Category Archives: Entertainment

The Edfest

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I missed the Royals tying their knot.  Instead drove over to Combe Martin, Devon for the 50th birthday  celebration party of Ed, an ex Walker/Elevon contractor.  He had arranged a party in his field, BBQ, bands and drink.

Ed Fest, Ed Aldridge 50th Party at Combe Martin
I arrived in the afternoon, and was immediately spotted by other ex-Walker people, Phil Blunt and Paul Dixon.  Tent erected, bacon and egg role duly cooked and eaten, and then a few beers to tide the afternoon over before the festivities.

Ed Fest, Ed Aldridge 50th Party at Combe Martin
Met up with Ed, who was overseeing the stage and bar, had a chat with Mary and was introduced to Ed’s son, Bob who would be entertaining us later in the evening.  It was Bob’s 18th birthday celebration as well.   Now we must not confuse Bob, with the other Bob, who severed beer all night.  Bob the purveyor of beer was to me Glastonbury Bob.

Ed Fest, Ed Aldridge 50th Party at Combe Martin
A few bottles of beer later Tessa and Robin arrived to enhance the crowds.  Music was played,  the BBQ was lit, and a very dedicated villager proceeded to BBQ anything and everything presented to him.

Alas the bands stopped at midnight, and instead the phones were plugged into the PA system to entertain the stragglers around the fire until  6.30 am.  I have a question for those who regularly stay up late, why did the cockerels start crowing when it was seemingly still pitch dark.

Ed Fest, Ed Aldridge 50th Party at Combe Martin

Was left slightly annoyed with Paul Dixon.  He borrowed my camera, and I have to admit his pictures did appear rather more dynamic, atmospheric and generally better than mine.  I can’t blame the equipment.

Made it to my tent for a short sleep, and the breakfast of Bacon and Egg butty before a walk down to the sea.

More pictures from the party can be seen here on EdFest gallery, Combe Martin.  Yes rather too many, but I want everyone who was there to have an opportunity of remembering the event from their perspective.

Reading Festival

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I arrived home from Reading Festival on Monday,  spent the rest of the day cleaning up and catching up with some sleep.  Reading started on Friday, and that was the day I set out.  Arrived in Reading, and tried to find the entrance to the car park.  Parking was on site the last time I went to Reading.  Not now, somewhere else and I had no idea where.  I think I should have read up about this on the website.  Seems that the parking was on the other side of the Thames.  Ended up paying a BMW garage £40 to park in their compound a few hundred yards from the entrance.

Yes it had rained and rained in England for the previous few days, there was mud everywhere.  Not quite as bad as some years at Glastonbury, but enough to get it caked on my walking boots.  Tent erected a short distance from the entrance, walked to the stadium and saw the end of a show.  Then checked my wrist band, it said Friday.  Shit, why had I not been given a weekend wrist band?  This was going to be a short weekend unless the faux pas was sorted out.  Walked back to where I had exchanged my ticket for the wrist band and spoke with the manager.  They took the number from my wrist band, and located my ticket, and re-issued me with the weekend ticket.  There is a God after all looking after me, or more likely the organisers had some good systems in place to correct mistakes.

My camping neighbours were a group of Bedford kids who had just got their GSCE results.  They were a good polite bunch, but alas fell foul of some jobsworth on the gate who decided to id them when they brought their beer in.  It was all confiscated, and alas I was unable to get it returned.

Array of photographers in front of the stage

Array of photographers in front of the stage

On the main stage I watched NOFX, a Jewish American Punk band that was quite refreshing,  followed by LOSTPROPHETS, and then QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE.  Finally GUNS and ROSES.  This was a disappointment, they were one hour late starting.  Bands are never late playing at Festivals these days.  The change over between bands is clock work precision.  It takes 20 minutes and the next band starts on time.  There was no excuse for G&R to be late other than their own inflated egos.  At midnight the band was forced to stop.  So instead of 150 minutes of G&R, we had 90 minutes and then some pathetic sit-in on the stage to get the power back on.  While they played their short gig, there was some excellent pyrotechnics, though.

