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Great British Folk Festival

Venue: Butlins
Town: Skegness
Date: 29th November - 1st December
Website: http://www.bigweekends.com

Saturday

It is a generally acknowledged rule that any day that starts with a full English, should be a good one. Seeing as breakfast was going to be followed, eventually, by Bailey and Judie Tzuke, this was going to be an almost inevitability. I briefly considered taking in a solo set by former member of the Alarm, David Sharp, but not even Mike Peters would have swayed my course. In the meantime there were a few Butlin's entertainments and events to take in, including the recently refurbished water complex.

Midday saw the venue doors swing open for the crowds to rush in with Reds once again being my favoured choice. The stage is closer to the audience in there, but that does leave little room for dancing and it also has the disadvantage in that people dancing down the front tend to get in the way of the seated majority, particularly those near the front. The dance pit in Centre Stage does mean the seated majority can see what's going on over the heads of those writhing away below. Not that this matters as much when you're about to hear a couple of singer songwriters.

The format of the Tzuke girls set was simple enough, Bailey first introducing herself and her music, with mother Judie, providing backing vocals from the back of the stage, partially hidden by the band they would both share, followed by Judie taking from and centre, joined by her daughter on backing vocals.

It was a plan that worked incredibly well, whilst most of the audience are of an age where Judie's music easily gains prominence, they were also open minded to the more contemporary delivery of Bailey's music, that due to the expressive nature of the songs reached out to them. Bailey showed herself not to be just an impressive performer, but also a songwriter of some talent.

A brief gap to tweak a few settings apart, Judie dived lovingly into the atmosphere in the room, enhancing it with a combination of newer songs as well as some old favourites. By the end of her set, there is a real glow to her, you could tell how enchanted she was by the reaction of the crowd and it really helped give energy to her performance.

Next up were Karac, a contemporary prog/blues band lead by artist Steve 'Pablo' Jones in a sort of moonlighting role. Dressed in a hat that sort of reminded me of Slash from Guns 'n' Roses, whether by design or not, I'm not sure. What I was sure of very quickly was that the band's music really didn't appeal so it was time to head off to Centre Stage for Bruce And Jamie Watson, both of Big Country fame performing as a father son duo. It seems like it's going to be a good day for families, with Cara Dillon and The Springfields still to come.

Whilst I've enjoyed Big Country, though not for a few years, my expectations of what I was going to catch here weren't particularly high, but were instantly raised by the warm applause I heard as I entered the room.

Sporting a range of guitars and mandolins and with Bruce coming across like an aged teddy boy, the Watson's soon proved themselves to be a very accomplished duo with a rock emphasis to songs that would have proudly taken a more folk rendition if someone had the inclination to take them down that root.

There was a natural affinity with the audience, aided and abetted by Bruce's between song banter. Jamie seemed content to let his playing do his talking as he showed that he was no junior partner in the duo when it come to knowing his way around the fret board. Bruce And Jamie Watson made a decent impression they've definitely got something going for them and I reckon they could be something really expressive if they decided to go fully down an acoustic route, or maybe that's been done too many times before.

Had I been more astute I would have checked my program at this stage and headed off in the direction of the Front Room to catch the second performance of Bournemouth's Annie Winter in the cafe setting of The Front Room. Stupidly I didn't so apologies to the singer/songwriter who is starting to make an impression on the scene, hopefully enhanced by her appearances here. She's certainly impressed the likes of Deborah Bonham who has already used her as a support act.

Instead I get into a catch up conversation with a couple of old friends that I've not seen for a while and the conversation turns to the next act on Centre Stage, a man I'd last seen perform with his previous band, well that is if you don't count watching him host The Crystal Maze, the band were Tenpole Tudor, the man Ed Tudor Pole.

It transpired that Ed genuinely believed that he's been booked to play the Alternative Festival, another of the Butlin's big weekends and thought the organisers were jokin g when they confirmed that it was actually the folk festival, it mattered not because one thing that is certain about Ed Tudor Pole, he's an entertainer.

Ed Tudor Pole is more than an entertainer, he's an enigma, not punk enough, 'Swords Of A Thousand Men" and "Wunderbar", both a little too populist, too punk, well there was that time her performed with The Sex Pistols, one of those difficult to pin down characters, like a Victorian theatre impresario, dressed as an Edwardian fop that had fallen on hard times, but still without a care in the world and only a battered old guitar for company. He short he was glorious.

A raconteur with a glorious tangential look on life and whilst not the greatest vocalist in the world, more than good enough to pull it off. Theatrical posturing observational songs and solo versions of the old hits, all thrown into the pot, a magnificent way of spending the afternoon. Something to be savoured long after the performance was over.

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