Well, seen as we have already been berated on Facebook for not writing a blog about the weekend yet - here it is!
Therapist: Who berated you? A stranger?
Us: No…No, it was us. We berated ourselves.
Therapist: Right, this is that negative self talk we spoke about, remember?
Us: Yeah, right-o. Gosh. We are so thick. Reeeeeeal thick-o’s. So thick. Never known anyone as stooooopid as us. Gosh, we really are just such awful humans.
Therapist: … Your blogs are crap anyway.
Us: Yep.
First up! Nottingham Riverside Festival. There was a time, ten years or so ago, that getting ready for gig meant a quick lick of eyeliner and you were good to go. Sadly, Beth is approaching 30 like a lemming to a cliff edge, and the first hour of the day was spent epilating her moustache and beard. Hitting new lows as one of her chins got stuck in the rotary, she cried softly as Dean did all the heavy lifting, packing things into boxes and getting ready for when Ian and Katy arrived to give them a lift.
Beth threw her bits of facial hair out of the bedroom window. Turns out the outside didn’t want it either - ‘no, thank you’ it said, and deposited it back into her eyeballs. Beth gently kissed her youth on the forehead and whispered goodbye to it and left the house to engage in the most impressive game of Tetris she has ever played.
How do you fit four people, a banjo, a fiddle, a cajon, two six strings, a twelve string and a mandolin in a Tesla? Do diddy do diddy do diddy do diddy do, da do do, do do dooooo (that’s the Tetris theme tune if you didn’t immediately recognise it). Anyway, we completed the 9th level, the rocket set off and so did we. (for our younger readers, or those like us that were crap at Tetris, if you beat the 9th level it played a little 8-bit clip of a rocket firing into space. Beth’s Dad could do it. (Man of many talents).
Beth would like it documenting here that they were intending to stay for the full Big Top Show (and they did) with Sound of the Sirens finishing at half ten-ish, she commented on the fact that Dean was wearing just a shirt and a Wrangler denim jacket he found in a charity shop and that it was both raining AND cold already, never mind later at night. Dean did not learn his lesson from when he had to borrow a coat at The Heights of Abraham and said he would be fine. Please see picture below for accurate representation of what happened.
Upon arriving at the festival, we really must comment on the organisation of this thing - wow. Events organisers should probably run the country because things just work.
We arrived just behind the wonderful Winter Wilson and passed the usual British comments of ‘nice day for it, ha-ha’. Well, we had to talk about weather somewhere in the blog. Dean set his foot on the soft, muddied ground ‘Erggh. It’s cold’. We unpacked into the dressing rooms and were beautifully greeted by Bob and Julian. Back stage - tea, coffee, biscuits, crips and pop. All that was missing was jelly and ice cream and Mr.Blobby and you had the height of sophisticated kids parties from the 90’s. There is very little in life that cannot be fixed with tea and biscuits.
If there is one thing we love more than the weather it’s food. The amazing street food vendors made incredible Gyro’s that we wolfed in about two seconds flat - Beth dribbled it all over her shoes and her hairless face. Later on, there was a return to the pizza van. Dean asked Beth to offer some pizza to Katy and Ian - which she did reluctantly. Katy said ‘oh yes if you can’t manage it’. Beth turned back to Dean to grab some pizza for her friend, a little disappointed but knowing it was the right thing to do, damnit. However, one of the great things about attention deficit is that when Beth turned back around Katy was nowhere to be seen! Hoorah. The take-away from this (if you will) is that if Beth offers you food, she is only ever being polite, and never genuine.
All the acts were amazing, Del Scott Miller, 5 Hills out, Winter Wilson, Marc Block, The Lost Notes, Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage, The Black Feathers, Sound of the Sirens. By the time Winter Wilson came on stage, Dean was shaking like a Chihuahua and Beth forfeited her coat. He wasn’t the only one - though. Before going on stage Katy did comment ‘I am wearing my waistcoat because it’s professional, but, I think, I will just keep my jumper on, actually’.
As always, a massive thank you comes here to our sound technicians. They did such a fab job and work such long hours. If we sound any good at all, it really is mostly thanks to them. So thank you Jamie at the back, covering what the audience could hear, and thank you Laura for covering what we could hear on stage, we cannot thank you enough. Here we should also say a big thanks to our mate Graham for putting us on to Bob, and to Bob in turn for taking a chance on us. Our thanks extend to everyone that sat in the cold and listened, to those that have followed us on our socials, and to everyone that came to chat to us and steal a sticker or two.
After the festival when all was done and there were songs about how all bankers are bankers with a capital ‘w’ - Ian leant over and whispered ‘Right, should we slip away quietly in our Tesla funded by Barclays bank?’ to which we replied ‘It’s all you can do in a Telsa, Ian, slip away quietly. They’re electric.’ Douse your flaming pitchforks, folkies, we kid, of course - it’s actually Lloyds.
We will try not to bang on too much about Sunday - but we were super excited to return to Infirmary Records to put the finishing touches on four songs of our debut album. Beth explained the origin story of Taller than Mountains to Martyn - the amazing technician - then tootled off to do her vocals. She came back to floods of tears in the side room. She took this as a good sign and sat smugly for the rest of the day. Katy, Ian and Dean absolutely smashed their backing vocals and we are really excited to hear the end results. Again this is the soppy bit where we give our undying thanks to Martyn. He is not just a technician he hears things that we don’t and gives the best guidance, from how to change a tambourine part, to helping us find the harmonies that wandered away from us and hide in some deep dark undergrowth. Thank you Martyn. To anyone considering forking out the cash for a studio produced album, we could not recommend Martyn enough. The studio work is hard, and often repetitive, but Martyn helps you to feel much better about the whole process. Usually by saying ‘Oh, yeah, the rhythm section is the hardest bit, it gets easier’. And then saying things like ‘Oh, yeah, the additional percussion is the hardest bit because you have to get the beat just right.’ And then saying ‘Oh, yeah, the backing vocals are the hardest part and are often where people come unstuck.’ What we have mostly learned is that it is ALL the hardest part.
As always, Love, Harmonies, Cwtch,
Kootch x
