Back to Wickham for another year. Once more I volunteered as a steward, and for the first time got an INDOOR spot! Okay, so I spent two shifts in car-parks, but the middle one was in the main tent helping at the disabled access platform. Which meant I was in the shade, could see and hear the acts, and best of all got to talk with lots of lovely folk fans. It always amazes me at Wickham, considering that it’s the hilliest festival I know of, how many people turn up with wheelchairs, mobility scooters etc. and manage to still be smiling when they get to the music. Indeed, most of the paying festival-goers are nice and sometimes appreciative (no ice-cream this year, though). Okay, there were a few obnoxious people on the other shifts, but they were mostly performers…
Wickham is near Portsmouth and the festival is the descendant of the much mourned (because it wasn’t camping) Gosport & Fareham Easter Festival, where I once had the unexpected pleasure of listening to David Swarbrick rehearse, through the wall of our adjoining hotel rooms. The modern festival has four main stages, and probably a morris side sidling up behind you. I always find a band that is new to me and utterly wonderful, and there’s always a few old favourites pulling out the stops. What there wasn’t this year, sadly, was Roy Bailey - a man who Janet and I fell in love with at our first G&F Easter Fest, seemed to be performing every year, and passed away last November. It wasn’t the same without him.
Some highlights, then, starting with two top acts on the Thursday:
John Jones and the Reluctant Ramblers - We’ve seen him many times with the Oysterband, but this was our first exposure to the side project and very fine they were too. Less political and more traditional, but Jones still has one of folk’s finest vocal techniques and I feel sad I missed the ramble beforehand.
Skinny Lister was at a recent Cropredy, and are maturing nicely. Their latest album has a touch of Clash to it and a bunch of excellent songs. The female singer is still quite mad and has found a place for herself in the musical frame.
Steve Knightley was his usual professional self, with old, new and borrowed songs; all excellent.
Rumour has it that Graham Nash was very good indeed, but I only saw a few minutes, where a man with an immense back catalogue was wasting time singing a Beatles song. Judy Collins was great as a raconteur, but less so for the songs.
Friday (featuring the view from the disabled platform):
Alistair Russell is another stalwart of the festival, MC’ing the main stage, and sometimes stage managing or doing sound duties as well. He’s an ex-Battlefield Band-member as well, so is a great performer in his own right.
The National Youth Folk Ensemble is exactly what you expect and deliver a bunch of danceable tunes, with their friends and families duly dancing around the tent.
Off duty and across to the second tent for the Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonican. Always a pleasure; especially watching people who’ve never seen them before go from bemusement, to smiles, to howling with laughter.
The Spooky Men’s Chorale are similar but different. This Australian shed-dwelling chorus have reduced the surrealism and worked up some spine-tingling material. There’s still the silly stuff though.
Katherine Tickell and The Darkening mined the Bellowhead disco-folk seam on their album, but in concert are mostly on the trad side. Very fine though, and “O.U.T. spells OUT!” is incendiary (but not a gay anthem, for which they apologise).
Saturday:
Luke Daniels has a nifty ‘Polyphon Machine’ that works like a rotating player piano. He also has some great songs to sing, and some very modern ideas on what to do with folk music, judging by his website.
Stands on his own in a car-park for 4 hours.
Feels like Marvin in Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.
I don't have a photo of Holy Moly & The Crackers. But they were brilliant. Like Skinny Lister the day before, they're young and wonderful. A bit Clash, a bit Gogol Bordello, and making folk music sexy to an astonishing degree.
Beer in hand, I encounter The Men They Couldn’t Hang for the first time. Punky political folk music is my favourite type, so I’m happy as a happy thing.
A change of gears and I’m off to the 2nd stage for Afro Celt Sound System. World music with a dance beat, the current incarnation has a more African vibe and after being blown away last year at Cropredy I’m equally impressed here.
Sunday - the home stretch with no steward shifts and a wealth of music…
Neither Winter Wilson nor Winters Hill were at all chilly, and both acts kept up the standard of previous encounters. The first being a songwriting duo we’ve had at TwickFolk more than once, and the second an Americana-style three-piece formed as a result of attending Wickham Festival many years back.
The Sweetchunks Band is my new favourite funny band. Imagine Brian Blessed fronting a pirate-punk outfit. Top tracks include ‘Bees are Fucking Awesome’ (true) and the song that starts with ‘I would punch a bear for you (but then we’d have to run away ‘cos bears are fucking huge)’. I didn’t buy a t-shirt because I couldn’t choose which one.
Sam Kelly and The Lost Boys seem to have hit a musical plateau - they’re very good and Sam is a charmer, but they don’t quite have the Bellowhead magic they ought to. Or maybe I’m just over-familiar, and I did still enjoy every note.
Boo Hewerdine and Brooks Williams are two songwriters forming State of The Union. I prefer Brooks to Boo, and my attention wanders during their set.
But the attention didn’t wander from Ralph McTell. He was on absolute top form, in a packed tent on a blazing hot day. The crowd sang every word of ‘Streets of London’ and it felt like church. He played some hits, some obscurities and a couple of covers and it was probably the best gig of his I’ve ever witnessed.
A quick pit-stop, then it’s time for Lucinda Williams. A combination of Chrissie Hynde, Courtney Love and Neil Young, she has her own Crazy Horse backing band in the form of Buick 6 - possibly the only country-maths-rock band in the world. A false start caused by the monitor system doesn’t impact an incredible set drawn from every stage of her career, including the next album.
Last time I saw Lindisfarne, I walked away after a few songs. This time I stayed rooted to the spot. Yes they played the hits. Alan Hull’s son-in-law manages to do a fantastic impression of his father-in-law and Rod Clements is in a good mood.
Then, er, Kiefer Sutherland! He was rather good - some great songs, a good band, and of course amazing charisma. He has no pretensions to be anything but the singer, rhythm guitar player and wearer of cowboy hats. Janet was down the front, but having arrived late I eventually found her dazed and confused as the crowd drifted away at the end of the set.
We did choose Gilbert O’Sullivan over Alabama 3, one of whom I’d met in the coffee queue and had a nice chat with. Gilbert, unfortunately had a large band and the subtle magic of the old days was buried under a mound of session musos, so we hit the road, with me still humming Lindisfarne songs.
Once more, no videos as none of us have that much time.