mills eventually writing songs with one another and the bones of an album beginning to take shape.
With the addition of Jane Breed (bass/vocals) Late Spring weaves together the band’s love of jangly Rickenbacker rock with strands of European pop and folk music, Bossa Nova and cult movie soundtracks. Once memorably hailed by the Guardian as a “home-grown answer to REM”, the new album has picked up plenty of plaudits, with comparisons being made to the US Paisley Underground scene and bands like Hüsker Dü and 10,000 Maniacs. Listening to Late Spring there’s no shortage of home-grown comparisons to make either – and devotees of Merseyside legends like The Las and The Coral will find lots to love here.
With jangling Rickenbacker, soaring melodies and joy-infused, trippy vibes, Innocents Abroad have created a polished and confident album bursting with exquisitely-crafted indie-pop anthems.
When tickets for Cropredy 2025 went on sale, it was announced that there would be some changes to the festival this year, with far fewer tickets available. Interviewing Fairport’s Dave Pegg back in January, he explained the thinking behind the new approach as follows:
“Gareth Williams our CEO came up with several formulas for trying to make it pay. It’s always been such a gamble, the last couple of years especially. Because when you don’t know how many tickets you are going to sell, you can’t budget. You’re guessing about the number of people who are going to turn up. Gareth’s idea – we’re only going to sell 6,500 tickets and we’re only selling three-day tickets. Because we know we’ve got that lump of income and we can budget accordingly without the risk of going bankrupt.“
As well as fewer tickets, the festival line-up was to look somewhat different, too. The era of big-name headline acts like Chic and Madness and Alice Cooper, who had previously graced the Cropredy stage in a bid to widen the festival’s appeal and get more bums on (folding) seats, was over. Instead, there would be far more focus on acts that the festival organisers knew and had worked alongside.
The big question, therefore, is did this new formula work? Clearly, there was no problem shifting tickets, with the vast majority being snapped up by February and with the festival selling out well in advance. Arriving at the campsite on the Thursday afternoon, it didn’t feel much different, although a couple of fields previously used for camping had apparently been taken out of use.
The Cropredy crowd (Photo: Simon Putman)
I was also wondering whether the slimmed-down attendance would leave us all rattling around in the main arena field but it didn’t feel like that at all. Walkways had been rejigged, the big screens at either side of the stage had been replaced by a single screen at the back of the stage but overall it very much felt like the same old Cropredy I’d been going to for the past fifteen years.
Richard Digance up on the big screen (Photo: Simon Putman)
So, enough of the festival arrangements, what of the music? I must admit that one of the real attractions for me when I first started going to Cropredy in 2010 was the mix of folk, acoustic and classic rock acts. I loved having Status Quo and Rick Wakeman and Little Feat alongside Thea Gilmore and Breabach and Bellowhead. Unlike some of the diehard Cropredy goers, I was perhaps more worried about the potential for the new ‘Friends of Fairport’ formula to squeeze out some of the rockier elements. That didn’t happen at all though. I got my fix of both folk and classic rock, in some respects more than I could possibly have hoped for.
Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble join Fairport Acoustic on stage (Photo: Simon Putman)
On the folky side, obvious highlights for me included Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble, whose massed ranks begun their set by joining Fairport Acoustic on stage, for an epic rendition of ‘The Lark In The Morning’ instrumental medley from the Liege & Lief album. Scottish folk band Skipinnish were another highlight for me, with a thrillingly energetic set, my second time seeing them this summer as they also performed at the New Forest Folk Festival. A special mention, too, should go to the kids of Cropredy Primary School Folk Class who kicked things off at the festival. We only made it in time to hear their last couple of songs but what a wonderful idea to link the village and the festival this way and how lovely it was seeing the huge cheer for them as they made their way from the backstage area afterwards to a waiting gaggle of proud parents.
The traditional hanky waving during Richard Digance’s set (Photo: Simon Putman)
On the rock side, the festival organisers demonstrated that you didn’t need to be in the megabucks league to attract some decent classic rock acts. My many years of going to music weekends at Butlins showed me that it’s perfectly possible to line up some talented rock names without bankrupting yourself.
Trevor Horn (Photo: Simon Putman)
The Trevor Horn Band, making their third appearance at Cropredy, were hugely entertaining as ever, blasting out a deluge of hits that Horn had had a hand in, from Frankie Goes To Hollywood, to Buggles to Yes – with the added bonus of Lol Creme of 10CC on guitar and some Godley & Crème/10CC hits thrown in, too! They were originally booked under the old formula for the previous year, however, and had to reschedule because of illness so the situation was slightly different.