Saturday was another dry day, and the mud was starting to disappear in the heat and wind.  Spent most of the day wondering around the different stages getting to hear bits and pieces from different bands.   On the main stage I saw THE CRIBS, THE MACCABEES and MODEST MOUSE. I was very close to the front during the CRIBS, four rows from the front.  It was quite an experience, being squashed, and then pushed left and then right.  After that show, I moved out to miss DIZZEE RASCAL, I felt it might get worse, and so I headed to another stage and saw CANCER BATS.  Actually is took over 10 minutes to force a passage through the crowd.  The NME stage had CRYSTAL CASTLES, sing very wildly in a techno frenzy.  Despite the ban on crowd surfing, the singer herself, Crystal, went crowd surfing while singing.  Never stopping for breath, an excellent performance.  The late evening I spent at the Lock-up Stage and watched the CANCER BATS, real head banging stuff where you have to slash your hair up and down [Ed – must have been tricky for Steve] to the rhythm.  Then it was NOFX doing a second show, followed by BAD RELIGION celebrating 30 YEARS OF F*****G PUNK.  Yes I have the T shirt, but have been banned from wearing it any where in the village or with Rosemary.

Mosh Pit

A Mosh Pit, where people mill around doing pretend fighting.

Sunday, bright and sunny.  Discovered that the Alternative Stage hosted comedy.  Started off OK, but the second act was not to my taste, a couple of Cardinals shouting at each other, probably trying to get the crowd to join in.  Walked out of that.  The main bands I Saw where LIMP BIZKIT where I was nearish the front, but in the Mosh Pit, or Circle.  You can be quite happily singing and dancing to a tune, when suddenly a 10 yard diameter circle appears in the crowd and everyone left inside the circle goes crazy moshing.  Not an ideal place for your expensive glasses, or blackberry.  At least the phone (not mine) that disappeared into the mud was retrieved and passed back to its rightful owner.  I saw LAFARO, a Belfast band, on the BBC Introducing Stage.  Head banging stuff, mainly their friends and relatives watching.  The competition from the main stage keeping many away from them.  It was quite listenable, so may be we will hear more from them.  Back at the Main Stage I watched PARAMORE, the red headed singer Hayley was wonderful to watch and very easy on the eye.

Blink 182

Blink 182

Finally it was BLINK-182, great set.  The special effect on this was Travis Barker, playing his drum set, being turned upside down during his solo without missing a drum beat.

Back at the tent, I now found a crate of beer slipped into my tent.  Yes it is my luck, I don’t get things stolen at festivals, I get given things, like 20 cans of lager. I think it was the French couple who had packed up their tent for an early get away.  They also left the tent to be removed by anyone who wanted it, or for charity.  Not wanting all this beer, it was donated by me to a worth cause who where extremely grateful.

Monday morning back home.  Comparison between Reading and Glastonbury.  Glastonbury food is far better, cheaper, and more choice of drinks.  Reading has heavier rock music.  There are more older people at Glastonbury, I definitely started feeling old at Reading festival, but nobody seems to care.   Things to do differently next time.  I must not take a gas cooker, apparently I could have been chucked out of the festival.  I must also work out the parking and phone home more often.

Holy Mackerel

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Fishers in The City Thursday night decided it was an eating night.  Thought I would have a Thai meal, so walked over to Thistle Street to try Dusit.  Dusit is probably the best Thai Restaurant in Edinburgh.  It is small and looked rather full with several people hanging around outside.  So I gave it a miss, because across the road was a fish restaurant called Fishers in the City.  This restaurant has a good reputation.  Despite not booking, they were able to find me a spot at the bar to eat.  Only just made it in time.  It was nice to see many minor celebrities being turned away at the door.

The place serves Fish, but does have meat for those who don’t fancy fish.  There are several fish types on sale as well as shell fish, cray fish and lobsters.

