After a very long and tiring day we finally arrived at Wheaton Aston around 8.30pm. and were welcomed to S .Staffordshire with a very warm hug from festival organiser Hilary. After receiving our passes and directions, we came to a neat little farmland campsite which was to be our home for the weekend. Facilities here were pretty basic, and consist of 8 or 9 toilets (those green plastic tardis things), a fire point, a food tent (Moor & Coast), and lots of musicians including festival goers and performers. Washing facilities were pretty scarce and I was going to recommend that you take your own water/ bowl/ soap etc, etc, until I got home on Sunday night and read in the festival programme that showers are also available Sat & Sun, 10 until noon (Doh! ). Maybe facilities here aren't so basic? If only we'd looked! There might be more toilets, and maybe even somewhere Jennie my wife could have plugged her hair dryer into!

Having settled in, we decided to find our bearings and check the festival out. Our first port of call was the village hall where we arrived just in time to catch the final applause of our Welsh compatriots 'TORETH', and miss their set completely! During the change of sets I went in pursuit of a couple of pints of lager in the bar which adjoins the hall. Also in this area was 'Johnny Baghdad's', a café serving excellent world cuisine, and having managed to get served at the bar (Hilary came in after me and got served before me?) returned to our seats with a couple of pints of real ale -non of that lager filth here- in time to catch the start of '3 DAFT MONKEYS'. I got the impression that they would have preferred a more informal atmosphere rather than a seated audience, but aided by their sound engineer (the 4th and possibly daftest monkey!) they gave us a cracking set!

We decided to find the 2nd venue on the list so Jennie, myself, Andy and his partner Rachel and their young daughter (very family friendly Wheaton Aston) trudged the whole of 50 yds to 'The Coach & Horses' and into a packed pub. Spotting the only free table in the whole festival we immediately bagged it, got some more drinks, and settled down to relax, only to be chided by Hilary for not watching the band 'THE MIGHTY ROOSTER'!. Feeling a bit guilty about this we took it in turns to go and see them. The venue here was more informal, being in a large covered courtyard at the back of the pub, but the same rules applied as at the village hall - No entry or exit until a break in the performance - something I'd never encountered before! While the Mighty Rooster strutted their stuff, we soaked up the atmosphere and plenty of drinks, and got chatting to the locals who love the festival and wish it happened 3 or 4 times a year! At closing time (S. Staffordshire time!) we made our way back to the campsite where Moor & Coast had re-opened to serve food and become yet another venue! We got ourselves some more drinks and settled ourselves in for a very late night of entertainment from some very talented musicians.

The following day with the sun beating down, and our heads thumping, we were driven out of our tents by the stifling heat, and after breakfast at Moor & Coast decided to walk off the previous nights excesses by touring the village. The best course of action we decided would be to visit the 2nd pub on the list, 'The Hartley Arms', and in the village were met by the strange sight of squads of soldiers marching down one side of the road, and squads of Morris dancers marching down the other. At the 'Hartley', a beautifully situated canal-side pub, Jennie and I got a drink and relaxed while watching the Morris teams do their thing. Unfortunately the sight of plates of liver & onions from the pub, and Morris dancers exerting themselves was too much for my delicate constitution, and so we headed back into the village. Here we had a good look around the craft field which consisted of loads of different stalls selling craft produce, clothes, jewellery, musical instruments and yet another food outlet 'Café Urchin' which sold mainly vegan food. Intending to catch the 3 Daft Monkeys again (buy a programme on day one!), we returned to the Coach & Horses where we were nicely in time to catch a beautiful set by VICKI SWAN (Scottish small pipes, flute) & JOHN MARSDEN (guitar, accordion). About this time I decided that I definitely needed a good lie down, and so returned to the campsite.

At 6.30pm Andy and I went to the Coach & Horses for a sound-check with the other performers for the evening, this took about an hour with a very adept soundman Colin Brown. Our set introduced by M.C. Bendigo Davies, started at 7.45pm and felt o.k. until I broke a string in the second of the only two guitar numbers we do! This unnerved me a bit, and I felt disappointed that we hadn't performed as well as we should have done. Afterwards, Jennie and Rachel assured us that it wasn't as bad as we thought (they're the experts, they live with our music as much as we do, but from a different perspective!), and so we retired for another drink after catching some good music from 'EMMA & THE PROFESSOR'.


