RHYTHMS OF THE WORLD 2014 (SATURDAY)

We’d picked up Frank and Grant at the appointed times and now we were off.

Weather ?  Reasonable.

Into the site.

Greeted.

Armbanded and ‘passed up’.

Now we were ready, so let’s head toward the stage and see if Ben has managed to get the sound and lights sorted, and see what Sophie managed to do with her team of ‘decorators’ ?

The Arcadeclectic backstage 'chill-out' area for the artists.

 

Pete has just heard that Justin Beiber is coming this year...

Brilliant !

That’s times two by the way…

Ben and his assistants Marcus and Pete have performed miracles and so has Sophie.

Ben, who can make anyone sound good...

Nearly ready... Didn't Sophie do a brilliant job with the stage decorations...

Frankly, I’m gobsmacked. 

It doesn’t happen often, but it definitely occurred at that moment…

So while I’m collecting my thoughts and Sarah, Marcus, James and Joy start to arrive, let’s let you lot have a look around the site which has six stages set in fifteen acres of Priory grounds before the hordes get at it, shall we ?

So off we go to visit a few stalls, eateries and stages...

Icehouse Stage

St Marys Stage

St Marys backdrop

The Main Stage

Ok, you've had a look around the site and so you now know as much as I do about what's happening, don't you ?

Saturday is our midday starting time, we've soundchecked and I think we’re ready to go ?

Our first act is Twirling Canes.

Twirling Canes

I don’t know what it is about these two.

They write good songs and have some good tunes but this isn’t ‘Pop’ in any sense of the word.

This stuff has to be worked on by the listener.

Whatever it is that they are doing, they seem to be doing it ‘right’ by us ?

Beau Jangles:  Soul-Folk, Rootsy Groove ?

Bloody Hell !  How do you stick a genre to these guys ?

Beau Jangles

A bit of funky fiddle, a bit of moody mandolin and a dollop of grooving guitar.

Whatever it is, it has that roll to it that Keith Richard is fond of describing when he says that ‘any band can rock but not every band can roll…’ or something like that ?

I know what it means because these guys have that ‘roll’.

And then we have Fishwife’s Broadside…

A sixteen legged monster who had played the festival previously but on a different stage.

When they’d been booked previously they thought they were playing Arcadeclectic…

They weren’t.

We’d have loved to have had them but The Nettlebed Stage got there first.

Now we’d finally got them and although it was going to be a bit cosy with eight people on stage the band were looking forward to it.

Talking to Mark their bass player at a previous gig, he’d told me that the band loved Rhythms but were disappointed they hadn’t played the stage they’d wanted to.

Well you can’t really argue with that.

Fishwife's Broadside

There will be some who will think they were lucky to play at all, but when you’re in a band you sort of ‘define’ who you are by those who have gone before and playing a particular stage is just one way of following in the footsteps of the bands that you yourself follow.

I understood what he meant.

Now at this point we could always branch off into the psychology of being a ‘Rock god’ but I can’t really be arsed so just take it from me, I knew what he meant and I felt quite happy about the comment.

What it boils down to is that by his band’s internal psychology we were doing something right and they wanted a part of it.

Well, they are definitely good enough, I wouldn't have booked them otherwise so let’s be havin’ you… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAyVZ8vdof0

Our one poet of the whole festival this year follows shortly.

It’s not that we’re short of poets, it’s just that the timing of the artist slots didn’t really gel with putting any more on.

This was a bit of a disappointment for me as far as booking was concerned but I’m quite sure the audience won’t mind too much ?

Ms J.S.Watts

It was Jackie’s first appearance at Rhythms of the World but she was ready and up for it.

She’d been a Parnassus member for a couple of years and she was good, so let’s throw her to the wolves and see what occurs ?

She survived.
Good set, too.


Still no sign of the band coming down from Glasgow so I’d best give them a ring and see what’s occurring ?

We’ve got an hour before they’re due on stage but it isn’t doing the stress levels any good, I can tell you that.

Apparently they’re getting closer but the roadworks at Birmingham have slowed them down somewhat.

Ok, get Hazel’s gang on stage and cross my fingers…

The Finger Choppers had played for us in 2012 and I’d promised I’d get them back.

Apart from having the most amazing front person in Hazel Turnock, they were the sort of band that fits our little stage like a glove.

Hazel Turnock

Whatever they do, whether Hazel is playing guitar, baby piano or accordion, it always has that earthy and early swamp rockabilly blues sound to it.

Ok, call me biased but I love this band.

