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BS: Post Festival Blues
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Subject: Post Festival Blues From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 29 Aug 00 - 07:22 AM Had a great week in Whitby, it seem to be over in a flash. Sang along with some great songs. Sang one or two myself (not the great ones) and generally socialised with loads of friends. I find myself feeling quite sad, what do others do to pull themselves out of the blues Patrish |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Dharmabum Date: 29 Aug 00 - 07:41 AM Just got back from one myself. I'll start planning for the next one. Looks like the Boston Folk Fest in September might be a good one. Ron. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: CamiSu Date: 29 Aug 00 - 08:24 AM I get busy with my hands. Singing LOUD with the stereo seems to help. But mostly I make sure I have too much to do. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: sledge Date: 29 Aug 00 - 08:56 AM Start planning next years. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Midchuck Date: 29 Aug 00 - 09:37 AM Play the CDs you bought at the festival, and start liberating new songs from them. If all else fails, buy a new instrument - preferably one you don't know how to play - that'll keep you busy for a few months. Peter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Gervase Date: 29 Aug 00 - 09:50 AM I always feel pretty down after a festival - and having returned at sparrowfat this morning from Towersey, where a much-loved friend was in need of a lot of TLC, I'm feeling lower than usual. But, for me, the best way to shake off the black dog is to remember the material you heard and liked and make a point of learning it; and remembering the harmonies, the techniques and whatever you came across and putting them into practice I certainhly made a hell of a racket in the shower this morning when I got back to London (God knows what the neighbours made of it, but the cat looked pretty startled!) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Gervase Date: 29 Aug 00 - 10:31 AM ...but to get back to why we feel down after a festival; certainly for me there's an element of too many late nights and too much abuse of the old liver (Micca's collection of hip-flasks are legendary) - but largely because these sort of gatherings are pretty emotional events. A lot of people at Towersey are people I've known for some years, but who I only really know through festivals (the 'usual suspects' in some cases - particularly from the Middle Bar at Sidmouth). With most friends, you meet up, chat, catch up or whatever, but with friends at festivals you do something far more intimate and far more emotionally powerful in that you make music together; something which transcends mere friendship and makes them almost family. I don't know what it's like in the USA and further afield, but I've seen grizzled, gruff grown-ups (men as well as women!) in bits during particularly good sessions. Whenever people say the Brits are an uptight bunch, I think "Bollocks - just go to a festival and see what singers are like". Sometimes something - a resonance, a scrap of sentiment in the lyric or just a sense of the potentially awesome power and beauty of the human voice when raisze together in song - just seems to hit the spot, and you look around to see an awful lot of handkerchieves and coughing and spluttering around you. The important thing, though, is that you have to participate to tap into that feeling (something that Dick G has mentioned in his first homecoming posting). If you simply sit and listen, I don't think you connect, in the Forsterean sense, and therefore the homecoming isn't such a wrench. My own theory (which could be total cobblers, but what the heck) is that singing is one of those things that releases the endorphins and natural opiates in the system like little else. In other words, if you've had a really good festival, you've dosed yourself with some pretty powerful drugs (as well as the fermented variety, of course) - ergo, post festival, you've got to go cold-turkey, and the better the festival, the blacker the dog that awaits you at home. Or, in the case of a friend of mine, you can just bounce on to the next festival - she started at Sidmouth, then did Whitby, Pontardawe AND Towersey (don't you envy academics their long summer breaks?). But that's a bit like avoiding hangovers by staying pissed! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: sophocleese Date: 29 Aug 00 - 10:52 AM Patrish, I sympathise with you in this downer mood. All of the above advice is excellent. The hardest thing for me to do was to let myself be down for a day or two and not fight it or question it too hard. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 29 Aug 00 - 11:01 AM Gervase, your sentiments hit home in a big way. I dont get out that much abd when I do I think I probably go overboard. But and its a big but, my next outing is in April - I dont know if I can hang on that long....................... Patrish |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Skipjack K8 Date: 29 Aug 00 - 11:40 AM Get yerself out to a session, Patrish. I'm off to the Sloop in Barton tonight, in need of some big cheering up, and I haven't even been to any festivals! Alternatively, or even additionally, get down to Llanfairs bash in October. As musical orgies go, it will be Bacchinalian (?) Skipjack |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Mbo Date: 29 Aug 00 - 11:44 AM Of course, if you've never been to one... