Rythm festival

[la gran siete]

What can I say except excellent, 9/10 or whatever other superlatives may lurk.I was very pleasantly surprised and this festival definitely deserves to succeed ,in fact I shall be contacting the organiser to offer my congratulations.
First the venue:
Twinwood arena ,formerly an airfield ,at which an annual Glen Miller bash takes place( apparently he was stationed there). The stage is a converted hanger which has a wood as a backdrop and is faced by an arena which
has three banks one of which ( facing the stage ) has a lengthy bar with wooden decking outside .For an outdoor venue the sound travels very well and the atmosphere is absolutely superb.
The facilities were good . We were able to park our cars next to where we pitched our tents, there were showers ,plenty of hoit and cold water and the toilets were kept clean.The site was kept clean too.
The food, whilst not as as varied as Glasto, was sufficient- currys chinese burgers from the renowned Northfield farm, regular fryup joint, a veggie joint and a couple selling smoothies made on site from fresh fruit.
Then there were the usual trade stall selling trinkets and paraphenalia from exotic countries.
Now the music. What can I say? Jim Driver ,who was responsible for the organisation ,deserves a big pat on the back for his efforts. He must have trawled the clubs and pubs of this country in order to find talent which was good enough and cheap enough to bring to this venue and also some big names form yesteryear still seeking to entertain. I counted only two turkeys and one of them was Donovan a man who for some in explicable reason was labled Britains answer to .......................Dylan The only thing they had in common was that they both played guitars and harmonicas- period. anyway apart from him:
Arlo Guthrie - quirky and amusing. Anyone listyen to Alices Restaurant?

Nick Harper very much a chip off the old block who plays and sings with
great passion. might buy one of his cds

The Dylan Project are quite simply the best tribute band around in my opinion- superb

Roger Chapman ex of Family. I cannot fathom why this guy never reached the big time for he whas the most superlative gravelly voice very bit as good as Joe Cocker in his pomp. Maybe he was just content chugging out blues rock and wasnt iunterested in stardom
Sadly i missed the Manchester bard John Cooper Clark and Roy Harper due to an excess of Bombadier real ale
Geno Washington- never seen this guy before as i have never really been a soul music fan but as a live act this guy piuts a lot in. If you like soul music he is a must
Chas and Dave. The guy on the piano put in a 15 break which was excelent hardly surprising as he was coached by none other than Jerry Lee Lewis who finished off the weekends entertainment. Sadly he wont be seen again in the uK and this is his last tour. He looked infirm to me and seemed to slur his voice like he'd had a stroke Nvertheles he set was alos excellent
A word about the attendees- friendly tidy and civilsed. Made some new friends there
Now the good news - despite numbers being less than half what was hoped for this festival will be repeated next year when it is promised it'll be bigger and better

 

[Duncan G]

Talking of Chas and Dave. They appear at the Dunstable Folk Festival on Saturday 26th August this year. It's a free festival and is also on Sunday the 27th.

More details here, http://www.dunstable.gov.uk/pages/folk festival.htm

 

[la gran siete]

Talking of Chas and Dave. They appear at the Dunstable Folk Festival on Saturday 26th August this year. It's a free festival and is also on Sunday the 27th.

More details here, http://www.dunstable.gov.uk/pages/folk festival.htm

Would be well worth going to then. I was very impressed with them thinking at first they'do pop songs and thats it but they can play especially Chas( if he is the piano player)

 

[la gran siete]

I thought at first it would be full of "crusties"given that the type of music would be the kind that would appeal to them, and of course they formed the largest group but there was a faoir crossection of all ages so really it was more family centred. Loads of kids running around playing footie which is always a pleasure to watch- from toddlers right up to 6 or 7.The crusties came in all shapes and sizes ;quite clearly retired hippies from the sixties and seventies some hanging on to their long hair, others adopting the shaven hair route, others bald with the long backs and sides and others with dreadlocks or mullets.It felt very Bohemian which appeals to me

 

[la gran siete]

Few Nick harper clips
http://www.jednet.co.uk/nick/