Canterbury Folk Festival

This year saw the first Canterbury Folk Festival in full swing in the Dane John Gardens over the last weekend in June.  A full weekend filled with sunshine and folk music, in the beautiful parkland setting of the Gardens overlooked by the bandstand where all the acts would be playing from.

All you need for a good folk festival, apart from good music of course, are craft beer and local ales, with fruity finishes and deep malty flavours.  I had the Rocking Robin Robin Redbest ale (the same one that Sally is enjoying below) which was seriously yummy, a light bronze easy drinking bitter made with Kentish hops.  I must admit, for a determined non-ale drinker, I am finding more and more that are quite quaffable!

To keep everything balanced, you also need delicious food from independent food stands, including Wimbledon ready strawberries in pots with lashings of fresh cream, carried around on trays by ladies from Simply Strawberries, duck wraps and duck fat chips, piles of fresh olives and huge containers of pad Thai noodles from A Taste of Thailand.  I had the plantain crisps and chilli balls from Vinngoute, which lived up to the translation of its name.

Music, food and ale is also best shared with a bunch of friends as chilled and relaxed as you are (Ben even more so as Green Diesel would not be playing until the Sunday afternoon, so he was completely off duty). Shay, Ben, Nick, Sally, Ellie, John and I had already arranged to meet by the Bandstand in the early afternoon but we ran into other familiar faces throughout the day who would pull up a pint and join us.  Canterbury is really very small and at an event like this you are pretty much guaranteed to bump into a number of people you know.

Finally, to really make you folk festival experience complete, you need a dog.  The ultimate hipster accessory that every good folk aficionado should not be without.  I should have tied a red scarf around his neck.  Opportunity missed.

James was in Malta with Steve on a lads holiday, and Sasha was visiting her sister so I was dog-sitting Jackson for the weekend.  With James and Sasha's permission, I packed up his water bowl, a litre of fresh water and a bag of dog biscuits and brought him along for the afternoon.  I quickly discovered that if you have a dog at a festival, especially one as large and good natured as Jax is, you very, very quickly make friends with a lot of people who will just come up and cuddle him.  He was like a magnet for small children and mid-30's gruff men who insisted on calling him 'good boy'.  He looked rather bewildered by all the attention, but took it with good grace.

This was the first time Canterbury had hosted a folk festival - Broadstairs and Faversham are the traditional homes of folk around here, but its popularity is growing, evidenced by the 5000 people who descended on the Bandstand for the weekend.  From 11am to 6pm each day we had the delights of folk in all its format, from rock to acoustic to blues (Thomas Ashby, second photo above) bluegrass (Gentleman of the Few) and reggae, courtesy of Jimmy and the Riddles.  There were a plethora of delights for your ears to feast upon, all repeated again on the Sunday with more bands playing, including old favourites Green Diesel.

There were also Morris Dancers (of course, its a folk festival in England, you can't get more traditional folk than Morris Dancers), balloon twisting clowns (one little girl had a balloon version of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, it was quite something), Mr Softee ice-cream and of course craft stands.

Kids dressed in Tinkerbell outfits were twirled in dizzying circles by their parents whilst teenagers hoola-hooped and flung diabolo's high in the air in time to the percussion beats and older couples dangled their feet in the cooling waters of the fountain.

We sat and chatted in the sunshine, occasionally taking it in turns to walk Jax in the shadier areas of the park under the trees where the scent of South American BBQ was drifting through the air from the newly occupied Kiosk.

Eventually I had to pack up and get the dog home as his dribbling was getting a little out of control and he kept eyeing up people's food, but the others carried on their festivities long into the night (I know as I kept getting text messages asking if I was walking back into town to meet them.  The texts got noticeably drunker and more demanding every hour), but by that stage I was tired and my feet hurt, so I was rather lame and just curled up on the sofa with a film.

Here's hoping this is just the first of many years of folk in the gardens.

