Sonic Rock Solstice. Stoke Prior. 16-18. 6. 2017

Posted on June 20, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Our first SRS festival, although we have been to its little sister fest, Onboard the Craft, and have also been at the venue for Beermageddon. On with the review…

Friday.

Missed first act, having fallen asleep in my chair, Habu came on at 8.00pm. The punctuality was  pretty good all weekend. It helps enormously. T-shirts and cds in abundance. 3-piece outfit, with a Bruce Foxton-like Rickenbacker bass very prominent in the mix.  Bassist doubled up on keyboards too.Played some stuff from latest lp ‘Infinite’ such as ‘Dead Weight’. Back drop featured a woman doing some gyrations similar to Her Ladyship at Zumba.  Guitarist tended to be heavy on the 100 notes per second solos. ‘SR 71’ from first lp had American newscast intro.  A good start for us.                         Next on stage are Sister Sandwich. Fans of the Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonican will be familiar with the concept. Only turned up to 11. Great parodies of classic songs, with (like the Doonicans), the punchline in the title. Mainly on a food-based theme.  ‘Sandwich Filler’ (Talking Heads), ‘Eat some Trifle’ (The Jam), ‘Egg and Bacon Sarnie’ (White Stripes), ‘I love sausage rolls’ (Joan Jett), ‘Fresh Baked Flan’ (ZZ Top). Hopefully you have got the hang of it! Some Donald Trump-based stuff too  ‘Trump it up’ (Elvis Costello). Might it have been ‘Crumpet up’ before last year?.  Great fun.

Electric Cake Salad.  Rhythmic Raymond introduced us to this crispy green delight some years ago. Starting out with ‘Baby Firefly’, they blasted their way through older and newer stuff with barely a breath to spare. Finishing with the ever-popular ‘Absinthe’ they were great, as always.                     Before I mention the next lot…  anybody in the north of England will know that the No 1 place for hen/stag  nights is Whitley Bay. And having been, I can tell you that you wake up on Sunday morning to find out there is nothing to do here on Sunday. Absolutely sweet F.A.  So you go to nearby Blyth, score some very dodgy LSD, drop a tab, and walk round the corner and, f*ck me, straight into Ant and Dec! (See first photo in the gallery). Which brings me nicely onto Captain Roswell and the Lost Alien Tribe.  Interplanetary throbathon of the first order.                          Followed closely by Dr Hasbeen. ‘Little Green Men’ had much nodding of heads in the audience, and the backdrops were great, as they always are. Our plan was to stop up to see the headliners. Heavy Metal Kids, but we had been up since 5.00 am and were both totally Donald Ducked. Went back to the tent and were asleep  within seconds.  A good first day.

Saturday.   First on are The King Bains.  Unusual heavy duo, with drums and guitar/vocals but no visible bassist.  Definitely a ‘kill or cure’ session for a lot of the audience.                     Sloth Metropolis  are next. Another non-stereotypical line -up, this time a 4-piece with a vocalist/violinist, but no 6-string guitar. Opening number had a spoken intro then a song reminiscent of J. Geil’s ‘Centrefold’. Next one had spoken intro plus an early Caravan – like song.  Then some more talking followed by Black Sabbathish song.  The same format followed with a hint of Wetton-era King Crimson. I was outside, so didn’t see one or two blokes doing their ‘interpreting’ in front. Seemingly it was some complete multi-media performance.  Not sure how they would have gone down in the Lion in Castleford, they didn’t play Thin Lizzy or ‘All Right Now’! Her Ladyship thought they were good, but then again she thought Meat Loaf was too (until she saw him the other year).  Not for me, but after all I am a fully paid up member of Philistines Inc, apparently.   No point putting Culture Dub Orchestra in bold/italics. Definitely not for me.                 Tiny Rockets. Another spoken intro, but a 3-piece . Bit more acceptable to my ears, White Zombie t-shirt in evidence.  Got an instrumental tribute to The Tornadoes.  Unusual stuff from 3 bearded young men.                                  DJ played ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’ from the Allmans, before Ethan and the Reformation. Quartet from Manchester, with twin guitars. More regulation rock than before. A slow number brought to mind early Fleetwood Mac and Stan Webb.  They had to get back home quickly, but squeezed in an encore. Original songs,  they went down well. A bloke in the pub on Sunday thought, like me, they had that ‘Manc’ sound.                           Genghis Grimes.     Very interesting visually. Guitarist with Steam Punk appearance.  Singer like that black and white bloke (s)  in a classic Star Trek episode.   First song had a hint of ”Welcome to the Jungle’ but overall they were more like Iron Maiden vocally. Strangely strange…  Got ‘Bananas’ from Man during the break.                    Pink Diamond Revue. If last lot were ‘strangely strange’ then I am now lost for words. Could have been an ominous name for a life-long Pink Floyd fan!    Man with guitar abusing a centre-stage mannequin while playing and singing. Not sure if it is an arrestable offence. Some electronic help too.  Enjoyable and unique.                     Had to go for a 30 minute powernap, so missed start of Litmus.  Frenetic 4-piece with Hawkwind undertones, plenty in who provided much applause.                        Underground Zero  . Much – vaunted 80s proggers on the comeback trail.   Everybody seemed to think they were great. Well, not quite everybody. One person definitely thought they were bloody awful. The same person thought the best part of the set was those five magic words (‘This is our last song’).                     Finally, Dr and the Medics. Unashamedly camp and cheesy, the doctor has defiantly made a career based on a cover version hit single. They were plugging a new lp, which has no pretence of being the next ‘DSOTM’. First actual ‘covers’ of the weekend, if you discount Sister Sandwich.   Perfect for people who had been drinking for 11 hours, although the gratuitous swearing did grate on Her Ladyship.  Encored with The Cult and Sham 69.   Another good day.

