Well, now Keithie as thrown his version on I better come with a few comments.
Keithie was the whole weekend trying to beat his festival record and he did by consuming a total of 36 pints including those on the Monday. I have no tally of mine but certainly no more than half that. I had my camera to manage which meant only drinking during the breaks. Keithie drank both during the breaks and the concerts so one can imagine.......
Yes I goofed Sunday morning and dragged Keith out of bed an hour earlier. It was a good laugh and Kethie's Pam laughed even more
. But Keithie was paid compensation in due course.
Like Keith I was was overwhelmed by Whimwise as my expectations were low. The other high point was Christine Booth of Mangenta as it was the first time I've seen her in person. What a picture and voice. The heavy boys Pain in the Arse were very entertaining to watch and they were quite funny but not my kind of music. The same was Final Conflict and Threshold. The two final acts Threshold and It Bites really played too loud and one's hearing was gone until Monday morning. As the news said It Bites had a replacement bassist and he just played in the corner while Beck and Mitchell stole the show. And Keithie was quite right about Touchstone's bassist. I thought his playing stood out from the rest. I enjoyed Tinyfish, Soltice, The progs and Claire Hammill. Though I had my doubts about the line up beforehand they got blown away and it was a great weekend and Keithie is great company. We both snore so we didn't notice it at night.
The hotel hadn't changed since last year but they did have an Italian chef who was a character - "I have to go to the botchers" and who only served breakfast through a narrow time window but we didn't miss out. The bar was always still open when we came back Saturday and Sunday and stood and joked outside with all the smokers. Poor Keithie had to go outside often for a puff that weekend and his bladder gave him extra exercise too........
Next year the plan is SE on the last weekend of September so it doesn't coincide with Symforce in Holland. Hopefully the organisers didn't lose money so it carries on next year....