The Finger Choppers

We’d been featuring Hazel over the years and although she was always interesting and always good there just seemed to be one ingredient missing.

It was the band.
And if you want to see them in action then click on this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPRkTMliO2E&feature=youtu.be

Now she’d got a band not just worthy of her talents as she was worthy of theirs, but worthy of the name too.

Trouble is, she’s only on for forty five minutes and the next band isn’t here yet, so with ten minutes to go I’m standing at the entrance gate waiting for my guys.

I know they’re not far away and so I’ve got all their passes in my hands which I’ve managed to blag from artist-liason.

Typically three cars turn up at once and they’re in the third…

Come on guys, let this lot through because they’re on stage in four minutes.

Thankfully they did, and so with me carrying probably the heaviest guitar case (Bloody Gibsons) we parked up and ran it…

Jesus !!!

That was close.

God preserve me from any more of those.

Jamie Flett and the Flaming Jets had made it with literally seconds to spare.

Jamie had been in the Ballachulish Hellhounds with Dochan MacMillan when they played the festival for the second time, replacing Crawford who'd had a motorbike accident and now he’d branched out on his own.

When I first started listening to him he’d sounded vaguely Richard Thompson’y, but that sound had gone and now he sounded like nobody but himself.

Jamie Flett and the Flaming Jets

The band interested me because they weren’t frightened of rocking out with folkie type open tunings which as anyone who does that sort of thing knows, makes things a bit interesting sound-wise.

I’m just going to relax for this lot and let Frank take over.

Jamie and Dochan

Much to his disgust because they interested him sound-wise too, but that can’t be helped as I’m stressed to the max and gulping down alcohol to numb it is a no-no whilst we’re working.

Well that worked until the last official number when they went into their version of Neil Young’s Powderfinger and proceeded to rock the place out…

Bloody Hell !

Yeah, you’ve got five minutes, do another one for Chrissakes…

The look on Dochan’s face said it all when they came off stage.

They knew they’d just played an absolute belter and it doesn’t really get better than that.

Pressure ?

What pressure ?

Let’s get the next artist on stage and we’ll relax and have a chat…

I’d got Ric Birtill via Steve Smither.

He’d sent me an e-mail saying he’d just seen this singer at another festival and suggested he might be the sort of artist we’re always looking for ?

He was right on with that.

Ric Birtill

Ric’s quirky but wry and penetrating sense of humour just shone through in everything he seemed to do and he was right up our street.

He was also one of only a couple of artists mentioned in the Pussy Riot website.

Mainly for a scabrous wind-up of a song about Vladimir Putin coming out, which you can watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYLwptq7lXA if you want a giggle ?

Our Sarah had been a fan from day one and had been advertising his presence at Rhythms every couple of days.

One thing I learned years ago is that what I like might not translate to other people.

Ric was great, but his humour was too subtle for some people and they didn’t get it.

Sadie, our volunteer from the audience, and Ric Birtill

Shame, because I thought him outstanding.

Right, let’s have some fun…

Los Chicos Muertos.

Was this really Los Chicos because it looked suspiciously like the complete Trailer Trash Orchestra minus drummer to me ?

Ok, the personnel are interchangeable and so are a few of the songs but when I’d said I’d like them previously I was put off by others who’d said we’d never fit them all on our stage…

Probably because they’d wanted them it must be said ?

If we can fit Fishwife’s Broadside on then we can fit the Trailer Trash Orchestra on, it’s as easy as that.

And ostensibly this was the smaller outfit.

Los Chicos Muertos

Grae had even suggested we take the smaller outfit when I’d contacted him.

Fit ?

They were perfect.

This is a band that plays for a crowd and ups the ante somewhat.

If you’re going to follow these guys on stage then you better be ready to pull out all the stops because they’ll wipe the floor with you otherwise.

Absolutely great set and I found myself boogieing down the front with Hazel from the Finger Choppers.

Well the crowd enjoyed it, the band enjoyed it, the crew enjoyed it and just as they ended, a couple from our last band of the day turned up to say they’d all got here safely…

Thank God.

I don’t know what it is with some bands ?

They’re a promotors nightmare.

But they were all here now, so let’s try and enjoy ourselves eh ?

First things first, let’s get their gear over to the stage.

So there I am, carrying guitars and amp’s again whilst talking to Kareem who I’d been doing all

the e-mailing and phone calls with, and he says…

‘I’ve got to meet this Chris Ripple guy and say thank you for having us on…’

At which point I just laughed and said ‘You already have…’

‘I don’t believe it… It’s you isn’t it, You don't look how you sound for sure ?’