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: sledge Date: 29 Aug 00 - 11:50 AM ..........then its time to make feverish plans to do so. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Morticia Date: 29 Aug 00 - 11:54 AM Glad you got back in one piece, Gervase.....:) I'd go along with what's been said so far, having just got back myself this morning....and for me, this particular festival is also about summer being over so I'm flat on two accounts.......maybe three, you should see the pile of washing!Every year I either make brand new friends or get closer to those I already have and this year was no exception so I hold on to that.....and having October to look forward to helps a lot too. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Liz the Squeak Date: 29 Aug 00 - 12:14 PM Gervase, Morticia, we all got back OK, my legs have seized into the driving position, I can't get used to being able to stretch my legs out in the toilet, and I've got 4 new songs on the boil. My reaction is to wear to work all the weird clothes I bought at the festival (if you can get away with it - some hospitals are a bit iffy about rainbow sarongs in the operating theatre.....), to eat something that came from a reputable (or checkable) source, to check in with friends and to answer the 9 mail messages waiting here for me!! Heaven only knows what it will be like at work tomorrow, last time there were 38!! Mbo - if you can't afford festivals, try and get yourself recommended or volunteered for stewarding duties - I spent all weekend at Towersey for nothing except 4 lots of 4 hours stewarding..... I got the hangover shifts, 8.00am to 12.00noon..... cos I'm unbearably cheerfull first thing..... and then got the rest of the day off! Listening to the CDs just makes me worse, I have to go and play something from a completely different genre.... off to play some Def Leppard now....! LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Linda Kelly Date: 29 Aug 00 - 06:50 PM The big dissapointments at festivals are |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Gomez Date: 29 Aug 00 - 08:41 PM As a relative newcomer to this live, folk music kind of event, I don't have the history of friendships that Gervase has mentioned and it's probably fair to say that I am too cynical to allow the sentimentality to reach me. Considering this along-side the fact that I don't really sing, you could be forgiven for wondering why I bother with Towersey at all. Well, for me it's all about putting the real world on hold for a few days, getting drunk, talking outrageous nonsense to broad-minded people who will hopefully have forgotten (and maybe forgiven) in a year's time. It's about paddling in mud, it's about sitting in the bodr.. bohdr.. bodsomething workshop with fifty other beginners, all beating the crap out of a fairly loud drum with a wooden stick to a thunderous rythm that perfectly fits "Running Bear loves Little White-Dove" and it's about hurling yourself at crowds of like-minded psychotic human projectiles in the so-called dance tent. Thanks Gervase, Micca, Morticia, LTS, and all the usual suspects for significantly shortening my life expectancy. I comfort myself in the aftermath with clean bedding, hot baths, wholesome food, clean toilets and soluble-aspirin. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Micca Date: 29 Aug 00 - 09:39 PM Yeah, well, its the the adrenaline ,innit, and when its stops it IS a bummer.... but the songs squirrelling, the collection of undecipherable notes for new songs, scrawled while drunk, illegible when sober... the renewed search for the "perfect rum" for the hip flasks, and the receipt of the lyrics of the song you asked someone for that they remembered to send...all wonderful... and meeting and re-meeting friends...and the singing that rings in your ears for days and days, and you find yourself smiling at some remembered turn of phrase," that moggie he can fly" and the feeling of having , in a smallway contributed to what happened...but always, for me it is the singing that haunts me.....and warms me for months..merry meet, merry part and merry meet again |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Morticia Date: 30 Aug 00 - 12:19 PM then you will be thrilled to hear that I have some wonderful recordings........now, shall we discuss christmas pressies? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Micca Date: 31 Aug 00 - 04:54 AM Oh well, On to Llanstock!!! at least, that will tide us over for a while, anyway, and has the makings of a nice Festivalette, and a chance for a bit of a sing... and is only 6 weeks away.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: death by whisky Date: 31 Aug 00 - 06:29 AM Never went to Towersey but.... Fleadhs...sat in sessions for eight hour stretches.Free drink. Lorient Interceltique...performer.Free accommodation,meals with wine,beer tokens after each gig(2 per day over 10,1 da off)23 hour pub /cafe lisences Glastonbury.....worked in the childrens field.The rest of the tiimmme wwaaaaas kiiind offfff.... Pontardawe...paid for that one usually.Good festival.It was like a local get together as we lived in Cardiff at the time. Everything used to seem so dull and inanimate after a festival.But it was always great to tell of the experience.Each festival has its own carachter.I love that variety of festival.
