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BRIGHTEN THE CORNERS – IPSWICH 9TH & 10TH JUNE 2023 Words and Pictures by Chris Perry 14 June 2023 This article was first published on Grapevone LIve! June 2023 Waking to find a heavy sun beating down on the ancient city, warmth in the air at last, I hauled my old limbs into the shower, steeling myself for a long day. I was to be travelling south to trudge around the old port of Ipswich trying to make sense of Brighten the Corners. This multi-venue festival, has a name that misleads aurally, (Brighten, or Brighton?). It has artists listed appearing at six venues, plus talks at a seventh. It attracts musicians from as far distant as Los Angeles, CA. The whole event brings together the resources of the local university, the post- 16 college, BBC Su ff olk and venues, of vastly di ff erent styles and a range of capacities. My initial impression was that this is an ambitious event, o ff ering stages for over forty bands and acts, several of them possibly only known to each other. But f...

Yeeeeeehaaaw!   The UFO Rodeo Band Red Rooster Festival 31 st  May 2024 & 1st June 2024   It had been a long night, with rain generating floods in the roads approaching the Red Rooster festival site.  Campers and the MoHo people were getting their collective act together, steeling themselves for an unseasonably cool day ahead and somebody, anybody had to get the show going again.  Who would be first on stage in the big tent on such a dank Friday at noon? Who had been dealt the Joker from the deck?   “Now it’s time to face the music.  Time to find out how the story ends…” Gavin Bowers dramatically introduced his previously rarely-heard singing voice to the half-awake, half-crowd, as the UFO Rodeo Band confidently grasped the nettle and fired the starting pistol for Friday, setting off at a brisk canter, to pour some much-needed, burning Bourbon down Friday's chilly throat .     After their lively opening number, the band ...