Sunday. Missed the first few acts , having gone to watch the ‘ull v Cas rugby league cup quarter final on tv.  (No more about  that sadly! )                    BB Blackdog. Regulars at Stoke Prior.  3-piece steampunkers with some extras on stage. ‘When I met you’ had a ‘White Rabbit’ intro, then took off.    ‘Gimp’ had two surprise guests on stage. No, not Ant and Dec, but Fanny and Johnny Cradock! In very playful mode, I think they are caught ‘ in camera’.   A bouncing balloon destroyed Her Ladyship’s pint, the only negative of the set.                         Sonic Gypsy. Sitting outside, heard the sound of some Canned Heat-style boogie. Went in to check out SG (aka Micky Banks).   Great, proper music!   Some Bo Diddley followed, then a slow blues that had some tuning problems.    Next song had a ‘Smokestack Lightning’ riff, with a hint of ‘Sympathy for the Devil’.    Finished with ‘Backyard stomp no. 1’, it was a great Canned Heat-style set  with a touch of The Doors sound. One of the best so far.                          Silver Trees.  Came on to a wave of spontaneous indifference. I remembered them from Onboard the Craft, is this classed as ‘Ambient’?  Definitely not Sonic Gypsy, they were inoffensive… but so was Des O’ Connor!   Sorry,  bad analogy, he wasn’t inoffensive!                      Demons of Old Metal.  Does  the name have  an intentional acronym?  Anyway, the spirit of Metallica is alive and well and close to Bromsgrove. Or maybe not, was it their final show?   Lots of ‘effing, ‘ the amazing ‘a-f**king-pplause’  must be the best ever splitting of a word.   Her Ladyship liked them , AC/DC to finish.                      Night of the Hawks. Featuring not too surprising ‘special guest’ Nik Turner, seemingly a very ad hoc line-up. Obvious Hawkwind style with a dash of punk, perhaps. Obligatory gyrating females of course.  ‘Waiting for the Man’ was much better than John Cale’s recent attempt in Liverpool.

And that was it.   A very good weekend. Good natured, good entertainment.  I was a bit disappointed to see a crushed Strongbow tin on top of the urinals, how bloody idle and ignorant.            Wazoo Muffin Research Utility Kitchen deserves a mention in dispatches. The only caterers, could have easily been a rip-off, but not so. Her Ladyship got a great veggie wrap for £3.50, try doing that at other events!       Lots of dogs, only one child all weekend, should those factors affect your judgement. Hope it keeps going.

 

 

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A Band of Gypsies. Lion , Castleford. 10.6.2017

Posted on June 12, 2017 by | Leave a comment

I was intrigued by the name , having the Hendrix lp, so we decided to give them a go.

Opening with ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘Fire’, the singer / guitarist gave us some hyperbolic Hendrixisms. Then , much to our surprise, Johnny Cash’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, followed by some JJ Cale. So they aren’t just a Hendrix tribute act.

Some Floyd was next, and when someone asks ‘Are there any Gary Moore fans in?, you know it is going to be ‘You know I love you…da da da da da’ (written by Jimmy Rodgers though).   A good version of Robert Johnson’s ‘Crossroads’, a la Cream.  They were the best covers groups we had seen for a long time, so decided to stay until the last bus.

Then we got bloody ‘Wishing Well’! We had missed our usual bus by then. A very good Floyd medley of ‘Breathe’, ‘Comfortably Numb’ and ‘Money’ brought the first set to a close.

And we never got to see any of the second set anyway, they still hadn’t come back on by the time we had to leave.

Recommended.

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Acoustic Beatles.

Posted on June 8, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Having seen them at The Acoustic Festival, I was reminded of the conspiracy theory about Paul McCartney. Loads of posts on Youtube about how Paul died in a  car crash in November 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike. They dubbed him Faul.

Lots of evidence based on details of his physical being, but seemingly none based on audio voice recognition. Yes, there was a recent case where someone’s twin brother successfully impersonated him, but even ‘Mission Impossible’, decades ago, used it? And surely software is just a little more sophisticated now?

