frowny baby

Something else on that 25 Things list was this:

Sometimes when I hear a new song that makes me giddy, I have to phone someone immediately and tell them to listen to it too. Most recently, this has happened with John Smith’s ‘Winter’.

Well that’s certainly true, and since I wrote that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Mr Smith play said song on two separate occasions.  First in a packed Club tent at Cambridge, and then last month when Damon and I used his gig as an excuse to spend a cracking couple of days in Liverpool.   It’s a great place Liverpool.  You might not hear many Mancunians (well, ‘Greater’ Mancunians in my case) say that, but we had a fabulous weekend at the other end of the Mersey, thanks to some excellent museums and galleries, a splendid chippy tea, some English style youth hostelling, and a perfect pub recommendation.  And John Smith was well worth the trip too (even after braving the terrifying sights of Matthew Street on a Saturday night).   I’ve been listening to his new album a lot, and I heartily recommend that you do too.  There’s something enormously appealing about him, and watching him live, it’s absolutely apparent that he bloody loves what he’s doing.  And what luck.  He’s supporting the wonderful and lovely Lou Rhodes at Band on the Wall at the end of next month, so I’ll be lucky enough to see him again.

And speaking of enormously appealing, we went to the brilliant Evening with The Travelling Band at the Green Room last month too (bit behind with this blogging lark!).  We’ve seen this lot before - in fact they’ve made an appearance on this blog before when we saw them at the Summer in the City event in Manchester last year - and after braving the rain at Solfest and loving them this summer, we thought we’d drag a couple of willing volunteers along with us this time.  I don’t think they regretted coming.  From the barking mad acoustic first half, complete with tea, toast, sofas, and a backstage tent, through to the storming encore, the whole thing was absolutely fucking joyous.  I’m not kidding, it was the best thing I’ve seen all year.  If they’re playing anywhere near you, go. Who am I talking to?  The only people who read this are the two willing volunteers!

Do you have things in your life that you never want to change because they’re comfortable and lovely?  I do.  It isn’t a long list - beers at the Knott, popping to the Eighth Day for lunch….and Solfest is most definitely on that list too.

Solfest is a treat, it really is.  Things change a little every year, but I love the fact that I can look forward to the best chai in festival land at Weidigans, doing the Timewarp at the madness of the Weirdstring celidh, magic garlic chick-pea curry and chips, and mentally clapping my hands at the bizarre imaginations on display at the fancy dress night (I think the carton of milk was my favourite this year). It was our 4th Solfest, and it was a delight as always.

Hurricane Bill made his presence very much felt over the weekend and gave us our third mudfest of the summer. “It never gets muddy at Solfest” we told a couple of newcomers this year. “No, it doesn’t matter how much it chucks it down, the soil is really sandy and the rain just drains away.” I was most definitely noshing on those words when my arse found itself hurtling towards a particularly muddy puddle on Sunday night as I was staggering and sliding over to see Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls (who were bloody brilliant by the way). Having already taken a drunken slide in the brown stuff at Stainsby (after which a friend took one look at me and informed me that I’d just lost a bet I wasn’t aware of), I was none too impressed at finding myself smelling faintly of cow for a second time. But, it didn’t stop me jigging along to Edward II at Stainsby, and it didn’t stop me loving seeing Miles Hunt sing out Solfest.

Every year we wonder whether we should give it a miss next year, but we always leave wondering why the hell should we.  I bloody love it.

Okay, so it might be a bit Radio 2 (and what’s wrong with that anyway?), but I’m really enjoying the new stuff from Lisa Hannigan.

And her album cover is distinctly knitty.  I’m sold.

My word Green Man was muddy!  It started raining on Friday night, and it didn’t stop!  The result?  Acres and acres of slippy, sticky, slutchy, cow smelling, welly eating brown stuff.  Oh yes, we walked in fields of urgh.  Mind you, we should probably have known that the rain would pay a visit to a field in the middle of Wales….it has every other year after all.

I’ve fancied the Green Man for a few years, and the line-up this year was so too tempting to pass up.  But….maybe it’s just that no festival can really reach the loveliness of Solfest, but Green Man didn’t quite live up to my expectations.  I’m not really sure why, but it felt a little bit too cool for school somehow, and not quite comfy.

The music was great though, and that made up for the mud, and the rubbish bar.  Saw lots of great stuff but there were two stand out moments for me…..