'Nah, like something from The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers when I'm working...'

'Brilliant !'

We’re cool.

By our standards the crowd for Los Chicos Muertos had been pretty good bearing in mind they’d been up 

against Haddy’s compatriot Musa M’Boob on St Marys, who she had taken a break to see, 

Haddy with Musa M'Boob

and at the same time the London Afrobeat Collective had been on the Main Stage.

World acts do tend to draw the crowds somewhat, but we were now getting rammed with people and they had all seemed to come from the Main Stage area ?

So, as Joy who had found me the act in the first place, gave The Ryddim Kings feat. Kareem their introduction I just stuck myself at the edge of the crowd barriers.

We don’t need anybody crashing this lot.

Ryddim Kings feat Kareem

For one thing, they’re far too good to let that sort of thing occur.

Since Rhythms had upset some of the local West Indian contingent a few years ago we hadn’t seen many reggae bands on the bill over the past few years, but now we’d managed to get an absolute corker and now all I can hear is people complaining that ‘this band should be on the main stage’.

Ok, in a perfect world maybe they’d have booked them,
who knows ?

But they’re not, they are on Arcadeclectic which I book and I’m not apologising for that.

It might be the smallest stage at the festival but it’s got a heart that beats and pumps and rocks out when it’s needed.

It’s bigger than any of us, and we’re proud of its reputation as being well run with some seriously good acts.

And so ladies and gentlemen, give it a fucking rest from your whingeing and let’s get down to some seriously groovy sounds shall we ?

You can check out one track here if you like ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brC172yB0qg
 

Amaziah in the centre

I don’t want to know what stage you think they should be on, all I want to know is are you
enjoying them ?

If the answer is yes, then we win.

If the answer is ‘yes, but…’ then go and complain to somebody else because I don’t want to hear
about it.

We did our bit and that’s all that matters.

Kareem Shabazz

They finished to absolutely rapturous applause.

I’ve just thought ?

We’ve been so busy that we haven’t eaten yet…

Ok, do a bit of delegating and escort Kareem and the band round to the artist food wagon.

The band seem happy at least.

While we’re stuffing our faces with whatever they have left at that time of night, Haddy and I get into conversation with Amaziah, one of the female singers.

It turns out that she also knows The Gambia and she’s been out there to stay a couple of times ?

It’s a small world and it’s getting smaller.

An hour or so later when we've been thoroughly fed and watered, it’s time to go.

Kareem and the gang are quite happy backstage chilling and eating and so we make the rounds, say our goodbyes and split.

We’ve got to get Frank and Grant home before we can sleep and we have to do it all over again tomorrow.

Musically it had been a good day and you can’t ask for more than that.

 

THE RHYTHMS 2014 PREAMBLE

Rhythms of the World 2014 was fraught with difficulty.

We’d had a few of the old guard leave after 2012 and we were breaking in new names in different positions in the hierarchy.

Amy, who used to head Artist-Liason was now Chair Person along with Bob who had returned from a few years out except as a trustee.

Times were changing, but you know what ?

The more things change the more they remain the same.

The day before the programme had gone to press I'd heard that Bob is getting some drummers who were performing and doing a workshop to play people into the festival at the nearest gate to us.

Nice thought, except it was literally just up the path from us and we’d got a really good up and coming folk singing acoustic guitarist opening the day’s proceedings…

And they were likely to drown her.

For fuck’s sake, you’ve got to be joking ?

No.

And you think this is alright, me having to drop the last band in and start Kelly off thirty minutes

late ?

You think dropping this shit on us the day before the programme goes to press is actually fair, because if you do, I certainly don’t ?

Not that moaning or swearing will ever get me anywhere so why not just shut up and drop the last band in and get on with it ?

Job done.

I have had to ring up a band and cancel their appearance and I am not happy about it…

Bob has this idea that he wants the festival to be like an ‘All Inclusive Village Fete’ which is something I have been known to take the piss out of on more than one occasion.

There’s a bit of film of me doing it on Youtube from 2009 if you want a look ?
It's not perfect because I started off at 'Ramones Speed' but it's the only bit of film I've got of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZGJZOWlE0g

We were now a band down and the cohesion of the line-up in the middle part of the afternoon was now non-existent.

Hang on…

No, just hang on a sec’, I’m not the fucking bad guy.

I didn’t ask a bunch of drummers to play people in for thirty minutes causing us to start thirty minutes late because they’ll drown out an acoustic folk singer, did I ?