No DNA has been provided…how totally unreasonable, but I have the obvious proof. Get Sir Paul/Faul to drop his pants. If he has only one dick, he is an impostor! The real Paul had two dicks.  The conspiracy theorists will say that there are no photos around showing the pre-Pepper Paul with one dick so it must be true. Voila!

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Acoustic Festival of Britain. Uttoxeter. 2-4. 6.2017

Posted on June 5, 2017 by | Leave a comment

We gave last year a miss, having been a touch disappointed with the previous year. Some of the announcements looked promising, so we gave it another shot. So, review time… (And, OK, it’s not strictly ‘acoustic’, but most of the guitars are acoustic , with pick-ups).

Friday. Bit drizzly putting the tent up, but managed to get in to catch some of Lost Tuesday Society.  Not sure I could match up what I could see and hear with the programme notes, but they were pleasant enough. Never easy to have the opening slot (OK Status Quo did well at Live Aid!). Her Ladyship liked them but she had to go for a walk as some Morris dancers were sitting too near (New Zealand would have been too near).        Gaz Brookfield Regular festival goers all over will be familiar with him. Opening song about diabetes set the tone and the tempo.  For me, the latter is a problem. He has pithy lyrics, but every song is a fast strum. Could you maybe think about having a go at some slow finger picking occasionally?  He had a new record to plug. Her Ladyship liked his ‘observational’ words. Back to the tent for my insulin, ironically!          Wee Bag Band.  Came back as they were Irish roving. Plenty of Irish themes but I couldn’t detect any Irish accents.  Sea shanties too.  An instrumental ‘Hey Jude’ started slowly and prettily but speeded up to jigglydiggly pace and ended up at thrash metal level.  Her Ladyship liked the sound of Cartoon Food in the nearby tent and went to check them out.                             Just as The Men They Couldn’t Hang  were due on, it started to rain. We went inside to get a good spot for Martin Turner. The front of the programme said’ Martin Turners Wishbone Ash’, the schedule inside it said’ Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash’ and the notes said ‘Wishbone Ash by Martin Turner’.  I believe he is now, officially, Martin Turner ex Wishbone Ash. So we went in to see all four groups!  Anyway, the acoustic-ish line-up launched into ‘Time Was’, the opening song from what was to be an unusual rendition of the complete’ Argus’.   It was rearranged slightly to feature ‘Blowin’ Free’ at the end, as was the re-recorded ‘Argus Through the Looking Glass’ by Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash…bugger that’s now five  groups! ‘Jailbait’ from ‘Pilgrimage’ finished the set, it would have been great to have ‘No Easy Road’ too. Did it work? Definitely. A great performance, Her Ladyship led the obligatory jumping up and down to the outro of ‘Blowin’ Free’. And that was it for us. I wondered is it a coincidence that ‘being old’ rhymes with ‘being  cold’? Can’t be.

Saturday. Thankfully, the toilets had been cleaned and soap/toilet paper replenished. How many times have your eyes watered when confronted by the contents after the first night!?               Rumblestrutters. One of organiser Mike Stephens’ favourites,  they are a jug band…with an actual jug.  Originals mixed with the likes of Skip James, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly and Tampa Red. A decent start to the day.        Acoustic Beatles. Oh dear.  Programme mentioned a duo with two voices and two acoustic guitars. (Incorrect on all three). And, Mike, are they your words about a version of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ that surpasses the original?! I know we are entitled to an opinion but …) We waited with bated breath for the song.  What we got was a Working Man’s Club/ wedding reception copy group. Of course, everyone knows the words and everyone sings along ( not everyone). Her Ladyship was not impressed that they missed out part of ‘A Little Help from my Friends’.  In case you are thinking I have also missed out part of the title, the word’ With’ was not in the original title on the lp. Find an original  copy and check it out.  Her Ladyship, of course, went ‘Aah, I love this one’ to every song.   I went for a walk but couldn’t escape. Sadly, I predict there will be more people wanting them back than anyone else (see also Counterfeit Stones and T. Rexstacy. That’s why live music venues put on bloody tribute sh*te rather than new music..) And we didn’t get ‘Eleanor Rigby’!  End of rant.   Went back to the tent, had to endure what sounded like the terminally tedious  Big Fibbers from afar. Not going to give them the honour of italics or bold letters.           Her Ladyship went off to see brilliantly inept Ed Tudor Pole, I chose to stay to give Nick Harper another go. I saw him many years ago at the much-lamented Rhythm Festival but it wasn’t to my taste.  I have to say he is nothing if not consistent. Much flashy harmonics, and his  machine head jiggling only served to put his guitar out of tune. His falsetto-ridden second song seemed to impress all around me, as did his OTT version of  ‘Shine on you Crazy Diamond’.  Much whoopin’ ‘n’ hollerin’ greeted the end of his set. I can’t bring myself to give an adjective (I have plenty in mind).    Her Ladyship returned to say that Ed had been great in a packed Big Top.          Chantel McGregor was playing in an acoustic trio on the Main Stage, observed by her army of middle-aged male admirers.    We chose to stay and grab a front row spot for the legend that is…John Otway.  Only an hour set , so impossible to fit everything in.  Starting, of course with the  (what WAS the only) hit, closely followed by the ‘B’ side.  There were some Otway virgins there, and there are still some out there in the big wide world, so I won’t go into the details of ‘Blockbuster’, ‘Cheryl…’, ‘Louisa…’,  and the rest. A few newies thrown in, but he really is a must-see. Her Ladyship was still laughing at what she has heard dozens of times. Roadie Deadly has more of a part as his ‘stoodge’ now.              Charge outside for Fairport Convention. It seems like everyone here has a new record to plug, but we still get classics such as ‘Genesis Hall’, ‘Who knows where the time goes’, ‘Sir Patrick Spens’, ‘Fotheringay’, ‘Hiring Fair’ and of course, ‘Matty Groves’ and ‘Meet on the Ledge’. But a bloody percussion solo!? Come on lads, just tell the crowd to count to 300 while you have a cup of tea.                 Charge back into the tent for the Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonican.    As with Otway, it would spoil the show if gave away too many details, you really need to see them. And as with Otway, there were a lot of Doonican First-timers too.  Basically, they mercilessly lampoon the like of the Police, Chris de Burgh, Rainbow, Marc Cohn with some brilliant versions of their hits, with deceptively good instrumental ability.  Sometimes the lyrics can get lost in the general festival (and rude) ‘chat’, and the accents and the distance to the back can be a problem, but they are very, very funny.   Amazing crowd surf as a finale. By this time, Her Ladyship was marginally ‘Old’ but hugely ‘Peculiered’, so the trip back to the tent was an expedition  which wore out two pairs of shoes.   A great day.

