The Scratch - Leopallooza 6 - July 30th 2011…

Before we begin, we must rewind 6 and half years to late November 2005 and the first time we met Lee (opallooza). Same location, but things were a lot different, we had been introduced to Lee by Andy’s mate Sam, as a suggested recording studio where we could record live tracks for our forthcoming Night Bus or Milk Train album. Following said session in Lee’s barn studio, the evening became a typically drunken Cornish affair and the conversation turned to a party idea that he, Sam and a couple of mates had been planning, the idea was to put on a party in the adjacent field, with a few local bands, have a bonfire and get drunk… “Yeah sounds great we said”… boy have we regretted not being available for Leo’s 1 and 2 since, as from then on it’s success grew out of all proportion and then we couldn’t get in! We’d been looking forward to this weekend, since a visit to last years Leo 5 totally blew us away!

Back to the present and the advance party of Filth, Andy Scratch, Super and in car 2 Jordan rechargedradio and Mrs Jordan (lauren) Rechargedradio… We left Supers at 9.30 and were pleasantly surprised to have missed the M25 rush hour hangover.We made good time to Bristol, so decided to stop off at Filthy’s dads holiday camp at Burnham on Sea. We’d driven through sporadic drizzle on the way down, but as we tucked into burger and chips the sun came out… a good sign!

Soon back on the road, we’d been warned that Satnav may not find the festival site as it was tucked in a labyrinth of leafy lanes… but they hadn’t reckoned on the free nav app! We arrived through the dusty gates at 3.20 and were delighted to be greated by three of the main protagonists Lee (opallooza) himself, Samuel L Babylon party lord of Cornwall and Matt or Coops as he’s known in these parts, who handed out our wrist bands and itineraries and then directed us to band camp where we set about our erections!

Question was do we pitch near the small orange generator or by the hedge near the stage?… we went for the orange and formed a semi circle…in a formation of decent £75 tent, new £8 tent (that only took 1 minute to set up btw) £100 ish tent and other £8 tent, which upon pumping lilo, you could just about squeeze in a couple of snakes and a supermodel… John’s gonna love his tent… leaving room for Grim’s pop up… it was time for a stretch of leg and possibly a cheeky lager?…but first a trip to Bude’s local ‘Mozzers’ where we purchased, pasties, sarneys, a ridiculously cheap, but fragile ploughmans platter, 3 cases of San Miguel and 3 bags of ice… “Do you need help with packing?” asked the smiling checkout girl… “No thanks we’re 3 big boys!” we heartily guffawed)…but thanks to Super and his, ‘I obviously get Mrs Super to do the packing skills’… there was soon platter everywhere…

On the way back to the site, a slight detour took in the gorgeous Widemouth Bay… Where commenced a mini photoshoot possibly for the artwork for album 4!…

Once back at the site we teamed up again with Jordan who had sidestepped the camping and sorted his lodgings with friends Mark and Sarah. A brief encounter ensued where it was decided that as the bar wouldn’t open until the next morning, we should nip back to Bude for that beer we’d mentioned, but still not had. Soon we were sat outside the Falcon Hotel to await the arrival of Nick and Rosie, Brother and Sister in law of joint Scratch founder 1.

Following a short stop for Nicks rider of Guiness we were soon continuing an assualt on the beers at the site, as the crew obviously thirsty from their incessant toil, had begun to test the beer pumps… It was great, our little band of band and followers settled in for an evening of chatted anticipation with the hugely friendly but still hugely busy locals, who had now numbered the hundreds, as they kept appearing like ‘sprites with hammers’ from behind every tree and bush, each with his final task to perform, there was no calm before the storm… there was too much too do!

John and Grim, finally arrived at 11.30 following M25 hell and we saw a brief resurgence in the drinking, that coincided with Steve’s final deterioration from happy drunk to lippy teenager…,Retirement to bed a little after 1am was now the best course of action…

SHOWTIME
Saturday saw an early rise, partly due to a deflated lilo and an urgent chemical loo appointment, but mainly down to supreme excitedness… Unfortunately the result of which left 5 hung over and hunger wracked band members 2 hours to wait before the sweet relief of Bacon roll heaven, or in John’s case egg…

As it does in these instances, time was starting to speed up… so much so infact it wasn’t long before the band were entering tent C backstage to deposit outfits and up line checking, borrowed and brought equipment. This is where we were introduced to the stage clock. Placed in front of the monitors it was there to keep the bands from over running their sets and screwing up the precision timings of stage managers (‘Drakey’ on the main and ‘Munch’ on ours). Over running bands in the past had been a nightmare, especially with the ingenious and excellent leopallooza two stages a quarter turn of the hips apart, meaning the crowd basically doesn’t need to move more than this to see the next band strike up dead on their set time, so clock was brought in and worked perfectly, when Man like me over stayed their slot allotment.

