With the nation's yoof busy enjoying Reading and Leeds festivals, the UK's fortysomethings have dusted off their mullets and travelled south to the Garden of England. King Crimson's '21st Century Schizoid Man' fizzles over the Kentish valley, to herald the start of Canterbury Fayre's Saturday of progrock. Today boasts a headline act of monstrous proportions - not just from his wealth of poodle hair - but from the esteem in which he is held by around 99 per cent of those present. Ladies and Gents, Robert Plant is in the hop farm?
And don't Willard Grant Conspiracy know it. Their headline slot on the Croissant Neuf stage coincides with the Plant show. The few who shirked the thriving main stage antics in favour of some truly gritty music are now privy to frontman Robert Fisher's grizzly croon. His appearance could be likened to that of a wayward, hick version of Father Christmas, but WGC's sinister song themes such as 'Ghost of the Girl in the Well' are thankfully a far cry from the glittery schmultz of a US yuletide. Humble and softly-spoken to the end, WGC are a Deep-South lullaby of a headline act, with viola and double bass accompaniments cleverly positioned to send the campers off to bed, without the mass toilet-tipping antics that might be induced by the more legendary headliner.
Cue Plant and his band Strange Sensation. A dynamic stage machine, they air a blues medley for starters then follow with a succession of Led Zeppelin classics - 'Four Sticks', 'California', a rare outing for 'Gallows Pole', 'Ramble On' and 'I Ain't Gonna Quit You Babe'. Plant plays effusive tributes to his heroes before each song that's covered - Arthur Lee for 'Seven and Seven Is', Tim Rose for 'Morning Dew', Jimi Hendrix for 'Hey Joe', Bob Dylan for 'Girl From the North Country'. The blistering 'Whole Lotta Love', an anthemic beast of an encore tramples the calming effects of the WGC set, and the audience leaves reborn and bursting with energy.
Daytime performances include a full house for Nick Harper. Just himself, a comfortable pair of brogues and an acoustic guitar, he looks like a doctor from 'Holby City' but parades an alarmingly loud vocal. Launching into an astounding medley of unlikely covers, including Blur's 'Out of Time', Tricky's 'Black Steel', Jeff Buckley's 'Last Goodbye', Liberty X's 'Just a Little' and Public Enemy's 'Don't Believe the Hype', he switches from melancholy introspection, to rock god (in 'Karmageddon' he even briefly plucks his guitar with his teeth) and then, bizarrely, into some modern day George Formby character. Meandering his way around the guitar with such ease and expertise, he makes 20 plucks a second look somehow lazy.
John Otway and his Big Band "We have two types of hit. My hit, or our hit" daub a thick blot of humour over the traditionally pompous domain of progrock. 'Cor Baby, That's Really Free' being the one we're familiar with and the B-side that only the die hards break out a fond smile for, the paranoid 'Beware of the Flowers'. Aging Otway somersaults around the stage, doles out hilarious anecdotes and treats us to the most silly version of 'Crazy Horses' ever witnessed (he even rips his shirt open in sync with the theramin squeal). After 'Delilah' and the "good punk rock" of Rolf Harris' 'Two Little Boys' (it was more of a ska affair), his version of 'Disco Inferno' includes the line "let me be your Bunsen Burner". Canterbury Fayre has a line-up so refreshingly mental and probably a lot more fun than what was on at Reading and Leeds at the same time.
And don't Willard Grant Conspiracy know it. Their headline slot on the Croissant Neuf stage coincides with the Plant show. The few who shirked the thriving main stage antics in favour of some truly gritty music are now privy to frontman Robert Fisher's grizzly croon. His appearance could be likened to that of a wayward, hick version of Father Christmas, but WGC's sinister song themes such as 'Ghost of the Girl in the Well' are thankfully a far cry from the glittery schmultz of a US yuletide. Humble and softly-spoken to the end, WGC are a Deep-South lullaby of a headline act, with viola and double bass accompaniments cleverly positioned to send the campers off to bed, without the mass toilet-tipping antics that might be induced by the more legendary headliner.
Cue Plant and his band Strange Sensation. A dynamic stage machine, they air a blues medley for starters then follow with a succession of Led Zeppelin classics - 'Four Sticks', 'California', a rare outing for 'Gallows Pole', 'Ramble On' and 'I Ain't Gonna Quit You Babe'. Plant plays effusive tributes to his heroes before each song that's covered - Arthur Lee for 'Seven and Seven Is', Tim Rose for 'Morning Dew', Jimi Hendrix for 'Hey Joe', Bob Dylan for 'Girl From the North Country'. The blistering 'Whole Lotta Love', an anthemic beast of an encore tramples the calming effects of the WGC set, and the audience leaves reborn and bursting with energy.
Daytime performances include a full house for Nick Harper. Just himself, a comfortable pair of brogues and an acoustic guitar, he looks like a doctor from 'Holby City' but parades an alarmingly loud vocal. Launching into an astounding medley of unlikely covers, including Blur's 'Out of Time', Tricky's 'Black Steel', Jeff Buckley's 'Last Goodbye', Liberty X's 'Just a Little' and Public Enemy's 'Don't Believe the Hype', he switches from melancholy introspection, to rock god (in 'Karmageddon' he even briefly plucks his guitar with his teeth) and then, bizarrely, into some modern day George Formby character. Meandering his way around the guitar with such ease and expertise, he makes 20 plucks a second look somehow lazy.
John Otway and his Big Band "We have two types of hit. My hit, or our hit" daub a thick blot of humour over the traditionally pompous domain of progrock. 'Cor Baby, That's Really Free' being the one we're familiar with and the B-side that only the die hards break out a fond smile for, the paranoid 'Beware of the Flowers'. Aging Otway somersaults around the stage, doles out hilarious anecdotes and treats us to the most silly version of 'Crazy Horses' ever witnessed (he even rips his shirt open in sync with the theramin squeal). After 'Delilah' and the "good punk rock" of Rolf Harris' 'Two Little Boys' (it was more of a ska affair), his version of 'Disco Inferno' includes the line "let me be your Bunsen Burner". Canterbury Fayre has a line-up so refreshingly mental and probably a lot more fun than what was on at Reading and Leeds at the same time.
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