Sunday.   Once again, toilet-cleaning company had been up at the crack of dawn, excellent.    Looked at the programme and had a ‘Clash’ moment…’Should I stay or should I go?’  Not a lot that appealed to us, if the forecast had been crap we would have decamped , but decided to stop.      Two lots of ukulele groups were followed by Boy on a Dolphin. Another of organiser Mike’s favourites, they are indeed all top musicians.  Not a particularly recognisable style, but a pleasing , and sensible, start to the day. I don’t want some silly young man telling me to put my hands in the air and clap at noon on a bloody Sunday!  But by the end there were a dozen or so Dad Dancers up front.             Elvis Fontenot.   Cajun jollity from Stoke.   Squeezebox man and washboard man looked like they had just walked off the set of ‘Breaking Bad’. But they showed good musical versatility. Female guitarist had a sing  on Canned Heat’s  ‘Going up the Country’. We got their version of the Who’s ‘Squeeze Box’.  Tongues firmly in cheeks but deceptively decent.              Gave Nell Bryden a miss on the Main Stage, and waited for Tir Na Nog.  I will own up to seeing them back in 1972 supporting Jethro Tull doing ‘Thick as a Brick’ at Leeds University, but not remembering a bloody thing about them. But by the time an hour had lapsed, I felt embarrassed that I hadn’t given them more attention then . They were really good, with the majority of their set still coming from their first lp.  The recent ‘Ricochet’ had a bit of electronic help but was very impressive.  (The Nick Drake cover was good too. )  An excellent show.     Not bothered about Jenny Belle Star, went back for some warmer clothes.  Mike had recommended we check out the Comedy bar , so we did. Tony Cowards did a good spot, his delivery much based on cringeworthy puns,  choosing to basically ignore the obligatory f*ckwit in the audience.   I think the knob chose to keep somewhat quiter when Scott Bennett came on.  More of a tale-teller, very much based on his observations of his stereotypical Yorkshire father. For some reason Her Ladyship kept looking at me and howling with laughter.  Sorry Tony, she didn’t get a photo.  Maybe next time we will spend more time in here.  Great to see one of the greats of British Blues-Rock, Tony McPhee smiling in there too.                         THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH from The Beautiful Sound. That is what it said on the poster, with the first part in huge capitals and the second part in minute font. So it was a tribute act, which given that most of the audience were retired and wore spectacles might have come as a surprise. I have to say it, just a bit naughty .  I remember last time they sounded and looked nothing like the original group (or the Housemartins). But, as with the Acoustic  Beatles, I am in a minority. Front of stage packed.                Bluesman Mike Francis.  Seemingly’ Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson would sound like this guy’.  After two numbers we tended to not to concur and went off to see the Adverts TV Smith.  Post 60, still energetically treading the boards.  Stirring versions of ‘Bored Teenagers’, ‘The Great British Mistake’ and (the hit) ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’ were mixed with newer songs such as the emotive ‘Good Times are Back’.   He got a well-deserved rousing reception.                       Greg Murray and the 7 Wonders.     8-piece, reminiscent of those 70s show bands that were popular in Ireland.    Didn’t seem to be a Main Stage closing act, from where they were switched.   They had seemingly performed also on the pre-festival Thursday. They went down very well, with an obviously lubricated audience, but I couldn’t see the attraction. But plenty could.     Sons of Clogger. The usual jumpy up and downy end to the weekend, by now we had to cadge four matchsticks to keep our eyes open so headed off to lower our crania.  Mike Stephens had made a few comments before they came on. Thanking all for coming, and continuing to come.  He stated that the days of spending lots on eg Joan Armatrading had gone, it doesn’t appreciatively add to the gate.  (He let slip a couple of names to me, who are returning. Her Ladyship got her chequebook out immediately.    BUT, Mike, no room for complacency!)  As a salesman, I was told 1. Keep your customers 2. Get new customers.3. Get back old customers. ( NB. The hardest of the three, is actually no.3.)

