Another sunny wonderful WOMAD bringing July to a close with a tonne of good music, good company and a barrel of laughs……..full report to follow….

On finishing my last O-level in 1981 I went straight into Manchester and bought myself a record as a treat. The record was ‘Autobahn’ by Kraftwerk. I loved ‘Man Machine’ and was soon to become obsessed with ‘Computer World’ on its release…..but never got to see them live. When they started playing festivals around the world a few years ago I could never seem to be in the right place to catch them. So when we found out they were playing at this years BlueDot festival at Jodrell Bank (with New Order, Hot Chip…etc..etc..) we decided to go – Hurrah! Shortly after buying tickets, Marisa informed us she’d passed her Sociology degree at Cardiff Uni with a first – Double Hurrah!! and that the graduation was going to be on 19th July – “It’d be great if we could get together in Cardiff for the weekend” “Indeed it would” – so Bludot was out of the window and my wait to see Kraftwerk would have to go on. Then, before we’d had chance to get refunds Marisa got a job which meant she’d have to work the Saturday after her Graduation……”so I can’t do the weekend with you”

….so we had a lovely Thursday night with her in Cardiff and a fantastic graduation day with her and Anna who’d also graduated and headed up to Bluedot afterwards arriving just after Hot Chip finished their Friday night set. Our friend Helen and Enda had put up our tent (bless them) so we popped into the festival to see Jon Hopkins and a Fleetwood Mac disco (as bad as it sounds) and off to the sound/light instillations near the big moon…..

Bluedot mixes science and music so on Saturday we trawled all the science stalls (non-newtonian fluids….wierd!) learning about bacteria and women in science, witnessed Jedi training for kids, saw a guy singing about the first  moonlanding (a fab act) which was celebrating it’s 50th anniv this very weekend….and saw a great comedy set by Rob Newman

Musicwise ‘Henge’ were my favourite of the daytime stuff – Bonkers but with the right message “We demand, that the wepons of war, are manufactured no more – demilitarise!”

Most people however, like myself, had come to see Kraftwerk and they didn’t let us down. 3D glasses were donned and a run through their hits began in the style of their ‘Mix’ album which had me dancing throughout.

The sound was fantastic and the 3D videos got a huge cheer during ‘Spacelab’ when they showed a UFO landing at Jodrell Bank (who says they have no sense of humour). Even ‘Radioactivity’ was turned into a dance tune, hard to believe if you just listen to the original. Numbers, Computer Love, The Model, Man Machine, Autobahn, Tour de France, Robots…. every one was a winner. You couldn’t get the smile off my face. BlueDot released this brilliant overhead picture of the site whilst Kraftwerk were playing

After that we tried to see 808 State but the tent was too rammed so after hearing ‘In Yer Face’ we left to explore the night time shinanigans again with the singing lights and 3D clackers and the enormous moon….

  

Sunday turned out to be a day of meeting friends and sitting around chatting. We had to leave before John Grant and New Order graced the stage but with a very tired child on board (and 2 tired adults with work in the morning…). Would have loved to see them both again but Hey-Ho…..we still had an awesome time!

Bob the Chiropodist

This year was my 20th anniversary of working at Glastonbury for FMS who were celebrating their 40th anniversary. The weather was red hot and the medical team saw 4500 patients with only 50 needing to leave the site – a remarkable feat when you think there’s over 200,000 people there.

Mik Artistiks Ego Trip kicked us off musically on Thursday asking the crowd not to sing ‘Mexico’ to ‘sweet leaf of the north’ to which we obviously sang ‘Mexico’

Fontaines DC have lots of catchy bass driven tunes and a frontman just waiting to explode

The Charlatans were a late but welcome addition to the bill. After that we just wandered the site, taking in a bit of comedy and trying to find shade…

The Mavericks were on top form and had everyone dancing the night away (sorry)

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets – always a joy and what a catalogue of songs!

Made it down to Shangri-La before the crowds and caught French (very) heavy metal heavyweights Gojira – sounded like 2 drummers on stage but it was only one….going mental….

IDLES were an absolute joy. Everyone was raving about their Park performance and this was just as wild – Joe Talbot won frontman of the weekend award with wonderful lyrics as well as the best inter-song banter – thanking everyone (even the bouncers) before starting a conga. Awesome!!

