Christchurch Festival 2012

Christchurch Quay, Dorset

Sunday
Featuring: Lady Winwood’s Maggot, Darren Hodson & The Southern Companion, Riverside Blues Band, The Frequency, Eden, and Djambo

On a rare sunny Sunday afternoon on the 1st day of July on the banks of the River Avon estuary the third day of the Christchurch festival got under way, a huge weatherproof marquee situated on the green at Christchurch was home for the day ahead.

Djambo 1–2

The 1st band to get things started were six piece world folk band “Djambo” featuring 3 members of the Burke family Paul, Catherine and Bob. The music was really lively, as well as easy to listen to, the songs were multilingual with songs sang in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. The band used a host of traditional instruments such as flute, saxophone, Mandolin, bongos, tin whistle as well as the usual bass, drum and guitar to create a really authentic sound. Catherine introduced a song called “Raindance” which she hoped would not upset the pleasant weather of the day, the band finished was a great sing-a-long number “Iko Iko” which got a few of the early risers joining in. A bright, cheerful and truly uplifting start to the event. As the marquee started to fill further the next band “Eden” took to the stage playing some skilfully played blues that really suited the early mood, the 3 piece band tried and succeeded in warming up the audience for the next acts to come.

Eden;1

Local band “The Frequency” really took things up a notch went the burst on to the stage with huge amounts of passion and energy. The four piece Bournemouth band have just released an album called “Fall To The Floor” and this is just one of many festival appearances this year. They performed with bags of confidence and showed the Christchurch crowd just what they are capable of with popular songs such as “Steal A Phrase” and “You Don’t Have To Know”, the twin guitar sound backed by the solid rhythm section proved to be really popular with the enthusiastic crowd, such was the band’s confidence they put in a brand new song into the set called “Forever Young” which sounded great, the band left the stage after 40 minutes to massive applause and appreciation.

The Frequency 1–2

With a blend of blues and old school R’n B the appropriately named “Riverside Blues Band” were next up, if you love your blues these guys are defiantly a band to catch live, their influences are plainly oblivious if your are in the know, artists such as BB King, Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton to name a few. The band perform a set of blues classics supremely executed, undeniably the star of the show was a 10 year friend of the band that was bought on to accompany the band, he soon took centre stage with plenty of encouragement by the delighted audience playing the guitar as skilfully as any top player. The band soon kindly asked him to leave the stage as he was so obviously showing the rest of them up.

The penultimate band of the day was Darren Hodson & The Southern Companion who perform songs from their recently released album “Short Stories and Tall Tales”, Darren has been performing in front of audiences for over 20 years and he certainly knows how to please a festival crowd such as this, with the band’s Americana style they delver a set full of quality highlights such as “The Leaving Kind” and “Tired Eyes”. The end the set with a crowd pleasing cover of “The Faces” “Stay With Me” which gets much of the audience singing along.

Darren Hodson & The Southern Companion;1

This festival probably would not been running if it was not for the next band, as well as providing the lighting rig, backline and sound desk, the band members Tony and Kev worked tirelessly throughout the whole day making sure everything went smoothly. Before local hero’s Lady Winwood’s Maggot take to the stage the marquee fills up with lots of excited fans wanting to see their set, as the band arrived on stage the atmosphere in the place was electric, the banjo intro to “Unleash The Dogs” kicked in and the dancefloor was full with body’s bouncing up and down to their infectious danceable folk rock sound. The band keep up the pace with songs such as “Chase the Cat”, and a cover of The Cropdusters “Banjo Hill” dedicated to the local “inbreds”. Mark, Kev, Tony and Chris certainly know how to pick a great crowd pleasing set list, they tie things up with The Buzzcocks “Ever Fallen In Love” and a folked up version of Lynyrd Skyryd’s “Freebird”. The music licence dictated that the live music was over by 7pm, so sadly things had to end there, but what a great day of music in a beautiful setting…..roll on next year!!!