In Search of...: The (not so) Secret Diary of a Band


Thursday 17 December 2009

You're too kind...

We've recently had our music used for an ad that's due to be broadcast from the end of this month. Below is a link to the head of the creative agency behind the ad talking about why he likes us so much. Which is jolly nice!

Click here to have a gander.

Hope everyone is feeling festive and almost ready for Christmas, we are!

P, B, N, J & K x

Friday 13 November 2009

What...who?


So we've been beavering away over the last couple of weeks and I thought I'd tell you about it.
We are in the process of getting some of our new material mixed (mostly stuff you will have heard if you've been to a gig in the last few months) in demo form, as we don't really have anything recorded post- One Day In June, which is going back a bit these days.

The new songs have been songs that, in a way for the 1st time, we have written as a band. Musically, especially after the summer of festivals, the band has probably never been as tight as a unit and that shows in the way these songs have grown and evolved. Now we are close to having a good representation of them, it feels like we are clicking the pieces into place in the big old Urusen jigsaw.

To go along with the new recordings, we've been trying to get a better idea in our heads, and on paper, of what we want to project as a band. What is Urusen, what do we sound like, why should people listen to our music, all these sorts of questions are, I'm sure, questions all bands have to answer (or get answered for them), but it isn't easy.

We aren't a band of clones, perhaps the best thing about the band is the different personalities and stories the 5 of us have to tell. Nevertheless, we always agree there is something about the band that keeps us all attached, strong, and keeps us unwavering in our belief that we will be doing this for a long time to come. If we could bottle that effect the band has on us, I'm sure we'd never have to work again, but for now, we've just been trying to work out how to explain ourselves.

We have a couple of gigs coming up before Christmas in London, one acoustic and one full band, which we will probably use to keep bedding in some brand new stuff (one track, 'The Woodsman', is fast becoming a favourite), so if you can, check out the event details on facebook or myspace and come along.

2009 has been a very special year for all of us in lots of ways. The band has hit new heights and grown more than any of us could have hoped for. To close it, we're going to make sure the final two shows of the year are crackers, so that we keep the wheels oiled and at full speed into 2010, which promises to be an even bigger and better year for the band. Hopefully.

Monday 2 November 2009

We are the shadows of the night

Just a quick one that we thought was too cool not to let you know about.

Verity Sharpe hosted a special Hallowe'en edition of the Late Junction on Thursday on Radio 3. To open the show, she played a track recorded in the 80s by Ben's Dad Peter Please called "We are the Shadows of the Night". It was from an album he recorded called "Uffington" to go with a book he published around the same time called "Chronicles of the White Horse".

The story is that "We are Shadows of the Night" is so scary that Ben used to hide under the kitchen table at home whenever it was played. I say used to...

Anyways, its online here, so have a listen (and a laugh or a scream depending on how easily spooked you are!)

We'll be waiting....

Friday 23 October 2009

Whoa there, what's all that racket?!

...its the sound of us being REALLY busy! Lots of stuff going on of late in Urusen land, quite a few good gigs (where were you?!) and then lots of meetings and planning and practising and recording and...and...I'll tell you all about it!

So since the last blog, we played at the single launch of our friends Trail. it was in North London and was lots of fun and there are some lovely pictures from the night that are up on our facebook page (not group - that's closing soon so if you're still using that, get with the programme, the changeover is coming!) so have a look, some great ones of Nick and Jay - helps when your playing 100 year old beautiful instruments!

We also recently made our debut at the renowned South London venue, The Bedford. The venue is genuinely one of the most special small venues in London, with a startingly good sound system and lighting rig. The gig went really well and it was lovely to see some faces not seen for a while - we've already confirmed to go back in February so hopefully see you again then.

Last night, we we're back on Pete and Ben's home turf, playing at the infamous Moles, supporting up and coming indie-folksters Stornoway who are currently touring in support of their new single Unfaithful. We met Rahul from the band at the Larmer Tree Festival in the summer, so was great to see him again, and the night was really good all round, bpth bands on top form. Thanks to Steve and 13th floor, and everyone who came down, hopefully be back again soon.

Lots of other things going on behind the scenes at present, but nothing too set in stone yet unfortunately so will let you all know when it all gets confirmed.

In the meantime, check out this - nothing to do with us! But if you stumble across any funny urusen-themed links then please let us know!