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Liz the Squeak Date: 01 Sep 00 - 06:19 AM Erm... Morty, is there anything I should know about those tapes?? Gomez - it was great to have you there, and my opinion of you has been raised considerably..... the violin request has been heard and a judgement will be passed soon..... Micca - at least two of those songs will be unrepeatable, just leave them where they are.... Gervase, glad to see you stopped doing your dead bear impression, tell Dom that the book was fantastic. Ickle - is spending more than 4 hours with your husband a disappointment? Or did you mean something else...... (I know what I would mean.....) Sophocleese, the hardest thing for me is to STOP being the real me and get back to being a responsible adult with an overdraft the size of the national debt and a demanding child who makes Denis the Menace look angelic!! LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: GUEST,KingBrilliant Date: 01 Sep 00 - 06:53 AM I went to Towersey & had a great time - met loads of unexpected people & just meandered around having a good time. Don't get the post-fest blues though - and I'd never even considered such a thing might exist. Just lucky I guess. Mind you, I do go to a lot of festivals so there's always something to be looking forward to, so perhaps that's how I escape it. Kris |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 01 Sep 00 - 06:54 AM I seem to have slid back into work and domesticity. But I have challenged mysely to put a real effort into learning something for next year - no procrastination. I do have some lovely photos of whitby which I have scanned into my PC I'd share them with you, but don't know how to.The only other mudcatter I've captured on film is Mrs Duck. Patrish |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:38 AM I'd like to post the photos can anyone help? Patrish |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Midchuck Date: 01 Sep 00 - 11:16 AM Do I get the impression that at a folk festival in Britain, the Dirty Drink has a much more central role than in the U. S.? And that the "Blues" that are the topic of this thread are remarkably similiar to the common hangover? If I'm correct in this impression, maybe I'll look for a cheap boat ride.... Peter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 01 Sep 00 - 11:36 AM The highs outway the hangover. It is an experience that is impossible to put into words. get the ticket Patrish |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Alice Date: 01 Sep 00 - 11:51 AM Patrish, I can help you with the photos. What do you need? Send me a personal message if necessary. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 01 Sep 00 - 11:59 AM Sorry Alice, not even competant to send a personal message. I have the pictures saves as jpegs on my hard drive, how I send them to the mudcat??? prbable involves blue clicky things. my e-mail is pat@rtn.co.uk but I have to leave fairly soon. Patrish |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Micca Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:00 PM KingBrilliant, next year have a look around in the Barn of the 3 Horsehoes , there are usually about 4+ 'catters sitting at the end near the bar, This year Morty, Micca Gervase and LiztS were there during most if not all the singing sessions and Dick and Susan were there on Friday eve, sat lunch time and Sat. Night.so Come and meet...and you will recognise us Having met some of us at Llanstock.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:03 PM I am unable to post or check the responses until monday pm, if someone can refresh this for me I would really appreciate it, thanks Patrish |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: JulieF Date: 02 Sep 00 - 06:58 AM |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Susan of DT Date: 02 Sep 00 - 08:59 AM Patrish - sorry we did not have more time to talk at Whitby Liz - When I got back (after almost 3 weeks) I had 202 e-mails at work and 155 pieces of mail at home. Midchuck - there is certainly more booze at British festivals. Most things are in pubs and the beer flows. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Alice Date: 02 Sep 00 - 11:23 AM Patrish, since you're name does not say "Guest", that means you have a member name with cookie that Mudcat recognizes. If you go to the top of this page and click on personal pages, you would come to a page that says Patrish's Personal Page. There you will find a list of any threads you have added by clicking on "trace" or "Add Thread To Tracer", and under that, Messages and Bookmarks. Click on "Send a message", and then type the Mudcat name for the person you want to send the personal message to.
