Tag: The Beat

Kirkcudbright Wickerman Festival Fringe – Part 1

I am still slightly astounded that I have actually reached my 250th weekly blog as when I started up this site nearly five years ago, I surmised it may run for a couple of years at most, but to my ongoing delight I still have many venues remaining in the ‘Jimmy Archives’ to report on. At this juncture, I wanted to extend a heartful thank you to everyone who continues to support and kindly encourage my little endeavour. It then transpired that my loquacious ramblings ran this into a double article and also encompassed Blog 251 as well!

So, when thinking how could I mark this milestone, I chose to make a return to the wonderful world of the Wickerman! Regular readers will know that I was a huge advocate of the entire fourteen Wickerman festivals that took place between 2002 and 2015. Looking back now at all of those events I have compiled a personal Top 10 performance list in strictly chronological order. These are namely Stiff Little Fingers, The Beat, Spiritualised, Proclaimers, The Rezillos, Bad manners, Chic and Nile Rodgers, Public Service Broadcasting, The Amazing Snakeheads and The Members.

The Amazing Snakeheads. Image Credit Last.fm.

There have even been some rumours circulating regarding the festival’s potential return, but unfortunately nothing more concrete has developed on that front as yet. However, they could not let the 50th anniversary of the iconic original movie to slide by without a commemoration.

Thus, it was announced that in September 2023 a Fringe event would take place in Kirkcudbright where a portion of the 1973 filming especially around the tollbooth on the High St took place. In true festival style we rested our heads again at my good pal’s lodgings of Dewhurst Towers with Uncle George and I in the twin beds loosely resembling Bert and Ernie! It also appropriately doubled up as a shindig for John Dewhurst’s 60th birthday.

So, on the Friday after commuting the extra hour from my Manchester base I picked up Uncle George in Preston and headed northwards on the M6. I have always loved driving up that route especially when the road opens up and slices between the hills, it also in some strange way feels like I am heading home.  

To maintain tradition, we made a pit stop off the A75 in Annan to visit one of their cafes for a fish and chip luncheon with the obligatory bread and butter and can of Irn Bru on the side!  On arrival, we decamped to the large new beer garden in the nearby Garret (previously Gordon House) hostelry and also paid a sabbatical visit to the Masonic public house. We kept a beady eye out to see if the Mansfield Boys were also in town as they had also been perennial attendees of the festival, but there were no sightings of them over the weekend.   

Masonic Arms. Image Credit ribapix.com

We had our full complement of six by the Saturday and we had been blessed by glorious autumnal sunshine. Our first port of call was to attend the Dark Space Planetarium in the town. Apparently, the nearby Galloway Forest Park is one of the darkest places in the UK resulting in it being awarded a Dark Sky Park designation, one of only four in the Western hemisphere. To complement this the Planetarium opened up in 2021 where there are interactive exhibits and also a dome with a 360 degree cinema screen.

Dark Space Planetarium. Image Credit darkspaceplanetarium.org

Our attendance was for an event that had been set up in the dome area to show a documentary about the chaotic Scottish football World Cup adventure in Argentina in 1978 compered by the esteemed journalist and TV presenter Archie Macpherson.

However, two key elements then conspired, Archie contacted Covid and could only dial in and there were IT difficulties where the film couldn’t be displayed. This resulted in the organisers asking the audience whether they would like to continue with a Q and A but without the film. Whilst people cogitated, one chap took up the mantle, stood up and whilst walking out said ‘not faw me pal’, so that as they say was that!    

Clitheroe Gigs

About 20 miles east of Preston down the A59 lies the town of Clitheroe. The name is purported to derive from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘Rocky Hill’ and the Battle of Clitheroe was fought there in 1138 during the Anarchy (a civil war that took place in England and Normandy).

I have always been fond of the place and visited many times and have memories in my youth of climbing up the steep hill to the castle and enjoying the view from the elevated position. I recall a bandstand being located on the slope, and I have probably seen musical acts there, but they were never recorded in the Jimmy annals so would unfortunately drop into the ‘Lost Gigs’ criteria.

Clitheroe Castle. Image Credit www.rvta.co.uk

Similar to travelling to Southport there are somewhat annoyingly no direct trains from Preston, the route requires one change at Blackburn. Clitheroe is the terminus station so the train heads onwards to turn around and come back the other way, though I do believe there is a linkage from there onto the famous Settle to Carlisle line. 

For a lengthy spell, Gill visited a hairdressers in Clitheroe and on occasions I would head over and meet her afterwards and have a sally around the many hostelries in the town. We once broke the routine and grabbed the opportunity to visit the town of Whalley which is a smidge earlier on the same line, and that transpired to be a fine place to spend a few hours at.  

My good friend Tony Dewhurst has for many years lived in a village just outside Clitheroe, and is a huge Killing Joke and music fan and began to become involved with press duties at the Clitheroe Grand.

The Grand’s first function when built in 1873-1874 was as Clitheroe Public Hall, before morphing into the Grand cinema in 1921 and remains now as a Grade II Listed building. In a change of direction in 2005, the Lancashire Foundation purchased the building and re-opened it in 2008 as a community family focused arts venue also including sponsorship of a skate park in the previously mentioned castle grounds.

They also regularly have live music on the roster and the driving force and promotor behind the musical element was a thoroughly decent chap called Matt Evans who suddenly and sadly passed away during covid. Matt was a huge muso, and his personal favourite band was the Chameleons. Amongst others to grace the stage there was Wishbone Ash, John Bramwell and New Model Army. They also reintroduced the annual Ribble Valley Jazz festival in 2010 after a gap of 40 years.

It lived up to its name as a ‘grand’ venue as it had a homely layout with a decent vantage point from all angles. It reminded me of a more inviting version of the old main hall venue at Preston 53 Degrees.

Clitheroe Grand. Image Credit sseaudio.com

I attended two non-music events when a group pf us headed over in 2011 to see a Q&A with two Lancashire cricketers Mark Chilton and Ian Austin as a celebration of the county winning their first County Championship for 77 years. The other was to watch a woeful England draw 0-0 against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup where the best thing about the match was the very fine curry they laid on at half time. I also recall watching us beat Paraguay 1-0 in the 2006 World Cup in the Castle pub in the town centre.    

I have seen a total of three gigs here, the first was on 27/05/11 to witness an AC/DC tribute band called Livewire who featured both Bon Scott and Brian Johnson eras, the band were suitably thunderously loud. I must say have always struggled with the concept of tribute acts and not seen many and in the main when attending festivals. They on one hand serve their purpose, but they cannot feasibly lay a glove on the real band themselves. Having said all that, I saw them the same band there again on 11/03/16 where we subsequently missed the connection home at Blackburn and had to flag a taxi home!   

The other gig was a belter with The Beat in town and Rankin Roger and Junior Rankin in full flow and they topically transplanted the name David into their version of ‘Stand Down Margaret’. It was a very merry evening, and the train journeys home are a tad hazy!