A very good weekend, glad we came back on board. OK, not all to our taste, even Mike is realistic and appreciates we can’t like everything. But he tries to give something for everybody.

Negatives? Not many.

The Curse of Cropredy. Loads of people there put bloody tents up in the arena! I had to move my bloody seat four times one year.  And it is quite a steep hill. I noticed one small tent erected here  on Sunday. Don’t care if it is for kids, nip it in the bud Mike before it becomes the norm. Seriously, put it in the T&C’s.

Her Ladyship, who is a veggie, ordered a vegetable Thai noodles takeaway. She had eaten half of it when she looked and found pieces of chicken! She binned it. No good saying ‘inform us of any allergies’ when such unacceptable practice is happening. And it wasn’t only once, the sound girl overheard us and said it had happened to her last night and took hers back.  Therefore they knew about it but chose to ,seemingly, ‘carry on regardless’.Not the organiser’s fault, but I won’t be disappointed if they are not there next year.

Not really a ‘negative’, depending on if you like the particular acts concerned, but there are an awful lot of acts who make more than one appearance. I suppose it is part of the festival finances, namely only one lot of travelling expenses to pay?

We know people who can’t believe we do so many festivals. It’s not difficult to sort!  I reckon every fest-goer knows people who have  ‘Go to a Music Festival’ on their Bucket List.   I can definitely recommend the AFOB as the one to test the water with.   Crowd only a few thousand. Beer/food prices reasonable for a festival. Good mix of music. No w*nkered idiots lurching into you. Space to sit down. Never any huge queues. Good sound systems. Park next to your tent. Camp site next to the arena.  Organiser always approachable (but maybe give him a wide berth if some acts don’t turn up , as seemingly happened with some children’s entertainers! ). No thefts from tents. Toilets very clean. Showers (free!). Security not heavy-handed. Three really good nights’ sleep ( a real +).

If some acts are already pencilled in, this year must have been a financial success, so the earlier the announcements the better. We know a couple of former regulars who found another festival this weekend

No official T-shirts this year?

 

 

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Hope Festival. nr Biggin Hill. 26-28. 05. 2017

Posted on May 30, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Our third time here, it is a long way from God’s own county, we really enjoyed our previous two festivals here. We broke the drive up by stopping Thursday in Peterborough at our mate’s house, and ended up in a not-unexpected state of marginal overservededness.

Friday. Managed to get to the site in good time and there followed a two-pronged attack on Aldi lager and B&M Chateau El Dogrougho.  Went to the Piano Bar where Tom McQ was playing.  Singer/ guitarist, visually firmly entrenched in mid-60s Dylan/Donovan. A song about Chorley Woods suggested different origins. Cans in the Piano Bar were £2.50, a 25% increase on last year. What about inflation at 2%?!            Main Stage was Millions.  We listened from the field. The closing ‘Unchained Melody’ was …interesting.        Sasha and Band. Her Ladyship was impressed with the soundcheck, the singer certainly having a set of tonsils well beyond his years. Occasionally got a whiff of the Doors, and was there a James cover? Her Ladyship liked them but we went over to get a seat in the main tent. I am sure Dave Ripp the organiser will understand that it was not to see his outfit, The Ripp-Offs, but to get a good spot for the following act!  (Two young chaps from that popular beat combo Squeeze.).  Dave and co ran through songs from the likes of  Blondie, The Trashmen/Ramones, Motorhead, Buzzcocks, Clash and Undertones. Finishing off with the Sex Pistols and a show-stealing guest vocalist.  Pleasantly potty.            Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook.   The two Squeeze stalwarts doing a duo. And starting out to a half full tent? Not for long. We spent the set a couple of yards away from Mr T, and what a set it was.  Starting with ‘Take Me I’m Yours’ and finishing with ‘Goodbye Girl’, there was barely a drop in tempo, apart from some running repairs during ‘Black Coffee in Bed’. Great to hear ‘Electric Trains’ and ‘Some Fantastic Place’ again alongside the more regular numbers.  ‘Tempted’ (my favourite) was maybe a bit too funky for me, and no room for ‘Labelled with Love’ but that is picking of nits. A brilliant performance, even C.D. was smiling…honest! Her Ladyship was kindly given G.T.’s set list, so check out the running order when it appears at the end of the review.                 Unorfadox. Following on the Bar Stage, what a job to have to follow Mssrs D and T. Remember when The Who were due to headline a rather large 60s festival, following Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townshend said’ No way’ and they went on before him?  Unorfadox have a foot firmly planted in 70s punk, maybe one and a half feet even. As they should! Good songs, good playing, and Brian is a very good front man. Even a song about Nick Drake , who I just never  got.  ‘Little Universe’ was drowned out by some screeching females behind us  who must have thought they were auditioning for Eastenders. Brian told us afterwards he was quite pleased with their slot, it was a good contrast to Difford and Tilbrook. And they got a great reception.    So, a good day for starters.  Occasional drunken moron, but not a problem.

