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In this issue

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The Fringe...
...the Festival
Martin Rowson
News in Brief
Readers Letters
Park Life
News in Brief
Dissent
Tapas Time
Back to the Fringe
Straight to the Point
Royal Bengal
Handy Contacts
Summertime Blues
Summery Justice
Up the Junction
Books/Poetry
The Factory
Summer Allergies
Farmers Market
The Arts
Away Days
A Royal Visit
Coffee Corner
Surfing N16
Man in North Bank
XWord
View from the Lane

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back to the fringe

Without musical directors Mathew Priest and Debs Butler the N16 Fringe would not have happened. Here they describe their experiences over the weekend.

Mathew
Well we seriously didn’t expect that. What happened? Where did you all come from? You surely don’t all live in Stokey? There was actually a report of a couple asking where they could change some Euros! ‘At the off licence, mate, they take anything there’ was the response. Three days of bonhomie, nonsense and Rock and Roll. Obviously all the organisers, sound engineers and bar-staff should be slapped on the back, but the biggest thanks should go to all of the artists and performers, most of whom played for FREE, and to you lot who decided to have it LARGE all weekend. Well done.

It’s difficult to pick my highlights of the weekend, mainly because I can’t remember 1tup much of it, also because everyone I saw was brilliant. I was mainly looking after the bands at Ryan’s for the weekend but I did manage to catch a bit of Hank Wangford on Friday at the Vortex, which was a stonking sell-out of a show; I saw a bit of Johnny 4 and Moses on Sunday at the Eye who were both fantastic and I managed a glimpse of the erogenous Plakka Concept 7.3 at the Tup on Saturday who, like a good pint, never disappoint.

Highlights from Ryan’s include the wonderfully dubby Databass on Friday; It’s Jo and Danny and Freixas on the Saturday, and Lincoln and the fabulous Washington Rays on the Sunday. I think mine and a lot of people’s favourite of the weekend was the hip hop crew A.R.M.O.U.R. who totally rocked the place on Friday. Certainly a band to look out for in the next year.

Two years old now and certainly improving with age, it’s only going to get better. Watch out for special N16 Fringe events happening around Stokey over the next few months, including a series of Fringe Fall Out/Reverb gigs, where we’ll feature the best bands from the Fringe. Make sure you keep sending in your CDs.

I had a quick chat with Donagh who runs the new Eye venue that hosted a lot of bands over the festival weekend. He was ‘genuinely surprised at how many people turned up’ and thought it was ‘a great success for Stokey in general’. He’s looking forward to building on ‘the good will and positive feedback’ from the Fringe and making the bar a success and it eventually becoming an integral part of the music scene in Stokey. ‘It will take time, we don’t want to rush it. I want to keep it nice and local for the time being so keep dropping your CDs into me at the Eye’.

Debs
The Eye The most vivid memory for me was walking into the brand new venue The Eye and being horrified to see what can only be described as work in progress. A building site, 20 frantic workmen, strings of temporary lighting, no electricity, a PA installer with a soldering iron surrounded by boxes of technical stuff, none of them open, no bass bins, and those immortal words ‘they’re only five minutes away by courier’ – they never did show up, and me thinking, oh, oh, it’s 1.30pm, no power let alone P.A, first sound check at 2.00pm, production schedule out the window. At this point there was only one course of action – call Math, seek reassurance and run away. 4.00pm, still no PA and all the situation needed was Lynda Barker, Handy Andy and a sheet of MDF, I was starring in Stokey’s first episode of Changing Rooms. Math and Giles turned to me and out tumbled what would prove to be the mantra for the weekend, ‘It’ll be alright’, the one phrase that I know now should always be uttered post potential disasters, ie power cuts and back-to-front beer pumps.

Miraculously, the first band were on at 7.30pm and the rest of the weekend proceeded remarkably smoothly. The thing I had conveniently forgotten from last year, apart from the sleep deprivation (thanks Marc for the parties again), alcoholism, and a mild case of tinitus, was that it was my job to make sure bands didn’t overrun. Not easy to surreptitiously push your way to the front of a heaving and on the whole drunk crowd and tell the band to get off. As you can imagine, they are in full flow and the last thing they want to see is me frantically waving my arms around to get their attention, pointing at my imaginary watch and hoping that they will notice me, not ignore me, play the last song and quietly leave the stage to rapturous applause leaving 15 minutes for a quick and manic changeover. The reactions were mixed, as you can imagine. I could see the visible looks of relief on Sunday when I lost my voice completely and ended up shouting at everyone in handwritten signs – yeah, she’s finally shut up.

Not to sound too cringy and gushy like an Oscars acceptance speech, this is the most important bit. This really wouldn’t have been possible without the bands: Skull Disco thank you for that silver body suit, the brilliant Tall for a Midget, Largeman, Lumiere Brothers, S Rock Levinson and Moses – at least we realised you weren’t plugged in by the second song! The Nazarites – the perfect way to end a hot summers evening, Monkey island – you rock and you know you do, 1witchdoc2 The Gin Palace, The Hells, Little Barrie, Johnny 4, and Duke Spirit, definitely keep your ears open for this lot, cheers to the excellent Garlic for making even me jump up and down, The Witchdoktors – who hold the N16 Fringe record for having members who played three gigs in one day, The Greenbacks, a great band all the way from Ireland, Malcolm Joseph and Stokey’s answer to the Polyphonic Spree – well, there were 13 of them. And a fantastic festival finale from the Toes, and of course the icing on the caked was piped in from the King of Spin – Jumpy. Couldn’t have done it without you, Nick (I am a convert and I love Nashville Sci Fi) and Giles twiddling knobs and sorting out the production for three days.

OK, we’re nearly there now - thanks to David, Leonora, Math, Rab and Mike for making it happen and everyone else who I can’t fit into the word count! It does all come together in the end, don’t just say it, do it, and the most important one, ‘it’ll be alright’.

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