Recombobulating
Well my festival summer has finally come to an end and I'm filled with mixed emotion, one half of me is glad to be home and be able to sleep in a bed, cook, and have clean clothes. The other half of me is wants to still be running amuck in the country, living in an alter reality and generally forgetting the real world exists.
However I'm sure the PFD (Post Festival Depression) will dissolve and normal services will resume shortly.
So I am going to try and do a revue of the festy's I went to and the madness that lies within, enjoy.
Well My previous post explains most of it really but I will say that it is one of the maddest things that exists on this planet and is a must do.
This is a little thousand odd people party that has been goin for a few years which I have the joy of being part of. This year I took my friend Reilly who by looks of it had a rather good time.
The thing about this weekend is it's more about people hangin out rather than a music festival, which is the main ingredient in making it a mad hatteresque tea party.
It starts with arriving in front of a grand stately manor, making your way round the house to the grounds with beautiful views over a large lake and from there the party begins.
One of the best things is there is people that I only see when I'm at this party so you spend a lot of time catching up, and it also causes everyone to make lots of effort in dressing up, being decadent and generally being silly.
So after Fridays catching up session we tried to sleep in on Saturday waking to have breakfast, have a swim in the pool and enjoy a hot shower and say goodbye to sanity, as today is the big day where we all dress up for a group aerial photo, watch the war planes do stunts overhead, drink champers and get ready to party.
Saturday night consisted of getting on it with my mates and diving into the old undercroft of the house to have a boogie in the many themed out rooms returning to ground level at sunrise for well needed bloody mary's at the top notch 42 Below cocktail bar provided by Crazy Baldhead.
So onward and most definitely upward we moved the couch down to poolside to enjoy the summer fuelled by cocktails, nitrous and philosophers stone then just when it couldn't get any better we moved out to the lawn to watch the one and only Rolf Harris play some of his hits and I don't know why but in the mood I was in I couldn't resist shouting 'Play something new for once' and 'after all these years can't you write something new' he he.
Sunday night was time to enter the giant purple inflatable dome to have a boogie, once inside we discovered it was like a giant bouncy castle crossed with a club, being able to boogie about then launch yourself into the wall was one of the best experience I have had.
Leavin this one is always emotional, but it was time to move on.
Guilfest;
Well you couldn’t go between two different festivals in a day it was like a time warp back to an era of late 80s to mid 90s and standin square in the middle of the road
However I managed to get students to do most of my job and spent most of the time drinkin quality cider and havin a laugh really.
My highlight of this weekend was seeing the full version of the Pogues for the first time, but with the site closing at
Big Chill ;
Well what can I say it has been my favourite festival for a long time and to make it better I got asked to play, how could I refuse.
So off we went in the camper on Thursday to get a good location to set up the Hacienda Hospitality camp-----> as we got named.
So with camp fully set up we went about relaxing and preparing for the chaos that lay ahead. So I thought I better go and check in to see when and where I was playing, thinking that I might be in a small tent on Sunday afternoon but alas no, to my shock I was playing 11pm Saturday night on the second biggest stage eeeeeeeek talk about nerves. There was only one thing for it return to Hacienda and drink cocktails into the wee hours, just what the doctor ordered.
Friday came upon us and so did our mates and the good weather, about 9pm we thought we better venture over the hill into the festival but I soon decided that Returning to our own cocktail bar where I could play tunes and dance round the firepot. It was just after this that a couple of neighbours trying to sleep thought 'if ya can't beat em,join em' and thank god they did ,new friends to party with hurrah, which we did till sunrise, again.
Upon waking on Saturday our new found friends and neighbours had made top notch bloody mary’s, which I had to be careful with as I was going to play that night.
And play I did, only just though as I was brickin it so much my hands were in fits of shakes however we pulled it off and the natural high at the end was so good I had to add to it all through the night until Mr Leary visited us for a liquid breakfast. At this point I had to rid myself of all reason adorn the kilt, find myself a red card and whistle then head to the fields to enjoy the sun with Mr Norman Jay mbe providing the aural massage for Sunday.