I started off with some some Scallops, and Mackerel for my main course.  Both these were quite simple, but excellently prepared.  The wine was a revelation, it was the house brand Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa.  Most definitely not a French brand, because it smelt and tasted so florally and fruity.  I don’t know the name of the wine, not that it matters because it is not on general sale in the UK.

I then headed back to the Royal Mile to take some photos.  These are in the gallery.  Then dumping the camera, I headed to Whistle Binkies for some Rock and Roll.  Here I heard the first set of a  Scottish band called Three Card Trick.  (Myspace)   They were very good.  Now I have a recording of them as my ring tone.

I want to announce my Edinburgh Gallery.

CLA Game fair

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24th July, Rosemary and I visited the hunting, shooting and fishing festival, the CLA Game Fair.  We must say the food at these events is not a patch on Glastonbury catering.  The pictures are from the dog and gun stand, a chase, where the dog runs after a lure, any one can enter.  There also was a pageant of birds of prey marking the history of hunting with birds.

The Gun and Dog stand was where Chris and Ann entered their dog Boss.  Alas I have no pictures of Boss, but have of one of his siblings.

We are not sure we will go again, or at least give it a miss for a few years before going back.

Glastonbury Festival 2010

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It is over for another year.  Glastonbury festival, the 40th anniversary is over and finished.  Rosemary and I are back, and I have sorted my photographs and from 650 I took, managed to trim then down to a little over a 100.  I am sure R would do a better job.  I am looking forward to next year, but I expect I will be going on my own.  Click on this link for a  write up and picture gallery for Glastonbury Festival 2010

Thank you Michael Eavis, we love you,

Glastonbury Festival 2009 – Saturday

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Saturday arrived, and the sun was up, the tent was soon unbearably hot, so had to unzip the doors.  Eventually got up, made coffee and some bacon butties.  The topic of conversation with the neighbours was the death of Michael Jackson.  Quick browse on the Internet confirmed the news and the weather forecast for the day. Off then to find a loo without huge queues.  Some closed as they were about to overflow and needed to be pumped out.  Water was also a problem, as peak times the pressure is so low.

Today I decided to commit myself to one stage and that was the Pyramid stage.  So armed with my camping seat I headed off to the Pyramid, and set myself up just behind the path which crosses in front of it.

The first band I got to see were the Eagles of Death Metal, followed on by Spinal Tap.  With these two bands I relaxed back in the sun, drinking the odd pint of Gales Festival Brew.

The Path

The Path

Saturday at the Pyramid

Saturday at the Pyramid

Dizzee Rascal

Dizzee Rascal

At 4.00, it was then some rap from Dizzee Rascal.  Now I am not really a rapper, but I do admit this was not too bad, there were some highlights, especially the tributes to Michael Jackson who had only just died.

It was one of those mysteries, as I walked about the previous evening, all these people you come up to you and shout, Michael Jackson is dead. It took a while before I believed the story, it could have been one of those rumours that a few people could have started, and which would then spread like wildfire.

CSN

CSN

Crosby Stills and Nash

Crosby Stills and Nash

Kasabian

Kasabian

Kasabian crowd

Kasabian crowd

Kasabian crowd

Kasabian crowd

After Dizzee Rascal, we were back to the old timers, with Crosby Stills and Nash.  They went through so many more songs that I recognised, it was a real walk back down memory lane

Now a band I had never heard of called Kasabian came on.  Quick text to Selina to find out what I should expect.  Turned out to have a few songs you could dance and sing along too.  Great stuff.

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

The crowd watching Bruce Springsteen

The crowd watching Bruce Springsteen

Finally at 10.00 Bruce Springsteen and the E band came on.  He performed for 2 hours and 40 minutes, never stopping at any time.  He not only sings well, but must be fantastically fit.  One image sticks in my mind, Bruce standing there in the cold air, lights behind him steaming away in his sweat.  One or two of the youngsters with attention defecit thought he was on for too long.  And no “Born in the USA”.

