Summer's End Festival 2007

Just got home from a really GREAT weekend at SEfest 2007 with Rogor Mortis and a few other loons.

As soon as I've unpacked my bags and unscrambled my brain I'll get a review of the weekend up here.

[RogorMortis]

That will take some time I'm afraid - KW had a serious weekend belive me - So did I consuming a whole year's alcahol in 3 days - and the music man was much better than expected and other Moonies have missed a great festival. I will tomorrow post my thoughts too when I get home.

Summer’s End Festival 2007

What a great weekend!!! Mortis and I had a fantastic time and this review is of the festival as I remember it.

Friday:

Mortis and I left chez Waye and travelled by train to Bilston. Me being me, I’d forgotten to write down the address of the hotel we were booked into but hoped that as we had stayed there last year the memory would suffice and we’d get there eventually. We did but only after a phone call to directory enquiries….d’oh!!!

After unpacking what seemed like a ton of photographic equipment, laptops, mp3 players AND a few clothes into what must have been the smallest hotel room on Earth we headed back into Wolverhampton for the Friday night show.

The Little Civic was a great venue. Small (as the name would suggest) but very comfy. A great bar selling cheap booze and with a good sound system.

First band that night were JUMP.

I thought they were really good. The lead singer, John Dexter Jones, had a great line in patter and was very entertaining. A track that stood out for me was “Bethesda” terrific lyric.

Next up were GALAHAD.

A lot of you saw their set at ROSfest earlier in the year so you will know what I mean when I say WOW! Stu sang his heart out. The track “This life could be my last” knocked me sideways. So emotional. Managed to grab a few words with guitarist Roy after their set and he even showed me one of his tattoos. Now before you get the wrong idea, he noticed the Yes logo badge I had on my jacket and let me know that he had the same logo tattooed on his arm…….OK? I recommend you get your hands on their new album “Empires Never Last”. Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!

After the gig Mortis and I walked into town with the Scandinavian mob we met (you US Moonies will know them from ROS and NEARfests) and a few more pints of the Black nectar were sunk. I realised that we had missed the last tram back to Bilston and so we got a cab and as usually happens to me in Bilston we got slightly lost. Made it eventually though and managed to catch a few Zzzzzzzzs.

Saturday:

Woke up with a headache (will I ever learn?) but felt a lot better after a huge greasy fry up of an English breakfast and lots of tea. Got ready and after waiting for Mortis to get together his ton of Camera equipment headed off to the Robin 2.

The Robin is a FABULOUS venue. Staff who actually seem to look after their punters and are friendly. Good size room too and a more than adequate PA.

There were six bands/artists on and here is a bit about each of their sets.

The Progs.
Nice way to start the festival proper. The play a range of Prog standards very well indeed. “Watcher of the skies”, “Firth of Fifth”, “Comfortably Numb” and Hackett’s “Everyday” stood out. Excellent guitar playing I have to say. Reminded everyone why we love this music so much. A job well done.

Tinyfish.
FANTASTIC set! Played most of their album and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. That’s one of the things I like most about these guys. As well as playing great music they enjoy what they do and that comes over and makes the audience feel the same vibe. Spoke to them afterwards and they were chuffed that so many people at Aural moon have got their album. They stayed for most of the weekend too.

Final Conflict.
One of the late additions to the line up but did not disappoint. They played a really solid set and after the first track I went and bought all four of their albums fearing a sudden rush would mean that they sold out. Their drummer was incredible. During the following day a guy came up to me and said “You’re Keith aren’t you?, I’m Final Conflict’s drummer’s Dad.” They recognised me from my MySpace page and wanted to say hello. How nice was that? Turns out that the drummer is only 16 years old but I tell you….what a talent!!!

There was a 2 hour break at this point so Mortis and I grabbed some fodder and a few more beers then headed back for the evening’s jollities.

Claire Hammill.
She played a short acoustic set of beautiful tunes. Mostly love songs but who cares about that? They were terrific and set us all up for the next band with a smile on our faces. I bought a few of her Cds too.

