Reviews
Event: Strawberry Hill Music And Fun Day
Date: 18th July 2010
Website: www.strawberryhillmusicday.co.uk/
Strawberry Hill Music and Fun Day was Chas Cronk's third gig in two days, having played at Hampton Hill with Cry No More and at Brentford with Bad Influence on the Saturday.
Strawberry Hill House has been in a state of disrepair for a while and so for the last four years they have organised a summer festival as a means of funding the repairs. The repairs are now well underway, and the house is due to open to the public later this year. Because of this, the 18th of July was planned as the last of these charity events, but it attracted such a large, and well behaved crowd that I believe they are seriously thinking about repeating the event again next year.
Think this was the fourth year that they have run this, and I think that for some reason I have only attended three of them, but it is a marvellous day out, sitting under the summer sun in the delightful grounds admiring the beautiful architecture and listening to music. Heaven.
The opening act was scheduled to be an old favourite of mine, The Three Mustgetbeers, but their lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Bob Lewis, is sadly quite unwell at the moment, and so Brian Willoughby and John Evans went on as the Two Mustgetbeers. They had only had one day to rehearse as a duo, but are such good guitarists and are so good together that they needed no rehearsals. They took their material from the 3MGB songs where John takes lead vocals ("You Don't Love Me", "Down Home Girl", "Built For Comfort", and "I'm Coming Home", and from their recent "Rockin' Rhythm Revue" performance at the Eel Pie Club, (Righteous Brother's "My Babe", T Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday", Creedance Clearwater Revival's "Let's Work Together", and an instrumental version of Del Shannon's "Runaway").
Both played acoustic guitars, which is unusual. Don't think I've ever seen John with an acoustic before. Brian was playing his latest acquisition (apparently procured from e-bay): a guitar tastefully edged with abalone and mother of pearl.
They were followed by the Draytones. Although still extremely young, they have already released two CDs, and as this was the fourth year that they have played at Strawberry Hill, way back then they must have been very young. They describe their music as Anglo Argentine psycho-beat. Think most of their music is original, but they do play the odd cover. They are heavily influenced by the 1960s, sounding sometimes a bit like the Who, sometimes a bit like the Kinks, and for one song there was definitely a bit of Paul McCartney shining through. One song they did play, though after a bit of onstage discussion, was Del Shannon's Runaway. Very odd that they and the 2MGBs should both chose to cover that one.
During the Draytones act, in fact, whilst they were singing a song about the start of summer, the sun broke through and from then on, the day weather was hot and suny.
I thought that the name of the next act, Bible Code Sundays, was inspired. Actually, if you write the name in Hebrew, and then take alternate third letters, it gives the exact date when Madonna will become Prime Minister.
The band features a guy called Ronan MacManus, who lives in Twickenham and has just released an album called Strawberry Hill, so how appropriate for them to be there. If you haven't heard of Ronan MacManus, you've probably heard of his older brother Declan MacManus. No? Perhaps you might know him only by his stage name of Elvis Costello?
Bible Code Sundays are a London/Irish/ Midlands band, playing their own material, which is heavily influenced by Irish Rock. They are a six piece band, featuring a violinist, an accordion player, a keyboard/ guitar player, a drummer, an acoustic guitarist and an electric guitarist. Real toe-tapping-get-up-and-dance songs, which roused many of the audience to their feet.
The Robin Bibi band followed. They are a three piece, comprising Ed Spevock on drums and Tony Marten on bass. All three were excellent musicians, (I was particularly impressed by the bassist) and played a mixture of blues and rock. Strangely, one of the songs that they played was "Let's Work Together", already covered by the Two Mustgetbeers.
Robin's guitar was connected to his amp via a radio link, allowing him freedom to leave the stage and wander out into the audience. Kind of weird seeing the guy standing next to you, but hearing the sound coming from the speakers in front. Apparently the Robin Bibi Band are quite local, and are often playing in venues near to me, but this was the first time I'd seen him. Will make the effort to look out for him again.
The next band, the Acoustic Strawbs, should probably have been the headline act, but as Chas Cronk had to leave early to get to his fourth gig of the weekend, they came on at around 16:30. We'd set up a base fairly close to the stage, from where we'd had a good view of the previous acts, but as soon as the Strawbs came on, hundreds of people rushed forward and stood in front, so we didn't really get to see them. Never mind, the music was fabulous, and the sound was probably better balanced where we were compared to right at the front.
It seemed a fairly short set, but there's something about the Strawbs music, that makes hours pass like minutes. A couple more songs though would have been good though.
Had to leave after the Strawbs, so missed the last two acts, The Mustangs and the Downliners Sect. Despite that, it was a very enjoyable day, hopefully one that will be repeated for many years to come even when the restoration is completed.
Pete Bradley