gigs

It's the last day and I groggily haul myself off to the shower at about 8:30 in the am. Disaster strikes! It appears that the whole field next door has heard about our nice shower and has been using it so much that the tank has over-flowed and it is all locked up. I have to wait until the water has been drained away, then find the Keeper of the Key to get clean.

Once I am clean and fed, I grab a friend and venture out into the colourful fields to start the final day...

SUNDAY

Easy Star All-Stars

Sergeant Pepper's Lone-

-Ly Hearts Club Band, we hope you

Have enjoyed the show.

Not really, guys - Dub side of the Moon and Radiodread were amazing, but this is just crap! Even here, where they love this sort of thing... This Beatles Reggae just doesn't work.

Status Quo

Whatever you want,

Old men rock out their classics

Lazing in the sun.

Amadou et Mariam

Third time for me now,

The music suits the sunshine

All relaxed and smiles.

Orquesta Aragon (Cubans)

Synchronised salsa

Is it creepy or well done?

I forget the moves.

Madness

The top of the hill

And 2-Tone Madness prevails

The field is jumping

Nick Cave

He's a bit boring

Very shouty and tuneless

But Ade thinks he's great.

Pronghorn

Some mad punk fellas

Their children playing along

Mostly Entertaining

Fire Show

Tonight the whole show seems to work like clockwork, I avoid getting flamed in the face and even the big lit-up heart at the end works. The crowd is huge, too.

Black Eyed Peas

They shout boom boom pow

Not good like they used to be

Too dancey, less rap.

Mundo Jazz

A mixed bag of nuts

Ingenious comedy

Oh look, here's the rain.

And it really does pour. The amazing Mundo Jazz play on our stage until about 1:30am, then the second they announce that it's the end of the festival, the heavens open and we all run for cover. We head to the Green Room for the last night's celebrations. There is a band called Kangaroo Moon playing a kind of crazy psychedelic folk rock dance music to a frantic and appreciative crowd, desperately trying not to think about going home tomorrow.

The support band is really odd, I mean she is just downright weird. Laura J Martin is like a one woman marching band, playing the flute part over pre-recorded noises, layered singing and some pretty good beats. The engineer struggles a bit with the sound, probably because it is all routed through a looper but she is generally well received, even if it is jsut because the girl is quite clearly insane!

Given the strangeness of the first act, I might be forgiven for wondering whether we were in for more weirdness, whether Alice Russell has taken on a bizarre new DIY direction, but with a blast of furious funk her band debunks my fears and almost literally raises the roof. She seems to have boundless energy and her band is tight and funky.

And the voice is HUGE. There are classic 70s soul-type songs, 80s electro-funk and pure disco and everybody dances like crazy people. I've seen her perform with other people, but here singing her own songs Ms Russell is fearsome, a crowd-pleasing dervish of frightening power who can make you laugh out loud one minute and close to tears the next.

The gig inspires me to seek out her albums, Pot of Gold is the most recent and it is only okay, more laid-back than the live experience and a bit too RnB for my tastes, but on the other hand I really enjoy her 2005 album My Favourite Letters.

On the way home, there is a bible on the seat of the bus.

The old Holy Cross social club1 in Bedminster is one of those venues with a village hall kind of atmosphere. They have crammed in as many chairs as they can, because tonight we have one of the great modern folk protest bands of the early nineties, who have grown old gracefully and stopped shouting. Chumbawamba seem to have totally reinvented themselves in the last few years, although what they've really done is just get rid of all the electro and keep the close harmonies.

I just love Chumbawamba's acoustic sound these days, they're all great singers and the whole evening is light-hearted and slightly rebellious, they take old songs and change the words so they're about banks and Gordon Brown (Hard Times of Old England) and we all feel righteous and clever. Everyone thinks it's hilarious that they have made an E.P. to celebrate the passing of Dame Thatcher, which you can have sent to your house if you give them a fiver. It's a bit sick, but Chumbawamba still remember all the political songs they used to sing, the reasons why they were so angry back then and so do we, because we're cool too.

The Boy Bands Have Won is a brilliant album, full of humour and beauty and the usual politicking, an example you can hear for yourself as they perform El Fusillado (see also Charlie) - I do not feature in either of these videos, thankfully.

They are ably supported by Jacques, A Robin, who plays quirky French/Spanish sounding acoustic songs, the sort of music you'd hear in the Greenpeace tent or at a protest, although I can't really make out what he's saying - it's either down with the government, or I like boobies, I just can't tell.

1. 1. At least I think it used to be a social club - who knows?

The well known song All Around My Hat doesn't make an appearance until the encore and I just can't get this little shouty voice out of my head. They must have had to play this song at every gig since 1975 and you can only imagine what it must feel like after thirty-four years. Of course the song itself is much, much older than that, but in this place, given it's folk-rock interpretation, all I can think is Maddy Prior thinking Thirty-four Fscking years! Every gig for Thirty-four Fscking years!

But this is Steeleye Span, legends of the electric guitar-tinged folk tune, playing a variety mix of prog-folk, trad. folk, 80's-folk, even a bit of cringeworthy country-folk. They are no strangers to the reworked tune or playing a song that's hundreds of years old as if they've just invented it. Some of the music does seem very dated, but this is the stuff that sounds like every band did in the 80's - all clean power chords, pads and strings. It's a weird mixture of styles and eras (I'm not a big Span groupie so I don't know all the songs) but there is certainly some good epic story-telling, impressive fiddle-work, a few jigs and reels and Maddy Prior's phenomenal voice, just as powerful as it always was.

Certainly the audience (primarily of a 'certain age') are enjoying themselves, singing along and getting involved. The usual sort of crowd smugness abounds, as fans outdo each other in lyrical knowledge and generally it is a good night, though somehow not as electrifying as it should be.

Here's one just to prove I was there... The support band are a bit odd, I can't even remember who they were - playing a kind of funky studentbluesrock, very much a background kind of band and not at all in keeping with the music of the main act. I'm not begrudging them this, the people down the front were enjoying themselves, maybe I just don't pay them enough attention.

The Streets throw a party. We're all invited. It IS at the Wankademy but we think we can survive. It is also one of those Friday-night-before-Ramshackle ones that finishes way too early. Although I am a bit sceptical of this chav-centric messy garage hip hop, this is a surprisingly energetic and fun performance. He keeps on and on shouting Can you SEE me? Can you HEAR me? DO you UNDERSTAND me?1 and we all just sort of stand there, wondering.

Still, the show is lo-fi hip hop interspersed with dancey anthems that get the crowd jumping and the Streets' messy cockney sampling style transfers well into the full live band experience. I find myself getting more into the atmosphere than I thought I would, this music has grown on me like a scratchy jumper.

1. 1. Complete with silly hand gestures and macho posturing.