Saturday.   Mixed weather, staff already cleaning the field. The concept of 10p deposit on bio-degradeable pots is a great help. There were swarms of kids collecting them!  Leon Tilbrook is first up, this time without his more famous father helping out. Starting off with ‘Oh Well’ to loosen his fingers, he has a young voice, but he would have! After all, his dad was nowt but a bairn when he started Squeeze.  Plenty of unusual chords from young Leon, not regulation 12 bar blues stuff. Stick McGhee’s ‘Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee’ got an airing. Should he be singing about this at his age!? He is already a veteran performer though.        Small Victories.   3-piece, with Dave Ripp doing some extra-curricular drum tech work.    Not long before Flaky Jake started up on accordian on the bar stage…plus drums.  I was nervous when ‘Life on Mars’ started up , the karaoke singer’s kiss of death. But he nailed it! ‘All you need is Love’ got a maritime coda, and ‘I am the Walrus’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and ‘Sunshine Superman’ made for a wonderfully wacky show.        Some country sounds from Dave Sutherland drifted across. I went over. Guitarist suitably adorned in Nudie shirt and Fender Telecaster.         Tom McQ started out early on the Bar Stage, thereby drowning out Dave S. Not very sensible advice.         Port Erin. Three young bearded men.  Bit of a Ferry-ish vocal delivery early on, some heavy effects on the guitar. A good sound from a trio, the audience grew from a small beginning.               Darwin’s Quilt. I think I have described them previously as grown-up music for grown-ups. And why not?     Glenn T was still there, generously keeping the bar afloat.     Siobahn Parr Trio.  She has a good voice and good songs.  Finished with Percy Sledge’s ‘Warm and Tender Love. Good applause.     Twangers. Started with the traditional ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’. Everyone does the Alison Krauss and Union Station version now. What happened to Bob Dylan or even Ginger Baker’s Air Force?   Guitarist was from Dave Sutherland’s group, he had a bit of  a John McLaughlin jazz guitar solo. ( He appeared to have definitely been more than marginally overserved but why not? Just having fun, his fee was, I suspect somewhat, less than the size of Godzilla’s dad’s dick.  They went down well.        Moviestar  . I think last year I didn’t even  attempt to compare them with anything on this Earth or Fuller’s Earth. As they are from the future anyway, it is impossible.  We left Rhythmic Raymond to undertake his customary groove at the front and stayed a safe distance. Wonderful to see hundreds of grown men ‘whoa-whoaing’ along. The heroes of last year’s festival, check out their identity on t’ t’Internet. Norway’s finest, but they haven’t got much bloody competition have they? The next best thing is a capital city which is a lifeline  for cryptic crossword setters. Blissfully bonkers.                    Nigel Clark . From 90s popsters Dodgy, straight away he is more than a notch or two above the usual fest afternoon filler.  He gave us a version of Blaze Foley’s ‘Oval Room’, written in the Reagan era but equally valid today. ‘Staying out for the Summer’ was given an airing, of course and he was a touch of class.         Now.  Slight diversion if I may. Why is it you can go into a Wetherspoon’s anywhere at midday, and there will always be a plastered grey-haired bloke who will tell you he used to be a roadie for Led Zeppelin?  And this is every bloody Wetherspoon’s! Amazing!  Anyway, reason for the digression is one of them came to talk to us at our table, so we sloped off to sit near the fire pit down near the Piano Bar.   Came back up for Gary Sanford and some blues.  ‘Crossroads’ for starters , loads of w*nkered blokes lurching about.  Things got more up-tempo with ‘Iko Iko’, ‘Willie and the Hand Jive’ and ‘Rolling and Tumbling’.   Got aurally assaulted by some ska sh*te from the other stage so decided I was ‘Leaving on a Zed Plane’. It had been a long but good  day.