Since you already have the photos made into jpeg files, you can attach them to an email to Mudcat, or, if you don't want to fill up their email box with large files, you can upload them to a folder at www.driveway.com and then send an email to anyone you want to share that folder, including Mudcat. Alice
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: seaayr Date: 02 Sep 00 - 05:26 PM hi all,,,, yep can identify with all that........but the buckets of cd's bought keep u goin a bit late but back from 'muchty laden with cd's and gr8 cheer...after another gr8 fest in fife....'muchty never has to have the big names....just loadsa quality singin..and a few fiddlers and stuff too... lookin forward to ..portpatrick next w'end and crocketford the w'end after....both in dumfries and galloway..........missed tinto this w'end cos went to see john wright band last nt at monkton nr prestwick......and eric bogle the wk b4.....hard life this but somebodies gotta do it. it's a hard long season eh..lol.......... bye all seaayr................scotland |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: roopoo Date: 03 Sep 00 - 06:10 AM Dammit - they seem to have all the festivals in Dumfries and Galloway when I'm NOT there! I go in July to just beyond Gatehouse of Fleet and I have to drive through Crocketford to get there! Glad Dick and Susan made it back ok. By the way, did anyone else get to hear that brilliant young guitarist who was guesting with Pauline Cato and Tom McConville at Whitby? His name's Clive Carroll, and he's out of this world! mouldy |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Liz the Squeak Date: 03 Sep 00 - 11:28 AM Susan - Only 202!! I'm surprised! I got back to work to find 38 mails (and that was for 3.5 days) and that my deputy had done absolutely nothing of mine, and precious little of his own!!! Kris - did you meander into the pub barn? Would I have seen you on my steward duty (camp site two, main gate, by the toilets or "bogs" as they became)? Did you see John Tams? Wasn't that version of rolling home a bit fast! More like spinning home!!! See you at Llanstock. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: janey Date: 03 Sep 00 - 02:14 PM no time for post festival blues...plenty more to be goin at for this year still. Whitby was usual great, camping up at stoops cross, drinking in the plough and having a laugh. Just come back from Flyde; not a festival for players...no real characterful drinking/singing/playing sessions, too far to walk, bad kebabs, a woman feeding a rat in the marine hall, and locals causing grief at 5am on the campsite. Up to Langdale in the lakes next weekend (9th sept) for their charity music festival. Not a real folk festival but good camping, great scenery and usually session in the Olde Dungeon ghyll. Then there's Bromyard and Otley (15 sept). Looking forward to Kelso 13th October. Hector seems to have it well sorted with exactly the right sentiments behind the festival eg PARTICIPATION. I love the scottish fetsivals; Newcastleton is brilliant; no stewards, no closing time, friendly locals, beer, music, beer. and then it's fun waiting for next year! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: GUEST,KingBrilliant Date: 04 Sep 00 - 09:09 AM Hi Liz & Micca &tc We made a brief foray into the Horseshoes - but nothing was going on at the time, so we sent back up to the site. We were on site 2, so must have seen you, Liz, stewarding at the gate at some point! We are : Short wide (OK, fat) black haired lady with batwing eye-makeup (me), tank-built blond bloke with viking-style shoulderlength hair & a beard (Mark) and blonde 9 year old tomboy with long hair in a ponytail/plait (Amoret). We were camped at the bottom end of site 2 with some friends who were stewarding : 'M' was in the office greeting the performers & Andy was in the Arts centre & sometimes on gates with their little brown hairy dog Freya - their son Peter & Amoret were wandering around 'adventuring' together most of the time. Normally we are recognisable by our ridgeback dog - but she stayed home as we were relying on lifts & trains due to the sad demise of our car. I'll make a point of seeking you out & getting down to the singaroundy bits next year - we'd love to meet everyone. What about that rain, eh? And did you see the lightning on whichever night it was? I didn't see John Tams, because Amoret was poorly that night (if you were on duty you would have seen her frequently crossing the mud that day) so I was in the tent reading vast tracts of Harry Potter - whilst she marvelled at how nice I was being!! Mark saw him, but we can't make up our minds whether we really like his music or not. The Jury is still out on whether we can make it to Llanstock - I'm waiting