Despite the first Wickerman festival being sparsely attended it survived through to a second year in 2003. For some reason and for this edition only it was a three-day festival from Friday through Sunday. I cannot recall why but Uncle George and I only attended Day 1 and the Dewhurst boys attended Day 2 also. Thus, none of us have attended all days of the festival but we have attended all the festivals.
This year was the last of the innocent ones before it became more professional thus lighting was a tad dim resulting in a perilous Casualty threatening walk over the tent ropes back to the taxi point. The organisation was also sometimes slightly shambolic in a charming way. It was the first event also too have two stages.
We were incorrectly advised beforehand that we could take in our own beer to the site but were blocked at the entrance wall so had to sup a couple of quick cans and had no choice but to lose the remaining stash – lesson learned there!
We saw Ozric Tentacles, Second Nature, Anti-Product and AlterNative. The highlight being a stellar set from the Beat featuring Rankin and Rankin Jnr and it was the last time I saw them with Papa Sax still on stage. The DJ excelled himself again with his selection of killer tunes in the Scooter Tent.
The Dewhurst’s have always had a strong affiliation with South West Scotland since their dad attended school in the Dumfries area. This resulted in the family pooling together to purchase a property in the centre of Kirkcudbright which subsequently become known as Dewhurst Towers.
So, from 2004 onwards this became the new residence when we attended the festivals allowing hot showers and a valuable communal gather in the mornings with lashings of Yorkshire Tea! The house was opportunely placed being about 10 yards from the Selkirk Arms pub.
I think the 2004 festival remains my favourite one due in the main to an excellent roster. There were a couple of tribute bands, Counterfeit Clash and Straw Dogs covering Stiff Little Finger tracks who remain my fave punk band. The latter band were excellent and refreshingly loud!
I witnessed the Alpacinos, Scarlet Blue and a cracking set from The Selector with Pauline Black in full flow. I saw the Core, Kantaro, and Aerogramme, a Scottish post-rock outfit from Glasgow who recorded on Mogwai’s Chemical Underground label.
Castle Douglas’s finest bagpipe combo the Dangleberries were in attendance again and I also saw Last Years Men, Anti-Product, The Sundowns and a decent set from the evergreen Levellers. On the second stage we saw a terrific young indie band called Cherry Falls who looked like they had real potential. However, undertaking a google search displays they had no recordings beyond 2005 so they appear to be another lost gem of a band.
The headliners on the Friday were the Buzzcocks who produced a decent set. The main band after the burning on the Saturday at 12.30am were Spiritualized who were fabulous. They were so uncompromising with Jason Pierce sitting side on and with virtually no crowd interaction which I admired. They suited the stage time on a cold summer’s morning, and they are worthy of inclusion in the list of top 5 Wickerman performances.