Thursday 24 September 2009

Saturday 29 August 2009

Wake up John

As promised, there is a recording of us playing new song 'Wake up John' live at the WOMAD festival here and here. Have a listen and let us know what you think.

In other news, we are now confirmed for 'Not the Packhorse Fair' in Somerset next weekend and will be playing on Saturday afternoon - looking forward to getting back out to the South West so if you know anyone who's coming, tell them to come say hi!

Also, on the 14th of September we will be playing with Trail at the Purple Turtle in Camden for the launch of their new single Prism. T'will be our first gig in London for a while so come on down!

Friday 21 August 2009

Big news!

All been a bit quiet on the blog of late but lots has been going on behind the scenes so thought you were all due a bit of an update.

First things first, a big congratulations is in order to Nick and his lovely partner Ellie who we are now the proud parents of Oscar Morris Tibor Ullmann. We're not going to post OK style pictures or anything gratuitous like that, but rest assured he is a beautiful baby and we all couldn't be happier for the 3 of them.

That, along with various members of the band taking some well earned down time, has meant we haven't had any gigs of late, but they will be building back up soon enough. We are confirmed for a charity gig in September for an amazing cause and will be playing alongside the legendary Mark Knopfler. Thanks again to Helen for allowing us to be a part of it.

Also coming up, we will be playing a little festival in Somerset, more details on that when its confirmed, and we will also be playing at a single launch in London for some friends of ours that promises to be a big night - again more details when we have them.

Other than that we've been having a string of seemingly endless meetings with the lovely people at Real World and just as a band, discussing everything from band outfits (no really!) to producers to what we do when the last copy of One Day in June has been sold - a fast approaching situation! Aaaaand we've also nearly finished the new recordings AND worked on some new choons - PHEW!

Needless to say there is lots in the pipeline. So keep in touch and we shall hopefully see you soon!

Urusen x

P.S. Almost forgot! Live recording from our WOMAD set will go on-line in the next 7 days. Will be a newbie so make sure you have a listen and let us know what you think!

Thursday 30 July 2009

WOMAD (by Ben)


This week Urusen played at WOMAD festival. It was a last minute booking from the organiser. A new stage had been planned in the Real Ale Bar and the organiser, Paula Henderson, had sent us an email inviting us to play. Sunday night, 7.50pm, in the bar. Cool! Work cancelled, shifts moved, and we were good to go, except of course Nick, who couldnt shift the due date of his and Ellie's baby, so we were playing as a 4-piece for this one.

I arrived on Saturday afternoon, catching a bus, then a train, then a bus, then another bus. I was feeling quite smug as I had just bought a trolley and bag for all my gear. Except that the trolley adds another 10kg to the whole wait, and Chippenham train station is ALL STAIRS. The nice bus driver wished Urusen well as I disembarked for the long walk to the Artist's camping area, same as normal camping, just a lot further. Having hoisted up my little fake tee pee I then realised I'd left my phone behind, so for the next 24 hours it was going to be a big wander, as the rest of the guys weren't arriving till Sunday afternoon. What an idiot!


A cider, well, three, later I finally bumped into someone I knew. Sarah, who I went to school with since I was 5 years old. She was heading for home with her children but gave me a hot tip to look out for purple and pink wigs in the Sian tent which were donning her sister Kathleen and mum Caro. Sarah's family actually RUN Womad so I felt pretty chuffed to be hanging out with them for the rest of the evening. Had a retro-boogie-reminisce to Peter Gabriel and was blown away by AMAZING beat boxing later that night.

As the inevitable rain eventually passed over us I headed to sleep, carefully positioning my mat between the four puddles that had already strategically collected themselves under the window's of the tee pee. It was a cold, wet night.

Skip forward 13 hours and the first car to arrive was Jay and Little Pete, slightly shaken from a high speed chase through the back streets of Kilburn as they were coming out of London. "Never talk back to aggressive drivers" is the lesson. But if anywhere can relax you, WOMAD can. Despite the rain, the atmosphere is warm. With some cider and food inside them, we swayed to high-octane bass clarinet by the BBC 3 stage. As the clouds drew in we headed back to meet Kieran who had just arrived and load our gear into the Real Ale Bar. It was one of these huge long marquees, could probably hold about a 1000 at a push, but the poet before had meant it had emptied a little. But then, as a way of a gentle push, the heaven's opened, and people flocked back in to drink. The drum kit was missing a floor tom, so while the sound engineer Steve ran off to find one, I lugged Peter Gabriel's stage piano into place which we were using. (Thanks Peter!).

