So Christmas is over and it’s the next month…Skeguary!! Our annual 100 mile, 2 hours 15 minutes drive to the Lincolnshire coast. Drive through check-in and the first change we noticed was the renaming of the Front Room pub to the Pub and Kitchen. Dumped our bags and went to the bar and ordered 2 Jeremy Paxmans (‘Here’s your starter for 10’). We had brought our own heavy duty plastic pint pots but apparently can’t be accepted (more on that later). We also discovered that the popular music venue Jaks has done a Clark Gable (Gone With The Wind). Frankly, my dear we DO give a damn! And so do a lot more. On with the show…
Friday. First on in Reds venue are Burnt Out Wreck . Big intro , they are definitely not youngsters. Starting out with ‘Dead or Alive’. first impressions are of a speeded-up AC/DC. By the third song they had slowed down a bit. The singer’s first sentence to the audience contained the word f**k. Title song from their lp ‘Swallow’ followed but it got to be a bit…predictable. Every song seemed to have a big multivocal chorus, then guitar solo, and it was a touch too formulaic. But they weren’t bad and went down well. Savoy Brown The group has been in existence since 1965 and we have never seen them before. But I have always liked ‘Train To Nowhere’ so they were a big reason for our coming. Starting off with ‘Why Did You Hoodoo Me?’, founder member Kim Simmonds looks and sounds bloody good for 70+. New number ‘Payback Time ‘ is next, followed by the afore-mentioned ‘Train To Nowhere’. ‘Livin’ On The Bayou’ and ‘I’m Tired’ precede a slow blues and they finish with an elongated boogie. ‘Savoy Brown Boogie’ is a well-deserved encore and Kim comes out to sign my (and others) cds. Top show from the current, longstanding line-up. Animals and Friends. Still with Johnny Steel at the back, he has been there almost permanently since 1957. The usual intro drum beat heralds ‘Baby Let Me Take You Home’ and the set is their usual mix of all their hits and 60s lp tracks. We have seen them lots of times with differing line-ups and they are a good set of pros. Danny gets a chance to show off his blues guitar and we decided to head off for bed just as it was getting a bit ‘clubby’ and ‘singalongy’. But a good first night
Saturday. The Graveyard Slot at midday has been handed to the Andy Taylor Group who hail fron the Orkneys (and not Duran Duran). A blues trio, first impression is an influence from Stevie Ray Vaughan. It’s not too frantic or funky, which is good news on two fronts. There is the inevitable namedrop for Rory Gallagher and an instrumental features that ubiquitous riff from Hendrix’s ‘3rd Stone From The Sun’. Believe me, you will know it! Title track from their upcoming lp ‘Drifting Days’ brings a very good opening set to an end. Starlite Campbell Band 4 piece including a female bassist and a long haired bloke on keyboards whose left hand doubled up on sweeping back his hair every 30 seconds. Obviously competent but a bit funky for me. It soon got to be chicken in a basket stuff. One song was mercilesssly ripped from ‘Get Ready’ and the latter stages featured the Allmans’ ‘Jessica’ riff. By now the onstage histrionics had got embarrassing and we were both waiting for those 5 magic words…’This Is Our Last Song’. They did a song which basically quoted Led Zeppelin, who had pinched it anyway. They went on far too long which affected the final act’s set, who were The Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration Of The Flying Burrito Brothers. Yes, a veritable mouthful but founding member Chris Hillman bought the Flying Burrito Brothers name some years ago to stop Nashville journeymen using it. This is what we came for. We have been FBB fans for most of those 50 years and this is a big deal. Greg Harris (not an original but there is only one still alive!) has put this line-up together and they start with ‘Devil In Disguise’. Her Ladyship was off down the front to sing along. ‘White Line Fever’, ‘Sweet Mental Revenge’, ‘Streets Of Baltimore’, ‘Wild Horses’, ‘Louisiana Man’, ‘Hot Burrito#2’, ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, ‘Orange Blossom Special’ (and an obscure Bob Wills swing number) evoked the Burritos, Gram