Wickerman 8 was held in 2009 and had a decent bill. The indefatigable Billy Bragg was in residence and was at that point going through his Woody Guthrie phase. There was some folk rock provided by Meersault from Edinburgh and Celtic folk from the Solus Tent headliners Pearl and the Puppets.
The Dickies belted out ‘Banana Splits’ for the umpteenth time, already thirty years old at that stage. Holding the punk flag were the perennial UK Subs, the Sharks and Penetration, Johnny Robb was in town with Goldblade and there were covers from the Counterfeit Clash.
Also playing were Root System, Mr Kil, Drums of Death, Luva, Anna, The Box, Marc Wilson, Kid British and there was glam rock and tartan attire from Glasgow’s Velcro Quartet. There were very retro performances from Candi Staton and Dreadzone.
Idlewild, as ever, blasted out a solid set and I was impressed by Edinburgh’s We Were Promised Jetpacks as they were a refreshingly noisy bunch in the vein of Twilight Sad. The Zutons covered the scouse angle and Magic Numbers are always soothing with their close harmonies and Californian vibe. The headliners after the burning were the Human League who were very good value.
The band of the weekend was an utterly joyous set in the scooter tent from Bad Manners. I think Buster Bloodvessel is the only remaining original and he is quite frankly nothing short of certifiable! He is now surrounded by younger band mates and the saxophonist was a revelation and the closing ‘Can-Can’ was riotous.
On the Saturday we always liked to have a communal bet on the horse racing prior to heading off to the festival. There was at one point in time a bookmaker in Kirkcudbright but now no more. In later years we also had enjoyable afternoons in Castle Douglas and Dalbeattie.
The absolute nadir was one year when it seemed we couldn’t even find the winner in a one-horse race and stacked our hopes on a horse called Tony Tie in the last. It didn’t even depart the stalls as it decided to eject its jockey! On the converse side one year we got the first three winners up in a Lucky 15, a fourth winner would have won us thousands, but the three timer was sufficient to cover the entire festival ticket costs for our five strong crew!
Wickerman 9 in 2010 had its share of slightly wonky legends as Tony Christie, Ed Ten Pole Tudor, The Saw Doctors, The Buzzcocks and The Undertones were in residence. Ocean Colour Scene ploughed their usual furrow; however Go Team provided their usual joyous jaunty set. Also on the bill were the nattily titled Earl Grey and the Loose Leaves, Mitchell Musuem, Midnight Lion, Fenech Soler, Lee Mottram, The Banana Sessions, The String Contingent, The Sex Pistols Experience, GoGoBot and Dr Huxtable.
There was a terrific set of post rock from Glasgow’s There Will Be Fireworks and Teenage Fanclub provided a soothing set with much of the material off their recent ‘Shadows’ release. Completing the Glasgow angle were the rock band Sons and Daughters. Tim Burgess and the Charlatans were in town alongside Sunderland’s Futureheads and 808 State played the main stage after the burning.
At one point we were ensconced in the Acoustic Tent, and I turned around and saw Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand fame standing directly behind me. He later hit the stage to perform some acoustic FF tracks and he went down a storm with the audience.
