Oh Luvly Luddenden!
And so, Friday 20th June found us in the band bus on our way up to the little village of Luddenden near Halifax to play at their very first festival affiliated to France's Fete de la Musique. As we drove up the country, the weather grew progressively warmer so that by the time we arrived at The Black Lion pub in Luddendenfoot at 4.30pm, it was beautiful. 'Oh, if it's like this tomorrow' we thought 'it will be brilliant'...!! (Never think things like that when playing at a festival!) ..The Black Lion is a lovely old pub about a mile or so from the main village of Luddenden. We were playing there that evening to kick off the festival and give a flavour of the following day's activities. We had a great welcome from the landlady and the locals; the music started at 9.00pm with local singer/songwriter Jonathan Taylor. He has a fabulous voice, really rich and resonant and full of emotion, very distinctive. Then we came on at 9.45pm and played straight through til 11.30pm and had a great response from the audience. We went back to the village that night feeling the long journey from Dorset was well worth it. The next day, we woke bright and breezy to get down to the village centre where the main stage was set up on the cenataph. It was grey, it was cold, it started to spit. 'Oh, it'll brighten up' we all said confidently as we dashed for cover. First up, the amazing Dr Moj, bagpipe player extraordinaire, piped the village children onto the stage to sing some songs to open the proceedings. Then, into the warmth of the pub to spend a thought-provoking hour with performance poet Steve Wilkinson with accompanying songs from Jonathan. Emerged from the pub to find it absolutely bucketing down. 'Oh, it'll brighten up' we all said, hopefully, as we looked at the big stage with all the equipment covered by tarpaulins...By mid afternoon, when we were all quietly wet through, it was obvious that it was not going to 'brighten up'! The organisers did a great job rejigging everything so the artists due to play in The Pod outside the church were moved into the church or the pub and the ones due to play on the big stage were moved into The Pod. A fine word for Shirty the sound and lighting man who set it up, broke it down, and set it all up again, stayed completely unfazed throughout the torrents of rain and did a great job for all the performers. Music ranged from a renaissance choir in the pub to classical organ recitals in the church to mellow, funny, traditional songs from Desi Friel, to the rockin' reverend playing U2 covers backed by a great band including 2 saxophone players - I tell you, a bit more of that and I might have turned into a church goer myself - very charismatic performer! Check out also Roger Davies, excellent singer songwriter with his rye look at local life with songs like 'Bradford Girl' and 'I'm Glad to be Solo'. And also Newcastle band Is Shepherd (both with websites and myspace) who have a highly original sound and, bless 'em, were tenting it in a field just outside the village. That's real devotion to musical duty! Sam, our fiddle player, who is a complete musical tart, played fiddle with Jonathan and with Desi - we were lucky to get her back for our gig in the evening. She was great! Then we played from 8pm to about 9.15pm in the pod. And those resolute and hardy Yorkshire folk were still there in the rain and they listened to our mellow stuff and joined in with our foot-tapping stuff and shook their eggs, tapped their feet and danced. A highlight for us was Dr Moj joining us on stage with his bagpipes. John Sharp, one of the organisers had asked us specifically to do Song for a Boy into Take Me To The Leader . We hadn't planned to put both into the set but when you get a request like that, how can you refuse? It seemed really appropriate to perform them too in view of Steve and Jonathan's poetry and music session earlier that day. And with a piper in our midst it was too good an opportunity to miss. We had a quick word and a short rehersal with Dr Moj in the afternoon. That evening as the last note of Song for a Boy hung on the air(and you could have heard a pin drop when I was singing it)the low drone of a lone piper started up outside the pod; Dr Moj in full regalia piped through the audience on to the stage; we went into Take Me to the Leader and then he piped off through the audience and out into the night - it was really dramatic and moving and we loved it. Then an immediate change of mood the exuberant Raggle Taggle Gypsy and right on through to a foot-tapping end. Fabulous!
...then we moved back into the pub for an informal jam session. Jonathan was there, the guys from Is Shepherd, Moj, Becky Taylor on whistle and pipes, our Keith on African Drum, Sam still on fiddle, and even Sam's mum Sylvia gave us a fiddle tune, Skipper and Alan sharing Jonathan's guitar, Malcolm and me singing along, everyone on eggs and a right little party was had by all. And then back to the Mayor's house where we were staying. As we walked through the door, a beer was thrust into our hands and a lively little get-together was going on upstairs; And then John arrived and said 'Let's see the solstice in' and some optimistic reveller who'd obviously had far too much Black Sheep Ale said the solstice was due at 2.30am which we figured was only a few beers away; and then a slightly more realistic reveller realised that sun-up was precisely 4.32am; and having got that far, we thought damn it, must see the solstice; and so at 4.30am; a stalwart four of us wound our weary and very satisfied way up to the church yard to watch the sun rise; except it was piddling down so we got wet all over again; took some very dodgy video footage to prove we were there; and we are sure the sun did rise; we just couldn't see it and I fell into bed almost fully clothed at 5.45am! Oh luvly Luddenden do invite us back next year!
Our big thanks to John and Lesley, to Jason and Julia and to all the village of Luddenden for the warmth of their welcome.
Charlie
www.stateofundress.com
...then we moved back into the pub for an informal jam session. Jonathan was there, the guys from Is Shepherd, Moj, Becky Taylor on whistle and pipes, our Keith on African Drum, Sam still on fiddle, and even Sam's mum Sylvia gave us a fiddle tune, Skipper and Alan sharing Jonathan's guitar, Malcolm and me singing along, everyone on eggs and a right little party was had by all. And then back to the Mayor's house where we were staying. As we walked through the door, a beer was thrust into our hands and a lively little get-together was going on upstairs; And then John arrived and said 'Let's see the solstice in' and some optimistic reveller who'd obviously had far too much Black Sheep Ale said the solstice was due at 2.30am which we figured was only a few beers away; and then a slightly more realistic reveller realised that sun-up was precisely 4.32am; and having got that far, we thought damn it, must see the solstice; and so at 4.30am; a stalwart four of us wound our weary and very satisfied way up to the church yard to watch the sun rise; except it was piddling down so we got wet all over again; took some very dodgy video footage to prove we were there; and we are sure the sun did rise; we just couldn't see it and I fell into bed almost fully clothed at 5.45am! Oh luvly Luddenden do invite us back next year!
Our big thanks to John and Lesley, to Jason and Julia and to all the village of Luddenden for the warmth of their welcome.
Charlie
www.stateofundress.com
