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Great British Folk Festival 2014

Venue: Butlins
Town: Skegness
Date: 5-7/12/14
Website: http://www.bigweekends.com/

Friday Saturday Sunday Gallery

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Following a decent breakfast and with no music in the morning there was time to take advantage of the many other facilities that Butlins has to offer during the course of one of their music weekends. Knowing that I was going to be well fed and watered, beered, whatever, a chance to test the pool complex was high on the list of activities planned for the weekend as well as being a good, fun way to burn off the calories, but remembering to make sure hair was fully dry as, despite the decent winter sun, Skegness could still be described as bracing.

Bowling, cinema or the simple pleasures of a walk along the beach were also potentials, but I have to say Splash Waterworld was well worth the investment of time and a damned fine way of setting up the day.

For the afternoon session Reds with The Hut People and Melrose Quartet was the order of the day, but with a relatively relaxed photo policy, there was plenty of opportunity to pop across to Centre Stage and get a flavour of both Matt & Sueleen and The Springfields.

The Hut People, former Fatea Instrumental Album Of The Year Winners, are an unusual acoustic duo featuring accordionist Sam Pirt and multi-percussionist Gary Hammond and are a pairing for whom the phrase 'world music' could well have been coined.

Their instrumental ramblings really do take in pretty much every nook and cranny of the globe, either as inspiration for a set of tunes or somewhere Gary has purchased a percussion instrument. What makes them truly outstanding live is the way they build all those influences into a set that feels as naturally flowing as the Gulf Stream and just as warm.

It was also one of the few bands where there was both the right rhythms and the required space for a bit of a dance and whilst dancing isn't really my thing, a ceilidh is one thing that wouldn't go amiss as a introduction to the bill.

Having caught up with a pint of cider in the Skyline Pavilion it was time to catch part of The Springfields set in Centre Stage. They were starting off earlier than the Melrose Quartet so there was time to take in a part of the nostalgia enhanced set before switching to Reds. Mike and co have quite a bit of history to fall back on and I did wonder if an audience with type presentation might work better, either way, there's some great songs there.

Whichever way you cut it, the Melrose Quartet are the sum of two halves, renown duo Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, combined with other renown duo Jess And Richard Arrowsmith, which gives them a hell of a combination of both voices and instruments to play with and play the do and damned well.

These are one of those acts that runs the risk of being too clinical, but such is the passion that they have for the music and the respect they have for each other, you really do get the feeling that whet they've put together on any given evening is just for you, be it the way they hit a particular song/tune or the banter that leads into it, great fun.

I miss the end of the set to head across to the Introducing stage starting off today with Hull based singer-songwriter Lucy Marshall. She's the youngest performer on the bill for the weekend, but she seems to have bags of confidence as she delivers a set that is rich in her own material, lightly laced with a cover or two.

There's a couple of times when I feel I listening to a young Julianne Regan/Patsy Matheson, Marshall has definitely got that, 'here I am this is what I do', spark that makes you warm to her, that's backed by a natural patter that helps both artist and audience relax into each other. She's got a strong set of self composed tunes, but it was a cover version that turned lots of heads as her cover of the Pogue's "Fairytale Of New York" was delivered to a packed Skyline.

Lucy Marshall, already has one EP, "Midnight Motorway" released and another scheduled for early 2015. She's definitely an artist that I would like to see/hear more of and a big thanks to the GBFF for the introduction.

Blackburn based guitar duo, Bad Cardigan took up the baton next. Consisting of Jack Anwyl and Tom Randall who have already had a number of support slots with the Levellers , which lead to a couple of slots at the Beautiful Days Festival , so performing in front of a decent sized audience came as no real surprise to them.

As a duo they seem to get a lot of energy off each other, often creating guitar duels to help crank the pace and audience up, with plenty of riffing around in the songs. There being a definite rock side to the twin acoustic guitar attack. They go down well and continue to remind people of the breadth of music within the broad church that is folk.

Like Bad Cardigan before them, Ramble Gamble have a slightly novelty name, which I'm sure can be a bit of a two edged sword, but what the heck once you've gone with it, stick with it, it never did Limp Biscuit any harm.

A five piece and comparative locals to the festival, Ramble Gamble have a sound that seems to bridge the junction between folk rock and a more skiffle type sound, aided and abetted, no doubt by the full size bass. With hand percussion driving the beat, this band has a real touch of the wildling about them particularly when they've got all four sets of strings on the go and multiple vocals. What I found really pleasing was how balanced their set was. I guess when you have a relatively short slot as a band the temptation must be to go for it, well Ramble Gamble did go for it, but not at the cost of stage craft, there was a good variation in pace and a thank you to the hard working crew as well as a name check through the band. They pretty much sold out all their merch and picked up a gig or two so definitely good value.

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