After a surprisingly nice floor tom arrived (more on that later!), we sound checked, beckoned the crowd forward and set off with 'Now that she has flown'. It always takes a song or two to get the levels right, warm up our voices, but each song flowed. The crowed cheered, and cheered. I spotted Rob from Realworld (our lovely publisher) and his wife in the middle. I think I even saw him dance, just a little. During one song I saw a guy running across the front of the stage with a another floor tom. Didn't think anything of it. We played all the new ones, except Step off the Train, arguabley the most delicate song we do. We thought the mood was too high for a slow quiet one, and Nick has a nice little solo which we couldn't replicate. The set ended with 'From this country' and we filed off the stage to much applause, which I have to say, feels great. The crowd pulled us back on, so we went with Train Song as our encore and made sure we got a big cheers for Nick, Ellie and the forthcoming baby. It actually feels like a good song to end with.

After the gig lots of people came up to us. It was quite funny (and nice). All the organisers from the big festivals we'd played at seemed to be there. First came Lisa from Avalon at Glastonbury festival. She apologised for not seeing us when we played there, but gave us all a big hug and said she really enjoyed it, and see us next year for sure. Then Amy from Larmer Tree Festival came up and echoed the sentiment. And of course Rob, representing WOMAD came up too (rumour has it Dave T, one of the head honchos of WOMAD was their too). Big smiles all round. I wonder if Peter G made it too?

Kieran came up to me afterwards. He had had a great gig, but there was one moment when mid-song I guy had come up a switched floor toms, virtually mid-beat! Apparently Steve had mistakenly taken a floor tom from the Main Stage kit, worth about £1500, new skins and all. Whoops! Still, we had a great floor tom sound for at least half the gig. Steve made good by giving us a recording of our gig, which we'll pop up some tracks from soon on myspace.com/urusen.It had gone way better than we could have hoped. Great crowd, great gig. Apparently we'll be "as big as Stornaway by next year!" We all retired for a nice cider, except poor Kieran and Pete who had to drive back, for work the next morning.

Jay and I finished off the evening wandering around with Jay's girlfriend and her family, watching WOMAD slowing down as the night drew deeper, and the ever more manic attempts of the WOMAD revelers to catch the last glimpses of each tent, trying to find that elusive bar that stayed open those few minutes longer. People didn't want it to end. Happy and tired we all eventually headed to our respective tents. I crept into my tee pee, dodging the creeping puddles that would chase my foot every time I put it down into the groundsheet. I lay down onto my mattress island and fell into a deep dream filled sleep.

The next morning it was back to reality. I waved goodbye to Jay, and then tramped across the fields, out the wrong exit and onto the main road, walking along the verge crushed up against the nettles and thorns as the lorries tor by. A little wake up call, don't get above yourself Ben. No limo here. Finally I reached the bus stand heading home, happily munching away on the best bacon sandwich I think I have ever eaten in my life. There were two ladies standing in the queue behind me, chatting about what they had seen at WOMAD, their highlights, what CD's they had bought. I stood there eating my sandwich thinking. Hmm, wouldn't it be nice if they mentioned us, little laugh at myself and continue munching away. Back to reality Ben. But then... "oh, yes, and there was this band called, umm, Urusen. I saw them at Larmer Tree last week, twice. They were amazing! Then I saw their CD in the WOMAD shop and had to get it as they had sold out at Larmer. You should check them out." Ha ha, maybe REALITY is starting to change after all!

Tuesday 28 July 2009

More positivity!

Just a quick note to let you know we are the featured artist today on www.amazingtunes.com. Rather nice of them, so check it out if you fancy.

P.S. keep checking back for info from WOMAD plus possibly some videos from eyefest and some live recordings!

Tuesday 21 July 2009

One Crazy Weekend

3 festivals, 4 performances, 350 miles and a lot of cider.

On Thursday the madness began at the Larmer Tree Festival near Salisbury. The festival was sold-out and with headliners including The National Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and Dreadzone, it was likely to be a good start to the weekend. After unpacking the tents and gear (more on that later) we had a look round what has to be one of the coolest festivals in the UK. The atmosphere was very relaxed and there were so many cool things to do and see (including the horticultural sitting room, right) we all agreed it would we would have loved to have stayed all weekend.