Also Eden.
This is Huw’s (one of SEfest organisors) band and they played here last year as well. Slightly different line up to last time. It was Bassist Steve’s first gig with them (and, I believe, his first real gig for 17 years) and he did really well I thought. I actually enjoyed Also Eden more this year than last year. The new songs sounded terrific and I’m looking forward to their new album.

Pain of Salvation.
Incredible set. Loud but incredible. There were a lot of people there who turned up just to hear PoS. When they started the hair was flying around. Made me quite nostalgic actually. Nostalgic for my long hair and for the times that I could mosh with the best of them…..hey ho! They played a lot from their latest album Scarsick and it sounded as good live as it does on CD. The incredibly quirky “Disco Queen” rounded their set of nicely.

A really good Saturday and Sunday still to come.

Sunday:

Today actually could have started a little better for me. I was woken up by Mortis. “Keithie, it’s half past eight. We’d better get down to breakfast”. OK, I thought. Don’t want to miss out on today’s grease fest so I got up and dressed in a hurry.

At this point I should tell you that the previous day Mortis was telling me all about this Hi Tech watch he has that resets itself to local time automatically wherever you are in the world. I was reasonably impressed by this but in all honesty I wondered why he didn’t just get an old fashioned watch like mine that you can adjust the hands on to whatever time you want quite easily. I wondered why even more when we got to the breakfast room to find everything locked and no-one around. Checking my own watch told me that the Hi Tech maniac’s watch was actually a heap of useless tripe because it’s only helpful if you remember to say that you’re now in the UK and not in Denmark. This meant that as opposed to being 8:30 it was in fact only 7:30 and I could have nursed my hangover for another hour!!!! Danish nutter.

Anyway…..off to the Robin we go for the second day.

Touchstone.
Yes, Yes, Yes…….they were wonderful. Excellent new CD “Discordant Dreams” of which they played a lot and, in Bass player, Paul Moorghen, a fabulous musician. He played fantastic counterpoint that not only drove the music along but enhanced it in much the same way that Chris Squire does with Yes. It also turns out that he’s a really nice bloke too. I nicknamed him “Smiler” because every time I saw him he was beaming. Another album that you should hear soon.

Whimwise.
Blew me away totally. Ten people crammed onto the stage and playing some of the most incredible music we heard all weekend. Nick May, the guitarist, is ex Enid and he and the other musicians play a music that has obvious eastern influences but is totally original. Haunting, beautiful vocals and……..I’m finding it hard to describe it. So I won’t. I’ll send a copy of the album to Jim and if he puts it up on the site you can hear for yourself. It was actually very moving to be there and there was a golf ball sized lump in my throat at the end of the set.

Solstice.
I hadn’t seen Solstice for over 10 years. They first came to notice as part of the 80’s Prog revival here in the UK and I saw them many times in pubs and clubs at that time. Guitarist Andy Glass still plays and sings and he is surrounded by a group of very talented people including the lovely voiced Emma Brown. They started off with “Morning Light”. Really memorable melody….truly beautiful andactually bought more tears to my eyes. There was an interlude in the middle of their set where they did 10 minutes of silliness with “Don’t tell me F**k!” (audience participation time) and “Don’t bogart that joint”. Pretty entertaining but in all honesty I would have preferred to hear a 10 minte song like “Peace” but what the hell….it was fun. They made up for it though with the AMAZING “Brave new world”. The instrumental break at the end of this track is pure prog heaven. More tears as guitar and keys play together over the driving rhythm section. Too short a set but it was worth the wait.

Another break to eat (or in our case Drink) and then back for the final evening session.

Christina Booth and friends.
Singer from Magenta, Christina played an all too brief set of beautifully crafted and performed songs accompanied by a few friends including Rob Reed. She really does have an exceptional voice.

Threshold.
Incredible set. Again VERY LOUD but they played superbly. Vocalist Damian Wilson, who only recently rejoined the band, took command of the stage and had the whole audience in the palm of his hand. What a professional. He made the songs from the new album sound as if they had been written for him. Stand out tracks were “Slipstream” and “Pilot in the sky of dreams”. I had to laugh when at the end of the set Damian decided to dive into the audience and luckily they were ready to catch him. Reminded me of when I did the same thing at a Sabbath gig and the crowd moved away and I fell head first into the third row of seats. Very painful indeed.