Why not take some fucking responsibility and accept that I wasn’t even given a choice ?

Why indeed ?

I cut a band to try and get back on course after being crapped on.

The powers that be didn’t seem to like it, probably because they have had to take responsibility for the change.

I had no option except to start later because it would be massively unfair on any artist to have to compete soundwise.

I KNOW how loud acoustic drums are and when you’ve got about a dozen all hammering a rhythm at the same time then believe me, It’s going to be LOUD.

So…

We’re sorted.

I'm not bloody arguing.

We’re starting thirty minutes late.

And with two weeks to go, we had another disaster…

We’ve had a drop-out.

To be fair it was through family illness and there’s not a lot anybody can do about that except wish them all the best and not to worry.

Family comes first.

And so I’m back on the ‘phone…

Guess what ?

We’ve had a drop-out and you guys are back in.

Honestly, you couldn’t make it up.

We went to inspect the site and attend the Stage Manager’s briefing the evening beforehand.

More to make sure I’d actually got a stage because I certainly wasn’t about to go through that shit again,

but there it was and damn near ready to go.

Sophie had left me a message that she wanted to see me about stage decorations and so off we trouped trying to find her, which eventually we did.

Did I want all the decorations in the same colours as the kids backdrop as I think you told me they were the colours on the Gambian flag ?

Sophie, you’re a darling.

Yes. If it could be done then that’d be great.

Ok. I’ll get the team on it.

Now you’re talking.

The decorations they are putting up and around the site look very effective. 

 Oi’ Chris, go and have a look at your stage before you leave the site… 

Somebody obviously knows something I don’t know.

And there it was…

Not decorated yet but everything delivered and ready to go. 

There’s this wave thing, I can’t really describe it but it sort of rushes through you…

It brings along a sense of pure relief and a lot of thanks to any and all the Gods out there.

It’s one less battle to fight and I won’t say it brings a sense of peace or calm, but it does bring a sense of job well done.

You know the teams on whom you have to depend have actually done everything they are supposed to do and sometimes even more.

And you cannot praise them enough because there are no words for what you actually want to say, but you can hug them when you see them and that seems to be enough.  

It’s getting dark, so we leave Ben and Pete to it.

Ben is camping over and so he’ll try and sort all the wiring tonight as opposed to first thing tomorrow.

Sophie’s mob seem to be on their way with some stage decorations and neither team needs us getting in the way.

We’ll be picking Frank and Grant up between nine to nine-thirty tomorrow morning.

The others will be arriving under their own steam.

Hey !  Can you hear that ?
I can hear The Magic Wok calling...

Let’s go eat.

BOOKINGS, BUDGETS AND ALL THAT STUFF...

While all this has been occurring I’ve been trawling through all the acts that have applied to play at Rhythms…

It is a thankless task because there are far too many ‘Grrrrraaaaaah’ bands.

Heavy rock bands all of whom seem to think that unintelligible lyrics and fuck all talent will get them 

booked ?

Well it might, but not down our way.

But nestling away at number eighty-eight in the applications is a prime contender for anybody’s stage and not just ours.

A resonator guitarist and a tabla player who play the blues as if it came not just from the Mississippi delta but the Ganges delta as well ?

Taj Mahal would definitely love these guys.

The only problem being expense…

They’re based in Wales which I’m quite certain will necessitate a stay over ?

So contact is made…  And it will.

They’re on.

I’ve got them.

Quite why none of the other stages booked them I cannot say, all I will say is that they are the sort of artists that we thrive on.

They have their own ‘sound’ and they play it well.

They’re in keeping with the ethos of the stage and the festival and they’re what Rhythms is all about for us.

Vive La Difference !!!

Commerciality ?

Pah !!!

Who needs it when you can get acts like this ?

And then there's the band from our old mucker Dochan's stable from Glasgow.

I'd listened to their first tracks and thought they sounded a bit Richard Thompson'y, so I was definitely interested. Their later stuff was just as impressive and I really liked them, so we've got another four piece sleep-over coming off the budget.

Finally in March the big announcement is made and thankfully it all goes according to plan.

Now everybody knows what’s happening.

 The outpouring of goodwill toward the festival from all manner of people is one of the most amazing things that we all seem to deal with.

It seems to come from everybody.

All the local ‘tribes’ whether hippie, goth, punk, rocker, psychie’, soulboy, ragamuffin, folkie, country and Uncle Tom Cobley an’ all, plus it would seem, a fairly large percentage of their parents and grandparents.