Our first set was in the Arc Tent which was a good size with a real listening crowd (sounds silly but a lot of festival crowds aren't!) One thing I particularly liked was the fact that they ran an open mic at the side of the tent during band changeovers. I thought this was inspired, and much better than bombarding people with the sound engineers i-pod all day.

Anyways, we had an early evening slot so took the spare time to have a quick rehearsal next to the tents as we hadn't played together in 2 weeks. The gig itself went really well. The stage crew in the tent were great (especially Tim the Jimmy Page look-a-like stage manager!) and we were very well received by the crowd, who we did a bit of a meet and greet with after the gig (including our competition winner Nigel and his son - lovely to meet you both!) which was a bit surreal but hopefully a sign of things to come! We then partied the night away to Dreadzone and, from what I remember, we indulged in playfighting in a big tent, ate dirty burger van burgers and met the irrepressible 'Mad Mick', a toothless farmer who imparted wisdom on subjects such as going bald ("hair today, gone tomorrow") and his love for Tina Turner!

Friday morning we got up 'lateish' and waded through what had been the festival site but the rain had turned into a bog. After getting some sustenance inside us, we watched some great acts including The Travelling Band who Ben and Pete have played with previously. Then it was time to pack up the tents and head south to Dorset for our second performance of the weekend at the Tolpuddle Martyr's Festival. Celebrating its 175th anniversary, it promised to be a good gig, irrespective of the inclement weather. On arrival, we noticed two things. Firstly, although we were aware of the likely political leanings of many of the punter's at the festival, some of the t-shirts were still a great sight to behold.
Secondly, we can say with a certain amount of confidence that, as far as 5 piece bands go, we must be pretty near the top when it comes to abundance of equipment. The scale of the operation only really becomes apparent when you see it all piled together, and thus I decided to document this. For scale, we put Pete in the picture. While he may look like a relatively diminutive chap the photo is misleading. He's far smaller than that.


We were opening the festival so whilst the crowd needed a song or two to get in to it, the gig went off really nicely. The sound was brilliant in the tent, and a special thanks to Keith and everyone at the festival for making us feel so welcome, would be lovely to come back next year - if only to sample what had to be the best festival showers I've ever seen! It was also lovely to again meet people after the show, be great to see you all again at some point!
There may be no rest for the wicked, but the same applies to Urusen, as we had to pack up again and head North to Bath so Ben could help to apply the finish touches to the mini-festival he has run for the last 3 years, EyeFest. So half of headed that way to set up camp for the night, whilst Nick went back to Larmer tree with our roadie for the weekend 'Colin' (or as he is normally known, Nick's brother Max!)

EyeFest is set in the beautiful surroundings of a farm overlooking Bath. In its 3rd year, we have been and played every year (it helps when one of the band books the bands for the festival!) and although I'm sure I'm biased, it is great, for a good cause, and we always enjoy ourselves. This year was nautical themed and luckily the weather held off on the whole, so we were treated to a Saturday in the Somerset sun. Dinner and breakfast is provided (Hog roast for most, bean chilli for non-meat eaters like me!) and the music included the welsh rockers 4th Street Traffic, returning to headline after their triumphant set last year. Other notable mentions were the ever-wonderful Naomi Roper, The irreverant Stanley Forbes, and the guys from Lindy Hop, who taught everyone (including my mum and aunty a few 1950s dance moves!) Must also give a mention to our friend Chris the sound man for his sterling work throughout the day.


So with our final slot of the weekend starting at 11:15 back at the Larmer Tree we rose early, more than a little sheepishly, and loaded all the gear back into the vehicles and got back on the road. We arrived with a certain amount of trepidation, a lot of festivals don't even start until midday so what sort of crowd could we expect on the final day of a festival at just after 11? Needless to say, Larmer Tree did not let us down. In what was probably the best gig of the weekend, we were given a standing ovation and sold out of albums in the signing tent within 25 minutes. To all the people who signed up to the mailing list for albums - we will be in touch soon! It was also cool to meet one of the guys from Stornoway. Would be great to do some gigs with guys at some point so get in touch!!
The gig also had added significance as it will be the last one for a little while with Nick, our Cellist. He and his girlfriend Ellie are expecting their 1st child in August and thus he will have more than enough on his plate for the near future. The rest of us are all excited about becoming Urusen Uncles and we wish Nick and Ellie all the best.
And that was that, another weekend of great gigs, wonderful people and not a lot of sleep. WOMAD next week!!

