You can guarantee that
it will be dynamic, fun and exciting. It will also be The Last One.
For three days, it will
be host and home to dozens of the most talented blues musicians in
the country and hundreds of the finest, most knowledgable and friendliest
fans in the world. Presiding over the whole bad, mad bag of
spontaneity, hilarious mad-cap ingenuity, brilliantly organised but
ad-hoc, part chapel, part pub, part al fresco
look-as-though-you-make-it-up-as-you-go-along is a tight, smart,
cool, hip, crew of volunteers – led from the front by Paddy Maguire
and Jason Elliott.
Even as the First
Festival was clattering down the runway to take off, with bits
hanging off, bits missing - and extra bits nobody knew about - it was
clear that this festival was going to be different and never was
there a better or more apt description coined then, than that of the
Hebden festival blues “Family”. As The Hat has written in
thousands of words frequently over the past years, that Family has
grown and got stronger, has spread its wings and reached out across
the UK, Europe and North America. If you can have a tangible, even
tactile, emotion about your visits to the Hebden Festival, then it
would be that sense of belonging with and sharing with everyone else
there. Many of the festival fans (like The Hat) have been to every
festival, they know the organisers and the crew, they know each
other, they greet friends of friends like long lost relatives, they
cheer their heroes and the new exciting young guns with equal
enthusiasm. They raise the roof, throw shapes, hug strangers, queue
for signed CDs, drink too much, sleep sporadically, get bad hair,
sore feet and spend hard-earned money on self-indulgent fattening
food. Yep, these guys know how to have a good time.
The decision to call it
a day and make next week's festival The Last was unlikely to have
been an easy decision to make, but you can be sure that Paddy and
Jason will have given it a lot of thought – and anyway, now and
here are not the time or the place to worry about it. As they say,
there will be plenty of others out there to search the runes and the
entrails. Smell the coffee, respect their decision. On the contrary,
now is the time to look at how they managed to make it so successful
to the point where, as one of the country's smallest festivals, it
managed to win the British Blues Awards Best Festival for two years
running.
Clearly, there are many
reasons and many contributions but there would be no festival, no
musicians and no fun without the two principal organisers fronting it
up, with their complementary talents and skills, their infectious
appetite for rubbish humour, their grass roots hands-on involvement –
and above all – their total and unflagging commitment to staging
contemporary blues - meaning as that tacitly implies – the possible
exclusion of 'old farts' churning out the same old stuff. One of the
direct results of that policy has meant that many young guns, new
bands and under-exposed artists got a foot in the festival door and,
consequently a much wider audience for their talent. These two have a fine eye for what's hot and what's not.
Another key ingredient
is the response of the musicians themselves. The Hat has met a huge
number of those who have played and sung at Hebden in the first three
festivals, Without exception, they have enjoyed themselves. The best
way of getting a musician to want to come back, is not just provide
them with a smart, knowledgable cheering audience, but to treat them
like grown ups, respect their sound needs, talk to them about their
business and try and meet any requirements with a cheerful helpful
response. Nothing new there. You would do that. I would do that. Of
course, I am talking about the application of Common Sense – which
the organisers have in Spades and Bucket Loads. Oh, ok, there are
some difficult s.o.bs out there – but they don't come back.
Then there is the
question of funding. Not a penny comes from the local council. This
puts the organisers firmly in charge of their own destiny. It keeps
them clear of jobsworths, speeds up the decision process and lets in
that wonderful freedom of the instant decision. If they want The Hat
to play keyboards with the Treorchy Male Voice Choir on the Main
Stage – then they will make it happen. Actually, they didn't ask
and I demurred in favour of the stunningly brilliant Kyla Brox, Jo
Harman, Jenna Hooson and Lorna Fothergil. Indeed, despite the local council's desperate appetite for goodwill headlines, they have been
noticeably slow coming forward to help something that clearly brings
their town increased revenue and enhanced reputation – and have
even been rushing round trying to keep up with the organisers as they
hung banners and posted posters apparently in breach of a by-law they
just remembered. Power to the People - even if it means frightening
your Bank Manager.
And then there are the
paying customers. Taking out three days to be a fan is, for many,
neither cheap, nor easy. However, the unfailing up-beat, positive,
cheerful humour that the fans bring to the Hebden Festival is quite
remarkable and they keep on keeping on. . As one of the smaller
festivals, where all the venues are within walking distance of each
other, you are constantly meeting the same people, making new
friends, and discovering together remarkable new talent. And of
course, you meet that amazing crew – on the door, in the kitchen, behind the
bar, flicking perfect sound slides, unloading an amplifier – and in the case of Paddy and Jason –
not averse to bigging it up on a stage near you. Atmospheric, rather
good fun – and yes, you do feel part of The Family.
Last year was the best
festival so far. This year will be even better. 52 bands playing,
half a dozen free venues, top flight artists, national gun-slingers
coming back, just for the craic and a bit of the now renowned and
astonishing Paddy's Midnight Jam - simply because they had such a good
time before – and yes all those lovely family friends waiting to
buy you a reunion beer.
So, if you have tears,
don't shed them now. That is for another day. Today We Party.
And for the Latin
Scholars.....Ave atque Valete
Pip Pip!
The Blues Man in The Hat
Pip Pip!
The Blues Man in The Hat