Devon Sproule’s been getting great reviews and, even though I’m not a big Americana fan, I thought she would be worth braving the rain and the mud at the main stage for.  I’m glad I did because boogying under the brolly to Old Virginia Block was a definite highlight, and hearing her sing Plea for a Good Night’s Rest was a shiver down the spine moment.

And Iron and Wine.  Wow.  The fact that Sam Beam was playing convinced us to venture to Wales, and he was absolutely fantastic again.  The whole set was amazing, but The Trapeze Swinger was a perfect moment - a moment to lose yourself in with goose-bumps and tears in your eyes.

Would I go to Green Man again?  Not sure.  It didn’t quite have the atmosphere, but seeing Iron and Wine, King Creosote, Laura Marling, Richard Thompson, Pentangle, James Yorkston, Simone White, Lou Rhodes….I could go on….in one weekend can’t be bad really can it.

And now for Solfest.

Hurray for festival season, and what an absolutely cracking start! I had such a fantastic time at Stainsby - it’s a little gem of an event and I just wish I’d heard about it before. It’s got a great atmosphere - exactly what you want a festival to be - and it completely challenged my expectations.

I thought we were in for a trad-fest - all shush and no dancing - but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The music was fab, everyone danced and had a bloody good time, and do you know what, it put a bloody big smile on our faces.

Martha Tilston and Kathryn Williams were as fabulous as ever, in fact Martha gets more gorgeous every time I see her play. A couple of new finds too. I don’t think there could have been anyone more perfect than Rosie Doonan to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon with, and it was such a pity that we only caught the end of her set. Looks like she plays around Leeds a fair bit though so we’ll be checking her out again. And the Huckleberries were perfect jigging material as expected, and a cracking way to dance out the festival.

Sitting with pint in hand on Saturday afternoon, I thought “there’s nowhere else better to be.” When they’re good - and this one was bloody marvellous - there really isn’t anything better is there? Just a pity you have to come home isn’t it?

It’s a bit of a gamble to call an event in Manchester ‘Summer in the Park‘, but the sun shone down on Platt Fields on Sunday and we had a great time. I’ve been to a couple of festival type events in Manchester, and the atmosphere hasn’t been quite right, but this one worked - well apart from the beer running out at 8.30! We saw a couple of bands we hadn’t seen before, and I really liked I am Blackbird and The Travelling Band - we’ll definitely be looking them up again. There are a couple of Travelling Band videos here if you fancy a look.

Festival decisions made. Hurrah. We’re hoping the sun will shine on Stainsby, Green Man, and Solfest. Please please please!

I was watching the Glastonbury highlights on BBC4 last night, and although you couldn’t drag me there these days (waaaay too many people!), it made me really look forward to this year’s festies.

Been listening to some of the people playing through the wonders of MySpace, and this lot sound like perfect festival material. Audrey’s Perfect Fleece transports me into a field every time I play it. Cracking :-).

At least the evidence on stage at the Ritz last night (including a particularly fine specimen from Samuel Beam) seemed to suggest so!

D and went to see Iron and Wine last night, and marvellous it was too. Strange fainting fits notwithstanding, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. We’ve both been playing ‘The Shepherd’s Dog’ a lot recently, and I loved the way the band reworked a lot of the stuff on that album, and played with the rhythms to give the songs a completely different feel. From the quiet acoustic ballads to the full band wigouts, it was bloody brilliant.

Wish I was going to Green Man now. That line-up just keeps getting better and better.

We seem to have phases when Academy 3 feels like a second home. It seems such a long time since we’ve been to a gig though, so it was a particular treat to head up the spiral staircase on Friday to see Angus and Julia Stone. They were gorgeously quirky - Julia particularly so (D described her as scrumptious). They both seem to have very different personalities and styles, but they work really well together. Give ‘Private Lawns’ and ‘Mango Tree’ a listen to see what I mean.

Our festival calendar has looked pretty much the same for the last couple of years - Cambridge in July and Solfest in August. I fancy a bit of a change this year, but, aaargh, the choices! Solfest is on again, but we might knock the rug huggers of Cambridge on the head (and oh HOW I would love to….with something heavy) and go for a couple of smaller festivals instead. With the Fearless A working the bar at Stainsby again, it’s looking likely that we’ll give that one a try and I quite like the look of Workhouse too.So many others to tempt us though.

Fingers crossed for a mud-free year too :-).

And if anyone has any good fancy dress ideas….