As I cruised through the gates and passed by the sheep and goats dotted around grazing, I could see the Marquees and mass off trade stalls approaching and started to get a vibe for the size of this beast.
After a meet with the team I found my spot and started set up. The Thursday was was the prep day for all the traders and food stalls and it did make a nice change not to rush it plus the Hog roast provided was greatly welcomed (also a big contributing factor for me actually making it that afternoon).
It wasn't long before I started bumping in to the circuit gang, Spence Gilroy https://www.facebook.com/SGPercussion, and Sarah Herve https://www.facebook.com/bellabotssockmonkeys, to name a couple.
With a belly full of Pig and set up done, there was a mist coating the grass as the sun set so time for a stroll to see whats what and where.
With over a mile of stalls I only got a couple of hundred meters and bumped in to Spence again and chilled in his van for a tin.
On my return to Pickle, after calling it a night, I had the pleasure of meeting this Awesome human.
Meet Dave Manning!
Dave is a fellow travelling songwriter, on this occasion he rocked up in his wife's 66 beetle kitted out like a one man camper van with removable drivers seat and full length bench running along the other side and back, but Dave's usually touring in his 65 split screen 'Vincent' from AK to the deserts of Arizona and all in between playing a different town every few days.
He is an amazing musician, writer, pianist, and a wicked cool guy singing fascinating entertaining stories with a Blues, folk, Americana kinda vibe.
We had both been booked to play and host the Busk Stop, and I couldn't have asked for a better dude to team up with.
The next couple of hours were spent in Pickle sharing drinks, smoke, stories and better acquainting ourselves.
It was a pretty lazy start on the Friday, not rising till gone 10 and this set the bench for entire weekend really, but again a very leisurely final set up as we watched the festival goers arrive.
We got going early evening when there were more folks about and George had arrived to slap the bass.
It was an evening of pretty chilled sessions, we had a few folks jump up and play some tunes for us including Nia and Josh Mathews in between Dave and I, and then Drew and Ben rocked up and we all jammed on through till midnight.
It was after pack down when we all established quite how big the show was as we went in search of the Shropshire Dubbers camp for a hang and beer funnel training.
It seemed to go on for ever, past the trading, and on and on following a laser pen signal to the sky, and then the rain full on set in, big ass chunky rain luckily just as we were found and escorted to their camp.
We all sat round in their event shelter conversing and sipping sensibly on beer funnels listening to the rain. :D
Thanks for having us guys, love to see some shots/beer funnel vids if there are any kicking.
Saturday was when it all Kicked off, Josh and Beth arrived and we had the whole gang there.
The weather was banging, the arena was rammed, and the vibes were just right so we got playing.
Drew and Ben
These Guys were playing in the Brothers Tent on the Friday night I believe and they came, they played, and people loved it.
For the next lot of playing Thought we better have a shift around as it had cooled off a little and the sun was soon to set.
Sunset session from the rack? Hell yea!
This Dude Aaron Samuel fancied a play on the roof and he was cracking, check him out at https://www.facebook.com/aaronsamuel.music
Remember my mate James Jackson I met at Bustypes earlier on in the season? He was out and about again busking around and came and graced us with some tunes as well.
First ever guest to play on the roof was our James, diamond kid.
James Jackson
It was a truly epic day and night I hope all of you that were there had as much fun as we all did.
Sunday was interesting. Dave got the ball rolling, the sun was out, all was grand so I went off for a potter about to see what was going down. About 45 minutes later the skies grew dark and I felt a few drops, then a few more, over the space of a minute it got progressively heavier and my pace grew progressively faster to help dave rescue the gear from what was about to be unleashed.
We got back just in time to get most covered but even the tarp wasn't saving this lot.
I think we had too much fun the day before cos this was horizontal giant fatty boebbatty rain, everything got saturated and it wasn't safe to plug in and play any more even when it had stopped.
Sunday was a wash out in all sense of the term but it didn't matter, It had been a bloody great show already with new and old friends, new music, and wicked cool vibes.
The rest of the Sunday was spent drying out, chilling out, and hunting for lakes. We bought some chicken for dinner from the Caribbean food stall as they packed away and made a jerk chicken and rice dish later that night.
A beautiful ending to an amazing weekend.
Blessings!
A Pickle Down Under!!
So thats it for a few weeks now Veedub show wise, now I have the window to get solidly stuck in to readying Pickle and me ready for the mission down under.
I have received my renewed passport and my Australian visa today which made everything feel very real all of a sudden.
Pickle is heading in to MV Engineering next week to get going on the body work and I'm meeting with my friend Mitra to get going on the forthcoming fundraising events. A couple of dates for the calendar so far are the 8th August there will be a very limited number of invitations to 'Pray for a pickle down under' gig at The Grand Chapel and I'll keep you posted on how to get involved soon, 20th August I'm heading to see my sponsors VW Heritage https://www.vwheritage.com to play at their August meet, 5th of September for #apickledownunder fest, my own mini VW show in Broom, Bedfordshire, the 16th September is an online stageit gig live streamed from the van https://www.stageit.com/stage/46082 4th October Farewell Pickle gig at a venue in London that I'll confirm next week.
A month or so ago Nick Kent of http://www.nickkentphotography.com and I went out to put together a little vid to fill you guys in on what #apickledownunder is all about, and here it is.
Thanks to all for your support so far, it means the world.
Peace x