Parsons and the Byrds. A sadly short set, we would have preferred ‘Wheels’ and ‘My Uncle’ rather than Bob and Byrds but still wonderful. Greg signed my relevant cds and gave Her Ladyship a hug. And the backdrop stated ‘The Flying Burrito Bros’, and the DJ announced them thus. The T shirt says it (from a distance), so after nearly 50 years we have seen them! (Sorry Mr Hillman). The evening session saw us in the new Hotshots music venue for Jo Carley and the Old Dry Skulls. They were great at the Acoustic Festival last year so I went early. There were probably only a dozen people in front of me and it was still a struggle to find a seat. Our plans were also somewhat dashed when our festival friends Tez and Hedge arrived. Tez had been drinking 7% cider and was talking like Bill AND Ben at the same time. And loudly. So we mostly listened to discussions about crap pubs in Accrington. We tried to watch the screens on the wall but the quality of the picture gave the impression they had been bought from Poundland. The place was packed, barely room to swing a Blues Matters flyer. Lots of songs about voodoo, vampires and all sorts of wry spooky bollox. Bloody great though, check them out. Went off to check out Bernie Marsden. Basically a show featuring his Whitesnake songs and namedropping the likes of Peter Green and Gary Moore and playing their songs. Plenty of singing along. We were sitting behind a couple, one of whom came in a wheel chair. They took turns in sitting in it! Is this a great way of getting a seat in a packed venue? Buy an old wheelchair, job’s a good ‘un! Atomic Rooster. Steve Bolton and Pete French (not quite originals) revived the name a few years ago. We upset some people when we saw them last time here and said they sounded awful. But they did! But straight away, tonight is much, much better. ‘Death Walks Behind You’ is the first song and ‘Black Snake’ makes an early appearance. Their two hits, ‘Devil’s Answer’ and ‘Tomorrow Night’ both bring cries of recognition and the new drummer does a bloody good job after only two rehearsals. ‘Breakthrough’ brings proceedings to an end. Another good day, all in all.
Sunday. Another of our favourites, Trevor Babajack Steger, is on first in Hotshots so we were outside early. Trev is a one man blues tour de force. Just him and his guitar, his voice , harmonica and heavy boots. And great songs. He soundchecked with ‘Rolling and Tumbling’ and opened the set proper with ‘Sawdust Man’ . The set included some new songs and stuff from his debut lp. ‘I Can’t Get Along With You’, ‘Deep River Blue’, ‘I’m Up And I’m Down’and ‘The Devil Inside’ were in the first part. ‘Black Dog’ must have been a contender for ‘Roof Raiser of the Weekend’ song. He slipped in a couple of covers , namely ‘In My Time Of Dying’ (not a Led Zeppelin original!) and the lengthy Sleep John Estes tribute to finish. Great music by a great musician. Rowland Jones. Not easy to follow Trev and Mr Jones is much more gentle. Pleasant enough but we decided to try and get a seat for Nine Below Zero. We were desperately hoping they would have reverted to the powerful 4 piece line-up, but no, it was 9BZ Lite. We found seats that theatre goers buy as ‘Restricted View’. (Which means ‘Behind A 3 Foot F**kin Wide Pillar’). They feature a dolly bird singer and extra guitar/keyboard player. Our mates Tez, Hedge and John were seen leaving after one song. Even ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ is drowned and the female gets to sing a song…and another. We left. 9BZ RIP. Food time. So we decided to set up base camp in Reds for the final furlong. (Sorry for being in mixed metaphor mode.) Vambo come on. Lots of hair and decibels. A standard 4 piece rock line-up, plus a fair bit of FX. Mainly originals, they slip in LZ’s ‘Good Times Bad Times’ with some totally pointless ‘f’ words added. Singer said his dad was in Mud and is doing the sound. He should come down and smack his a*se! Bit of ‘Moby Dick’ and Deep Purple’s ‘Burn’ to finish. The singer does have a very good voice and a big presence, he just got to sound a bit of a prat though. But they were still pretty good. Chris Slade Time Line . Now in his seventies, he is ‘Have Drums Will