Ah well all good things come to an end, made my way back stopping off for a green Thai curry.

Glastonbury Festival 2009 – Friday

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Thursday had ended with a few showers and the odd flash of lightening.  Friday I was awoken at 4.00am by the persistent sound of falling rain, which went on until 10:00.  I had to move stuff around the tent; it didn’t seem quite so waterproof these days.  At the sound of the rain easing, I was up and out in my underpants making a spectacle of my self in front of my neighbours.  Then it was on to making bacon baps and coffee, and chatting to my neighbours, the three girls who had materialised  in a tent next door overnight.

Glastonbury MudThe grass outside was wet, and no sign of the Glastonbury mud on the campsite.  Still boots on today, and waterproofs would probably be good insurance. I walked over to the Pyramid Stage through quite a bit of mud.  Wet fields and thousands of footsteps; always result in the generation of mud.  As one compere over in the Circus Field said, stop walking about, come in and sit down, you are only making it worse for yourselves.

Bjorn Again

First stop for the day at Bjorn Again on the Pyramid Stage, where I had an excellent sing along to Abba’s greatest hits.

Most of the bands after Bjorn Again I had not heard of, so decided to try something a little different.  Went to the Circus Field and got drawn into a tent with rush matting by Circus actsthe comper who had said, stop walking about, come in and sit down, yeou are only making it worse for yourselves.  Oh and it had started to piss down with rain as well. Spent over an hour or so listening to a couple of shows which were mixtures of comedy and circus act.  The themes were juggling on top of monocycles, and getting the audience to participate in one way or another.

Doing the emu with Jonathan KayMounted police at Glastonbury 2009Moved on to the large tent, The Astrolabe in Glebeland Arena for an audience participation show by Jonathan Kay where eventually we were persuaded to go on stage, and were trained to sing and do basically silly things.  This was the training and indoctrination part of the show, because we were next taken into the outside world (it had stopped raining) and as a group had to accost strangers and act oddly.  Yes we went to one The Art Cafe Glastonbury 2009The is always one better at Glastonbury 2009stage which was warming up for a gig, cheered and appeared as a big audience to a small band, and when we where acknowledged we all walked off to target someone else.   This time some poor targets at a coffee shop received our attention.  Yes we walked around as a co-ordinated team, singing, forcing others to sing and participate in stupid antics, forcing the mounted police to walk down our funnel of people.

When not having a specific target we walked around doing emu impressions.  Amazingly, a substantial part of the team stayed together for this hour of audience brainwashing.

Walked on up the hill and to the bar by the acoustic stage and cinema, and participated in a well-rewarded drink and then something to eat.  Had something somewhere to eat and then tried to walk from the other stage to The Specials at Glastonbury 2009the pyramid stage, and got stuck entirely as two groups of people walking in opposite directions tend to do.  I was aiming to see The Specials play.  Managed to make it there through the people and the mud in time to see the second song.   Afterwards it was Neil Young, but decided to see the Blockheads play over in Avalon.  Stopped by the Jazz Stage to pick up some grub.  Decided on some Arab food, chicken cooked in some kind of crust. 

Made it to the Avalon Stage with time to spare, but first popped into Trash Trash City Glastonbury 2009City.  It was open and looked fantastic, with robot creatures, flame jets synced to the music.  It looked like some futuristic set from a scifi film.  Harrison Ford would not have looked out of place.  Really should have stayed, but the Blockheads at Glastonbury 2009 were calling.  Listened to all the classic hits, “Hit me with your rhythm stick”, “Reasons to be cheerful, part 3” and “My name is Trevor”.  Enjoyable.  The reason why The BlockheadsI had to see the Blockheads was because Ian Dury was going to play Glastonbury the last time I went, back in 1999, and alas he never made it because of ill health, and he died the year after.

Back to the tent, against the tide of humanity who were exiting the main stages for the delights of the night clubs of Trash City, Avalon , Arcadia and Shangri-La.