Well we packed our bags, checked the weather forecast (as usual, not the best) and set the sat nav and headed down to
We had a great time performing on the stage in Hope square, we decided to keep the set up tempo with songs people would know and the response from the audience was great...all joining in on the courses and for once keeping good time! The only strange thing was as we were performing the wind was blowing the smoke from the burger van and every time we inhaled to sing we could both taste beef burgers……………….it could catch on!
After the performance we headed of to our B&B to check in and then we went for a little paddle in the sea. It is a tradition of ours and as it was a hot day it was nice and refreshing. We then got ready for the evening concert with Dick Gaughan and made our way down to the venue, was it really a year ago we supported Wiz Jones? Time flies by so quickly.
A quick sound check later we are off for something to eat..Yes you have guessed it Fish and chips! The concert was as usual well attended and as we finished of our set with our song Absent Friends Dick Gaughan got on his hands ad knees and bowed in front of Una….she did not know what to do! Of course Dick was in fine form and it all made for another memorable night. Dick was heading of after the gig to
Sunday morning we were up bright and early as the sun shone so the shorts were given another airing and I went for a walk along the prom in an easterly direction (sound like a policeman) as I had never been that way before. As I was walking sweaty men running began to pass me, first a few solos then duos and packs……..It was a triathlon and they were using the prom as the running section. I felt very unfit and just tiered watching them so I went and had a coffee and Ice-cream for breakfast!
(I am a lost cause)
We had a gig to do at the Piddle inn Piddlepentride from 3-5pm that afternoon so we took it easy in the morning jus wondering round the old harbour before setting of for the gig. Again it is a gig we have done for the last four years so it was nice to see some familiar faces and for Una to catch up with the gossip!
We then made our way back for the survivor’s session at the Sailor’s rest. Last year it was a special evening so we did not want to miss it. We were glad we made it again as it was another great night and a really nice way to round of the festival. We were interested to see what changes would be mad from last year to this and we were delighted to find that the changes that were made enhanced the feel of the festival without changing its charm. We could name individuals who are involved in making this little festival such a success but for us it is clear there are a lot of people putting a lot of hard work into making the festival the success it is. Our thanks to you all and our best wishes for the future.
If you want to see pics and some comments on the festival then click on this link http://www.wessexfolkfestival.com/
We were discussing over a glass or two of wine just what a tour was, had we done one before and not noticed? Our conclusion was that in order to call a tour a tour, we had to be away from home for more than ten nights and have a minimum of five gigs. We’re sure there are other definitions, but hey, this is the best we could come up with.
So it was we set off for
one side curtsey of the local yobs association) fully laden with tent, P.A., clothes, airbeds, cooker, pegs, (forgot once, never again!) and assorted
other brick a brack. The sat nav was programmed, a flask of coffee was ready to refresh should it be needed if we met a traffic jam. The weather was sunny and warm…an unusual occurrence this summer, the weather forecast was good for the next few days…..perhaps…………. just perhaps summer was finally here.
The journey was uneventful and as we arrived at the camp site we had booked for the next five nights at around 2.30pm. It was a relief to find a nice flat piece of land to pitch our tunnel tent on. Now we should explain that we do not do “rough” camping….. we are at the overkill end of the camping spectrum, our tent is an optimistically claimed eight man size, although we have yet to meet eight men of a size that would actually fit in the sleeping area! Our tent is also high enough for me a six footer to walk about in without stooping. Having scanned the lay of the land and checked the prevailing wind direction and checked the trees to see which side the moss was growing on and how far away we were from the shower/toilet block (very important for that early morning dash to the toilet) we (I) claimed our pitch.
Surprisingly we are very adept at putting the outer tent up, the issue we have is always with the inner tents, you see there is a right hand sleeping inner tent and a left hand sleeping inner tent, if you peg them down and then try to put them up the wrong way………….
All in all it takes us about an hour and a half to get everything set up and then we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and head into Lyme Regis.
