The luck of the Festival draw was not overly kind to Cooper & Davies, with Danielle Bradbury finishing her set on the main stage, and Lee Ann Womack wowing in the Interstate tent, however they still managed to pull a respectable crowd for their performance on the Front Porch stage. They played at C2C in 2016 on the Pop up stages and tonight they were the faces of BBC Shropshire as part of the BBC Introducing section which if nothing else gave them the chance to be introduced on stage by Bob Harris.
With the assistance of Graham Clews on keyboards and additional guitar they put in a set of feel good music that was just what the evening required. Opening with "Come Back Round" they were immediately uptempo and engaging with Simon Davies on guitar and his unique vocal styling while partner Rob Cooper doubled up on bass, harmonica and kick cymbals for good measure. The good vibe continued with their 2017 single "Feelin' Time" which was effortlessly enjoyable and just rolled along.
For the next song "Bobbin' Like a Cork" it was time to switch vocalists with Rob leading us through a timelessly enjoyable piece of early rock n roll. It was back to their first song ever written together for "Everything & More" where the harmonies worked really well. From their oldest song, it was to be their newest next with "I Want To Go Home To My Baby". The best compliment I can pay these guys is that even though this was new material to most of the audience they immediately warmed to it and remained fully engaged throughout. By their own admission, Cooper & Davies don't make any money from doing this but for 30 minutes they really brought some joy into our lives and that was priceless.
The home straight of the set saw "Don't Go Gettin' Trouble In Your Mind" followed by a frantic furious finale of a song called "Everybody Knows What's Going On With My Girl But Me" which saw the audience take to their feet and spontaneously start dancing, Hugely enjoyable and highly entertaining it was a perfect example of how all encompassing The Long Road festival was.