Martin Barre (Photo: Simon Pitman)
The same cannot be said for Martin Barre (ex-Jethro Tull) and Deborah Bonham (sister of Led Zep drummer, John) whose sets were clear highlights of the weekend, none more so than the latter whose special guest almost certainly provided the highlight of the weekend for many, with none other than Robert Plant stepping on to the stage to perform sizzling versions of ‘Ramble On’ and ‘Thank You’ from Led Zeppelin’s second album. It doesn’t get much better than that at Cropredy.
Robert Plant joins the Deborah Bonham Band on stage (Photo: Darren Johnson)
I didn’t get to see everyone who performed and there were acts (like Bob Fox & Billy Mitchell) I would have liked to have seen but didn’t. However, I’ve never spent the entire day in the field from mid-day to midnight. For me, time spent at the campsite, catching up with friends early in the evening and relaxing ahead of a late night finish, is as much part of the Cropredy experience for me as the music. Plus, in the last few years, our camping group has also chosen to spend a little bit of time at the Cream of the Crop festival in the adjoining field and this time we got there just in time for an explosive set by the excellent Burnt Out Wreck, the band fronted by former Heavy Pettin’ drummer, Gary Moat. No-one can say I didn’t get my fill of hard rock at Cropredy this year!
Burnt Out Wreck at Cream of the Crop next door (Photo: Simon Putman)
Fairport Convention, of course, rounded things off on the Saturday night with their usual mammoth set featuring a mix of familiar old favourites, revisited deep cuts, covers with guest artists (this time Ralph McTell and Danny Bradley) and more recent material penned by the band’s own Chris Leslie. While a couple of our camping group head back to the campsite before the end, missing ‘Matty Groves’ and ‘Meet On The Ledge’ is not something I could ever contemplate so we make our way to the front in time for a rousing ‘Matty’ (with accompanying animated video hilariously interpreting the storyline through the medium of Lego) and an always emotional ‘Meet on the Ledge’.
Ralph McTell is a guest during Fairport’s set (Photo: Simon Putman)
While it was the end of Cropredy for another year, it wasn’t quite the end of our camping trip as we had booked for several days at a lovely campsite ten miles away, just outside Barford St. Michael. The spirit of Cropredy was never far away though. The village of Barford St Michael, itself, was once home to Dave Pegg and the studio he established, Woodworm Studios, where Fairport recorded numerous albums. The studio is still in operation, although no longer owned by Peggy these days.
The Hook Norton Brewery (Photo: Simon Putman)
While camping, we also took a trip to the village of Hook Norton for a tour of the Hook Norton Brewery, who in recent years became the official suppliers for the Cropredy festival bar, taking over from Wadworth. It’s an absolutely fascinating tour of this historic nineteenth century site and our engaging tour-guide was himself a Cropredy regular who had spent many years working at the festival. If you are extending your stay in the Oxfordshire countryside and want to find out how the beer at the Cropredy bar is brewed and learn more about the history of the brewery, it’s well worth a visit!
The Rock and Roll Almanac is a bumper compendium of facts, insights and snapshots in time covering events from the early days of rock and roll in the mid-1950s right up to the present day. Compiled by musician and music writer, Andrew Craneman, the book devotes a page to each day of the year, with every page containing a selection of historical rock snippets drawn from the past seventy years, along with notable births, notable deaths and a recommended single and album released on that same date.
It’s something you’ll dip into, rather than read in a single sitting but choosing a random selection of dates, I certainly got a feel for what the book has to offer.
Firstly, for my birthday (20th May) I’m interested to learn that on this day Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around the Clock’ was first released in 1954, the Rolling Stones unveiled their forthcoming new single ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ on a US TV show in 1966, Joe Strummer of the Clash is arrested but later cleared following an altercation with an audience member in 1980 and Finish rock band Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006.
Turning to today’s date (4th August) I find that the Kinks released ‘You Really Got Me’ on this day in 1964, Pink Floyd released the Piper at the Gates of Dawn album in 1967, Jim Morrisson got arrested for public drunkenness in LA in 1970 and Eagle, Don Henley, reached an out of court settlement with a US Republican candidate after the latter used parody versions of two of his songs without permission in 2010.
Craneman provides just enough background to each historical entry to keep you engaged and informed but the events detailed in the book will often encourage you to explore further, particularly if its something that you were completely unaware of before.
Keep it on your coffee table to look at each day on the relevant day in question. I’m sure I’ll be dipping in and out of it throughout the year.
Darren's music blog 