In the bar at the Coach & Horses Jennie & I got chatting to some more locals, 'Julie', a practising witch, and her mum (strange place S. Staffs) kept us entertained for an hour or so until we decided we needed some food. For this we went back to the village hall & Johnny Baghdad's, and had garlic mushrooms, ham & brie slices, couscous and salad. Here we met Hilary once again and finally got to meet Julian, the other festival organiser. As Jennie is learning the cello we decided to catch a bit of KRISTINA OLSEN & PETER GRAYLING's set to hear how the cello sounded. We never got back to the Coach & Horses to meet Andy & Rachel! We sat there absolutely mesmerised by a stunning, witty, and beautiful performance from two seriously gifted musicians. Peter's cello playing was mind boggling (despite him being jet-lagged), as was Kristina's guitar, resonator, sax and concertina (I now understand and appreciate the no entry/ exit during performance rule!).

Back at the campsite we met Andy and told him what he'd missed, but he was adamant that we too had also missed a superb performance by 'THE DEMON BARBERS'. The line-up of 23 bands/ performers playing in rotation over the 3 days means you could just possibly, maybe, see everyone. I'm sure that organisers Hilary & Julian must have spent weeks if not months wracking their brains over the logistics of this - but including all the fringe stuff, walks, workshops, sessions, folk clubs, dance displays etc, etc, etc - you wouldn't stand a chance! Anyway, back at the campsite in Moor & Coast we decided to break our instruments out and have a bit of a bash! Joining us on guitar & percussion were some of the crew from 'LEFT HAND DRIVE', Guto from Toreth got his squeeze-box out while others banged whatever came to hand or passed the tambourine around, also drinking, dancing, smoking and playing a bit were a few of the Daft Monkeys. Bearing in mind that I wanted to feel fresh for our gig the next day I left early gtting to bed around 3.30am, and woke occasionally through the night by the music still being played around the campsite

The next morning we were again driven from our tents by the heat, and after a good breakfast (Moor & Coast again) we just lazed about, and soaked up the sun before dismantling our camp and heading off to the Coach & Horses for our 11.30am sound-check. We were last to do the check and more or less kicked straight off into our set (a slight bit of confusion here! We start 1.00pm! M.C. Neil McPhearson to introduce us at 1.15pm?). I felt a lot more relaxed about the set and quite a few people from the previous evening had turned up to hear us again, including Julie the witch and her mum. Despite playing a full on energetic set to people full of Sunday lunch on a warm summers afternoon, the audience were more than appreciative, and it was good to see a few of you bopping around at the back (Hilary again!). We varied the set slightly from the previous day and even had time to include two additional tunes (must have been playing fast!), after what seemed like 5 minutes our time was over, and we retired to dry ourselves off. We didn't want to leave for home immediately (we didn't want to leave at all!) so we sat down and took in an immensely enjoyable and humorous performance by 'DAVE TAYLOR', who was joined occasionally by his wife for some more slightly subtle songs.

It was with smiles on our faces, and a great sense of having experienced something very worthwhile that we left Wheaton Aston. We had intended to stay to hear 'Left Hand Drive' but time was getting on, and as they had been camped near us, we had heard them singing their little hearts out at 4.30 in the morning anyway!

For a great little, quality, fun filled, full on festival now in its 5th year, Wheaton Aston does more than fit the bill. Bring your friends! bring your family! bring something to wash with!

Many, many thanks go to organisers Hilary & Julian for their inspiration, dedication and vision.

Additional thanks go to all the site staff, helpers, volunteers, security, musicians, performers and sound crew. The tireless staff at Moor & Coast and Johnny Baghdad's. The staff and customers of the Coach & Horses and the Hartley Arms. The festival-goers, stallholders, and all the people of S. Staffordshire who we met and made us feel so welcome.

With great thanks and appreciation,
Russ & Andy,- Run dog run.