They all support it.

It has it’s ‘knockers’ as well.

But they seem to number less than a hundred ?

Actually the amount doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that negligible amount have the ability in law to totally fuck it up for everybody else.

And so the meetings with Councillors begin…

And when everything is sorted to their satisfaction then we can finally announce the date.

Budgets for Rhythms are a strange beast.

Up until we re-located from the town centre to The Priory we got nothing and I had to beg.

But ever since we moved I get a small budget for the stage which mainly covers expenses.

It can be a bit difficult trying to pay expenses for about twenty acts but we do what we can.

This year my budget has gone up slightly but all stay-over expenses have to come out of it so the reality is that I’m working with the same amount I had back in 2012.

Come the end of May and I’m drained and not just physically and mentally.

Far too much time spent in answering late night e-mails and telephone calls and it’s fair to say that I don’t want to see the computer for at least a month.

Having said that, we are at least on target for the cut-off date.

This is good bearing in mind we are sharing the dates with the Cambridge Folk Festival…

So any chance of taking a rest is now taken over by artists who want to play both for us and for them wishing to change their allotted time in the programme.

I will accommodate this where it’s practical but you can’t always do it.

The annoying thing is that it usually wrecks any cohesive flow to the acts on the stage.

It’s all well and good just sticking acts down as a line-up but without any thought behind it you’ll get a lot less of an audience and that doesn’t do anybody any good.

Oh well, I managed to change two without too many problems and the programme goes to press next week so that’ll be it.

No more time changes… Just drop-outs.

Thankfully the crew had been sticking their ideas in the mix as we’d been going along.

The penultimate part of the jigsaw had been one of Joy’s recommendations.

She’d sent me a shed load of acts to check out this year.

Some were suitable but wanted far too much money and some were just ok, but all of them were interesting in their own way.

One thing I will never understand is why some artists always put their prices up for Festivals ?

Blues and Jazz bands do it on a regular basis.

They’ll play the pub gigs for a couple of hundred and then charge us a grand for a shorter set.

And then we’ll get a ‘name’ headliner for half the amount they are charging.

Don’t do it guys, you’re not doing yourselves any favours, and getting a reputation as a bunch of ‘gougers’ isn’t going to do you a lot of good because the word will get out.

The same goes for acts who are just starting out and see a festival as a place to whack the money up because it looks good on their c.v.

‘Brit’ School’ pupils try it all the time.

Sorry people, but we’re just not into it.

One of the good things about running and booking a stage like this are the other people who throw suggestions in your direction.

Once they realize what we're about then the weird and the quirky start being passed our way from those attending other festivals.

Steve, who used to be totally in charge of the whole shebang sent us a link to an absolute corker who I definitely wanted.

His humour was right up our street.

 

Joy had sent me a link to a full-on reggae band and I wanted them to top the bill on Saturday.

The problem of course, was money.

These guys were good and if they did play then they’d probably have to come down a bit from their usual price because I hadn’t got it to spend.

But… On the last possible day for inclusion I got the acceptance e-mail.

Pheeew !!!

Sighs of relief all round.

The last piece of the jigsaw had been one of Grant’s.

While I’m trying to get the reggae guys to confirm, he’d suggested an acoustic set on the Sunday from a rock band that he knew all the members of, in that they’d all played in bands in the area and just joined up to do something together.

The problem, if problem it was, was that it had worked like a dream and the band were now off and running, but the thing that attracted me to them was the harmonies.

A serious heavy-ish rock band with harmonies to die for ?

Sod the acoustic idea, I’ll take them as is and whack them on first thing on Sunday afternoon while everybody else is chilling out…

Because that lot will definitely wake the buggers up.

Right…

Sorted !

I can go to sleep now.

Well I can when I’m not working my tits off in the day job !!!

At least I got a nice birthday meal when Haddy took me and Mum out.

 

 Meanwhile, while I’m attending to all of this Haddy has been getting on with the garden, and her ‘Englishness’ tests.

Hey-yay courgette !

A couple more corny musical captions and you're done...

In the Spirit of Potatoland...

I heard it through the grapevine... As opposed to the fence...

The reading test is done and dusted and she got full marks.

The writing and comprehension test is the same.

Two down and one to go, but that will have to wait until a little later in the year as there are a few birthdays coming up, the children need money for school uniforms and food and the Cropredy tickets need paying for…

Plus she wants to go and see her daughter and family up in Glasgow.

It’s still all go around here.