As we tried to park we discovered that all the car parking spaces in the lower car parks were full, so we had to park in what is called the cliff top car park…aptly named as Lyme Regis is set on a very steep slope down to the sea. As we were to discover during our tour most sea side towns involve a sharp decent and then a daunting incline back to the car, this return journey was especially difficult if we had indulged in a meal before the accent, and impossible if drinks were involved!. We eventually mastered the art of walking up 45 degree slopes by taking twenty steps facing forwards, then twenty facing backwards, we may have looked silly but at least we made it back to the car without calling the air sea rescue.
We spent a pleasant few hours in Lyme Regis, we have adopted a system that for us, works perfectly when visiting a new town or anywhere really. We look for the nearest café that I like, then we agree a time to meet back at the said café. This we have found avoids the issues we used to suffer from. I would be dragged into the first clothes shop and would stand there slowly basting in my frustration. We would then come out of that shop maybe 15 min later, only to move into the next shop two doors down!. By the fourth shop Una would be smiling and I would be in the foulest mood ever, so the above system means Una can visit her shops, I can have a wonder and we meet back at the said coffee shop both happy and enjoy a nice cuppa. Try it; it comes with our exclusive NFA guarantee!
We had already decided that we would go to a session at the Sailor’s Return in
everyone was so welcoming. As part of our tour, we had a gig at a local
We mentioned it at the session and hoped some would come to the gig. We also had a kind offer of a trip out on the glass bottomed boat that Roger was skippering, phone numbers were exchanged.
Thursday saw us wake to glorious sunny day- to be fair the night was great too. Living near a city or indeed a town you forget how much light pollution there is and down in
We had a gig to do that night in
we had not visited before, we ended up in a lovely place called Beer….(make up your own jokes now) a little gem of a seaside village. We are due to do our last gig there on Sunday 19th at the Anchor pub so we thought we would have a look at the village. Again steep slopes down to the sea with a stream racing down the side of the pavement. Beer is basically a gorge in the hills, so as well as the steep slope to the sea, the sides are also steep climbs. We could tell we were in an upper class kind of sea side village because when you go to the beach which was all pebbles, the locals had put wood and carpet like paths over the pebbles to help you walk along the beach! We spent a lovely afternoon pottering around using the NFA guaranteed method as stated above. We also introduced ourselves to Phil and Jan and had a quick drink in the Anchor.
The gig in Taunton was ok but the venue was a sports bar…..do not get us wrong the bar was great and the setting next to the castle ideal, it is just that we know we do not suit the under 25 alcopop/Carlsberg generation so we were a little worried. As it turned out everything was fine as there were only a few customers in and those that were there were enjoying the music and having fun with us. It also helped that the bar staff were all South African rugby players who were over playing for the local rugby side and did the bar duties for money to live on. Una enjoyed the view and we even found a chip shop that did garlic chips!!! Our favourite after gig food.
Friday saw another beautiful day dawn and we had the day to ourselves as we had no gig to do that night. We set off again to visit some more sea side villages/towns. Our first port of call (oh how witty was that!) was Seaton, we did not stay long as it had a
Sidmouth was packed and after parking our car on the cricket club playing field we set off to explore. For once we did not use our patented NFA method and enjoyed wondering around the town together listening to the odd session and enjoying the free music on the sea front. Sidmouth is unusual in the fact that most of the town is flat and we really appreciated it as the temperature was above warm and the sun was streaming down. We eventually settled at a bar called Dukes and put our names down for an open mike event starting at two. We did a couple of numbers and were very happy with the response, we gave out a few cards and sold a couple of cd’s as well as enjoying the other performers, including a performance poet from Glastonbury who shall we say challenged us to think in a different way.
At about 5 we set off back to the tent to change and have something to eat, we had bought a disposable barbeque and we had found a good butcher in Sidmouth so we ate a feast of meat. We decided to go back to Sidmouth at around 8.30 as there was a parade and a firework display happening that evening. It was a great night and the streets were packed solid with people who were there to enjoy the spectacle. We hope one day to perform at the festival as reading the programme they do say they programme a wide variety of music.. hope it is wide enough that we can fit in at the edge somewhere…….
Saturday saw us wake up to the sun shining yet again, four days of sun…unheard of this summer! We had a gig to do that night, so we decided to go inland to avoid the Saturday rush to the sea side. We set off for Yeovil and spent most of the day there although to be honest it is not that interesting a town and we should have tried somewhere else but hey ho!