Travel’ , starting out with Tom Jones and including the likes of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band , Uriah Heep and AC/DC. So we get a Brian Johnsonalike giving us ‘Dirty Deeds…’ then another bloke takes over for ‘Delilah’. ( Her Ladyship went to watch Dr Feelgood in Centre Stage.) It was a mixture of songs famously performed with Mr S on drums, but he didn’t feature on the majority of the AC/DC studio records. Only ‘Thunderstruck’, I reckon. Plenty of Acker Dacker singalongs, but like Status Quo copy groups, AC/DC copiers just can’t get the right rhythm. ‘July Morning’ and ‘Blinded By The Light’ also get an airing. It was really just like watching a very good pub covers group. Her Ladyship returned from a seething mass that was Centre Stage. But good on the Feelgoods for filling it. Finally, The Brew. They have come a long way in 15 years. We first saw them in the now-derelict Crimea pub in Castleford. Tim Smith with his 16 year old son Kurtis on drums and 15 year old nephew Jason on guitar. They are big news now in Germany and showed the Skeggy rock fans why. A healthy crowd for the end of festival performance. I had a sealed copy of their 2007 EP which Jason told me he didn’t actually have! So I gave him it. Uncle Tim told me later it goes for a fortune on Ebay. But I was happy to give him it (sob, sob). And it was all over.
1. Music. Pretty good. We would have given a gold pig to see Greg Harris and Co.
2.Food. Very good. Breakfast now self service. We had one occasion to sit near a bloke who had one dinner. He then went for a different one, of which he ate half. Then he had a third, which was an excellent portion of lamb on the bone. He picked at the veg and left the lot. What a tw*t! If there is a God, he will have made him throw the lot up in the middle of tossing himself off back in his chalet.
3.Beer. Now through the £4.00 barrier but acceptable.
4.Accommodation. Perfectly fine. I don’t think any Butlins review has said otherwise.
5.Staff. All friendly
6. Clientele. Never any aggravation. We met up with our buddies from Bridlington and Berwick, chums from Chesterfield and Her Ladyship met a school friend from Scarborough she hadn’t seen for half a century.
7.Sound. Absolutely spot on. But we can only vouch for Reds.
8.Venues. It is worrying when the two main venues have capacities of 2000 and 1750. Both were packed on Saturday night as was HotShots. But how can you sell tickets for a festival and put up a House Full sign outside a venue? Can you stop a disgruntled customer coming in? The other year it was ‘One in, one out’ policy .HotShots just far too small .
9. Customer care. Typically, when it was icy there was salt put outside every chalet door. Little things mean a lot
Finally,to misquote a saying, ‘Every Silver Lining Has A Cloud’ and that ‘cloud’ is Single Use Plastic Pots
10. As above. We brought our own officially stamped pint pots. Bought for a quid at a festival. We we told that the staff couldn’t use them. Her Ladyship was straight off to complain. The ‘reasons’ were dubious at best. ‘Hygiene/contamination’. Rubbish. Stones beer is served with no contact. ‘Time-consuming’. How? To look for a split second at a mark? ‘All the pots are recycled. Blue box under the bar’. Really? So the black bin liners that collect pots, cans, food, crisp packets, paper are all emptied out and sorted? I don’t think so.
A quick calculation. 4,000 customers? Over the whole weekend, 25 pints/halves/cokes etc per person? How many of these sort of events? Maybe 19/20 a year at Skeggy? That is maybe TWO MILLION SINGLE USE PLASTIC CONTAINERS! And at Skeggy alone! They had better hope some stroppy schoolgirl in Sweden doesn’t find out! Apologies if my estimates are incorrect.
Like Her Ladyship says, sell a heavy duty pot for a quid. Butlins logo. Many festivals do that. Some charge two quid (too much!). Some allow you to get your quid back (encourages theft!).
But a great festival though. We met a couple of Rock and Blues virgins from Scarborough who had already booked for next year. It is an ideal start for those who have put ‘Music festival’ on a bucket list. Not a molecule of mud!
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