Never knowingly over-prepared, we had a whole rehearsal before heading to perform Friday night at XR South West‘s Protestival*.
*not us pictured!
Testing Equipment & Fitness
This was a few short miles outside Bath but, inevitably, required the negotiation of some steep hills. It’s virtually impossible to go anywhere from here without a climb, since the city nestles among hills at the southern reaches of the Cotswolds. So, this was a good way to test our equipment and fitness levels before the long trek across Wales. Once again, my son Florian accompanied us – along for the pure enjoyment of the ride and also to spend time with Rob, whom he loves.
The site was a semi-permanent event space called the Field Good Bar. As the name suggests, this is – indeed – a bar in a field. It also comprises a series of marquees, loos, showers, fire pit, camping space and a little ceremonial space among saplings at the top of the hill overlooking the site. We camped just beneath this, keeping a discrete distance from our neighbours to save them being disturbed by any snoring and/or night-time excursions to relieve over-burdened bladders. We would – of course – not be using the long grass separating us from the ceremonial space for this purpose. Oh no.
Safe Hands
Following a wholesome communal meal, we got ready to perform in the main marquee. Our friend (my ‘Made by Martians’ band-mate) Marick was on sound, so we knew we were in safe hands. We quickly soundchecked whilst circus performers prepared their show outside. As they finished, we took to the stage. But then a drumming-circle broke out. OK, we could wait. At the end of that, I overheard someone saying they should bring one of the scheduled workshops forward. What?
This time, we didn’t hang around. It was already 90 minutes after our planned start time and people had begun to disperse. However, once we got going everyone realised something was happening and back they came. It turned out an announcement had been made earlier to say the band scheduled to play after us had had to cancel. Which everyone had taken to mean there would be no music.
Dance Moves
In the end, we had a good audience of highly-engaged, keen to participate activists. Right at the front was Jensen, with whom we’d got chatting earlier. He was particularly taken with my ‘stomp’. This is the case of my travel guitar with a microphone inside, on which I stamp to produce a bass drum sound. Jensen implored Marick to turn this up. However, it was clearly loud enough, since he and others broke into dance moves every time it was deployed.
Following our set, Marick took to the decks with world-music infused beats that kept everyone on their feet. A great night all round and a fitting start to the tour-proper.