Festivus

Published on Wed 26 Jun 2013

It's been a busy music weekend - I played keys for Annie at two festivals in Yorkshire. I'm not sure why all the festivals seem to be in Yorkshire. Is it really big, or is it just that they still have to make their own entertainment up there? The first, Grassington, was nice. The place itself looks like a film set, if the film was a live action Postman Pat.

The festival had a school fete kind of feel to it. We were playing in a marquee in the town square, inappropriately and loudly compered by The Only Rapper In The Village who was in sharp contrast to the rest of the call-a-spade-a-spade staff. I told the cheese joke I borrowed from The Front Bottoms but the annoying 12 year old kids in the front row who were trying to impress a girl by clapping out of time for the whole set laughed before the punchline. Then felt stupid when the punchline came and everyone else laughed. The acts before and after us in the square were decent but Local if you know what I mean but we saw a bit of Shooglenifty at the Town (village?) Hall after, and they sounded absolutely great. The town hall was very convenient for the hotel we were staying in, so the walk home was less than a minute but it has a clock that strikes the number of hours in the hour, on the hour, every hour throughout the night. Worth bearing in mind if you're ever staying at the Craven Cottage b&b in Grassington but also worth bearing in mind is that the breakfast contained very nice bacon and the greatest toast I can remember having. The perfect balance of crunchy and chewy. I have no idea how they did it. The bread was straight out of the freezer though, so maybe that's something to do with it.

The next day was the Willowman Festival in thirsk, which had more of a traveller community feel to it. We were there pretty early so got temporary tattoos, as you do. Mine was on the side of my belly and was of Elvis. Here's a picture.

Of everywhere I've played this year this was the best sound setup. Properly professional guys. The same couldn't be said for the chair I had to use though. I might have to invest in one. 

Just after we started the heavens opened and most of the festival came into the tent we were on in, which was nice. I looked up about halfway through and saw Gary who came with me and Chris to Way Out West the second time I went. My theory about there not being that many people in the world that aren't just extras strikes again. Good to see him. Still not sure why he was there. Made me want a game of mini golf. Apparently The Wonder Stuff played on the stage we did later that night because the heavens opened again. I bet it was great. We've played quite a few festivals in the last year and I've been surprised (and a bit disappointed I guess) at how little music you actually get to see. This time literally nobody else.

I washed the tattoo off after 2 days of being surprised in the morning. The guy proudly told us it could last up to a month if it was looked after. I wonder if he knows that the majority of people who let him use them as a canvas for his art are doing so mockingly and out of boredom. And I wonder if it bothers him if he does.