Month: October 2020

Festival Types

I am not altogether sure the reasons why, but I was late to the plate in discovering festivals and only attended my first one as a day ticket to Reading Festival in 1995 at the tender age of 27. I also missed the years when you could feasibly obtain tickets for Glastonbury before tickets became unattainable and as a result, I have never graced Worthy Farm with a visit.  

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Glastonbury Festival. Image Credit Metro

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit shamefully I have never camped at festivals and have always stayed off site which is maybe not fully embracing the whole experience but is hugely beneficial if inclement weather strikes, which at certain sites it has regularly obliged in that regard.

Though singular ‘normal’ gigs are fun there is something enticing about outdoor festivals where you have a tsunami of bands available to you, the main stage being in the open air. They also can be hugely advantageous to discover exciting new bands and due to the short sets, the bands do not overplay their welcome. If you lose interest, you can easily wander off to either have a drink or a doughnut or seek solace in another tent or on rare occasions a cheeky bit of sunbathing!

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Festival Donut Stand. Image Credit design lovefest.

At the many festivals I have attended there have always been a variety of options, including circuses, reggae, dance, northern soul, funfairs, cinemas, a plethora of food outlets and sometimes thankfully real ale. A pair of comfy shoes is a requisite requirement.

In the last 10-15 years there has been an increase in what I would quantify as an ‘urban festival’.  These are primarily located in city centres and involve a suite of venues generally within feasible walking distance of each other. You obtain a wristband from the source venue and off you go.

Some of the events in this sphere I have attended are Live at Leeds, Hockley Hustle in Nottingham, Sounds from the Other City in Salford and Dot to Dot, Carefully Planned Festival and Off the Record in Manchester. They mingle the established venues with more innovative ones such as clothes shops and cafes.

My gig OCD can rear its head when attending these shindigs as I am always endeavouring to attend every venue on the roster and as a result, the friends who accompany me are hugely tolerant of my foibles.  

I always scour the listings as soon as they are published to identify new venues and ensure they are visited on the evening. These events can present conundrums in set time slippage and where to imbibe the odd beer or two en route. Are you fortunate to arrive at the start of the set where the band are worth staying for or do you land halfway through the last track? My overriding imperative is to catch as much music as I can on the day.

Some events can have widely dispersed venues which may involve a 20-30 minute walk from outermost venue to outermost event so even comfier shoes are required but if you are willing to put the mileage in you can cover up to 20 venues in a day!

Preston Venue 12 – Polytechnic Part 2

Attached to the venue was a bar/nightclub called 42nd Street which we smuggled into a few times despite being non-students.

On 31/05/92 I went to see the Cornish band the Family Cat. It was a hot summer which at that point of my life was nosebleed season for me. It was a late decision to go with a couple of friends. We met in the Continental and then got distracted walking into town by Jools Holland playing a set on Avenham Park.

In the pub before the gig, some punters were watching a Nigel Benn title fight on a little TV in a corner. We went in about 11pm and caught an unnamed support act who had one song titled ‘Kenneth Clarke is a Sad Man’.

The place was about half full and I saw a pal of mine called Warren Beasley in the audience. A couple of years after Warren tragically died from cancer at the age of 26.    

Family Cat came on about 12.15. It never ceases to astound me looking back how late the sets were in those days, it would never or very rarely happen now. It was a nondescript gig and they played for about an hour.

In 1997 John Dewhurst, Uncle George, Gill and I went to see Billy Bragg.  It was 6 days before the General Election, and it was patently obvious that after 18 years of Tory rule we were finally going to see a Labour government. As a result, he was on fire that night literally preaching to the converted   and that enthusiasm created an anticipatory buzz in the crowd.  

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Billy Bragg. Image Credit The Salt Lake Tribune

The charged atmosphere added to the lustre of ‘Ideaology’ and ‘New England’. A thoroughly enjoyable set.

The following week the expected landslide came to pass. I recall on the Friday morning Dominik Diamond opened his show on 5 Live by stating ‘he was proud of the British public’ earning him a reprimand for breaching the legendary BBC impartiality rules.

That evening George and I headed into town where I could partake in my first legal drink under Labour power at the sprightly age of 29 and we took full advantage ending the night in the legendary Raiders nightclub!

It was an enervating time and on a personal level it coincided with major life events of buying our first house and getting married before the 90’s were out. The time period was the Yin to the current Yang of the post Brexit Covid Britain we currently reside in.

My final gig there was to see Electric Six on 29/11/03.  It was on a Friday night and the place was almost full. They were a six-piece band from Michigan and had just released their fine debut album ‘Fire’. They had shot to fame on the back of their two hit singles ‘Danger! High Voltage’ and especially ‘Gay Bar’ accompanied by a startlingly original video which resulted in me never looking at Abraham Lincoln in the same way!

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Electric Six. Image Credit brightonandhovenews.org

I think they remain the band that I was most surprised by in relation to how unexpectedly good they were, they were as tight as a drum live. Dick Valentine was an utterly engaging lead singer complete with a French stick as a prop.

Little did I know when I started attending gigs that in my mid 30’s I would be joyously bopping round a moshpit with a hundred others bellowing ‘I have got something to put in you’!