Category Archives: Rock

Download 2022

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After three years a full Download Festival was held. I was to go with Ravi, and we were doing the RIP Hotel package.

Back in 2020, I had booked this package, which included the Radisson Blu hotel for three nights, after the 2020 festival had been cancelled. During 2021 the festival was again cancelled, but I elected to carry my tickets over to 2022. Now it was finally happening, and I patiently waited for my tickets. This was fraught, with several people panicking on the Download forum. Electronic tickets were replacing paper tickets. The process and information appeared to be different for different people, depending on which company the tickets had been booked through. But the tickets did arrive, and I stored them in my Google Pay wallet. They worked without a hitch.

Ravi arrived at our house a couple of days before the festival. A metal festival was on his bucket list, and I had organised two. During 2019, he and I had ticked off Glastonbury from his bucket list. Friday, we set off in the Polestar and arrived at the hotel. Parked, checked in with the RIP Reception where we were given our wristbands, programmes, t-shirts and especially useful waterproof backpacks. (We could not check into the hotel room; this was not yet ready.) The buses to the festival site ran once an hour, so we were soon on our way. The buses were exceptionally reliable, though at peak times they could be full, so you just had to wait for another. They normally put an extra one on to collect those left behind.

Friday

Arriving at the site, we walked to the Guest area, had a beer from the bar and some lunch at the Delhi Club, (Saag Aloo and rice). Friday was the warmest day; the other days were cloudier. Thankfully, there was no rain during the festival.

  • Theory 1.55
  • Cellar Door Moon Crow 2.50 (Dogtooth Stage)
  • Myles Kennedy & Company 3.50 (Opus)
  • Skindred 5.10
  • A Day to Remember 6.40
  • Kiss 8.50

Saturday

The breakfast at the Raddison was excellent. A good full English with freshly fried eggs, or omelettes made to order. There was also the option of cheeses, meats, and pickles.

Today I arrived from the hotel before Ravi, and spent time walking around the site, looking for real ale or craft beer. For some reason, the location moves around every year, and there is never any indication on the programme map to indicate its position. Found it, so Ravi and I were happy. We spent many an hour there, seated at the tables, talking with whomever we met. One couple had flown in from America for this festival.

  • The Raven Age 11.00
  • Monster Truck 1.35
  • Black Label Society 3.00
  • Deftones 6.10
  • Iron Maiden 8.55

Sunday

The highlights of Sunday were, for Ravi, the bands Wargasm and Alestorm, and for me. Biffy Clyro

  • Wargasm 11.00
  • Alestorm 1.45
  • Marianas Trench 3.50 (Avalanche Stage)
  • Volbeat 4.50
  • Korn 6.30
  • Biffy Clyro 9.10

Thoughts

This was the first time I had stayed in an hotel for a festival. It was nice, the food was good, the other guests were pleasant. There was no noise or throwing furniture out of the upstairs windows. For Download, I did miss the bar and bands which played late at night at the RIP camping. Instead, we were always on a deadline to catch the 23.30 bus back to the hotel. My preference is still to take the campervan to the RIP camping.

Ravi enjoyed the festival, or so he said. He expressed the opinion that it was more enjoyable than Glastonbury. Glastonbury is so huge, and it takes ages to walk anywhere, either for a drink or to walk to another stage. At Download, you can walk from the bar and be near the front of the stage withing minutes.

I managed to catch Covid, but I didn’t realise immediately I got back home, so I managed to pass it on to the wife. It did not make me popular.

My Download Festival

Not a Reading Festival

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It was Reading Festival time, the weather was glorious on Thursday, and remained sunny and warm all weekend.

I set off in a good mood, soon arriving and entering the campervan area. Was shown a place to park, and introduced myself to my neighbours. Off I walked to get my wristband, and this is where it all went pear-shaped. Apparently I did not have a ticket, I had all the other bits, including the ticket which said it was not a ticket. I then spent hours on the phone to Ticketmaster, had help from the camping site manager in trying to negotiate entry. Even my neighbours got involved and cooked me lunch. It all came to no resolution so I eventually left in the evening after all avenues had come to dead ends.

I would not be given a wristband until Ticketmaster said yes. Ticketmaster would not give permission until the Event Manager said yes. The Event Manager needed to know Ticketmaster had made a mistake. Ticketmaster said the ticket had been sent (how could they prove that, I wondered?) and so said it was not their fault.

Moral of the story, check your tickets beforehand thoroughly. I had checked. I saw the campervan parking hanger, and the printed strip of tickets, but what I did not see (apparently) was the actual ticket. The strip of what I now know not to be the tickets, was the receipt, notification of the campervan parking, but no actual ticket. R wanted to know whether in future this meant we should video opening any envelope from Ticketmaster, so as to prove whether or not they sent any actual tickets.

