Venue: Ickworth Park, Horringer
Date: 27/07/13
Audience: Plenty of them, quite a few of them running around
Sets: Not sure.
Notes: In
between a weekend of fringe previews, I had the opportunity to drum a bit in a
field on Saturday and after all the theatrics it felt much needed too. This is
the third year in a row I’ve had the pleasure of playing at the Ickworth Race
For Life festival – organised by the wonderful Lorraine Cockerton (from The
Dowsing Sound Collective and the mother of our musical director, Andrea) and it
was lovely to be back on the grounds of the historic Ickworth House. Whereas a
lot of festivals seem to air on the side of corporate, this event is pretty
much the opposite – a genuine family event, in aid of Cancer Research, with a
small but very helpful team of volunteers who made life very easy for us. I
played this with three bands; Trevor Jones, Flaming June and The Dowsing Sound
Collective. It was incredibly humid and I had a very red face throughout most
of it. Trevor’s set was particularly enjoyable because he writes very summery
songs, the set was relatively without structure with every track chosen to fit
the mood, and the three of us (Trevor, Tony and myself) did what all bands need
to do more often – we enjoyed ourselves. The Flaming June set was as a duo with
just Louise and myself firing through our most ‘family friendly’ material – a
couple new-ish tracks (including the brilliant, ‘In Pursuit Of Happiness’)
found their way into the performance, people seemed to appreciate just how
exhausting it must have been for us up there. A scaled-down Dowsing then hit
the stage for my third gig in as many hours, this was the ‘original’ choir
(with the ‘new’ choir playing the Cottenham show recently and obviously both
combining for the huge Ely Cathedral gig) and sadly Amira’s last show with us –
she’s one of those relentlessly positive people so will be missed. Musically it
was just Andrea (piano/guitar) and myself (percussion), and it was probably the
most laid-back, easiest Dowsing set I’ve ever been a part of. We eased through
a selection of songs we all know so well now, pressure-free and with lots of
smiles, my energy levels were being tested (these three gigs were in the middle
of my fringe previews and also a house move…it was a manic weekend) but when
there’s so much joy on stage it’s difficult not to feel energised. Fantastic
day, remarkably hassle-free, my only regret being that I couldn’t stay for
longer.
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