Deal Festival 2014

So far this year there has been Sounds New, Wise Words, Rochester Sweeps (which I couldn’t get to) and we have Broadstairs Folk coming up.  All these festivals within a few short months of each other – it’s like a continuous onslaught of culture.

There is one Festival though that has been there quietly in the background all along.  One of the longest running festivals in East Kent, it has carved a path for all who would follow.  The Deal Festival is a true trailblazer, and it is about to enter its 34^th year of celebrations.  

Whilst at the Sounds New Festival, I got chatting with one of the organisers, Willie Cooper just before Led Bib were about to take the stage.  She mentioned the Deal Festival, which she is heavily involved in the organization of, and asked if I would be willing to blog about it for her.  I jumped at the chance, and that is how it came about that a few weeks later I was slurping a mix berry smoothie in the Gulbenkian Café, chatting about all things related to the Deal Festival with Willie and the Chairman, Graham Harvey. 

As we talk, I get a full insight into the background of the Deal Festival, and why it is still going strong after such a long innings.  Both Willie and Graham display enthusiasm and pride in their Festival, words tripping over each other as they talk about the world exclusives that will be showcased throughout the week.

The Deal Festival has been running for 33 years and started life as a quaint series of formal evening concerts.  There have been a series of artistic directors that the Festival has known throughout the years, from David Matthews to Paul Edlin and Matthew Sharp.  These days the Festival is a high class, well-respected and diverse showcase of theatre and music, art and history, debate and poetry and also has a strong reputation for its educational programme involving both adults and school children.  John Wallace has just agreed to become an ambassador for the Festival and is heavily involved with the Bold As Brass project.   He also happens to have been the Principle Trumpeter for the Philharmonic Orchestra.  Other famous names that have lent their weight to the Festival include Germaine Greer and Dennis Norton.

There is music here for everybody, whether you love a genre or want to try out new things.  The Festival offers real, cultured live music from the world’s best.  There is dance and comedy and ownership by the local community who turn out in force to celebrate.  Local businesses say that the best two times of the year are Christmas and the Deal Festival with people visiting this little coastal mining town from all over the world.  Willie leans forward, her eyes shining as she explains to me that Deal has always been a centre of culture and has always had musicians living and working in the town.  There is a huge legacy from the mining brass band culture and this year the Festival is welcoming the best brass band in the world, The Cory Band, to its shores.  Young people in the area have already had the chance to rehearse with them and will play alongside them on Saturday 5^th July at 7.30pm at the Nye Hall in the Duke of York’s School in nearby Dover. 

Graham stresses that the Festival is organic, ever changing, flexing to and often ahead of the times and the changing arts culture around us.  TheSouth East Artists Open Studio’s will be taking place at the same time and the Festival is working alongside them to ensure that the Festival is progressing, adapting and changing.  Graham gives me a wry smile and notes that the Deal Festival always pitches above its weight, given the resources available.  Willie nods in agreement.  “We have big ideas and somehow we always make them work.  We have good people so we have a good festival”. 

Planning takes place at least 18 months in advance, in addition to regular events throughout the year and the Deal Festival Summer Music School held in Dover and attended by 60-100 individuals over the course of a week from the 4^th August.  

I ask Willie and Graham what their top three highlights of this years Festival are for them.  They both look a bit stumped for a moment, then Willie exclaims that The Cory Band have to be one for their world exclusive performance.  Graham points out Harry The Piano, the launch event of the Festival on the 27^th June at 8pm in the Astor Community Theatre in Deal and the Aurora Orchestra closing the Festival on the 6^th July in St George’s Church in Deal at 7.30pm.  This Jitterbug orchestra includes a world premier of the brand new Porgy and Bess piece.  Willie says she has to talk about David Rees Williams, a friend of hers and part of the David ReesWilliams Trio performing on the 3^rd July at 7.30pm in the Astor Community Theatre in Deal.  This Canterbury based band have toured festivals and events throughout Europe, playing the best classical and jazz music the world has to offer.  She then throws a 5^th into the mix; Gavin Esler’s series on World War I on the 29^th June at 4.30pm at the Astor Community Theatre.  Gavin will be hosting a panel of eminent historians and academics looking at the lasting legacy of World War I. 

