Be afraid, be very afraid, writes Barry Leighton

IT has been almost 370 years since heads were split, pikes were thrust and yelps of horror erupted when the Battle of Cropredy Bridge took place during the English Civil War.

Alice Cooper is set to bring a spot of old fashioned blood and guts back to the archetypal English village when he appears at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention this month.

Cooper’s performance normally involve the singular Detroit rock star meeting several decidedly unsavoury on-stage deaths: he was hanged, electrocuted and garrotted during a show in Swindon a few years ago.

The old showbiz phrase “he died a death on-stage” certainly applies to Alice.

But his trademark Hammer Horror theatrics would be the kitsch of death but for a string of memorable hits around which the show is constructed: I’m Eighteen, No More Mr Nice Guy, Hello Hooray, Elected and School’s Out.

Alice Cooper at Cropredy on Thursday, August 8 - who’d a thought it! But Cropredy has long since out-grown its folk music tag.

Now in its 33rd year, the event has become an annual institution, luring more than 20,000 people to a picturesque corner of Oxfordshire every August. It bills itself as “Britain's friendliest music festival” a claim probably justified by the manner in which the people of Cropredy immerse themselves into its spirit.

The village pubs are packed, a market springs up, a car boot sale materialises, people sell drinks and bric-a-brac from their lawns, alternative gigs emerge – and you can buy a decent breakfast at the village hall.

Fairport Convention open three-days of festivities with an acoustic set at tea-time on Thursday and close the event with their traditional mammoth three-hour show on Saturday night.

In between, one of the ultimate festival bands, The Levellers will be dishing out their rowdy trad-slanted rock on Friday night immediately followed by 10CC with a bag full of hits.

Jethro Tull are on ice, but their fabulous guitarist Martin Barre will be reinterpreting Tull tunes with his band A New Day (Friday.) Reggae, folk, jazz, red hot polkas – it can only be the inimitable Edward II (Thursday).

And don’t miss the Isle of Skye’s Peatbog Faeries who’ll be whipping up a high-jigging storm (Saturday).

<li> One-day,
two-day and three-day tickets are exclusively available from
Fairport's website fairportconvention.com and ticket phone line 0900 637 1644.
Calls cost 50p from UK  landline. Lines open 8am-8pm only). Prices for tickets (including at the festival gates) are: Three-day (Thurs, Fri, Sat) ticket £115. Two-day (Fri and Sat) ticket £105 Saturday-only ticket £80. Children under 12 years old are admitted free provided they are accompanied by an adult ticket holder. Three-day camping costs £35 per vehicle, two-day camping costs £30 per vehicle. Camping on Saturday night is free for people with a festival ticket. Motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians camp free of charge. (Postal ticket purchase from PO Box 8413, Bilsthorpe, Notts NG22 8WY