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Can Jubileeve It?! 03 June 02 - Bleeding Hearts bassist Gel Newey, shares his diary on Coleford Festival and the Queens Golden Jubilee. |
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50 years ago Britain was crowning a new Queen.
25 years ago the Sex Pistols were number 1 in the charts.
God save the Queen? I say never mind the bollocks! Ha !
Despite assurances from the pressing plant, the finished anarcoustica CD’s have not arrived in time for this festival so we are well out of pocket BUT we are off to celebrate (the official line if asked by the BBC) the Queens Jubilee by playing a music festival in Coleford in the lovely Forest of Dean. First stop along the way is Ledbury - Bleeding Hearts (and their battle bus’s headquarters). Steve is not a happy chap today. He found a McDonalds wrapper in his garden. This is amazing considering he hates McShites, never goes there, and that the nearest one is 17 miles away in Hereford. Steve reckons it says something about them, their environmental policies and the type of people who frequent them and throw away their Mcrubbish just about anywhere and don’t care. Good point. We all cram into the luxury air conditioned tourbus (Ford Transit with the front window open—no back windows—it keeps Gaz the drummer quiet in the dark so he sleeps just like a bird)
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Nick the fiddle reckons the gig is gonna be great ‘cus the weather is
gonna be really nice (its pissing down at the mo) and because we got
this gig thanks to the Oysterband and Al at Gloucester Guildhall, where
the festie promoter saw us play with them last year and booked
us on the spot!
We arrive well early—we are on at 7.30pm so get chance to have a look round and buy some real cider from a stall along with some veggie somosas from a nice lady who I forgot to pay—but hell Steve will pay he’s a lovely chap—but he finds out and tells me to piss off. The festival is well organised and already so early there must be 4000 people milling about watching some of the other excellent bands—there does seem a Caribbean vibe to it all so we worry how we are going to go down if this is the theme? We spot a big wheel that Gaz remarks is the famous “Coleford Eye” this is a joke that then persists throughout the day. Yawn. The good thing is that there must be a few hundred Bleeding Hearts fans but most people are Bleeding Hearts virgins it seems. Time to play arrives, no sound check as is common with most festivals but this does not bother us we are used to it and try and be professional when playing with our knobs. Straight into “Democracy”, awesome, great sound on stage but too loud but Steve likes it like this. Steve has broken with tradition tonight and done a set list—only ‘cus we have to stop for 15 minutes at 9.00pm. He hates doing set lists it’s too predictable; but the festival is running late ‘cus we don’t start til 8.30pm—an hour late; we stop at 9.00pm to let the BBC do their TV thing and everyone do a Beatles singalong, to which Gaz plays drums for an assembly of festival organisers doing their bit. It all works out ok though. |
Overall, the gig was brilliant, weather was great (Nick was right), crowd were ace (7500 !!!!!), so loads of new fans, Sue and Co. who organised it were spot on and we really enjoyed it. Go to bed absolutely knackered but happy. And we got paid !!!! It doesn’t get any better and we've got more to come! - Chalgrove Charity Festival, Pigstock, Gig in The Park and the Green Blade Fayre - this summer is going to be the Bollocks!!!. |
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