I lodged an appeal. Got nowhere.

Cambridge Folk Festival – Sunday

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Last day at the Folk Festival. I was on my own most of Sunday. Richard and Andrea appeared after visiting Simon’s brother’s garden. Though we did separate again as my musical taste was different from their’s. Was a good day with a couple of bands I really enjoyed, Imarhan from Algeria playing some Desert Rock, and Jimmy Reed playing the blues.

“Roo Panes “has been described by Uncut as a ‘Britfolk pin-up’”. A bit too folky for me.

Roo Panes

“Folk music’s legendary triumvirate of musical magpies Mike McGoldrick, John Doyle and John McCusker are out on the road again in 2019. As winter turns to spring Mike, John & John will wrap up their stint on Transatlantic Sessions for another year and bring you their own blend of top-class folk songs, tunes and charming bonhomie.”  Again, a bit on the folky side for me.

Cambridge Folk Festival 2019 McGoldrick, McCusker & Doyle

Imarhan is an Algerian Tuareg desert rock quintet formed in 2006, in Tamanrasset, Algeria. Their first and eponymous album was released on German record label City Slang in 2016. I loved their music, they were on a tour of the world.

Imarhan

“Storytelling is something of a Texas tradition. Tall hats and even taller tales are woven into the fabric of The Lone Star State, and singer-songwriter, Jarrod Dickenson can spin a yarn with the best of them. Hailing from Waco, now based in Nashville via Brooklyn, Dickenson spends most of his time on the road bringing his own particular brand of soulful Americana to a wide variety of music-loving audiences around the globe.”

Jarrod Dickenson

Next on was Lil’ Jimmy Reed, playing the blues. One of the original Louisiana bluesmen. At 80 years old he navigated the steps on and off stage with dexterity. He was accompanied by Bob Hall and Bob’s wife Hilary Blythe playing bass. Excellent!!

Lil Jimmy Reed

“Bound together by lifelong friendship and shared experience for more than 25 years, The Fisherman’s Friends met on the Platt (harbour) in their native Port Isaac to raise money for charity, singing the traditional songs of the sea handed down to them by their forefathers.”

Fisherman’s Friends

Cambridge Folk Festival – Saturday

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Today was the main get together of the Sadgits at the Folk Festival. Mike, Reiko & Simon added to our numbers today. We got two tables together where we camped out for most of the afternoon, drinking beer and Pimms and eating curry.

First I watched Nancy and James who are apparently among the best-known British acts working today. Voted “Best Duo” twice at the BBC Folk Awards, “Nancy and James brought their captivating live sound, along with their first-ever live album, recorded over two nights in the winter of 2018”.

Nancy Kerr, James Fagan and Friends

Kathryn Tickell on Northumbrian smallpipes, fiddle, voice, Cormac Byrne on percussion, Joe Truswell on drums, Kate Young on fiddle, voice, Amy Thatcher on accordion, synths, voice, clog dancing, Kieran Szifris on octave mandolin, musicians from Northumberland, Scotland, Ireland and England “invoke the dark, powerful, sounds of Ancient Northumbria and broadcast them to the modern world”. 

Kathryn Tickell Cambridge Folk Festival 2019

“Mad Dog Mcrea blends a unique mixture of folk-rock, pop, gypsy jazz, bluegrass and ‘shake your ass’ music. From self-penned songs of adventure, drinking, love and life, to traditional songs of gypsies, fairies, legless pirates and black flies – Mad Dog never fail to capture their audience with their infectious songs. In constant demand and having played just about every festival and two-bit, jibe-arsed dive in Christendom, Mad Dog Mcrea are, in every sense of the word, a live, band. “

Mad Dog Mcrae Cambridge Folk Festival 2019

Finally ended up eating a late-night meal before heading back to the campsite.

Cambridge Folk Festival – Friday

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The first day set the trend for the rest of the week. Up fairly early for a shower, to try and miss the queues, then breakfast. Then the bus ride to the festival. The heading off never quite occurred on time, always ended up chatting with my neighbours from London. I thought they were late risers, but no, they were up early as well but went swimming in the nearby pool.

Typically I would arrive at the festival at midday and have my second breakfast, bacon and egg breakfast, with a beer to wash the food down, sitting at the main bar, waiting for Sadgits to arrive. Then I would wait for Ravi, Jo, Callum, Andrea and Richard to arrive. Today was a lovely warm sunny day, and much of the time was spent drinking, eating and chatting with a few musical interludes.

