Peterborough Blues

So off we go to another festival....

Peterborough Festival was put on by their council to showcase art and crafts with entertainment from the main stage and the acoustic stage. It looked great with all kinds of visual treats for kids and a professional setup with a great main stage audio rig. I was looking forward to seeing Hard Fi later on.

When we got there after battling through the intermittent rain downpours on the motorway we were told that the acoustic stage had a 65db sound restriction on it....now anyone that knows sound understands that ambient noise can get louder than that! After fiddling for levels in the soundcheck, I started playing to no one but half way through the set a few people took refuge from the rain in the acoustic tent, so i was playing to a extremely small crowd (obviously being careful not to annoy the surrounding residents as coughing or sneezing may just break the 65db sound limit, the sound from the main stage across the field was louder than us!) ...anyways....as you can imagine I'd put this gig down as a loss and you just get on with it....until fellow Portsmouth acoustic troubadour Luke Ferre did his thing....

Luke's set was okay, he had the same problem as me.. his sound was pretty bad and a small amount of people were listening, so it was what it was, not really the right environment for our songs to thrive.... Then we get the message from Mr Hi Viz that the whole festival is now cancelled because someone fell  over.....yes......someone fell over so the whole festival got cancelled. So Luke decided to announce he was going to carry on his set on a bench nearby completely unplugged! 

Guerrilla gig stylee!

Now i don't know what it is about the British spirit but as soon as they think they are part of something naughty they engage with it so much more! People followed Luke round the field like the Pied Piper and he performed songs standing on a bench with grace and style. This is where it all got a bit weird.....after he got me up to play a blues (in G) with some guy who was carrying a Harmonica!....we then got told we should stop playing by Mr Hi Viz again... but if we wanted to we could play in the nearby cafe as the owner was in the crowd!....so off we went Luke leading the way again!....and played at the cafe.

As luke was playing unplugged outside the cafe, a PA was being set-up around him and bewildered looking people (not knowing what to do after the festival cancellation) were congregating around us now excited by this apparent disregard for the rules..."the show must go on!". Luke broke a string so i got up to do a version of Amy Watches The Stars.... and then we got shut down again!! They quite literally pulled the plug!

This prompted the crowd to shout for us to carry on, the Police turning up, BBC introducing to get our numbers and a comedic scene developing out of two blokes from Portsmouth with acoustic guitars....!!

Funny thing was the Police were telling us we were allowed to play and that the festival organiser has no right to pull the plug!!!

It was strange, and wet, and weird

Gigs are being booked for September - October so keep checking back and the last EP recording session is next week. Im planning a video too.......it may even be a funny video..

Stay Safe
Andy

The Legend Stevie Pitt!