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Great British Folk Festival

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

Saturday

Next up are the afternoon headliners, The Wurzels. The Wurzels are a band that split the folk world, there are some that will resent them having slot at this festival, they would view the band almost as anti-folk, promoting all the things that are bad about folk in the public eye. This is a slot that could be better used well for almost anyone else. There is a bit of a resentment that this is a folk band with a number one single, when many more worthy artists have fallen short of that mark.

Then there's the other camp that are up for a bit of folk nonsense and who view The Wurzels as a good time to be enjoyed and taken for what it is. I've seen The Wurzels twice before, though not for some fifteen odd years and on both occasions they've proved to be good value.

As with Digance earlier, you know there's going to be a lot of 'singing' opportunities and we're not disappointed, a highlight of the set is when they claim Kaiser Chief's "Ruby, Ruby, Ruby" for one of their resplendent with lots of ohh arr ooh arrs.

A corresponding low spot was actually one of the tracks that most had been looking forward to, "Combine Harvester". For some reason they played a dance remix version of the song and it just didn't work. Most bizarre moment was the striping routine of John the accordionist. A semi-naked Wurzel bouncing up and down is not a sight I want to see again, ever, and one that will probably live with myself and the rest of the audience for the remainder of our lives.

That brought the afternoon to a close, or at least it would have done, had there not been a surprise appearance by JT Nero across at JAKS. JT Nero should have been playing Liverpool but for some reason that was cancelled, a bit of negotiation during the afternoon had got them a short gig at the end of what should have been the last of the open mics.

The final act of the open mics, BBB is still on stage when we arrive at JAKS. Butlins works on quite a tight deadline when it comes to meal times so people who are staying to the end are potentially risking not getting properly fed, even so there's a lot prepared to risk it.

JT Nero has Po Girl's Allison Russell with him as well as an Austin Texas based singer songwriter, Joe. The stage is changed as quickly as possible. JT Nero jokes about the festival being contaminated by Americana, hey it's all folk music, just a different band on the spectrum.

It ends up becoming one of those gigs that in years to come many will claim to have been at, when they talk about the secret gig of 2011. It was one of those things when everything came together. The quality of the singing and playing can be taken for granted, but this was one of those added sparkle moments, as if kharma had decided to balance up a past sinned against.

The backdrop of corrugated iron and guitars, just set off the moment, as did sympathetic lighting and decent sound. JT Nero performed a stunning set, the interaction between the musicians was instinctive and effortless, if you were there you'll know exactly what I mean, it was as though someone had sprinkled pixie dust, amazing.

Those that did stay to the end cut it fine, I hope everyone made it to the food. Refreshed in spirit it was time to refresh the body before venturing back into the fray of the evening sessions. I've pretty much abandoned my try to see a little bit of everything and have settled back into full gig mode.

The evening has both major venues back up and running, first choice is Steve Gibbons Acoustic or Merry Hell. I used to really enjoy Merry Hell precursor band, The Tansads so for me it's an easy choice, Steve Gibbons is going to be one for another day.

Call it power folk, call it punk folk, whatever you want to call it, call it a good time. This is in your face folk music, with more than a hint of social justice, delivered up tempo with plenty of aggression. Merry Hell were the first band of the weekend that could have got away with having their own mosh pit, space permitting. As it was they managed to get a good number on their feet and even some dancing in the aisles.

The set was a blend of tracks from their recently released debut album and a few that hark back to the days of their former existence as the Tansads. I was more than pleasantly surprised by the number of people singing along the anthemaic "Up The Shirkers" and judging by the reaction of the band, so were they.

It was a great start to the evening, whilst not entirely new, Merry Hell, brought a freshness to the proceedings, enough to link them to their past glories, but, more importantly, more than enough to show what they've got to give. The album showed they've still got it in the studio, this shows they've still got it on stage. Hopefully we'll see a lot more of Merry Hell at festivals in the summer.

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