Now you might be thinking why the red card and whistle, well this was an idea I stole from some friends, it involves taking your red card and whistle to the dance floor and sending people off for silly reasons and there is hours of fun in it I tell thee. The rest of the days highlights were The UK Ukulele Orchestra (a must see in my books), The Beat and Sunday nights Big Chill FM.
Yet another fantastic year at the Big Chill any way onward and upward.
Frickley Hollow ;
Frickley Hollow had its maiden voyage this year on a beautiful farm in East Sussex and was mainly a fund raiser for Tsunami victims in Sri Lanka as the 2 people putting it on were in it, so the money was personally handed over to actual families, which is a nice touch.
However Ol' Ma Nature wasn't into it so it pissed down most of the weekend so not much happened. Hence the highlight being two mates and I sittin in a Combi covered in a tarp, listening to old house tapes in a twisted fashion.
End of.
Fawlsley Faire;
No sooner had I touched back down at home I was plucked straight from it and taken northward to Banbury into a little valley surrounded by myths for a little festival in a more laid back style.This time it was to look after a band and work in the cocktail bar, but I had the added bonus of a big tent hosting a birthday for one of my friends so most of the time I was there with loads of mates playin records and havin a big ol' boogie. However this caused problems as I was meant to play at a gig in London which, due to my state I ended up missing, doh.This also escalated even more when I returned to realize I had my dates mixed up and I had to leave that day to get on the tour bus and head to :
Talk about chalk and cheese, after a summer of electronic and hippy festivals I end it with a big old rock fest, sods law eh.
But all in all it wasn't too bad as some of my favourite old acts such as ,Iggy and the Stooges (varicous veins on the neck ain't a good look), The Pixies, Roots Manuva and The Foo Fighters.
Work wise all I had to do was look after the comedy stage which, in theory, should have been a doddle but no.
To start with on Friday night I had Dirty Sanchez on my stage so I had to cover everything in plastic so it didn't get covered in the back spray from the beer enema or bits of flesh from the arse meets metal grinder escapade and so on and so on.
Next up my mates The Cuban Brothers were up and any of you who know them will know how funny they can be hence after the show I ended up havin a wee tipple with them backstage which got me right in the mood.
Luckily the video girls had a plan so with me entail off we went into the camping ground where a small bunch had gathered what a recipe, booze, campfire, strangers, hurray. Another surprise came when the owners of the campervan pulled out a small drum kit and two small battery powered guitar amps and played some amazing seminal rock, it was at this point I realized the guy next to me was Pancho from Dirty Sanchez who after a few words thought it was a good idea for us both to do some stage diving off the roof of the camper, I dunno, the situations I end up in?
It's these situations that make me realize I'm like Pringles 'Once you pop you can't stop' and this is no exception, Pancho and I decide to wander back to my bus to pick up beer and Jagermeister only to be stopped at the gate to the bus park with some jobs worth telling me I can't go in because he doesn't understand the meaning of 'ALL ACCESS PASS' .This ended up in near riot when I told them where to go and barged pass the guy only to be pinned to the ground by 5 oxygen thieves awaiting they're leader. Thank god the boss showed up, apologized and gave the vacant skull brigade a shouting ahha suckers.
After this I do have a bit of a blank spot but next thing I know Pancho and I are in the process of taking an electric wheelchair and he has run over someone’s tent, scaring the life out of them and ending up having to hide from wardens which doesn’t work and results in Pancho payin out £90 in damages he he.
The rest of the weekend was spent pretending to work and sleeping sometimes at the same time, actually mostly at the same time however it was a fitting finish to a festival summer as I think it was catching up on me.
So now hibernation and ranting can resume as normal...
posted by mikey ray @ 11:16 am