Graham notes that he just wants people to come away from the Festival having tried something new, found something to love and having enjoyed the experience.   He laughs and says that one thing you can say about the Deal Festival is that it is never the same thing twice.

Deal is the jewel in Kent’s Crown and the Festival proves that it can be more than just aesthetically pleasing.  Deal can be vibrant and artistic, a true centre of culture.

The Deal Festival is taking place from the 27^th June to the 6^th July with over 25 unique events to sample.  For a full programme and event booking information, please go the website 

If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my facebook group or twitter!

Dirty Linen

No I haven't just ignored the laundry for a while.  Actually yes I have but I'm not about to post pictures of it in a blog post.

Do you remember me talking about the Ballroom all those many moons ago?  You don't?  Well just pretend that you did ok?  That was the first Dirty Linen night, and it is now an official annual event!

Organised by Green Diesel, Dirty Linen is a roaming folk night where a plethora of folk bands from all over the genre spectrum come together for a night of fabulous, foot twitching musical energy.  It was the Bank Holiday weekend.  It was a Thursday night.  There was no work (for most of us) until the following Tuesday.  It was time to let our hair down!

The Ballroom had designed a cocktail specifically for this night, called the Apple Pie Moonshine, served in a mason jar wrapped in a brown paper bag, it was a mix of toffee apple cider, cinammon, rum and cloudy apple juice.  I dove straight into a Prickly Pear, a delectable mixture of vodka, elderflower cordial, pressed pear juice, lemon, sugar and soda.  Divine.  I then spent five minutes gazing enviously at the group who had managed to snaggle the bathtub for the night.

We started off listening to The Chimney Boys, the 'finest satanic maritime cabaret band in East Kent'.  I'll be honest, I'm not sure how many satanic maritime cabaret bands there are in Kent, or in the UK generally speaking, but that is neither here nor there.   They are a dark folk band, eerie and mysterious and listening to them framed by the bleeding portraits behind them was an absolute pleasure.   There is a gothic undertone to their folk music, it's the heart of a dark, Victorian funfair. 

Sinead was explaining to me that the band don't actually get to play together as much as they would like to as the members are now scattered all over the UK, but if you follow them on facebook, you may get lucky and get to see them live, which is highly recommended!  Fun fact -one of the members, Michael, was the 2nd choice to play Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films apparently.  Personally I feel he would have been wasted there.

The Ballroom really is a brilliant venue for live music - acoustically it's not bad and the general layout means that it is an ideal space for dancing.  I was outside at one point getting some air (it's really quite warm!) and there was what looked like a pub golf crawl of rather inebriated individuals who clearly wanted to come in but hadn't realised it was a folk night.  They came up, ordered their round for this hole (Bloody Mary's, clearly slightly more adventurous than your average pub golf crawl) and the next time I looked at them they were all dancing their knee high argyle patterned socks off.  Folk music seems to have that effect on people - even if you have never listened to it before or have a pre-conception that it is not for you, chances are you will love it.  There is also such a huge variety of folk out there now, it is an incredibly broad genre so if you don't like one style, keep looking.  There will be another one!

After The Chimney Boys, Green Diesel themselves headlined, showcasing a mix of the old crowd pleasing favourites as well as some of their new material from their brand new album.  I will always have a soft spot for this band.  Ignoring the fact that I am friends with some of the members, have shared a stage with them and had some of the best nights of my life at events where they have been playing, their music is just fantastic.  I have two of their albums in the CD player of my car and despite the fact they have been there for months now, the music hasn't grown old in the slightest!

Green Diesel are a lot more rocky than some of the other folk bands and yet still maintain a traditional air.  They blend ancient, almost forgotten melodies with modern original songs to create a sound that is hauntingly familiar to the ear and yet still fresh.  They even starred on the BBC 4 drama Southcliffe and wrote a jig specifically for the show.

