Loading

Great British Folk Festival

Venue: Butlins
Town: Skegness
Date: 2nd-4th December
Website: http://www.bigweekends.com

Saturday

One of the advantages of this type of festival is access to sockets, a chance to physically recharge batteries, whilst you are metaphorically recharging yours in a nice warm bed. Similarly after the morning ablutions compact flash cards can be left down loading whilst you head off for breakfast in comfortable surroundings.

Whilst there's never really an excuse needed to have the full English whilst you're away on a break, not knowing what you'll be doing at lunchtime is reason enough, no issues what so ever with quality and quantity, but gave the coffee a miss, knowing there was some of the good stuff back at base. It looked like it was going to be a bad weekend for our porcine friends. Following breakfast it was a quick stroll to the Spar to get a copy of the Guardian, only to discover they had ran out.

Having gotten the Friday activities into the computer, there was still a bit of a break before the music started so time to participate in some of the other activities on offer. Whilst some other festivals have got morning activities, I don't think it's quite the same variety as here. I try to decide between swimming and archery. Decent slides win me over to the former. As well as the waterslides, it's a decent sized fun pool so if you do want to do some more serious swimming, there is space to do that as well.

There's a definite current to the fun pool and swimming against it makes for a good workout, as did walking up the steps to the top of the slides a good few times. On the way back from the pool, walking past The Sun & The Moon pub that there were a number of good places that might be able to be used for workshops or singing sessions, something to think about for next year possibly.

The music at Centre Stage starts at twelve thirty with the doors opening at noon, with the queue forming well before that. Once the doors open, the whole thing moves pretty quickly. Open seating can sometime lead to empty chairs, but that doesn't seem to be happening. There's even time to get a civilised drink from the bar before the first act of the day comes on.

Richard Digance is probably best known for short slots on late night tv and radio, often performing witty songs around recent events, but as many people around the folk circuit know, there's a lot more to his song writing than that. Combined with a good line in between song banter, it's easy to why he's managed to do well at, what I call raconteur folk.

Things do not start well as he's got no sound coming to him from the monitors. It takes longer than it should do to fix, giving him the opportunity to get into rant mode. It does seem a little strange that things aren't quite right for the first act of the afternoon, especially when it's just a man and a guitar. It's a pain, but doesn't really warrant the abuse fired off in the direction of the person on the desk

The level of venom built up is actually spot on for the song in which he takes a blast at the cult of celebrity, this being Richard Digence, there is plenty of opportunities for the audience to sing a long in the choruses and fill in odd gap with songs for rude words.

It gets a bit serious for a while well Richard explains how he was commissioned to write a song for the unveiling of a memorial to the legendary Christmas day football match played on the Somme in 1914. I hadn't realised that Leighton Orient were connected to the event through one of the war teams, Khaki United.

Digance was obviously very proud to have been commissioned to have written the piece and it was a poignant and passionate rendition of the song. If he hadn't have had to restart a verse because he sang nineteen seventeen rather than nineteen eighteen for the end of the war, it would have been perfect.

It was a smooth way into the Saturday, the hall was packed, but with the exception of the open mic in JAKS it is the only show in town. Richard Digance reappears down by the merch area to sign cds, dvds etc, whilst the stage is set for Coventry based fiddler Joe O'Donnell and his band.

I'm aware of Joe O'Donnell being a really good folk rock fiddle player, but I have to hold my hand up over a lack familiarity with the musicians in his band and there is nothing in the program to give any help. Apologies to his guitarist, who played a blinding set, but whose name I managed to miss.

Joe O'Donnell connects his fiddle directly into the input via what is essentially a very long kettle lead, it gives him good movement on stage, but I can't help feeling there's got to be an easier way of doing it.

All that I've heard about his fiddle playing turns out to be true, he plays a mean fiddle in a pretty aggressive fashion, his changes in emotion written across his characterful face. He spends plenty of time moving around the other musicians in his band.

The set is predominantly tune driven, with the odd song thrown in for good measure. This is proper fiddle driven folk rock. O'Donnell is a master of his instrument and plays a storming set. You can tell from the audience reaction that his and the band's playing has really reached out to then. After the set he gets a reasonable response at the merch table, which really prompts the question as to why he doesn't tour more often and wider.

More