Saturday night we were doing a gig at a local pub in Lyme Regis as part of the regatta week. The pub was at the top of the town so it had spectacular views over the bay. Now we normally start at around 9 pm but there was a firework display taking place at the cob at 9.00, we thought we would wait a while as the pub was very quiet, however the landlord said we have to finish at 11 pm exactly as the neighbours would complain if it went on after this time. Well we started at 9.15 and we were playing to a handful of people, slowly the pub filled up. but not until our second half started at 10.15. By the time we had finished the pub was busy. we would have carried on but we had to stop to meet the curfew. Still we did stay and have a few drinks until the early hours and Rob and Deb were excellent hosts.
Arriving back at the tent at 2 am I was looking forward to a good nights sleep, how wrong can you be. Washed and toileted I climbed into our bed.. an air bed…. With the emphasis on AIR. Trouble was there was none…… air that is in MY side of the double air bed, let me explain. We have an air bed that is a double air bed but with two separate air chambers, this is so if one person likes a slightly softer bed to sleep on, their side can be let down to suit. while the other side can be blown up to be rock hard. My side was now as much use as a chocolate tea pot! There was nothing I could do, my side had a puncture and at two in the morning. I had to get to sleep lying on the hard ground. I should also point out that this caused much laughter from a certain Irish lady, who took great pleasure in explaining that it was not a puncture at all, but the seam had split under my substantial weight and we would be lucky to ever find an air bed that could take my weight!
We woke up on Sunday and guess what……Cloudy still warm and it had turned a bit humid. We had a gig to do that night in
Refreshed and ready we set off for Weymouth early so that we could spend the early evening by the old harbour and enjoy some fish and chips, As it was Sunday the only chance of me getting a good nights sleep was to find a shop open selling lilos, I eventually found a shop open and explained my sorry plight, I took some solace from the fact that the shop keeper said I was the third person that day who had come in to buy a lilo as there air beds had punctured… I did not enquire about their size!. The regatta was still on. The old harbour side was busy with sailing type people, we did notice that a lot of the sailing people stayed on there boats and were eating and drinking there. Having spoken to a number of locals it seems that at a lot of regattas the sailors stay on there boats and never come ashore. Seems daft to me but there you go.
The Kings Head although a new venue for us was not a stranger, we had visited it during the
We woke up on Monday to another overcast but warm day, this suited us fine as we had to decamp today and move to Bideford, I managed to straighten myself out after a night sleeping on the lilo. Now to take the tent down and pack it into the car takes one and a half hours and to erect and get the tent up again, another hour and a half so that is three hours hard work!. Not only that but we had to go in search of that rare beast…….the Tony proof air bed. Now the only town on our journey was
This was not quite the end of my ordeal, the queue for the payment counter was seven deep, I was aware that my hours parking ticket was now looking a bit optimistic. Luckily for me the queue had not gone unnoticed by the store manager (although all the other staff had managed it) and an extra till were opened, I paid for my goods and was given my pick up document, no 443 bay B and an estimated waiting time of…..20 min. As the car parking ticket was about to die I had to make a decision… should I walk the mile back to the car, pay for another hours parking and then come back, or take a chance……as Clint would say do you feel lucky punk? Just as the decision was being computed in my brain my document number magically came over the speaker 443 ready bay B.
The camp site in Bideford opened at noon and we had heard the weather forecast for the next three days, it was not good, SSW winds at 45mph and three inches of rain, it was imperative we get to the camp site as early as we could to baggs the most sheltered site. We arrived at 4pm and did a reccy of the site, now this camp site is really just a field used by the folk festival once a year, it is very different from the camp site we have come from, the grass is two feet deep, and it was clear from the fresh cow pats scattered around that would be depriving the heard from the best grass around for the next week. Eventually we decide on a spot, again after checking which side the moss grew on the trees and wind direction E.T.C.