Sunday. Toilets clean, they usually are.  Music not due until 2-ish, and sadly the excellent Mazaika cancelled, so even later .  DJ in Bar Stage started well with His Royal Bobness ‘Stuck inside of Mobile…’, but then went into extended ska mode. A bit self-indulgent, ‘don’t do requests’, he told us (more than once) about his ambition to be on Radio 2. You are already there mate, you are called Bob Harris.   Anyway, eventually it is Memphis. ‘Swing’ stuff. Bit of a dodgy intro to ‘All Over Now’, and ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ was a surprise.  DJ put on ‘Godzilla’ by BOC! Great , thought Her Ladyship, then he cut it off.                Oskar Vilcrow. Another male 3-piece. Heavyish, punkish first song, second was just heavy.   Moviestar Vik liked them.  Not long songs, they were effective.  Quite a few went off to see Spacedogs on the Main Stage. , I listened from afar. Her Ladyship went over to undertake some serious cosmic teacake grooving.    The heavens opened, as had been forecasted, and Fake the Juggler suffered sound cut-outs in the Bar Stage, but like real troupers carried on acoustically.  Well-received.        Levent and Taylor. Two young men, guitar and keyboards, who soundchecked with a pleasant 12 bar blues. Then attacked us with a 200 mph jazz instrumental…followed by another! (It could have been the same one played backwards).   Lots of wild cheering but this sort of stuff does nothing for either of us. OK, it adds to the eclecticism of the bill but two near-rhyming words spring to mind. ‘Genius’ and ‘tedious’. One describes Chuck Berry, the other this lot. No prizes for working out my allocations. It didn’t help that I was in a such a state of advanced alcoholic dishevellment that I decided the long-haired keyboard player, in a skirt, was a woman! I eventually conceded that she was a swarthy woman, due to the facial hair.            Next up, Bruise. Favourites of Rhythmic Raymond.   I got chatting at the bar to John from RenattaJane, who were due on across at the Main Stage.    I tentatively enquired if they played ska stuff, but he assured me not. By then, I was probably talking like The Flowerpot Men*, so would have probably watched them if they had been the Australian Pink Floyd. ( * Was it Bill or was it Ben? I probably sounded like a hybrid. I think only people over 60 will know what I am on about!).)             RenattaJane. Did see them last year, thought they had that scratchy Franz Ferdinand Fender sound/rhythm. And still did, but with balls.  But we watched the whole set this time. John (the drummer), has a style reminiscent of Simon from the Hot Rods. Can’t say higher than that. They were very good.  Two things occurred to me . Second song had a piece of John hitting the rim. Try a cowbell, mate?  And, not wishing to sound too petty, but Mr Bassist could you maybe drop the Steve Harris foot-on-the-monitor, running around stuff? Honestly, it just looks a bit naff and detracts from the other lads. Sorry! Cheers John!        In the final strait. Hope All Stars.   Started with some JJ Cale, who better at this stage in the weekend?  Not surprisingly, reggae was not far away. ‘Hard to Handle’ got much bopping and at that point my pen and paper took refuge . Moviestar Vik and Glenn T were still there .

What a great festival this is. Good ethos, good company, good music, good behaviour, good beer.        OK, some of the music not to my taste, and is £4.20 a reasonable price for beer? I will leave final judgement until September after our final fest.

‘Absolutely NO DOGS’, is in the T&C’s.  Well there were 2 f*ckin big fieldmice there!     Organiser Dave R reckons attendance now is 1000. No camp shop? I agree with Dave, I am quite happy not to have a Sunday paper or Internet access, I am happy on Planet Hope all weekend. I learned that 2 teams of foreigners were playing in an English cup final. It could be sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken , or Qatar Airlines nowadays.  Down to who lines the F.A.’s pockets now. Surprised the referee is still English…but then again, I haven’t checked.

And thanks so much to those two thoughtful blokes who parked their estate car near the toilets at 8.00 am Monday morning , opened the doors and blasted out their car stereo. I hadn’t realised that cleaning toilets now involved some sort of revolutionary method of massive sound wave attacks which dislodged the dirt. Isn’t science amazing?

Nearly forgot. Beer supplies? Almost impossible to judge, but close to running out of everything late Sunday night. Just when I was thinking it may have been sensible to have an emergency stock of cans, Dave R emerged from his Transit with what looked like 50% of Kingston Jamaica’s annual intake of Red Stripe. He has been here before!!

Thanks Dave R, look forward to next year

 

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The Beach Boys. Scarborough Open Air Theatre. 24.05.2017

Posted on May 30, 2017 by | Leave a comment

I have always been a fan, so the chance of a day in Her Ladyship’s home town of Scarborough, plus the no 1 summer group on an ideal stage, was not to be missed.

