Having had a couple of very washed out days recently in Cambridge and Wisbech I set off for the secret location of Norfolk's Harlequin Fayre, a small festival in one of my favourite places near to a village where I once lived.
My motives for going were threefold:
- I usually enjoy this small, 80% solar-powered, festival
- I'd gone to see some friends perform
- I wanted to see if I could blag a set on an open mic stage
It was also very handy that my band of friends had a spare comp going. I was perfectly happy to lug a bit of equipment around in an attempt to earn the ticket. As it happened, I was able to do a little more than that and was offered an hour-long spot on the "Scrap Racketeers" stage. When not watching my friends play I spent a lot of time in the car park by the van working out and rehearsing a suitable set for the Sunday. That was actually a very enjoyable experience too. Many people fetching things from vehicles were distracted by my noise and came over to see what I was doing. There were lots of compliments and promises to come and see me when I was due to play the next day.
The next day the weather was very mixed. It ranged from hot sunshine to pouring rain. Of course the rain poured down during my set, causing many punters to take refuge in the Scrap Racketeer tent. The majority of these were there for the music, but a small and significantly noisy contingent thought that they could carry on their social life a few distracting feet away. The rain drummed its own rhythms on the roof of the tent and it really didn't help that there were also some problems getting the sound right in the monitors. Not being able to hear myself is one of the reasons I don't much care for amplified gigs. While I'm very happy for the front of house sound to be good, I do need decent foldback, specially in a noisy environment! I know my voice reasonably well enough to "feel" whether or not I am singing in tune and playing footdrums is generally self-explanatory. Some of my guitar chords are a little exotic and, while I do need to know that I'm playing all the required notes, that's usually okay. However, playing harmonica is a different proposition entirely. I could be playing completely wrong notes and not know it if I cannot hear myself. However, given the circumstances I was reasonably pleased with what I produced. There are always a lot of friends in the audience of this event. Some of them had only ever known me in other music or dancing contexts and were surprised and very complimentary to hear me doing something so different. That was extremely gratifying and I thank them for their generosity and kind comments. AJ took some photographs and several people bought CDs. One of a group of young men I'd met in my car park rehearsals actually turned up with his mates and bought four albums! That really was a win of knock out proportions.
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| Marshlander by Adrian Barber |
