Category Archives: Rock and roll adventures

Three festivals in a weekend

Ever up for a challenge – or completely mad, depending how you view it – I landed myself with a pretty epic weekend of gigs over the bank holiday.  I’ve already written about Thursday’s jaunt to the Big Chill House, and the real test of my mettle (and car) started on the Friday, with a gig with the Shadow Orchestra at Festinho at Hinwick Hall, just outside Northampton.

Festinho is a perfect little festival run to raise money for the ABC Trust, which helps Brazilian street kids.  When I arrived, it had been raining solidly for about a week and the site was waterlogged and very muddy. This made getting the harp up to the stage an interesting challenge:

This was exactly as undignified and uncomfortable as it looks

Thanks to the combination of excellent sound crew, the lovely Gina compering, and a wonderful crowd full of friends, we played an absolute blinder. It was fantastic to see so many kids dancing at the front – and then to see them replaced by dancing grownups by the end of the set.  I haven’t had that much fun on stage for a very long time. There may have been a celebratory cider or two afterwards…

Festinho gets a thumbs up from the band

Following us on the Harvest stage were the wonderful Correspondents, with their blend of souped-up swing, blues-step (like dubstep, but bluesier) and crazy dancing:

The Correspondents tear it up, in a terribly civilised manner

After hanging around with the Correspondents after the gig in the luxury backstage area (i.e. the patch of grass behind the kebab stall, next to the Portaloos), we headed off to see  the sickeningly talented Jon Hopkins play a corking set in the beautiful woodland stage, aided and abetted my Myogenic on visuals.

The next day, I only got a couple of hours to chill out with friends in the gorgeous sunshine:

No relaxing for me.

Then it was back on the road, heading up the M6 to Knutsford Travelodge to stay for Saturday night. Rock and roll. I discovered that it appears to be impossible to buy any alcohol in Knutsford services (probably a very good thing) although M&S provides a tasty picnic dinner.

Knutsford Travelodge. It's not all glamour, you know...

Sunday was The Big One – 150 miles up the M6 to Silloth, outside Carlisle, for a gig at Solfest with Sunday Driver. It was a lovely sunny day, and we got a great crowd on the Drystone stage for our gig – including lots of very enthusiastic underage dancers.

Solfest. Sunny but windy

As I was leaving the site to head back to Knutsford Travelodge, the plan came unravelled – a puncture. Luckily, a steward and a security guard were on hand to help me put the spare on:

My Knights in Shiny Jackets

Unfortunately, I’ve only got a “space saver” spare tyre, which can’t go more than 50mph. Driving 150 miles down the M6 at 48mph, late at night, dog tired with no radio reception and a broken CD player is not an experience I’m keen to repeat in a hurry. But I made it in one piece, and took a short diversion into Congleton the next day (we’re on Monday by now…) in search of a replacement tyre:

Is this the only time a harp has ever been spotted in a Kwikfit?

Back on the road to Cheltenham racecourse, for a gig with the Shadow Orchestra at Greenbelt – a Christian arts festival. We were playing on the Underground stage – a blacked-out hole of a room in the main building complex.  Disconcertingly, the room was cleared after every act, so we started off playing to a somewhat depleted crowd:

Let me hear you - just you - say "yeah!"

Fortunately, the room filled up a bit, and the people that were there enjoyed our set. But playing a gig at 6.15pm on the last day of a festival – to a mostly-sober bunch – was never going to be easy, and we didn’t really get a great atmosphere going. Still, we played well and we gave it our all, and you can’t do more than that.

Then finally I was back in the car and off to my parents’ house for a spot of rest and recuperation. They live round here…

Ivinghoe Beacon. What a view!

…with these two:

Maisie (front) and Eddie

(They’re PBGVs, in case you wondered)

It was a hell of a drive to do all by myself, but we played some great gigs along the way and I had so much fun. Man, I really need a proper holiday now.

Unlike Hannibal, I will be making my epic trip in a Ford Mondeo, rather than by elephant.

While many people are taking it easy over the bank holiday, kicking back with a few beers in the garden or relaxing with friends, I’m embarking on an epic adventure.

Not satisfied with 5 gigs in 3 days in one place, I’m attempting 4 gigs in 5 days at different ends of the country.

And to make it more fun, there’s a competition involved. Read on to see how you can enter.