The Burning Hell kicked off Saturday Morning winning over the audience with usual funny/touching songs – getting us all to sing ‘LOOOOOOVE’ – One of my favourite bands

It was SO HOT that we next just sat by a fence in the shade, drinking water and listening to Bean on Toast’s set. It sounded great but we couldn’t bring ourselves to move…..

Sons of Kemet rocked out – I’m up for any band with 2 drummers….not often you hear a tuba solo

Foals were the suprise guests at the park and it got packed – we went up onto the hill to get some air but Simons clothes drowned out the sound…

Sharon Van Etten came on mega serious and focussed – not the ditzy New Yorker I’m used to

SHAME did a great set – wild and what a fabulous guitar sound

We sat outside the Acoustic tent waiting for Hawkwind listening to Keane (funny how many of their songs you know) who over-ran, then Hawkwind were late and we couldn’t be arsed heading for Shangri-La where we’d heard The Damned were going to play, and it would’ve been a pain to get to the Other Stage for the Chemical Brothers so we wandered into the Pyramid field for

The Killers – a great greatest hits set topped with an encore featuring the Pet Shop Boys and the Johnny Marr comes on and they do ‘This Charming Man’ – cue loud sing-a-long

Mavis Staples started Sunday morning with a brilliant blusey set – it was a bit like going to church. She was wearing a Glasto T-Shirt as the airline had lost their bags “I’m keeping mine!”

Love Slaves since seeing them at Reading last year. Ariarne was in stitches “It’s just like 2 angry men bashing it out”

The synchronised dancing to death metal music that is Baby Metal was interesting….but we got together for…

Kylie – A real party atmosphere in the crowd with everyone singing and dancing around us. We had to see this one with

….our favourite Aussie

BC Camplight – heavy and folky – hardcore noise and funky – I can’t classify what he does which suits me

The Cure – We got quite close to you (sorry). Their 2 hour set was just great – Robert Smith’s voice has’t changed since I was a kid – loved it and sent us all home happy

Those we missed: LOW, The Damned, Hawkwind, Tame Impala, Cat Power, Pip Blom, Interpol, Grace Petrie, The Magic Numbers, Frank Turner, Amyl and the Sniffers, Billy Bragg, The Proclaimers, The Chemical Brothers, Slowthai, Snapped Ankles, KT Tunstall, Vampire Weekend, This is the Kit, Fat White Family, The Good the Bad and the Queen, The Streets, Hollie Cook, Keb Mo

Bob the Chiropodist

Stereolab left us 10 years ago with a fabulous back catalogue that is a joy to dip into. I never got to see them live and thought I never would. So when the news broke that they were going to re-issue their LPs in new vinyl editions….and tour to promote them…..well, I was first in line for tickets! They did not dissappoint!

Support band Tomaga are a duo who are heavy on the rhythms (amazing drumming) and ambient noodling with flashes of tunes that break into the hypnotic ramblings….really ‘out there’….

Seeing Stereolab live you realise how funky the bass is and how dancey most of their tunes are. Singer Laetitia Sadler reminded me of David Byrne in a lot of ways with her subtle dance moves (and boiler suit). Oh to hear French Disko and Ping Pong and a monster version of Lo Boob Oscillator…..smiles all around….2 hours wasn’t enough….MORE!!!

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I wasn’t sure what to expect from an evening with the pre-Fab four but any excuse to be in the same room as Neil Innes should be grabbed with both hands. Anyone familiar with the Beatles story obviously loves the Rutles movie (All you need is cash) and the songs that parrallel the originals in a loving, respectful way that gives them a life of their own. I took my soon to be 16-year-old Matty along to this and without him, I think I’d have been the youngest in the room – he really enjoyed it though…..

I was a bit worried this would feel like a cabaret act but that was swept away as they started with my favourite ‘I must be in Love’ and did 2 sets of beautiful Beatle-esque tunes that stand up as well as the originals. Bizzare to think that drummer ‘Barry Wom’ (John Halsey) was the drummer on Lou Reeds ‘Transformer’ LP – rock royalty! and to hear him sing ‘Living in Hope’…….a joy!

They did 2 covers – The Travelling Willbury’s ‘Handle with care’ and George Harrison’s ‘All things must pass’ which fitted in well, but it’s the originals that had you laughing and singing along ‘Ouch’ ‘With a girl like you’ ‘Piggy in the Middle’ (beware the effects of tea) and ‘Love Life’…….every one a winner

Bob the Chiropodist