on my brother replacing his car so that he can sell it to me & then we need to get a decent tent... On the very rainy night at Towersey we (Amoret & I) got back to find the tent half fallen down & we had to rebuild it & bodge it before she could go to sleep (Mark arrived back after it was all sorted out of course). So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can get a decent vehicle and a nice bell tent by then. I'd sort of given up on going when I realised kids can't be in the pub after 9pm, but if there is going to be an allday thingy in the hall then its looking a bit more likely (hopefully kids can be in the hall all evening). See ya Kris |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Liz the Squeak Date: 04 Sep 00 - 05:12 PM Kids are no problem in the barn as long as they aren't whiney, there were three youngsters there this year, who were as good as gold, oldly enough, one was called Freya.... I only did the mornings, so got to see people not at their best, so cannot say I recognise your descriptions. I was the short fat one who was directing traffic in the field on Saturday, in the road on Sunday and being run ragged doing directing and band checking on Monday - the third steward who should have been helping me do the checking found it more interesting to chase round after one of the Firewalker stewards. Post festival blues have been alleviated by the prospect of a trip to Ath in Belgium, and the Hallowe'en festival in London, weekend after Llanstock. If you want details, PM me or Micca, and we'll put you in touch. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Mrs.Duck Date: 04 Sep 00 - 05:14 PM Still down even now Patrish although your photos cheered me up. We have long since decided that Whitby is the reality and everything else is just pretend.I still haven't finished all the washing and haven't had time to pick up an instrument or listen to a CD. But it was great wasn't it. Magician has some more photos of the week including a somewhat incriminating one of me and Jude on the tarts and vicars night. No doubt they will appear soon. As to the beer it is certainly no coincidence that the English folk scene is full of drinking songs usually song by drunken morris men. Someone did ask at Whitby if being a lousy singer was part of the entry requirements to become a morris dancer but I beleieve it is so they can clear the pub giving them less problems getting to the bar for more ale!!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Catrin Date: 05 Sep 00 - 10:57 AM Aaah, coming down fast from a wild weekend at Fylde. Thouroughly enjoyable. Sang loads. Saw an amazing show by Scolds Bridle about women's perspective on the sailing life. I cried. Walked on the beach on Sunday morning and sang to the sea. Saw Eric Bogul. Had a brilliant party every night at the Marine Hall (until 2.30am Fri). I have some songs to learn now, and preparations to make for llanstock..... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: orange Date: 05 Sep 00 - 11:22 AM I too was at Whitby, which was great this year, and yes, Chris Carol is an amazing guitarist. I cured my post festival blues with a visit to the 'Sea Fever' Sea and Shanty festival in Hull (on the East coast of Yorkshire, England for those with world atlases) Most of it was FREE on the dockside. The main stage was the old Spurn Head Lightship, very picturesque. There were loads of foreign singers, one of whom, Inge Wicke (I think) from Sweden is a dead ringer for Santa Claus, does Santa play a Martin D28? My favourite was a Breton band called the "Rats from the Bottom of the Bilge". I had a seriously good bellow in the Baltic Wharf singaround which cured any lingering blues and gave me a thirst, but no real ale only 'smooooth', which for the uninitiated is tasteless and gives you a hangover because of the nitrogen, the bends? Ah well you can't have evrything. It was great to meet Dick and be introduced personally to the Mudcat cafe, more power to your collective elbows! Cheers, Orange. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Ella who is Sooze Date: 05 Sep 00 - 11:52 AM has been sobbing into her beer for the last week or so... as her festival round has come to its seasonal end... finishing at the Fleadh Cheoill na Eirrean I want to go back never did bump into Mikey... oh WOE IS MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WAILLLLLLL Ella
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 05 Sep 00 - 12:02 PM Ella, I am grounded till next year boo hoo sniffsniff..................ah but I have the memories Patrish |
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Subject: RE: BS: Post Festival Blues From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 16 Oct 01 - 10:04 PM REFRESH |