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Jul. 31st, 2008 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71
Opening evening of the Stokes Bay Festival. The information I'd been given had the show starting at 7pm, so I arrived at 6.45 only to find the second act of the evening well into his set. A glance at the programme showed they'd actually started at 5.30. No matter, I was in good time for Glenn Tilbrook who I really wanted to see.
I wandered around for a while. There were oodles of different food vans; a surprisingly large number of them were from Wales! I stopped at the 'Iechydd Da' van for a minted lamb burger with homemade relish. While I was being served Smiffy came up and said hello, then as I came away from the van a couple, friends of my mother, came over for a chat. After a few minutes they said "We'll let you get on with eating your burger" and strolled on.
A look at my programme told me The Saw Doctors are on tomorrow evening. So I've got no excuse for missing the dress rehearsal briefing at the office in the morning. Bang goes my lie-in.
I made my way to the main tent where I bumped into Pam from our office, with her friend Julie. When I mentioned that I was there to see Glenn Tilbrook, Pam and Julie proudly showed VIP wristbands, and Pam pulled out a plastic Access All Areas pass! Jealous does not begin to describe it. I asked her "How did you swing those?"
"I'm a friend of Glenn Tilbrook," she gushed. She explained that somehow her husband had got Glenn, his girlfriend and their sons to visit a ship he was serving on (I couldn't make out exactly how, partly with Pam's rapid-fire narrative in her Leeds accent and partly with the loud live music), Pam had joined them all for lunch and they'd all got on like a house on fire. She recommended I buy his album 'Transatlantic Ping Pong' and said he was working on a new one that's set to be even better.
The beer tent was provided by the same people who'd done the Gosport Festival. I had to try a Festival Ale this time; not at all bad but I'm going back to Old Rosie tomorrow.
Jade arrived a few minutes before Glenn came on. She'd been afraid she'd missed him, so was delighted to hear she'd made perfect time. Glenn and his band The Fluffers did a superb set, a mixture of his solo material and some Squeeze classics. Hourglass got the second biggest cheer of the evening; the biggest was reserved for the moment towards the end of the set when the end of a new song segued into the immortal intro to Up The Junction! The very end of the set was crazy, with each member of the band getting a moment in the spotlight to sing a song - drummer Simon sang the theme from Minder and bassist Lucy did a very good rap. That was followed by the bizarre finale, Glenn doing one verse of Minnie Ripperton's Loving You with Simon and Lucy doing 'la-la-la's until Simon picked up Lucy and carried her, and Glenn abruptly ended the song with an 'Aaaarghh!'
Last on were The Blues Band who played some old-style R&B. Jade decided to have a sit down for the beginning of their set, until their front man (for the second time) casually mentioned his Monday night show on Radio 2. "Is that Paul Jones?" Jade asked. I glanced at my programme. Sure enough, the band's lead singer was none other than the Manfred Mann legend, and his MM bandmate Tom McGuinness was also in the lineup. When I confirmed it was him, Jade shot to her feet! She rightly pointed out that PJ was looking great for someone in his mid-sixties.
It was only on our way out that I noticed a stall selling olives on focaccia. Ah well, it'll still be there tomorrow.
I wandered around for a while. There were oodles of different food vans; a surprisingly large number of them were from Wales! I stopped at the 'Iechydd Da' van for a minted lamb burger with homemade relish. While I was being served Smiffy came up and said hello, then as I came away from the van a couple, friends of my mother, came over for a chat. After a few minutes they said "We'll let you get on with eating your burger" and strolled on.
A look at my programme told me The Saw Doctors are on tomorrow evening. So I've got no excuse for missing the dress rehearsal briefing at the office in the morning. Bang goes my lie-in.
I made my way to the main tent where I bumped into Pam from our office, with her friend Julie. When I mentioned that I was there to see Glenn Tilbrook, Pam and Julie proudly showed VIP wristbands, and Pam pulled out a plastic Access All Areas pass! Jealous does not begin to describe it. I asked her "How did you swing those?"
"I'm a friend of Glenn Tilbrook," she gushed. She explained that somehow her husband had got Glenn, his girlfriend and their sons to visit a ship he was serving on (I couldn't make out exactly how, partly with Pam's rapid-fire narrative in her Leeds accent and partly with the loud live music), Pam had joined them all for lunch and they'd all got on like a house on fire. She recommended I buy his album 'Transatlantic Ping Pong' and said he was working on a new one that's set to be even better.
The beer tent was provided by the same people who'd done the Gosport Festival. I had to try a Festival Ale this time; not at all bad but I'm going back to Old Rosie tomorrow.
Jade arrived a few minutes before Glenn came on. She'd been afraid she'd missed him, so was delighted to hear she'd made perfect time. Glenn and his band The Fluffers did a superb set, a mixture of his solo material and some Squeeze classics. Hourglass got the second biggest cheer of the evening; the biggest was reserved for the moment towards the end of the set when the end of a new song segued into the immortal intro to Up The Junction! The very end of the set was crazy, with each member of the band getting a moment in the spotlight to sing a song - drummer Simon sang the theme from Minder and bassist Lucy did a very good rap. That was followed by the bizarre finale, Glenn doing one verse of Minnie Ripperton's Loving You with Simon and Lucy doing 'la-la-la's until Simon picked up Lucy and carried her, and Glenn abruptly ended the song with an 'Aaaarghh!'
Last on were The Blues Band who played some old-style R&B. Jade decided to have a sit down for the beginning of their set, until their front man (for the second time) casually mentioned his Monday night show on Radio 2. "Is that Paul Jones?" Jade asked. I glanced at my programme. Sure enough, the band's lead singer was none other than the Manfred Mann legend, and his MM bandmate Tom McGuinness was also in the lineup. When I confirmed it was him, Jade shot to her feet! She rightly pointed out that PJ was looking great for someone in his mid-sixties.
It was only on our way out that I noticed a stall selling olives on focaccia. Ah well, it'll still be there tomorrow.