The camp site field slopes…sorry that should be cascades down to the estuary below. There is a road at the top of the slope that has trees both sides of it, After some careful calculations and deductions I had worked out that if we pitch as close as possible to this road we would get the shelter from the wind we needed. It unfortunately also means that we will have to pitch on a slope of about 15 degrees. We put up the tent with our unusual efficiency, and decide to make a cup of coffee to celebrate. It is then we discover that the table has such a lean that nothing will stay on it. The cups just slide off! So now I have to find pieces of wood that we can use as wedges to balance the table. Still when the winds blow this cradle will NOT fall.
Oh I bet you are wondering about the airbed situation, well the answer was …………..PROPER camp beds.. metal frames strong canvas and most importantly NO reliance on air in any way! One slight draw back, (strange I did not see this as a draw back!) these camp beds are SINGLE camp beds….I am now in the dog house….. How could I……….what will people think…how am I going to warm my feet!............... If you think I am going to let you have one of the two quilts we have……….
Eventually Una began to see my logic although she still feels I have punished her for my problem, we put the two camp beds in the one inner tent and test for comfort… actually ok if a little hard, but the main problem is the slope. Our heads are six inches above our feet and it quickly becomes apparent that a good nights sleep would be impossible sooooo… plan B. We put one bed in each of the inner tents and put them at an angle of 45 degrees to the slope. This is not ideal but it means the slope is reduced and although you now have a slight feeling of falling out of one side of the bed as well as sliding down the bed, strangely it feels a lot more comfortable. There is of course the fact that we are now sleeping in separate beds and in separate inner tents, so we are now technically separated.
Monday evening we decide to make the most of the weather (cloudy but warm) and head for the nearest long beach. Monday night passes without incident, the beds work well (after purchasing a second hot water bottle and a pair of long johns for Una) and the wind is not as bad as predicted although the wind blowing through the trees could be heard above the noise of the torrential rain falling on the tent!
Tuesday morning is a damp one although strangely the humidity has risen. So we head off to the showers, they are surprisingly good as are all the facilities on site so no complaints there. We have our first gig of the festival tonight at the theatre so we take things easy and have a look around Bideford. It is more of a town than we thought it would be, there is a Morrison’s on the way in which is great for us to shop at and as it turned out to eat in. We paid far too many visits to the shop and eat far too many lasagna dinners!
The theatre was in a private school and could hold 400 people. It was an impressive building and we were looking forward to performing. We arrived for our sound check (max 5 min for us as we are not fussy about the sound on stage just a bit of guitar in Una’s monitor no vocals in the monitors, the front of house is where we want the sound engineer to worry about, not us!) We are supporting Tom Bliss and Tom Napper who we know after there visit to our local acoustic club the
Wednesday saw a little change in the weather……..the humidity dropped and it went a cold! Although it was overcast we decided to be brave and cross the border into
We went to a session at the Joiners Arms that night, and although not a great attendance, with the mixing of the singing and instrument sessions,a good night was had by all. We also ventured into the session tent on the camp site when we got back. This is a really good idea and a few other festivals could pick up on this if they have the room on their camp sites. What the organisers did was put up an old army tent with lighting and few toilets outside in a corner of the camp site, you were told about the tent on arrival and you could make a decision as to how close you wanted to be to it re noise levels. We were probably the nearest tent and although one session finished at 3 am we never found it an issue, it was rather nice to be serenaded to sleep.
Thursday saw another cloudy day but the predicted gale force winds had not been to bad, as a camper we do not mind the rain it is the wind we do not want to suffer from (oh err missus) because it is threatening rain (we are very scared of threatening rain as apposed to unthreatening rain) we decide to go to a tourist place, Clovelley. This is an old fishing village set on a steep slope down to a small harbour. We arrived in the car park and tried to walk down a road to the left of the car park only to be shouted at by the car park attendant that we had to go through the visitors centre to get to the village. Ok no problem, however, once at the visitors centre they wanted £4.50 each for the privilege!!! Now I did some reading at the visitors centre and what we did not know was we were on private land and the village is a private village, a bit like Port Merrion in
In the evening we went back to the Joiners but it was a lot quieter, at one stage it looked as though the session would finish around 10.00 but late arrivals started dropping in and when we left to catch the boogie bus back to the camp site, the session was just getting going. We loved the idea of a bus service from the camp site to the town and back, we named it the boogie bus after the Jamaican boogie buses.
