Tag: AC/DC

Wickerman Festivals 12 and 13

My penultimate Wickerman article commences with the 12th festival which took place in 2013. Dreadzone were back for their third appearance and Dundee rock band Fat Goth were on their second showing. There was as ever the contingent Scottish representation with Primal Scream and singer songwriters KT Tunstall and Amy MacDonald.

On the roster were Welsh folk band Glendale Family, ska bands Random Hand and the 9-piece Amphetameanies from Keighley and Glasgow respectively and some rambunctious ska punk from London’s Buster Shuffle. Casual Sex from Glasgow were very much in the Orange Juice/Fire Engines mould and there was a decent set from the Edinburgh rock and roll band William Douglas and the Wheel.

Also on the bill were Mark Wilson, Maask, Machines in Heaven, Bellowhead, Friends in America, The Hang Project, Galapagos, Mark Thomson & Neil Patterson, The Yawns and Gardens of Elk. Dexys produced a rather limp set, and The Enemy from Coventry were also in town.

Wicker had over the years had many punk bands on the bill, many of whom were ageing and who should maybe give up the ghost! One sparkling exception to this viewpoint was the Rezillos from Edinburgh who were superb and their stellar single 1978 single ‘Top of the Pops’ went down a storm! My fave punk band Stiff Little Fingers also produced a fine greatest hits set.

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The Rezillos. Image Credit Blurt.

The post-burning act was my first opportunity to witness Public Service Broadcasting who were at the stage in full computer voice mode even when acknowledging the audience, they were thoroughly enjoyable, and I have seen them a couple of times since.

The best band of the weekend and arguably the finest ever Wicker performance was from the legendary Nile Rodgers and Chic. They were so accomplished and a visual spectacle and played hit after hit reminding you how many fine tunes he has written/produced. Normally one of our crew would wander off but everyone remained in place for their terrific set complete with dubious dad dancing and I have never seen the festival crowd so engaged!

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The incomparable Nile Rodgers and Chic. Image Credit godisinthetvzine.co.uk

Our accommodation at Dewhurst Towers in Kirkcudbright is literally next door to the Selkirk Arms which has an old-fashioned front room with the portable TV in the corner and fine Guinness on tap. The back room is the food lounge area with a large sunny beer garden, and remarkably it can get proper warm in Scotland in July! They also have lodging rooms and the Proclaimers resided there when they played the festival.

Other pubs in the town were at different times the Gordon House Hotel (AC/DC regularly on the jukebox), Masonic Arms (best pub in town), Commercial (apparently the racing driver David Coulthard has been spotted in there over the years as he was born in neighbouring Twynholm), the Steam Packet (by the harbour), the Royal (used to watch Open Golf) and the Tides (battered establishment where we watched the racing and contained a commendable jukebox).

Wickerman 13 in 2014 had Dizzee Rascal, Shed Seven, Jason Dupuy and the Mac Trio on the bill. The old troubadours Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Idlewild’s Roddy Woomble plus band and the always top value the Beat played. I created a first by catching two individual sets on the Main and Acoustic stage by Colonel Mustard and The Dijon 5.

Also on the roster were Explosion Soundsystem, The New Piccadillys, Neon Waltz, Vladmir, United Fruit, Broken Records, The Zombies, The Feeling, Skerryvore, The Chair, Cockney Rejects, Pale Honey and Schnarff Schnarff.

Another punk band who could still most definitely cut the mustard were The Members. They were a very tight unit and thunderously loud and their extended closing track of Sound of the Suburbs was sublime. British Sea Power were as excellent as ever.

We saw a highly touted Glaswegian three-piece rock band called The Amazing Snakeheads who produced a rip snorting live set to a frenetic packed tent. They had just released their sole album Amphetamine Ballads but disbanded the following year. I have just discovered that tragically their lead singer Dale Barclay died of brain cancer in 2018 at the brutally tender age of 32. I now feel even more privileged to see them in their heyday!

The final band to reference was a terrific vibrant set from a Scottish female 4-piece called Teen Canteen who produced slabs of sugary indie-pop and they since received acclaim and sessions and airplay on Marc Reilly’s 6 music show. 

Nottingham Venues 43 to 45 – Beeston Trip

When my brother purchased his house in Forest Fields in the late 90’s the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) system was still in the early planning stage. It subsequently opened in March 2004 and provided a station stop at the Forest which was five minutes’ walk away from his lodgings.

The line either traversed out one way to terminals at Phoenix Park and Hucknall, I have progressed in this direction as far as the penultimate station Butlers Hill where you can go rambling. The other way took you through the centre of the city and the Lace Market to the main train station, handy for onboard commuting.

For many years there was talk of extending the line out to the suburb of Beeston and this finally came to fruition in April 2015. It resulted in doubling the size of the network to 20 miles and 50 stations. To achieve this, the designers were rather novel and inventive by taking the line over the top instead of through the train station.

Beeston lies 3.5 miles southwest of Nottingham and the national Boots headquarters is located there and the introduction of the metro boosted the town’s status as it added to their existing train station and their hourly trains to London St Pancras.

We had always promised ourselves at trip out when the link was completed so we finally achieved that ambition by taking the 45-minute metro ride out on Friday 2nd December 2016.

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Beeston Centre Tram Stop. Image Credit britishtramsonline.co.uk

Our first port of call was the Crown Inn where an alehouse has stood on the Grade II listed site since 1830. The most recent incarnation is now owned by the Everard’s brewery so any pub that serves Everard Tiger is fine by me. Whilst playing pool we noticed the live game that night was Nottingham Forest v Newcastle, it was a dramatic match as the visitors finished with nine men and Forest recovered to grab a late winner in a 2-1 victory.

Another traditional beamed pub with fireplaces called the Hop Pole was next on the list followed by the obligatory Wetherspoons the Last Post. We had a gig lined up at the end of the evening but were intrigued to see what other musical offerings were available in the meantime.

The next pub Bottle of Slues provided the first answer. In a small thin bottle bar, there was a duo called the Sunday Blues Club playing who comprised of drums and acoustic guitar. If my memory serves me correctly, I am sure they did a very gentle cover of an AC/DC track.

In the Malt and Shovel, there was a grizzled four piece called Airborne on stage. My abiding memory is them playing a methodically slow version of the Eurythmics dark anthem ‘Sweet Dreams’.  

The unhurried style of the track brought my mind the speed settings on my record player when I was growing up. Alongside the standard 33 and 45, it had 78 to play some of my dad’s old records, but it also inexplicably had a 16 setting.

The 16rpm setting was introduced in 1953 and had a very singular market as it was available in very limited formats. The main usage was talking books and speeches and reputably the most popular was a talking bible.  The pro was the longer playing time and they were generally used as elevator music or by restaurants and the con was a poorer song quality as they were often pressed as monaural (one-track) instead of the standard stereo (two-track). The setting was phased out in the early 1970’s.

The scheduled gig was at the Greyhound on 85 High Road, the venue having a reputation as a local live music haunt. To be fair, on our visit the pub was teetering on its last legs and the final show there was a band called Smoking Gun who played there in November 2017 before the pub permanently closed. The band we saw there was the unmemorable Skeleton Crew.  

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Smoking Gun on stage in the Greyhound, possibly the final night. Image Credit tripadvisor.com

We headed off for the metro and travelled all the way back to the Forest and the night as many more before it ended in the legendary Frog and Onion hostelry in Hyson Green.