The rider arrived around 12 and was instantly set upon, as Jordan and Mark were press ganged and thrust their Scratch t-shirts for their during set duties! Jordan who can never quite relax (we are all so similar!), couldn’t resist a quick backstage interview as the band put in their last stretches and prayers and as 1pm ticked on the stage clock… The Team was ready!

So as the last chord of local Cornish grungers ‘The Sum of’, died on the light summer wind, the clock was punched and stage manager Munch was announcing our long awaited (by us at least) arrival at Leopallooza… The set began with a flourish of guitar and symbols, (a trick echoed by approximately every other band for the rest of the day)… before Grim bought semblance to the madness with his cultesque ‘Rain’ era riffology… and we were into the newly extended intro of Texture to the flava, tight and urgent the bands oldest live song… gave way to the rejuvenated Critical Mass… at this stage of the day approx 1.23 in the afternoon there was no need for stage lighting, for which the incumbents were grateful as the sun that had began to beat down on the field was heating the second stage to microwave proportions… Narcotic Hearts was next up followed by Commando the ever prevalent Ramones cover which the band had decided to throw in at the last minute. From the stage Jordan and Mark standing out well in their banana yellow t-shirts we’re already being relieved of goody bags as Against the Grain (seeing Filthy’s first foray off of the stage), gave way to 88th Day of Rain… Then it was the holy trinity of Maniac, Teen Idol and Gas Taps… which today featured an Iggy pastiche, stunt dives and an impromptu guitar smash of 2 parts of two previously smashed and bolted together bits of ancient historic artifacts dating back to the last century!) Said guitar had been brought along to star in the annual celebratory burning of the car at the end of the evening, but in a spontaneous act of wanton vandalism, it smashed into at least 4 bits with just one blow against the metal crash barrier in front of the stage)…  spilt beer cans, torn set lists and pocket fulls of plectrums, lay dead and dying, as 3 young ladies at the front of the crowd wrestled the broken guitar parts into their handbags… (we caught up with them some hours later and they were still clutching said booty with supreme devotion).

Fantastic, no mistakes and we gave it our all.  Huge thanks go out to Munch for his masterly stage management, Kenva for his excellent stage maneuvering and Matt for his fantastical organization, we were now going to enjoy the rest of this day in a big way! Thanks to everyone who came up to us afterwards and said such great things throughout the day and the ones who bought or took goody bags from our gallant helpers. And finally, thanks to the guy inThe Smiths T-shirt who had our sound somewhere between Big star and the Ramones.

We, as you do at fests, didn’t stay in one place long and flitted back and forth from base camp for a snooze, back stage to pat a band ot two on the back, the bar and of course the loos that really held up well, it has to be said!

Of all the acts we saw, collectively I think our picks of the weekend were Exit International (2 bases and drums, adrenalin infused mayhem!), La Shark (A heinz 57 of Japan, Sparks, B52’s, Talking Heads and Beck) and Kill it kid (probably the youngest band there, who though more straight ahead, grunge rock, looked to have a big future).

We have to say The Datsuns were a bit of a disappointment, it felt a little like farmers field generator more than Harmonic Generator at times and as for the bands/agents rumored to be wrangling for one slot higher up the bill, shame on you, you prima donna’s… you’re really missing the point!

In essence Leopallooza is a mini glastonbury, or at least in ethic the glasto of it’s heyday, no corporate sponsorship, it’s for the people by the people. £35 for a whole weekend of such diverse entertainment get real, there ain’t many bargains left in the world, but this is one of them!… If we’re not on it next year, (Go on guys, you know we won’t let you down!)We’ll see you there anyway for Leopallooza 7. As Matteus the beautiful faced silver wolf  was heard to say as we left on Sunday morning.. “This truly is, the best house party in a field anywhere!”

Next stop Endorse IT in Dorset for more of the same! :-) x