My quotes are from the website to act as a prompt to me about the various acts

RURA, “one of the most exciting bands on the Scottish folk scene”, had already played on Thursday, but were also playing today. RURA “are a multi-award-winning act, and one of Scotland’s most sought-after folk-based bands, with three heralded albums – most recently In Praise of Home.”

RURA

Not sure Ben Caplan chose the best shirt to perform in, not loose so by the end of the gig you could see it was dripping wet from perspiration. Ben Caplan “explores themes of immigration, loss, darkness, love, sex, and God”. I absolutely loved his song, Plough the Shit.

Ben Caplan

The final band for the night was Graham Nash. Unfortunately, I was way back from the stage. Each song was proceeded by a story which explained the time and events that helped in the creation of the song. Some very interesting stories.

I read the news today, Marrakesh Express, Love the one you’re with, Cathedral, Our House
Chicago, Teach your Children

Cambridge Folk Festival – Thursday

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Months ago I purchased tickets for Rosemary and I to attend the Cambridge Folk Festival. Not my type of festival, but persuaded by Ravi. The Sadgits were going to be attending!

I arrived at the Cambridge Folk Festival in Morrison sans Rosemary. Rosemary had been festivalled out (and the builders were in)! The campsite was at Coldhams Common located on some playing fields. The site was well marked out with whitewash lines indicating roads, parking and camping. I was shown a lovely spot to park Morrison, right on the edge of the site. Met my neighbours who were a friendly bunch. They immediately showed me their van. They lived in Richmond and were becoming concerned about the Ultra Low Emissions Zone and their diesel campervan. The neighbour on the other side was a single male, a little older than me, who apparently spent a large proportion of his life in his campervan. Loos and showers available, although there were often 10-15 minute queues for the showers.

I made my way to the festival site by bus. There was an excellent shuttle service between the campsite and the festival site. On Thursday I walked back from the festival site because of the queue for the bus. I soon realised empty buses were passing me by. I never made that mistake again and always rode the bus.

At the festival site, I had a quick explore. There was the main arena with several stages, outside of the arena there are were a few other stages and event spaces. During the whole weekend, I saw only one event outside and that was a talk by Extinction Rebellion.

In the main site, there were several food outlets, including one I had seen at Latitude. The main beer sold was Otter with a few guest beers, and there was Pims on tap. Standard recycled plastic beakers for a £2 deposit were in use. Should have taken up the offer of a limited edition Cambridge Folk Festival beer tankard.

Didn’t see too much today, not much was on, as it didn’t really start until the evening. Watched Ben Caplan. Looking forward to seeing him again on Friday (I have a video of him from then). Met up with some of the SadGits, Ravi and Jo (honorary SadGit), Richard and Andrea and consumed a few beers before watching the highlight of the evening, Ralph McTell.

Listening to Ralph McTell singing Streets of London.

Latitude 2019 Sunday

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Rosemary had selected a play about William McGonagall, the Irish born Scottish weaver who has been lampooned as the worst poet in British history.  His poem “The Tay Bridge Disaster” was regarded as the worst in English literature. Gary McNair,  Joe Douglas and Briano performed A biography of the late Dundonian Poet – Sir William Topaz McGonagall written in ‘almost rhyming verse’!

After a very entertaining play, we searched for the photographer Rankin, having heard him talk previously. We were expecting him to be explaining his photos and giving hints on how to take great portraits. No, there was a huge queue to be photographed by him. So instead we headed to the comedy arena to hear Milton Jones a dour, droll, monotone, brilliant comedian. Listen Here

After Milton Jones, R and I split. R to hear some bookish talks while I went to see Palace, followed by Pale Waves at the Obelisk Arena. Pale Waves had been introduced several years before on the BBC Introducing Stage, now they were signed and playing the main stage. Later tonight they would be back at the BBC Introducing Stage for a special show.

Met up with R and rushed over to the Faraway Forest Clearing to hear Danny Does the Crossword. The audience tries to complete a Guardian crossword in record time. Unfortunately, with the large crowd it was difficult to hear what was going on, so we quickly departed.

Palace and Pale Waves

R and I headed over to the smaller stages in the woods. First, we watched No Vacation, an American band who had just started a UK tour. They talked animatedly about how they had to take a small boat to reach the stage. After them, we went to the BBC Introducing stage where people were sitting on sofas watching bands. First up was Dakar Audio Club, and then on next, a rap band called Binbag Wisdom.

Finally, it was the second set for Pale Waves.  

That was it, another view of the projections on the bridge, but we had now finished Latitude, wandered back to Morrison and bought the most disgusting cheese toasty I have ever tasted.

We left early next morning before most people were up, and headed to Beccles where we filled up Morrison with fuel and us with coffee.