Gates opened at 6.30pm, to an absolutely STUPID queue! Why were thousands waiting meekly there, all the bloody tickets are numbered and seated! We sat nearby for 30 mins or so and eventually joined the flock. The Tailormade were support act, came on just after 7.00pm. A group of late 20s-ish lads, who were competent, but had the organisers not maybe had a guess at the average age of the audience! Namely, about 60! So why have some young men whose audience must be teenage girls? And I don’t believe the ‘Thanks for being invited as support…’ for one minute. These tours nowadays demand support acts who ‘pay to play’. Don’t believe me?  Ask Kasabian how much they had to pay the Rolling Stones…they even had to pay for a ticket to watch Mick & Co from the wings! (Apparently, I must add).  And how is it that these lads have more dates at. the Open Air Theatre as support? Sounds very suspect, and I bet Mike Love is quite a few bob better off .  Totally inappropriate billing, like having the Merseybeats supporting Justin Beiber.

Anyway, 8.00 pm and the backing film show starts. I had a bet with Her Ladyship re the opening song. ”Do it Again’ or her choice ‘California Girls’. She owes me a quid, so ‘East coast girls are hip’ wasn’t quite right.  Followed with ‘Surfin’ Surfari’, ‘Catch a Wave’, the set is similar to the one they did at York Races back in 2014.  I won’t bore you with all the details, it is nowadays a 2 hour snappy run through all the hits and more. The accent is very much on the surf and car early 60s songs, although the highlight for us (as at York) is the footage of Carl Wilson singing ‘God only Knows’ at Knebworth, with the current line up adding the rest. Nice gesture re the Manchester incident, with a moment’s silence.

The theme at York was ‘Fun, fun, fun’, today it is the 50th anniversary of the ‘Wild Honey’ lp. Not a real classic, but it sells t-shirts. Their version of ‘California  Dreaming’ didn’t make the cut, but ‘Wendy’ and Dennis Wilson’s ‘Forever’ have been added.

Mike Love (and Bruce Johnston) have assembled a very good team of musicians to recreate the 60s sounds. All good pros, when the drummer’s mic cut out during ‘Cototnfields’ Bruce took over without missing a beat. Of course there are people who complain about lack of original members, but is there a 60s group on the planet that can boast the original line-up? I reckon Crosby, Stills and Nash were technically the last, until Mr Nash finally realised what a horrible person Mr Crosby is and ‘Shut Down’ was declared. But there are rumours of an ‘anti-Trump ‘ protest gig.

Tickets reasonable at £28.00 plus booking fee (much less than the 50 th anniversary tour with other 60s members temporarily on board).  Just close your eyes for a couple of hours , lie back and enjoy some classic songs.

 

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The Della Grants. The Grove Inn, Leeds. 20.5.2017

Posted on May 22, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Some time ago, the Della Grants were on the Duck and Drake website, and on their own website as appearing there on the 20 th May. The D&D site then changed  to a group ‘Silence’. Seemingly the DGs were now due to be at the Grove (which was a surprise to the DGs!). Websites duly changed, then the AllStar45s announced that THEY were  playing on the 20th, as did the Grove website!  Confused? However, it was finally confirmed by all that the DGs were indeed down for the Grove.  We are not alone in thinking that the Grove would not be big enough for them, it is a tiny room.

So we arranged to meet Tez and Janet there early, 7.00 pm. (They had made the small trip from Berwick on Tweed). And some 2 hours later, we were still the only ones in the audience! Why? Maybe because the DGs played in nearby Harrogate the night before? Confusion over who/where ?  Nevertheless, they came on to a crowd which was less than the number of Lib Dem MPs (after the last election, not the one before!)

Was there any obvious disappointment at the disgracefully small turn-out ? Absolutely not. They tore into their first set as if it were the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Coincidentally, they had Tony Robinson on keyboards and much-travelled  trumpet, who was also on that stage in 1999 with the Beautiful South. He has also featured on, among many others, discs by the excellent Gomez. (But not, of course, Blackadder.)

As always, a great mixture of original songs and covers. The latter included songs by the Wood Brothers,  Little Walter and T-Bone Walker, plus a Creedence-style ‘Midnight Special’. No funky ‘Miss You’ or ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ this time though.  Plenty of stuff from their first ep and subsequent lp, they were absolutely spot-on. One of the best gigs here, that hardly anyone saw! (Unlike the 10,000 or so that seemed to have been at Leeds University in Feb 1970 to see The Who).

Thanks for a great gig lads, and thanks for the presents too Max. Hopefully you will come back to Leeds, and for all those people out there who believe in keeping ‘live music’ alive, where the f**k were you? No good just f**kin’ saying it…

Not the first review I have done on these lads, but like the belated ad from the Grove Inn says, it won’t be a free gig for much longer.

We normally have to leave early for the last bus home. It reinforces how bloody good they were when I tell you we stopped to the end. By that time we had long missed the last bus. Her Ladyship had a day ticket and I have an old duffers’ bus pass, neither of which were of any use. I gladly paid the £20 for a taxi!!  Believe me , it was not without pain.

 

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