SpideWriter

Vieira and The Silvers -  Live at Red Rooster 2024 Main Stage, 1st June 2024 Saturday, 1 st  June, is day three of the tenth Red Rooster Festival .  The relentless cool breeze has blown in some dry weather and there are people, kids mostly, leaping off the springboard into the Black Bourn that runs through the grounds of Euston Hall.   The woodland ringing the big top holding the main stage, is filled with picnic chairs and tables, beer coolers and the well-insulated festival goers, enjoying life outside without being rained on.  There are a lot of Red Rooster regulars there.  They seem relaxed and easy-going.  The music an essential part of their picnic dining, BBQing, summer cruising and boozing existence. It’s all very suburban and comfortable, all very BBC Radio 2.   Yet, weaving through all the folding chairs and circles of camping music-lovers, putting all that behind me, stepping into the big tent, I discover a buzzing 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 ...

An Unforgettable Night With Robert Finley Red Rooster Festival 2024 Thursday 30th May 2024 “Let me take a few seconds to tell you / What is important to me / It is so important to me that / Each and every one of you Is here / Because without you / I cannot do / What I do!”   With that very personal, personable introduction, the seventy-year old, son of sharecroppers made himself very welcome to the packed tent.  He then turned in a tremendous performance that was still the talk of the festival two days later.  Those turning up on the Friday had heard about it too and had a bad case of missing out blues. Mr Finley has a lot of patter, which random as it may feel initially, always turns very neatly into the start of the next number.  He is a natural-born story-teller, which makes his rocky blues so attractive.   Backed by the vocals of his eldest daughter Chrissy Johnson and a powerful band, Robert Finley gave a cracking demonstration of what gett...

Don't Let The Sun Come Out On Me Red Rooster Festival 1st June 2024 I've got used to it now The grey the wind the gloom Rain and mud underfoot It's becoming home  Take me to the river You couldn't get much wetter I'll dive right in Off the board with a spring We're all used to it now That patch of blue sky looks wrong I've got used to it now Don't let the sun come out today Yes, three days of Red Rooster 2024 and reportedly the only occasion when  this festival has really suffered from disruptive climate conditions.  The weathered attendees, the prompt stage managers, the acts just got on with the business.  Muscians eventually stopped complaining about forgetting gloves and moaning about the cold.  It was the kind of situation made for a stiff upper lip mentality, except it was the cheery, let's-get-on-with-it of the happy campers who made it a good time.  What a lovely bunch of people. It is not easy writing about a festival. The music is pretty mu...

Saturday Night Blues Red Rooster 2024 - Final Day 1st June 2024 Friday 31st May, 2024 up-date:   Cold to the bone I headed home Where the ground was firm And I could get dry  All the clothes I wore Couldn't stop me shaking Stop my old skin From turning blue Cold to the bone I drove through the rain To find solid ground Where I might dry out ~ Yes, Red Rooster, not your fault, just bad timing. Your weather, my body. Better today, less rain in the air, because it's all in the ground, but I have to get back to Red Rooster 2024 to catch as many bands as I possibly can. Hobson's choice, but SNAKEMILK, Vieira & The Silvers, The Arlene Trio and the "OMG! How good are they?" - Molee Shakes at noon. That will be Mo and Lee shaking things up from the Little Red Rooster stage. Got to be there.    ~ Spencer Ide Red Rooster Festival 1st June 2024    

Thursday Night Blues Red Rooster Festival 2024 30th May 2024 Robert Finley,  daughter Christy Johnson and band. Rain water turning grass to mud Canvas pulled by the gale The music's beautiful  But it's still coming down These boots were made for water They won't disappoint But they're getting heavy With the mud they collect But people keep on dancing Gathered tight in the big top Listening to Robert Finley's gospel He preaches, Never stop!   ~ Good advice from the Sharecroppers' Son . What a showman! And if he walks the talk, what an appetite! Listen to Robert Finley's latest Black Bayou recorded with the man from The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach.  I will be back at Red Rooster for the noon start today...it's still raining here. :( Spencer Ide Euston Hall, Suffolk 31st May 2024