An alternative Great Escape
So where to begin? Let’s try 6.50 am Wednesday morning, as Super and Andy - The Scratch advance party depart sodden St.Albans… two and a half hours of motorway (and two double sausage and eggs) later and destination Brighton is achieved. Amazingly it’s wetter here. Early start I hear you say, yes, but it wasn’t all pleasure, Super had business to attend too, so Andy took in the Lanes…
Shop after shop of cool clobber, guitar shops and reasonably priced vinyl, what more could you want! As anyone will tell you though, however good the shopping, a mixture of rain and foot slog will eventually take it’s toll on the old bodily hydration, so following the first of three cod and chips (in two days), a pint of strong European fighting lager was carefully selected and dispatched to quench the thirst.
3 later and Super was back in his civvies and ready to take part. The remaining flyers from an advance Recharged Radio sortie in April, were duly deposited in prime vantage points and it was time to hook up with Jordan and Mrs. Jordan (Lauren) to help formulate a plan of attack for the big day.
£4.80 for a pint of Tiger Beer, is a lot of hard earned… but excitement and then more Tiger Beer quelled the initial eyebrow raisage and thoughts of an EU bailout… Beer turned to thoughts of food, with the arrival of Minki, Mr.Interuption and Pete Robbins, so on recommendation we bundled round the corner to a posh curry house… we were soon bundling out again on realising that two courses with no rice or naan included, was over £21!!!!
‘Luckily’ Super knew somewhere else, although the signs were ominous as the proprietor struggled to find the light switch in his semi dark and soundless restaurant… play, safe we thought, Biryani… a little weird a little Norman Bates hotelesque… but we was starving’ guvnor!… Fed and very watered, with goodbyes said it was back to the hotel, have I mentioned, NO FREE Wi-Fi yet?, it’s the 21st century and we are media types on a hype mission!!!!… add to that the mobile phone reception even out of the building was total crap too, so all the best intended PR ops, were put on hold in favour of a Super snore fest, following a quadruple vodka and tonic at the bar. Tonight, the only tweets were the little birds ‘doing a Tom and Jerry’ round my spinning bonce.
Morning soon crashed into view. With a near sleepless night behind us, it was time for breakfast… Bill’s was a great recommendation in North Road, just down from GAK… (Guitar Amp and Keyboard)… and it wasn’t long before thoughts were turning to the afternoons proceedings…
We arrived at the Queens Hotel (This years venue) to find the previously mentioned ‘Rechargers’ now with added Alex, Dave, Jamie and sound man Malcolm. The PA was there, the stage was there, but there was no drum kit. We were assured it was on it’s way though, so, we decided to sneak out to test whether the Tiger beer was any cheaper in the Fishbowl…
It wasn’t, but it tasted just as good… (damned if you do, damned if you don’t!)… just as we were re-filling, who should walk through the door but our old chum and radio legend of CRMK’s famed ‘Eclectic Plectrum’ radio show… the godlike Hug(h)e ‘Huey D’ Davenport… down especially for the RR event and some ‘shifty’ shenanigans.
Following the obligatory beer and banter, it was back to the venue, The Dash were soon to kick the day into explosive action… but not before (and not the first time) Super saved the day with a stool. This time thankfully it was a bit of bargaining in the GAK Drumstore and not the usual dirty protest…
All that was missing now, was the lights, (they still hadn’t shown), but the volume Malcolm was packing from the PA more than made up for any visual impairment. The room was suddenly awash with curious lanyard wearers and the also just arrived and more to our liking, Twitter legend and general unofficial Recharged PR champion simonj68, accompanied by wife and official (for the day) RR photo guru Debbie… (not forgetting you Mr.Gatiss, but ladies first eh mate :)… already caressing a pint of Becks, it seemed rude not to join him!…
The Dash, soon became Aliceband (thanks to Simon for pointing out that the brass instrument accompanying was a cornet, I would have said trumpet, but I guess you can get more ice-cream in a trumpet?) anyway, I’m a sucker for a bit of brass, so it was most welcome!.
Next up were Canvas Wall, I was definitely getting some Duran bass from these boys… The merch table that we had (as ever) furnished amply was already looking bereft of Scratch sampler cds (if we had a quid for every free cd, we’d given away!)….so I decided to make the short trip across the road to the Wi-Fi less hotel (had I mentioned that?) for a new batch of cds, however on climbing the stares, I was soon sprinting back to the basement for the last one on the merch stand. The reason being, as I was about to leave the Queens, who should be entering, in Tweed jacket and powder blue shorts? - None other than Glasto God - Mr.Michael Eavis… who received said Sampler with a very well spoken, “Thanks very much!”… this had to be a good sign… Glasto here we come… next year of course!)…
It was still hammering down as Grim arrived, just in time for 50ft Woman to take to the stage, thankfully the lights had just turned up too in perfect timing for us to be dazzled by Minki’s glorious spangled hot pants! :-) with the 50ft’s raising the temperature, it was time for a quick cool down in the rain and the 3rd and final cod and chips… We managed to ‘swim’ back in time to see the arrival of John from his motorway hell, catching the opening chords of Cinemawave keeping up the anti.
It was now time for us to get ready, while one of Minki’s bands (from her radio show), Limozine took to the stage. We’d never seen them live before, but we really enjoyed their garage rock attack, giving us the perfect platform for our own assault!…
With so many well known faces in the crowd (including Tom ‘6 Music’ Robinson) it felt like a home town gig! We had decided that although the launch party was imminent and it would be good to debut some newies, that we’d kick off at least with a few from the archives, and so we did. With barely a breath in between, Teen Idol, ATG, Dear Maniac and I Relax to Spiral Scratch we were halfway without a blink!
We followed the ‘hits’ with three off the new album, Weirder than we are, 88th Day of Rain and only for the second time ever, Great Adventure. The set was received very well, but Great Adventure went a storm, we can confirm (though not sure when) it will be our next single… when you get that many good vibes, about a song in our experience, you don’t ignore them… And so that was that, gone in a flash, as with all good things, our 30 mins had come to an end far too quickly, leaving us to depart the stage with the gleeful destructive abandon that is Gas Taps as our finale.
Phew…. What now? The bar of course, where sweaty and panting we managed to collar Tom Robinson (who Simon had in an arm lock ;-) and Limozine with whom we shared CD swappage and some great banter which will hopefully lead to some kind of future collaboration!
Winding down, we now had time to catch a great set by Fake Teak and couldn’t fail to be impressed by Model Staggs… how the hell do two blokes get that sound!?!?
With that, Christmas was over for another year. This was our 3rd Recharged Radio ‘Great Escape alternative experience’… all the previous have gone well, but this one went up a notch. Huge thanks go out to all involved at RR, but especially Jordan, for the support, the gig and the fun, long may it continue.
Exhausted but elated we decided it should be one more Tiger for the road, so, with the RR crew, plus Hug(h)e ‘SBH’ Davenport, (new special RR stand in reporter), we all bundled back into the Fishbowl one last time to reflect on a job well done!
I said I thought it would be very difficult to find a better, more diverse bill anywhere else at the Great (and Alt) Escape as we left the stage a few hours earlier and when you consider that it was totally free to get in too, I’d like to see anywhere else that was better value.
Super… It’s bedtime… we’ve got an album to launch!… No not like that!… if only we’d had Wi-Fi… did I mention….
x
Big thanks to Debbie at http://www.imagingessence.co.uk/ for her pic
