BBC 6Music Festival, Bristol – 14/2/16

Khalid and Lucy got me tickets for the Sunday of this years 6Music festival Even at £40 a day, they’d sold out in minutes so I was much obliged. Only problem, it was on St Valentines day……so Lee and I did something special on the Saturday instead and went to see ‘Wit’ at the Royal Exchange in Manchester (admiring her mum and dads memorial plaque whilst getting the tickets). An AWESOME performance by Julie Hesmondhalgh who never left the stage and was barefooted in a hospital gown throughout – It deserves to picked up for a London run for sure!

The Sunday of the 6Music festival was a great day. Shook hands with Gideon Coe, chatted  with Chris Hawkins and Liz Kershaw, made some new friends and saw some great stuff…..Lucy organises ‘Window Wanderland’ on good will and a zero budget. The idea is to get everyone on the street to make their window into a work of art. Walking the street at night is then like walking down an art gallery. A great idea that spreads a real community spirit – it’s coming to a city near you – It’s on next weekend in Bristol – check out the web-site  She was a bit shy of giving out the cards she’d had printed up so I took up the challenge……To kick the day off, Lucy and I heading for the Trinity centre where ‘This is the kit’ started off the music in a laid back Sunday morning kind of way…..One of the best things I saw was the film about ‘DJ Derek’ that Don Letts has done – there was a rough cut of it and a discussion conducted by Gideon Coe about the Bristolian legend that made you wish you’d known him…..a 72 year old white reggae DJ with an obsession for Wetherspoon pubs – something to aim for I recon. He suddenly disappeared in July last year. The film won’t be finished til we know what happened to him….Cerys Matthews interviewed John Grant as part of her Sunday morning show and what a lovely bloke he was – dead funny with a passion for Cabaret Voltaire “All my bass lines are stolen from them”. He speaks 5 languages and his last LP was called ‘Grey Tickles (Icelandic for Mid-life-crisis) and Black Pressure’ (Turkish for Nightmare).The big curtain was then drawn back to reveal a lovely stain glassed window and we were invited to watch a recording of Mark Radcliffes Folk show for Radio2. We ducked out quite early on to get back to the house to feed kids and pick up Khalid.The evening session was across 2 venues in the same building and started at 4pm with a set by Guy Garvey in the bigger Colston Hall. By all accounts he’d been rather tired and emotional the night before but it didn’t seem to hinder him – quite enjoyed it but we were in the mood to Rock……

Khalid and I left before the end to catch the beginning of Moonlandingz – the Most Rock’n’Roll thing we saw all weekend! The sound quality wasn’t great but the volume was – what a performance!Lias Saoudi and Rebecca Taylor were like and anti-Nancy and Lee – if he wasn’t off his box, Lias (dressed only in skimpy undies which allowed his meat and 2 veg to escape on several occasions) made a great impression of someone who was. Great fun and a much longer set than last time I saw them thank goodness.We saw a bit of ‘Julia Holter’ and a bit of the ‘Blue Aeroplanes’ but spent most of that time gabbing to K+L’s friends on the comfy seats in the bar area whilst giving out more Postcards to interesting looking passers by. There were lots of DJ’s playing ‘banging tunes’ in the lobby to keep up the party atmosphere….He was so entertaining earlier and having previously missed John Grant I was keen to see him – and was so glad I did. Great songs and a great sound as he shimmied about the stage – great stuff!We popped in to see the Pop Group but once again the sound wasn’t great and there was a mass exodus which was a shame. We got chatting to Lucy’s friends, one of whom was the girlfriend of ‘Chris’ – the Buzzcocks bassist. Lucy was exhausted so Khalid and I got her home and returned for Bolton’s finest who were an inspired Valentine choice. ‘Love You More’ ‘I Don’t Mind’ ‘Ever Fallen in Love’ ‘What Do I Get?’ The sound was excellent and they were obviously enjoying themselves. Pete Shelley was looking rather Gnome-like (I’d buy a Shelley-Gnome with a guitar instead of a fishing rod if the Merch people are listening…..)

Post Script

Was in the kitchen telling Lee about the week end….
Me: “..and I got to shake Gideon Coe by the hand”
Sally (aged 10) looks up puzzled: “Is he one man?”
Me: “….er…..yeah….?”
Sally: “That’s his name?”
Me: “…yeah….First name ‘Gideon’…second name ‘Coe’”
Sally: “Oh, I thought it was a group – ‘Giddy and Co’…”

Bob the Chiropodist