All These Tweets Are Mine
I was more than a little dubious about opening a Twitter account as I really couldn't see the need to be on another social networking site. I have myspace for music; facebook for personal friends; a blog and a hotmail account - that really should be sufficient. However, curiosity got the better of me so I set myself up with a username, chose a background, chose a picture and tweeted, on average, once a month.
A couple of weeks before the festival I had the idea of tweeting every thirty minutes to an hour over the full four days. I tapped into the knowledge of Steve Nelson (bass man in The Penny Black Remedy and web guru of The Strummerville Foundation) and soon I had the means to tweet or upload pictures to all my accounts with either a single web update or an email. Keeping this up over the four days was a lot easier than I thought; despite all good intentions I had visions of a torrent of tweets on Thursday and a trickle thereafter.
This is, possibly, the first microblog of a folk festival to be fully published and contextualised. As such I felt the need to have a small part in keeping with that most sacred of folk ideals, namely "tradition". I've long known that you can get away with just about anything in folk circles if you allude to some kind of tradition and what could be more traditional than theft. It happens all the time and as long as you own up to it, you will get away with it. So the title of this article has been, with the alteration of one "word", stolen from a very good friend of mine (it is actually the name of her website).
The timings of these tweets are accurate until the last day as I printed from my twitter account on Monday so it shows x hours ago rather than an actual time and date. The picture of the gallon of ale I got for £10.00 did not appear on twitter due to problems with ping.fm. I should really leave it off but £10.00 for 8 pints of Adnams? It would be rude not to brag about it! I have deleted a couple of tweets from the 29th as they had no relevance to the festival. So here are my #CFF09 tweets (spelling mistakes included).
1. @Jimbomarsden I'll gladly bring an instrument, you don't expect me to play though do you? #CFF0912:37 PM Jul 29th from web
Jimbomarsden suggested that all twitterers should meet up at the festival and bring an instrument; being musically inept I suggested meeting him halfway.
2. TFL's "Weekend line and station closures" for once won't be bothering me1:02 PM Jul 29th from Ping.fm
Each week I get an email from Transport for London advising how they are going to make my weekend journeys to and from gigs nightmare. I deleted the mail unread.
3. work ends, 5 days of music begins. Hayes tonight then CFF#CFF096:13 PM Jul 29th from Ping.fm
This is Hayes Carll rather than the delightful west London suburb. His set at the Luminaire lasted longer than his two CFF appearances combined.
4. kilburn, raining. Think I'll have to get used to this (rain that is, not Kilburn)7:36 PM Jul 29th from Ping.fm
Actually it did not rain as much as I expected, some Thursday or Friday night and a deluge Saturday evening; could have been much worse.
5. picture ping didn't work :(1:52 AM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
Ping.fm was suggested to me as a way of updating Twitter, Facebook, Myspace etc by sending a single email. They were having problems at this time.
6. pinging pics works but is slow. Expect Lucinda Williams sometime Sunday morning. #CFF092:20 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
Hmm, a day out for this tweet (Lucinda Williams played Sunday night).
7. sky's blue, wind's up, flysheet's ripped. Thank the lord for gaffer tape.5:33 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
I was temped to buy a new tent for Cambridge; I have to now.
8. rainbow weather5:41 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
Blue sky and rain.
9. quote from the lad in front of me "my passport photo makes me look young and greasy" no problems with low self esteme there6:12 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
This was when queuing to get my wristband. One minute bragging about how he'd get beer, the next making excuses about his photo.
10. on site for 2 mins and I've been hit by a diablo #CFF096:47 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
I don't like jugglers at the best of times, not plate spinners, and especially not Diablo flingers.
11. Old Rosie, she's a wicked woman. Hobgoblin for me. #CFF097:06 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
This 7.2% scrumpy reminded me of the Ely Folk Festival many moons ago when a guy lovingly stroked a barrel of the stuff and told me what a wicked woman she was.
12. calan in the club tent, 2 fiddles, harp, guitar and a gorgeous voice7:17 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
First band of the festival for me and they made a lasting impression.
13. - lamest festival tankard ever. Pewter tomorrow #CFF097:36 PM Jul 30th from TwitPic
In hindsight I should have paid a £2.00 deposit for a plastic pint glass and not bothered with the £4.00 souvenir one. The artwork is boring and the base is smaller than the rest of the glass: not stable for putting on the ground.
14. oh lordy she's strapped on her clogs, and she's wearing a pink sparkly top, that got everyones attention7:48 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
well, it got mine.
15. I've the urge to buy multi coloured shirts8:19 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
I resisted.
16. Alelea Diane, steelin' most definately ain't a crime #CFF098:24 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
There are no bands on stage one on the Thursday, so stage two was particularly crowded, I would have loved to have been closer to see Alelea.
17. beer or bad shepherds, beer or bad shepherds?9:04 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
Both, obviously.
18. if you want a folk version of 'I fought the law' listen to the Oyster band #cff099:09 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
Only halfway through the first number and I was already beginning to tire of Ade Edmondson's folky punk covers.
19. down in the tube station, all together now ... oh, oh, oh, oh #cff099:28 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
Nothing like a good sing-a-long
20. sid griffin has nothing to fear #cff099:37 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
The Coal Porters do a really good bluegrass cover of "Teenage Kicks", the Bad Shepherds do really bad folk cover of the same song.
21. day one done, lets see what sessions go through 'till tomorrow 11:56 PM Jul 30th from Ping.fm
Fairly standard club fare, and all the more enjoyable for it. The midnight through to 1:30 am sessions at Coldhams Common made for a great end to each evening.