Here’s the plan:

• Thursday night: Flomotion gig with the Shadow Orchestra at the Big Chill House
• Friday: Leave Hackney and head to Festinho festival gig with the Shadow Orchestra (Hinwick Hall, near Northampton)
• Saturday: Drive up the M6, overnight at Knutsford Travelodge (woo!)
• Sunday: Drive even further up the M6, play with Sunday Driver at Solfest (just outside Carlisle). Back to Knutsford Travelodge – woo!
• Monday: Greenbelt festival gig with the Shadow Orchestra (Cheltenham Racecourse). Home to the parental abode just outside Aylesbury for sleeping and feeding.
• Tuesday: Back to Hackney. Collapse.

So, the competition is this: simply guess how many miles I will drive between leaving Hackney on Friday morning, and getting home on Tuesday.

The person with the closest answer will win stuff including: homemade cookies,  the new Shadow Orchestra EP, a Sunday Driver EP, and a bunch of other stuff I can find around the house or in the shops near work. In the case of a non-UK resident winner, they just get CDs and small things…

To enter, just leave your guess in the comments below – the winner will be announced when I’ve recovered on Tuesday night. Any top tips about how to stay awake while on an insane driving adventure will also be gratefully received. Also – please come and see us play!

And yes, I know we never announced a winner for the last caption competition – I’ll sort that out ASAP I promise…

Phew! I’m finally recovered from the Secret Garden Party, and have almost caught up on my sleep. I can report back that the SGP is a brilliant little festival – such a great vibe, friendly people, fab music and lucky with the weather – and that 5 gigs in 3 days is about the limit of my endurance.

This is how it panned out..

Arrive on site on Friday morning. Faff around for ages trying to get our kit to the stage. Play first gig with Shadow Orchestra – a 2 hour set (allegedly) at 12.30pm on the Gaia Stage.

The harp waits nervously for her first gig on the Gaia stage

In the end, after playing practically everything we’ve ever written, we only had an hour and a half of material. But it all went down well, though slightly spoiled by the constant soundclashes from neighbouring stages. The inadvertent Dizzee Rascal remix of the sensual, delicate cello duel at the beginning of Folkstep was particularly “special”.

Here’s the crowd before:

Before our gig

And after:

Afterwards - spot the difference. OK, so it's not a huge crowd, but not bad for lunchtime on the first day

Then it was time to head back to camp and chill out, enjoying the ripple of cheering that spread across the festival site as the sun finally came out from behind the day’s solid wall of cloud:

Hello sunshine!

We stuffed our faces with delicious rotisserie-cooked chicken and promptly all passed out for a couple of hours (a chicken coma?) prior to our next gig at 1.30am.  So far so good.

Then it was time to wait… and wait… and watch a couple of bands (including the amazing Jessie Rose Trip, and a bit of Marina and the Diamonds (aka Tesco value Regina Spektor)… and wait… and stay sober… and wait… and watch a fire circus… and wait… and get cold, tired and fractious… and wait… and stare blankly in poorly concealed agony as it became clear that our stage was running nearly 2 hours late… and wait…

Jessie Rose Trip - this girl has awesome pipes and kick-ass guitar playing

The fire circus

Finally we got on stage at Centre Camp just after 3am – exhausted, grumpy and freezing cold.  I may have sworn at the band on before us. I’m not proud of it. Luckily, we then proceeded to play an absolute blinder of a gig to a totally up-for-it crowd. New song No Other/FWNF went down really well, and we ended up with some cowbell-related audience participation.

And then, of course, we were on such a high we couldn’t sleep. So we sat around for ages having a few drinks and banging on to anyone who would listen about how brilliant we were. Finally, we crawled back to our tents well after dawn:

Chris and Dave express their feelings at being awake past dawn

… only to be boiled alive by the morning sun a mere two hours later. Gnnnnnh.

The rest of saturday was a bit of a write-off for me as I flailed around with a blanket and a pair of earplugs in search of quiet, shady spots to snooze in. I felt rubbish, frankly – crotchety, bone-achingly tired with RSI-afflicted wrists, and willing to kill for a comfy bed. The rest of the band felt pretty much the same.

Nick sleeps it off

Two gigs down and I was wondering how on earth I was going to get through gig number 3, let alone numbers 4 and 5 (as well as providing moral support for Ricky’s two gigs with Belleruche).  Stay tuned for part 2 to find out how I got on…