DIARY OF A FESTAL VIRGINDIARY OF A FESTAL VIRGINFriday 24th July
Morning, and the body has performed its usual combination spirit level and compass function resulting in the tent door not being quite where you expect it to be. Breakfast at the Unicorn and back to work.
Main stage one and hard working Newfoundland band, Great Big Sea, roped in to start the festival proper, practically have to be fenced in to keep them on the stage. They very quickly establish a good rapport with the audience and deliver a mixture of their own songs, traditional tunes and a cover of REM's End of the World
Next up were Jez Lowe and
The Bad Pennies who, unfortunately, drive me to the bar, unable
to take the Geordie gloom and despondency - and those were the
happy songs.
Beth Orton came on stage to the delight of budding, teenage songstresses in the audience and, despite her cold, dispensed songs such as Galaxy of Emptiness, Tangent and the new single, Best Bit, from her new album. By the time she finished up with Someone's Daughter an initially reluctant audience was on its feet.
Stage being reset, top up beer, check programme to find the next act, Sharon Shannon, has toured with the Waterboys, collaborated with a host of stars, and is, I quote, "to the acccordion what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar.", hmm. Accordion, fiddle, reels etc. Beth Orton drops in to check out the set and she seems as bemused as I was at the ecstatic reception given to Sharon Shannon. Perhaps she was expecting, as I was, an accordion set ablaze with lighter fuel and the Star Spangled Banner, it never happened, strange.
Musician's musician, host of hosts and this
Festival's man in black, Mister Jools Holland and his Rythm
and Blues Orchestra come on, knock out some palatable R&B,
boogie woogie and honky tonk Joanna numbers. Guest vocalist is
the ever delectable Sam Brown, causing some members of
the audience to claim that this alone is worth the price of admission.
The sound system problems return causing B J Cole's steel
guitar solo to be an unintentionally acoustic number, played for
the exclusive benefit of Sam Brown. A couple of Sqeeze numbers,
a big finish, curtain call and the roof comes off, stars smile
down and all the little pixies play fiddle music far into the
night as I slip off to beddy-byes.