I managed to grab a few words with him afterwards and we chatted about his working with Adam Wakeman. There may be something more on the horizon on that front. Watch this space.

It Bites.
I’ve loved this band since the 80s and was really pleased when I heard they were going to play SEfest this year. They didn’t disappoint. I wondered how they would sound without the distinctive vocals of Francis Dunnery but John Beck is Soooooo good.

They played loads of classics including “All in red”, “Calling all the heroes” and the wonderful “Ice melts (into water)”. Some people were saying that they would be too “pop” but believe me they played wonderfully.

And then it was all over. Just time to stagger back to the hotel and, apparently, phone VAX and leave a drunken message while Mortis was testing if he was drunk by trying to walk in a straight line……..along the white lines in the middle of the road. I always knew he was as crazy as me.

Monday.

Another hangover but another fry up helped out and we got to the station and got decent seats on the train back to London. Arrived too early for Mortis to go to the airport so……..we went to the pub for a few more beers. Seemed like the only thing to do really.

Hell, I enjoyed that weekend. Made lots of new friends and realised again how good it is to have RM as a pal. Thanks man. It just wouldn’t have been the same without you.

Here are a few pics to give you an idea of what it was like. When Mortis gets his loaded up you will get an even better idea cos his are a million times better than these.

[OverHillandDale(Admin)]

Reader's Digest Version of KW's Review (with American subtitles)

Summer's End Festival 2007

Where's the Frickin' Hotel?


Oh yeah, and a lot of great music too! What more can you ask for? Now back to business.







*with all due respect to the author - great review. Wish I could have been there (had I not been having the time of my life watching FMPM. So good to hear about all the new Young talent joining the ranks in Prog Music. Your drummer, the two kids I recently saw playing with Adrian Belew and all others to come. Let's get our kids interested in the music!

Thanks KW.

[RogorMortis]

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....

[Rick and Roll]

Thanks for bringing back the great memories of SE 2006. I just closed my eyes and pretended I was there again.

Nice anecdote about the myspace. Although it sometimes can be a pain, it's been really neat to stay in contact with others.

I assume one of the Scandanavians was Frode from Norway. Always shows up with a football jersey on. Met him at the Salem Hill w/e of all places - great guy.

That pic of Mortis shows a lot. I'm glad he was feeling better than last year!

I'm going to use that Keith pic as wallpaper. That's an instant classic....

We both snore...THAT's an understatement!

Here's the pics again from last year...

http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...%20End%202006/

Thanks for the review guys.

[mossy]

"I have to go to the botchers" LOL. (with all due respect to our italian moonies)

I loved reading both accounts. What a hoot!!! Thanks so much for sharing. I only spent one day with both of you at Chippenham that year, but I remember the kw pattern....bar, outside for puff, inside for a listen, trip to the bog, bar, outside for puff etc. Didn't experience the snoring tho

Glad you both had a good time (understatement yeah). Wish I lived in the UK again.

[Thor]

glad you had a great time. sounds like a blast.

[NorCalKurt]

Wish I was there. Good times. Thanks for sharing.

[RogorMortis]

Finally finished editing my pix from all the bands

Go to http://www.peterpower.dk/summers_end_2007_photos.htm

Originally Posted by RogorMortis

Finally finished editing my pix from all the bands

Go to http://www.peterpower.dk/summers_end_2007_photos.htm

Thanks Mortis......just as I remember it.

[Rick and Roll]

Originally Posted by RogorMortis

Finally finished editing my pix from all the bands

Go to http://www.peterpower.dk/summers_end_2007_photos.htm

These are wonderful pictures.....thank you!

Now I know how they got the name "It Bites"...that's some bad teeth in that band! And is John Beck wearing lipstick?

[podakayne]

lol...well sound like you both had a blast(really like the watch story ROTF)...and nick may's Whimwise is on the moon's playlist...t'was a great surprise to me...i so enjoyed your band reviews, thank you rogor & keithie for giving me the feeling of being there w/you...sans the morning rituals

poda-inabsentia

[Methem]

The Keithie with the beer photo is funny. Not the first glass on that evening, I suppose...

-Methem