Folk music is also becoming more and more popular with the rise of local music festivals.  In Kent alone there are a large number of them,  Broadstairs has an entire festival devoted to folk music in the summer, it is a huge feature of the Rochester Sweeps festival in May and a lot of pubs will hold mini festivals with folk bands throughout the year.  Have a look around your local area - you may be surprised what you find!



If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my facebook group or twitter!

Tankus The Henge

It is a question that has plagued pondering philosophers of the perfect pitch persuasion for eons.

What happens when Ska falls in love with Deep South Jazz and they have a love child born by moonlight on the sawdust centre ring in a bohemian circus Big Top?

Tankus the Henge.  That's what.

Billed as one of the UK's most original bands and adopted by Steam Punkers as their sound, the world of Tankus the Henge has been described as uplifting and wild, dark and heartfelt.

A six-piece hailing from London, their sound is a wonderfully heart-racing mixture of Madness and Jazz fused with the sassy, sultry beats of a Latin Tango.  It's a sound that is so alien to anything you have heard before yet hauntingly familiar with the undertone of classic gypsy and Balkan Folk that also runs through it.  If a Circus could sing, this would be it's voice.

I went to see them perform at the Gulbekian Cafe stage with Sinead and Ben.  Sinead had messaged the usual suspects ages before with a short note that just said 'I saw them at Lounge (on the Farm).  We have to go'.   I then promptly forgot all about it (my mind has been like an absolute sieve recently, far too much on the go at one time) until I saw her Facebook status about going to see them that night.  God bless you Facebook news feed.  I panicked, grabbed my phone, called the box office, demanded to know if there were any tickets left (there were, just) and bought my ticket there and there.

Thank god I did.

Steve dropped me off so I could have a couple of glasses of wine.  I walked in filled with that bubbly kind of nervous excitement that comes with being out on a school night (music gig on a Sunday night?  How very decadent!) and instantly spotted the band.  To be honest, it was kind of hard not to notice them.  Their style is a mish-mash of sharp-suited bohemian faded glamour that has them standing out in a crowd, even a crowd as eclectic as the one waiting for the show that night.

That's another part of Tankus' magic.  In the audience were business men and women, older couples holding hands of glasses of red wine or pots of herbal tea, a festival loving motly crew of dance enthusiasts, another local band (Coco and the Butterfields) and international students.  All were relaxed and having an absolute ball.

Tankus don't just play songs for you to enjoy.  They put on a show that transports you away to another land.  I commented to Sinead during the break that the lead singer with a gravelly voice who looks like he got lost on the way to the Oliver! auditions, Jaz Delorean, was a true virtuoso performer who knew how to play a crowd like the ivory keys on his piano.  And the ivory keys on his accordion come to think of it. 

This is a band that doesn't have just one strong personality in it though.  All six members bring a distinct individuality to the band that somehow just meshes together to form one cohesive unit that is like nothing else that I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing before.  There is a reason they were one of 2011's Top 10 Acts To See At Glastonbury.  There is a cockney cheeky chappy charm that just permeates through this band.

The majority of their material was all unique although they did indulge with a couple of covers, one of which had Ben particularly excited and singing at the top of his lungs.

As the evening wore on the audience got swept up in the zeal and energy of the performances and the dancing started.  Initially it was located (politely) to one side of the stage and then gradually took over as more and more people took to their feet.

As the evening pressed on the windows steamed up, music blasted out across the campus and for a short period of time people could forget the stresses and worries of their day jobs and just be carried away with the beat.  Sinead and I were not immune either and soon were dancing away with the rest.

In case it's not clear, I am strongly recommending you try and see Tankus the Henge in action for yourself.  They play at venues all over the country, so keep an eye on their website  (I've just ordered their album from there) and their Facebook group for information.  They have promised to return to Canterbury, and I will be holding them to that.

Until you do get to see them though, just try to remember, Smiling Make The Day Go Quicker.