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We love this Festival. It’s still small enough to make it feel intimate & also very personal, but just large enough to get great & varied styles of music, and this year organisers JULIAN & HILARY really came up with the goodies. Also it’s on our doorstep being only 3 hours away, no further than a lot of our gigs!
 We arrived here mid-afternoon as we wanted to be relatively relaxed before the evening gig, and as usual our passes were waiting for us at the site office. Once on site we got ourselves sorted out and lay around in the sun until our soundcheck. This was in the VILLAGE HALL, and sound engineer HERBIE HANCOCK (no not that one!) gave us plenty of time to get things sounding right. We then took a wander around the village and went down to the Craft Field for an hour or so, before going back to the hall where we managed to catch the WITCHES OF ELSWICK finishing their set before we took the stage.
We started off our set with ‘Tri deg un, tri deg dau (Welsh for- 31/ 32) which is our usual opener and a ‘full on’ tune. It was good to see the audience reacting positively to this, (we thought that Hilary & Julian were making a mistake by putting us on in the village hall as it is usually the epitome of refined subtlety) and despite losing my plectrum on the 3rd song we finished off our set in great style, with the audience singing and clapping along! Mentioning backstage to Andy about losing my plectrum, Flamenco guitarist ANTONIO FREDERICO gave me short shrift saying- that wasn’t a problem, he’d just broken a fingernail and he was just about to go on! - Fair comment!
 After doing our stint we retired to the bar to sample the real ales (none of that lager stuff here!) and meet up with a few familiar faces & see a few new ones. GEORGE PAPAVGERIS was on the playlist again this year, and we had a quick chat with TRES LOS HOMBRES. From here we headed up to the COACH & HORSES for a bite to eat, and a few more beers before catching the end of a set by GRAFT (to be honest I think we only caught the very last 2 minutes) before heading back to the campsite where the third (unofficial) venue is located.
This leads us neatly on to MOOR & COAST. This is basically & loosely termed –A Food Tent- serving a great variety of fry-ups, grills, breakfasts and hot drinks, but after midnight doubles up as the social hub of the WHEATON ASTON FESTIVAL. Staffed by a couple of Yorkshire blokes who have the capacity to pass pleasantries & insults in the same breath! this is also the 3rd venue! (Providing- a). you get a seat, and- b). you play an instrument!) This is the place for some great sessions where you can mix it up with the Morris Men/ Women, bands, or anyone who turns up with an instrument. We met here a bloke from London who played the fiddle & wrote some very beautiful tunes (sorry didn’t catch your name!) but who didn’t think they were worth recording. (Record Them! You’ll have a CD then lots of people can know your name!). As it was getting very late & very cold I went to bed, we had a gig to do at 1o’clock the next day.
It started getting much later & much, much colder, until finally I could bear it no more. It was 5.30am. when I shook the ice off the tent (not kidding here!!!) - I just had to go to the loo.
Woke up Sat morning at 9 o’clock, gasping for air as heat of the sun hit the tent- this was most definitely festival weather. Went up to Moor & Coast for breakfast & coffee before walking back into the Village for a better look round. Not only does the festival offer you bands, it also offers a great selection of workshops and arranged sessions. Outside of the music you can also dabble in the visual arts or go walkabout. Or why not combine both and follow ‘the Art Trail’. This is a small part of many activities now known as the fringe, and which we understand is going to be developed further by HILARY, leaving JULIAN to run the music side of things, compliments & best wishes to you both.
Time for our soundcheck at the Coach & Horses, Again this year the sound engineer was COLIN BROWN who is superb and a real stickler for nuance & detail. As we were opening again this year, we took our soundcheck last to make sure we had a great sound to start with. I must admit we do like to be the opening band (this doesn’t mean to say we don’t like topping the bill either!); it really makes you kick into gear and try to drive energy into your audience. It also means you can have a few beers and watch the other bands afterwards!
The set started great, remained that way, and ended up superbly with COLIN taking to the drum kit in the final tune to help us wind up our audience even more- nice one!
Things after this become slightly blurry, possibly the effect of this lovely festival clouding our vision (blame human error), or it might possibly that we’ve lost the remaining section of this review (blame computer error!). Whatever all I can remember (now a year and a half later) is that we sat there watching some other bands, including another Welsh band ‘Mabon’? was it? But what really grabbed our attention and took our breath away was a sound check by someone on acoustic guitar called Simon Scardanelli. This man was after our hearts! and while people seemed to leave his gig in droves (more room for us!) those of us who remained took in a wonderfully powerful performance by this man. O.k. so maybe he couldn’t be classed as a 'traditional' folk musician? and maybe he did sing about his experiences in the dirty underworld of New York, but who cares? life moves on! Good on you Simon!
After this I really have lost track of what happened, suffice to say we arrived home safely. All I can do is recommend that next year you go there and write your own review. Unfortunately we won’t be playing there next year as they have a strict rotation policy, never mind, would love to back there again one year even as part of the audience.
Once again many thanks go to Hilary & Justin for making this festival work so well.
I understand that for the next festival the organisers are taking on different responsibilities. Justin is now the man organising the music, while Hilary is promoting the Art side of things. Best wishes and good luck to you both.
Diolch yn fawr iawn/many thanks.
Russ & Andy, Run dog run
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