Boscombe Community Fair, King Park, Bournemouth

9th-11th September 2011

Run just by volunteers the non-profit making Boscombe Community Fair is now in it’s 16th year and each year it offers the whole community a weekend of fun and music for all the family. 2011 was certainly no different from the previous years, despite a weather forecast stating the a hurricane was on it’s way to the Dorset coast, the weekend actually turned out very well with lots of early autumn sunshine.

The adult ticket prices were at only £5 per day, or £10 for the weekend with Children under 16 admitted for free, there was no excuses for staying away. As well as a mouth watering list of top local bands there was plenty for the young at heart to get involved in such as taking part in circus skills and all manner of free arts/crafts. I took along my two sons Josh (7) and Luke (4) as I felt this would be a great was to introduce them to their first Festival and live music in a very safe environment.

Saturday 10th
Our Saturday kicked off in style with the multi talented Hannah Robinson and her band ‘Paint It Blue’ who delighted the audience with some supremely stunning vocals combined with some equally excellent blues guitar which was just the right the ticket to kick of the day. Jaycee Jesus won the right to play here after winning the ‘Battle Of The Bands’ at the Green Room in Boscombe, the judges had certainly made the right choice as the performance was entertaining and full of early zany random audience participation. Jaycee Jesus reminded me a bit of Pop Will Eat Itself , white rappers who don’t take themselves too seriously. The General Public, Mountain Feet and the excellent rocking Sirpico all gave good accounts of themselves with well delivered sets.

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The party really started to come alive as The Mother Ukers took to the stage, 3 guys all with Ukuleles that played a set that contained some great covers by The Doors, The Cure and Blondie all which got the audience singing along enthusiastically. The tent suddenly got a lot fuller as Bournemouth Ska punks The Sporadics took to the stage ‘Westbourne Shaun’ and his band of highly talented musicians gave one of the best performances of the day belting out tracks from their recently released debut album ‘Hear It Is’ which includes great politically charged numbers such as ‘Hard Times’ and ‘Freaks’. The infectious sound soon got loads of people up on their feet dancing, including a couple of drunken souls who were invited on stage to dance with the band on their last number a hilarious rehash of Toots Hibbard’s Monkey Man called ‘Crusty Man’.

Pachango were the final band we got to see on the Saturday, they are a 9 piece Latino Ska orchestra playing a large combination of instruments which seemed to delight the ever growing crowd with their highly original danceable sound. Time was getting late and the young boys were very tired so we sadly had to miss Jack Grace & the Lazies and Rebel Control…but we still had Sunday to go!!!

Sunday 11th
Once again the Dorset Weather was kind to us on Sunday, it is was warm with sunny spells and luckily no sign of the predicted hurricane. Dan Gordon kick things off gently with a nice set of solo acoustic material which showed offs his great vocal chords sadly there are only a hand few of people watching. Sepia Daze did’nt do themselves any favours by turning up late, they eventually take to the stage for a shortened set which actually showed plenty of promise with fast paced guitars and lots of dyed black hair perhaps here we have found Bournemouth’s Placebo. On their last song called ‘Limp’ lead singer Jordan thrashed his telecaster so much that he ripped his finger open depositing blood on the stage.

Amy Dytham’s Band has recently under gone a name change to ‘Magna Rose’ and they shyly came out on to the stage to a warm welcome, Amy delightful voice accompanied by electric and acoustic guitars impressed many in the audience, their set included a cover of the classic ‘Come Together’ which was repeated again at the end of the set for an impromptu encore. Voodoo Vegas hit the stage with some increased volume and were determined to get everybody up and enjoying themselves, lead singer Lawrence did his best to encourage every one outside enjoying the sunshine to come inside. The band powered through a set of hard rocking numbers, that included some great classic guitar work from Nick and Meryl. The band certainly know entertain and put on a great performance to possibly one of the biggest audiences of the weekend so far.

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The fun continued with Bournemouth very own fancy dress party band Disco’s Out(Murders In) who provided an entertaining 30 minutes of up beat brass backed numbers that got the sun soaked revellers up on their feet dancing. The final two bands the pirate rocking ‘ Jack Ratts’ and the legendary ‘Pronghorn’ gave the Kings Park some what of a minor earthquake caused by the packed tent stomping along to the infectious folk punk rock ending the weekend on a complete high. All the volunteers and organisers must be congratulated that all hard work that they put in was truly worthwhile making for one fantastic weekend. As for my sons, Joshua absolutely loved the rocking ‘Voodoo Vegas’ and wants to join a band when he is older and be just like Lawrence and Luke was just so tired he wanted to go to bed early, from what they said they loved every miunte of the weekend and so did I!!!

Videos
This is just a small selection of the videos taken over the weekend more can be found at our YouTube Page.

The Sporadics