Boscombe Community Fair – Sunday

Kings Park, Bournemouth

In a contrast from the weather of Saturday, Sunday over Kings Park was full of grey skies, strong winds and heavy rain showers and despite this the BCF team are determined for things to carry on regardless. Thankfully both marquees are fully waterproof and all the electrical equipment is easily kept dry.

The first band to grace the main stage is a new band to me. A young two piece called the Clay Brothers, with just guitar and drums they proceeded to blow away any cobwebs, watched by a small but appreciative crowd. The long haired lead singer played his well loved Stratocaster like it was part of him, ably connecting with his drummer in a beautiful rock n roll unison.

Clay Brothers

The next band on stage were “Andy Stock & The Frontmen” a one-off just created for today. A band featuring some of the area’s most exciting solo artists, all brought together in the name of friendship and music. The line up consisted of Andy Stock (Acoustic Guitar/Vocals), Jack Grace (Bass), Aaron Jamie (Harmonica), Alex Cope(Drums) and Micha Weston Green (Electric Guitar). It was clear to see that all members of the band were thoroughly enjoying their time on stage together. The band performed a version of Damien Rice’s “Volcano”; along with a few of Andy Stock’s own compositions including locally based “Sea Road”, which is all about Boscombe. The musicianship was just fantastic with each member contributing something special to the performance. The audience seemed to love the set as much as the band and requested an unprecedented encore. After a quick stage discussion it was decided to play a Jack Grace song “Best Of Things Take Time” featuring both Jack and Andy on vocal duties, which was just awesome to listen to.

Andy Stock And The Frontmen

Chris Woodford was next up and he calmed things down with his very own unique style of playing an acoustic guitar. The instrumental music is played in all manner of different ways on his 12 string acoustic guitar. The drum parts were tapped out on the wooden case, notes were played on the neck as well as a highly talented lap tapping style. Chris used every bit of his instrument to create unique sounds never usually heard before on a guitar. With the songs being instrumental it’s difficult for the audience to know where they started and stopped and so the applause was kept on hold, until right at the end of his set when everyone shows their appreciation of this mans many talents.

Newly formed Bournemouth band The Kleek are up next to up the tempo once again and they feature an new extra third guitarist Laur Fricker from local band Hooligan Choir. The band’s sound takes much of it’s influence from some of the bands from the 1960’s with other more modern 1990’s influences like Paul Weller and Britpop in there too. Frontman Lewis has a slight air of arrogance on stage as his confidence in himself and his band is very high. The band’s wall of sound from the three guitars is impressive with their own original numbers like “Hit The Road”, “Shine On Me” and “Where Did It All Go Wrong” all keeping the crowd dancing throughout the set. The band are certainly a more than welcome edition to the local music scene and they have certainly made themselves a few new fans here today with this great performance.

The Kleek

The great thing about the Bocombe Community fair is that it is not a festival about just one style of music. The organisers have a very open mind about what suits their festival and it seems to have an almost anything goes attitude which is fantastic. The next genre up is most positively rock with local heroes Voodoo Vegas having recently returned to Bournemouth after a successful European tour playing festivals in Holland and Switzerland. The band arrive on stage to a bit of a lethargic reaction, Lawrence is is no mood for this and proceeds to work hard whipping up the crowd to get some sort of positive reaction from them. A combination of great tunes with a band that are really tight and really on the pace succeed in winning over much of the Boscombe crowd with possibly the most polished performance of the day. The songs from the band’s successful debut album “The Rise Of Jimmy Silver” come in the form of opener “Mary Jane”, “Bullet” and crowd favourite “King Without A Crown”. This is one of the band’s last gigs for a while as they go away and try and dream up material for their difficult second album.

VoodooVegas

Now most people on the local music scene know Percy as the always smiling sound man they see on their travels around local venues. A little known fact is that Percy plays bass in a 3 pice band called “Plastic Jeezus” and fancy that, they are up next. The Ukulele lead band seems to be all about large amounts of dry humour and of course having lots of fun. The band seem to have a spell over the more than enthusiastic crowd as many of them are dancing around stupidly to every song they play-perhaps this could be the reasonably priced cider. The bands songs are funny and very well put together; comprising a mixture of covers done in the form of medleys masquerading as their own songs as well as a few original numbers like “On My Road”, Which all made for a thoroughly entertaining set.

Plastic Jeezus

A quick dash in the rain over to the second stage, I make it just in time to catch the “Jimmy Hillbillies”, a ramshackle bunch of rednecks who play a bit of Cajun and a bit of Hoedown mixed with all manner or other genres. The band featuring Ski Daddle on wash board and Harry Cobeans on mandolin perform a great set more worthy of a place on the main stage. The songs are performed with a collective energy and great enthusiasm which keep the people watching well entertained along with a few souls up dancing.

The Jimmy Hillbillies

The final band of the weekend are none other than the “Mother Ukers” who have themselves played virtually every festival in Dorset and Hampshire this year. Despite this they still seem fresh with Paul, Jonti and Nacho Jas giving the Boscombe crowd a night to remember with a string of their famous reworkings using just three ukulele’s and large amounts of humour. The songs include Jane’s Addictions “Been Caught Stealing”, the Rolling Stones “Honk Tonk Woman” and the hilarious “Kung Fu Fighting” leaving everybody with a smile on their face as they make their weary way home.

The Mother Ukers

The weather was certainly a bit disappointing and sadly it put off many more people from coming along to the event, meaning that the organisers were left to foot the bill for much of the festival and this is certainly no small sum of money. These people, their families and friends have kept this festival going for 18 years and it would be a great shame if this is the festivals last year. A massive thumbs up to those of you who braved the rain and actually had an amazing time. To those of you who stayed at home, where is your British spirit? The stages are both inside and I spent most the weekend there and despite the odd shower I did not get very wet or muddy. I got tired possibly as I’m getting old but above all I had a really amazing time with a great bunch of people; musicians, friends and music fans in general. Thank you sincerely to everyone involved, you did a great job and there are a lot of people that appreciate it.

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