Latitude 2019 Saturday

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Bright sunshine and short torrential showers today. As I thought, the loos were an issue and I went to the next field where there were more loos. Today the festival was busier with the weekenders here. Both Rosemary and I queued up to listen the Helen Sharman talk about her selection to be an astronaut.  This was then followed (late) by Rankin the British portrait photographer. He was interviewed and commented on the photographs he had taken of various famous people. He was there for the weekend, and you could go and have a portrait taken. He commented that to be a professional now, you had to get into film making as well. The entry to photography has become democratised by the mobile phone. He has 70 people in his production company.

After lunch we were almost caught by a heavy shower, luckily we were in the Carlsberg area under cover when the downpour hit us during the early afternoon.

We tried the food demonstrations and watched some chicken being BBQed. The chef originally started out selling wood as the London Log company, got into selling hardwood charcoal, and ended up supplying UK top chefs with charcoal to use in their kitchens.

There were a couple of good bands in the evening, Stereophonics and Underworld. We didn’t see any. R was finding it all a bit hard work, so we walked back to Morrison, stopping at the CO-OP to buy some wine to drink.

Latitude 2019 Friday

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Today was the first full day. Rosemary wanted to see some talks in the Faraway Forest, and the talks at the Space Shed looked interesting. I had a few such talks planned throughout the day. I went to see a band play at the main Obelisk Arena. It was an Afro-Punk ban called KOKOKO!. Very interesting band and I was up close to the stage as not many people were watching. The members were all dressed up in orange boiler suits. After they had ended, went back to find Rosemary in the Faraway Forest. She was bitterly disappointed, the Space Shed talk was crap, and geared around kids. We hung around the area but decided not to watch any more of these Space Shed talks. Rather disappointed, ended up eating lunch and having something to drink.

Back at the Obelisk Stage, I watched Anna Calvi, from a distance and then close up. I do think they do add too much bass into live bands, which makes them rather difficult to record. Much of the video I took went blurred when the base came in. It vibrated the phone so hard.

Today was a showery day, we missed most of the rain, darting in and out of tents to listen to people, or to drink some beers.

While wandering around, we tried the Sunrise Arena where we had nice surprise and saw an Irish punk band The Murder Capital

During one rain period, R and I listed to Mystery on the Rocks, apparently a podcast. (Each week a new guest enters the bar and attempts to solve an unsolved real life mystery alongside the regulars. Hosted by Masud Milas, Chris Stokes, and Sooz Kempner.) This was their first live stage discussion. They take some crime mystery, in this case, the death of a man in a room in New York City in 1929, a classic locked-room mystery. They discuss the crime, trying to solve it while making and drinking cocktails and singing. Sounds weird, but it was quite an enjoyable  

R and I went to see the band ‘She Drew The Gun’, unfortunately, this was unlistenable to because of the poor sound quality with overpowering bass. So we went off to prepare for George Ezra. Unusually the Obelisk Arena has a number of seated areas at the back where the oldies can sit. Managed to find a place to sit and watch George. The rain held off during most of the performance. It was a good show with fireworks at the end. One new feature of festivals these days are the volunteers who do the deaf and dumb signing of the song lyrics. How on earth can they keep up with the lyrics?? But they do and judging by various faces watching them, it is a very worthwhile service.

We walked back the campsite, over the bridge where moving images are projected into a water spray, and then back to Van Morrison on his pitch. Tired and I think Rosemary found it all a bit of a strain.

Latitude 2019 Thursday

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I had managed to persuade Rosemary to come to the Latitude Festival at Henham Park, near to Southwold in Suffolk. She was trapped into coming with the promise of several authors who were giving talks.

We set off on the Thursday at 11.20, around the M25 and then up the A12 through Ipswich and onto Henham Park. The last few miles were slow-moving, and we arrived at around 15.30 with a nearly empty tank. We were ushered into the general campervan field and parked in our row. There were plenty of VWs, traditional. the more modern T5s and Californias. Stacks of larger mobile homes, awnings and BBQs. Once parked, and my new 100 Watt solar panel attached to the battery, we made our way to the wrist band exchange.

The camper van site was huge, and the number of toilets was very limited. There were even a set of composting toilets being operated by Water Aid at an extra price. I was a bit shocked at the limited number of loos. I think the presumption is that most of the motor homes have their own toilet facilities. I did often walk into the next campsite field to use the toilets there.

We walked to the main arena, quite a long hike taking nearly 30 minutes. The general campervan site is the furthest away, you pass the general camping, the family campervans, then the posh camping and then through the retail village before arriving at the entrance to the arena.

Quite a pretty place, lots of woods and lakes and pink sheep. We didn’t do much, just wandered around getting our bearings, eating some food. We did go to see Imelda May in the Hallowed, ended up at the wrong stage, realised too late and could not get to see her.