"Have we got everything Dom?" I shout as we pile out of the house to spend a week on the road living in a tent. "Yes" he replies. "Are you sure?" I reply "Because we forgot the pillows and the mugs for the Isle of Wight Festival and had to drink coffee out of bowls and sleep with towels under our heads". "I'm sure." he says firmly.
So, off we pootle on Monday morning for our first gig of the week, Polperro Festival, Cornwall. We arrive in blazing sunshine to a teeny weeny National Trust campsite which was picture perfect and only 3 other people camping in the field and a complete bargain at £8 per night. So we unload the boot and pitch up the tent. Outer tent up? check. Inner tent up? check. Kettle on? check. Air mattress inflated? check. "erm..Dom?" I ask quietly "Where's the duvet and pillows?". Brrrr....it was a cold night.
Still the gig in Polperro was wonderful and I'm looking forward to going back next year. Polperro, if you have never been is a beautiful, truly breathtakingly beautiful fishing village. After being looked after wonderfully by the Crumplehorn Inn, we spent Tuesday morning eating a delicious cream tea by the harbour. Perhaps, the main reason for my love of Polperro has come from the fact that they don't put small rabbit poo's into their scones. Scones should be plain in my opinion without any fancy dried fruit products shoved into the mix and that's exactly what they do in Polperro, delicious plain scones, plenty of clotted cream and some gorgeous strawberry conserve.
Truly British and truly delicious. Yum.
The campsite, Polperro
Polperro, Cornwall
Tuesday was a meander to BBC Radio Bristol and after a quick stop to buy a duvet and pillows I arrived just in time for my interview with Andy Howard. Andy does a great show called "Morning Glory" on BBC Radio Bristol and I always love chatting with him. He's a very funny man, and often you can steal small momento's from the studio such as the odd BBC pen and dirty mug without him even noticing. Lovely. So onto the campsite just outside Bristol for our last night of relative quietness. We arrived in the roasting heat and when Dom asked where we should pitch the tent I quickly insisted we should camp in the shade by the river. In my defence this seemed to be a good idea at the time. However, I had forgotten that river banks are called river banks because they bank towards the river. We awoke at 6am to find that we were actually sleeping on top of each other as the entire tent and matress had slid toward the water. Up we packed and off to Glastonbury for an adventure lickedy split.
The joys of having artists tickets for Glasto became apparent from the minute we arrived. Thousands of cars were queued up to get on site but thankfully for us we had a "blue route" pass which meant we could access the site without that much queueing at all. I felt really bad for everyone else as they must have been roasting in the queue, and goodness what they had to do if they needed a little wee wee. Not good at all. The absolutely greatest thing about playing at Glastonbury without any doubt whatsoever was the use of an artists luggage taxi. We called production on arrival and John tootled up in his 4x4, piled our stuff in and dropped us right at our pitch. Now that in my opinion is star treatment.
We got accredited at production and had a little swank around the backstage bar and went off to have a look at the stage I would be playing on, on Friday. My first thought was "eeekkk...this tent is HUGE..I'm gonna get lost in here", so we quickly left before I got freaked out too much a went for wander around the festival. I say this as though it was a short stroll but for those of you who have never been to Glastonbury, it is enormous. It takes a least an hour to walk from one side of the site to the other and that's only if you don't get caught up in any crowds. It is like no other festival on earth and explaining it seems futile, but if I had to I guess for me it's like how the world would be if creative people were left to their own devices. The sculptures, stalls, stages, shows, circus, cinema, theatre are truly awesome, the whole festival is truly awesome.
So quickly 11pm arrived and we made the great hike up to Worthy FM which is the radio station set up especially for Glastonbury Festival. I was doing a live half hour gig on their "midnight on the wireless" show. Funnily enough it was at midnight. It was a great station and the gig was around a lovely warm camp fire and I just sat on a sofa and sang into the mic. Beautiful. I even got a coffee in a real china mug.
'Midnight at the Wireless', Worthy FM, Glastonbury
Friday was the big day of the gig and after a fairly early night I was pretty confident about the whole thing. Until that is, I realised that I was the only person playing solo and I had to follow an 11 piece ska band. Now that's daunting. So 543589380 cigarettes later backstage I was up. Not so bad when I was up there, other than just as I was going to do some slow stuff the main stage opposite started so I could barely hear myself sing. Still, I knew that would be a risk and the sound guys were awesome. I got through it alive which is the main thing.
Then slam blam on Saturday morning we get a text message asking if I wanted to do a private gig with Johnnie Walker from Radio 2. Hmmmm...let me consider this....err.... yay! So a hike up to the Tipi Field and next thing you know Johnnie Walker is recording the gig in a tipi. I have to say I looked terrible, and this was bad news, if you have the opportunity to meet a
famous Radio 2 DJ you really want to be looking a least semi-decent. Bearing in mind I hadn't had a shower for 4 days and had been living in a tent for nearly a week things were not looking good. My hair by this point was not far from dreadlocks, and despite washing regularly in a bucket of hot soapy water I'm not entirely sure I didn't smell slightly of gorgonzola. Still I played and walked away thinking....how cool was that? and also...I've got to find some way of washing my hair.
So, Monday morning comes and I am awoken by Dom shaking me and muttering something about Radio 2 and the breakfast show. I tell him that I hate his guts for waking me up and there had a better be a good reason such as a) the tent is on fire b) there are free donuts outside or c) I am about to be played on the "Wake Up to Wogan" show. Sure enough it was option c. So as I'm sitting on the camping toilet doing me doo dah's my mum calls shouting that I'm on the radio and holds her phone to the speaker so I can hear.
Best moment of my life? Sitting on a fire bucket fashioned into a camping toilet, doing me doo dah's and listening to myself on radio 2 for the first time.
Glastonbury? Brilliant.
me, Johnnie Walker and Dom in a teepee at Glastonbury.
Ellie (with broken heel), me, Hannah and Tiggy Walker (who is the nicest woman in the wholest widest world)
