Loading

Great British Folk Festival

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

Get Carter!! A Festival Perspective

Another highlights for me was Martyn Joseph's set on Sunday evening, and whose music I have loved and appreciated over the years.

Martyn is another artist I have travelled the length and breadth of the country to see play, although I had not had the opportunity to do over the last two years. I was so much looking forward to spending an hour listening to his heart searching and often intense and deeply moving songs, as well as photographing the man in concert, as I have done on many other occasions. Needless to say, by the end of the first song, Martyn had the audience in the palm of his hand, and on a couple of numbers, it was hard to imagine that there were almost two thousand people in the room, the stillness of the audience and the respectful attention given to his performance was staggering.

I met up with Nikki, Martyn's manager after the show, where she was dealing with an enormous queue of people lined up right the way across the front of the stage, all waiting patiently to say hello to the man, and to buy CD's. By a country mile, the Martyn Joseph merchandising emporium broke the record for CD sales by any artist over the weekend!

As I mentioned earlier, I hadn't seen Martyn for about two years, but backstage he took a moment to ask how I was and to remind me not to leave it so long to attend another gig. Somehow, I know it will not be that long before the next time.

Away from the main stages, there were a couple of events that whilst unplanned, proved to be highpoints of the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, I received a call from my good friend Hedley Jones, he of the renowned Wheelhouse Concerts and purveyor of fine festivals over the years to the music loving fraternity based in the republic of South Yorkshire.

Hedley has recently taken to road managing a number of high profile visiting Canadian and American musicians, driving them around the UK and basing them for part of the time at his lovely home on the outskirts of Barnsley. Many of the artists have come onto the UK radar by virtue of airplay on the Bob Harris show, and Hedley's latest charges were the very excellent J T Nero and Allison Russell, both of Po Girl fame.

The call from Hedley revolved around a cancelled gig in Liverpool, given less than 24 hours notice by the venue, the band were on their way north, with no prospect of a gig that evening. They had stopped off for a leg stretch at the Nottingham services on the M1, and at this point had decided to head over to Skegness to spend their evening at the Great British Folk Festival. Hedley's wife Lynne was already at the festival, there with a group of friends, and definitely not expecting to see Hedley that evening, so she was in for a bit of a surprise, as we all were.

Basically, the call was for passes into the festival, and if possible beds for the night for the band. One mention to Dave Hill of the situation, and the accommodation was sorted. He very graciously offered the use of his own chalet for the three members of the band to bunk up for the night, the only condition was an assurance from me that they were not of the 'Wildman of rock n roll' persuasion. Thankfully, gentler and more relaxed people you could not wish to meet. Passes were arranged with Phil and Bev, and from the lovely Leila Slater.

A quick trip over to the open mic stage at the Jaks venue and a special favour asked of Brian Eastwood meant that JT, Allison and Joe also had a 45 minute gig slot at the end of the afternoon session.

Neil has reported the ensuing gig perfectly, and as he points out, the gig indeed turned out to be something quite special. We were worried that we might lose the sizeable audience that had remained after the afternoon's open mic session to the lure of the evening meal now being served in the restaurant areas, but from the first note of the first song, nobody was going anywhere in a hurry. Almost an hour and a half later, and with two encores performed the curtain had to come down before an enthusiastic and captivated audience for what will be regarded for years to come as a truly memorable gig.

That evening, Allan Wilkinson opened the doors of his chalet to host a late evening musical get together, later to be referred to as Al's Lock-in. It was a pinch yourself moment, with pro musicians J T Nero, Allison and Joe, joined by the lovely Jessica Lawson and partner Phil all treating us to an impromptu session in the cosy confines of a Butlins chalet.

It was a truly great weekend, and I would strongly recommend the Butlins Big weekend events to anyone who hasn't yet tried one.

Luckily, I'm going back there in January for the next Rock and Blues weekend…..I really can't wait to get Christmas out of the way!

Phil Carter