Back on sight we went to the session tent to find BOOZE!! Yes our thanks to whoever put a few barrels of ale in the session tent and only charged £1.00 a pint.
Friday saw……….. yes you have guessed it, another damp cloudy day, because we have gigs for the next three nights we decide to take it easy. Friday night sees us doing a gig at the Blacksmiths Aarms as part of the folk festival. It was nice to meet Andy who had booked us, we were surprised that a couple who saw us doing a couple of songs at Sidmouth had travelled from
Saturday came with the usual rain but by now we are used to it, we are doing a gig in Chawleigh in the middle of Exmoor tonight so we spend the day walking around the town taking in some clog and Morris dancing. The gig was a fortieth birthday and finished around 12.00 so we packed up and headed back to the camp site. We got back about 1.30 and thought the session tent may still be going on but it had finished, so off to bed we went.
Sunday saw us having to make a difficult decision, we intended to pack up today as our last gig is in Beer south
It has been a real adventure, we were lucky with the weather in many ways, and we have made a lot of new friends along the way. The good news is that we have been invited back to all the venues we played next year so we can do it all over again!! Please let the weather gods be kinder, and if we do decide to do it all again we will let you know.
To the next time take care and we will see you somewhere down the road.
Una and Tony
It was nice to return to
We went down to the festival on the Friday but stopped in Piddlepentride to do a gig at the Piddle Inn (we kid you not!) we are not strangers to this particular hostelry and we had a great night as usual. Una in particular would like to thank all the people who bought her drinks…..but only after the hang over had gone!!
A fresh day and we were in
We were performing that night in a church so we did our sound check and went and had something to eat… well fish and chips really.. had to be done. The concert was great and with it being in a church the acoustics were exceptional, Una was in her element as she first started singing in churches back in
It was also nice that so many people bought cd’s from us and we did run out of one of the cd’s that was a first! It was also nice to meet some people who had found us on a web site and travelled to come to the gig, we hope you enjoyed it we did.
The concert finished at 11.00pm and so we had time to go for a drink in the Kings and catch a bit of the session, really high standard of musicianship on display.
We have done our bit but on the Sunday night there was a survivor’s session and this turned out to be a great night. Some times something intangible happens and there is magic in the air so it was with this session, time just flew by and it ended all too soon.
We were lucky enough to be able to stay an extra night (thanks Rodger!) so we had a nice relaxing day on the Monday.. Una enjoying her favourite sport…shopping and I went on a boat trip. The weather was glorious and we had a lovely little break before the trip home.
This festival will grow and inevitably change along the way, this would normally bother us as the magic is hard to bottle but here we can see a group of dedicated people who will make sure that although growing the festival will not lose it’s magic
So we were off to Cromer in
The theatre is a lovely old Victorian 400 seater at the end of the Pier. It has been renovated and has a real charm, Una said the atmosphere is created by sound of the waves passing under the theatre.
We have to admit we were a bit nervous before performing, we talked about it afterwards and we felt it was because we were treated so well! When we arrived we were give an dressing room complete with a mirrors and small light bulbs all around them in true theatrical style!(warning the lights and mirror make you look ten years older than you are, no wonder actors ware make up!) We then were offered sandwiches and tea etc and then we did a sound check which was the most thorough we have ever had. Oh how the other half live!
We also set up the video camera to capture the performance and then waited… In truth we were ok once we were introduced but a slight mistake in the first song led to us making it a six minuet song instead of a four minuet song!. The reception we got at the end of our set was great and thanks to all those that bought cd’s.
We also did an interview for Peter from
After the evening show we met some people and headed off to a hotel bar… this is and was our usual downfall and we got to bed at 3.30am. Still it has to be done!!! On the Saturday we had to leave the festival as we had another gig to do and so we said farewell reluctantly.
Our final thoughts on the festival were that this is a hidden gem of a festival and the Pier theatre makes this a special event. Scott and his team are so organised and professional that in truth they could probably handle a festival three times this size but it is the intimacy that makes this festival so good.
If you have not been to a festival before this is the one we would recommend as a first time festival. Our thanks to everyone involved with the festival and our apologies to Tom for not getting back on the Sunday for a session.
