Whata Water Fest

Hi everyone! Well,we are just recovering from an amazing weekend playing at the Hampshire Water Festival. We played 3 one-hour sets each day. The sunshine was blistering - so much so that the stage was too hot for bare feet. I think everyone thought I was being even more energetic than usual because I was bouncing constantly from foot to foot but that was because it was like standing on hot coals. I definitely haven't mastered that mind over matter thing - I had to give in and put shoes on! We had a lovely audience, who, in spite of the sweltering heat, still managed to jiggle, dance, sing and shake their eggs along with us. The stage was perfectly positioned between a Pimms Stand on one side and a beer tent on the other - both looked after us very well. There was a definite moment when the proprietor of the Pimms stand walked up to the stage, right in the middle of 'One More Shot of You Boy' with a great big jug of Pimms! The perfect voice lubricant! The whole event was just wonderful - great family atmosphere, a beautiful setting in Staunton Gardens, sound technicians worked really hard as the instruments kept going out of tune and strings were going in the heat. Some very special things happened too - like the family who had come all the way from Port Talbot in South Wales to spend Saturday listening to us. The traffic was so heavy they missed our first set but we tried to make it up to them by playing some of their favourite tracks like When Will We Be Married, Molly? They also loved our new song 'The Hangman's Daughter'. We had so many wonderful comments about that song. It's certainly one that makes all the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Then, on Sunday, Kat came up from Brighton; Tony and Angela, Chris and Laura arrived and, of course, Ronni was with us all weekend helping with the merchandise. It was so lovely to see them all. And many people came on the Sunday because they'd enjoyed our music so much the day before. In fact, one guy went home on the Saturday, downloaded our Livin' it, Lovin' It !album and then still came back for more! We loved sharing a stage with Easy Street and Leigh Park Community Choirs and felt we'd really made some new friends. All the band (and our dog, Dottie) stayed over: with 2 caravans, 2 tents and a bongo we had our very own encampment and were able to sit out under the stars with a glass of wine, a few beers, an enormous plate of pasta and home-grown courgettes. The perfect apres-gig supper! So, Lulu, if you're organising the Hampshire Water Festival again next year, please count us in!
Happy Summer Everyone ... oh, and be Water-Wise!
Is it Pimms O'Clock yet...?

Charlie
State of Undress
www.stateofundress.com
07971 472768