Saturday 11 July 2009

Just a quick note to say we're featured in The Independent newspaper today in their 'Ten best gigs' section under 'Jazz, Blues, World and Folk'. This is due to us being the opening act of next weekend's Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. You will see on the picture that the 3rd event listed is the Larmer Tree Festival, which we are incidently also playing at - how on it are we?!?!
Seriously though, very cool to be mentioned, and hopefully see some of you down at the festivals. Next weekend promises to be fairly manic with 4 performances at 3 festivals across 4 days, so look out for a full report and pictures and the like!

Saturday 4 July 2009

Glastonbury Diary: Day 3 (4 & 5)

Saturday was the day of our last gig and thus I will truncate the rest of the days into this bit of the blog. We were moving stage again onto the bandstand stage. given it is situated in the middle of the site, getting there with all our gear involved a land rover, some wheel barrows and a fair amount of sweat; I wish I had pictures but sadly I don't. Anyways, gear safely dispatched we had a few hours to kill in order to buy silly hats. (See picture right of myself modelling the classic "straw trilby and wife-beater look!) There was lots more elaborate headgear on show throughout the weekend so if you'd like to see it, plus all the other pics from the festival, check out our facebook group ( http://www.tinyurl.com/klyvun ) for all the pics we didin't have space for here. (While your at it, join the group, and our artist page, and our myspace, and...and...)


Moving on...the bandstand is quite a special space to play on. because of its location (in the middle of a thoroughfare with no "front" (its a bandstand) you really get the feeling that you're playing to the festival rather than a particular crowd. Either way, it seemed to go down well. With it being our last performance of the weekend we gave it everything and by all accounts rocked it. I also received one of the most beautifully worded compliments for the band from one of the bandstand staff who told me that he felt "privilged to have seen [us]." Certainly a step up from "yeah mate...great gig." or my personal all time favourite "your keyboard sound is sick!"


We got a load of stickers printed to bring to the festival that spawned the game: "phantom stickering". Basically, it involved trying to sticker someone without them noticing - and everyone on site was fair game. The best ones of the weekend were two coppers, who removed them from their behinds and stuck them to their cans of MACE (whilst delivering the chilling line "it'll be the last thing someone sees!") and also a certain Mr. Newton Fawlkner, who was happy to take one on the front of his chest, but blissfully unaware of the numerous one stuck to his back (abit like Pete, right)


The rest of the festival was a blast, band member highlights included Blur, Florence and the Machine, Bat for Lashes, Bon Iver and stumbling across a tiny Johnny Flynn set in "The Snug" (plus seeing a rather worse for wear looking Keith Allen in Arcadia at about 3am, on a stage, baning a drum!) And then it was over.

To get serious for a minute it certainly felt like this weekend was a big step for the band. We know now we can play on big stages to big crowds and they, and we, love it. We've always suspected as much, but now we've done it. the newer songs in our sets are getting the biggest responses which shows we as a band are getting better in not only how we perform, but what we are performing. Onwards and upwards, the summer has only just started.

Glastonbury Diary: Day 2

Woke up with a small hangover and a little damp (cheap tent!), but still buzzing from the prevous nights excitement and raring to get back to the Avalon Cafe for our second show there. We knew the festival had offocially begun when we heard the sweet sounds of Bjorn Again travelling over the breeze from the Pyramid Stage and so headed into the arena to sample the Glasto atmosphere (after a quick trip to a camping stall to purchase some waterproof trousers and a gazebo!).
It is impossible to explain (for those who haven't been) the sheer size and scale that Glastonbury operates on. Almost a quarter of the 177000 people on site are staff, security or performers, thats over 40,000 people. The term organised chaos comes to mind, but it does not even begin to describe what Michael Eavis has achieved.

With Neil Young and Fleet Foxes both playing the Pyramid Stage today, it seemed fitting we were playing today - treating the crowd to an extra helping of harmonies and country/folky loveliness!
So we headed back to the Avalon Cafe for our 3pm slot. We changed the set up slightly for this gig, and knew that while the crowd would undoubtedly be smaller (the previous night we hadn't had to contend with, amongst others, the Pyramid Stage, the Other stage, the John Peel Tent, the Jazz World Stage...) but we still pulled a crowd in, including people who had come the night before, and also some people from some bigger stages regarding next year - we will let you know if/when we do!!

We had the rest of the day "off", so went off to enjoy the festival and took in some amazing music. I won't gloat by telling you how amazing Neil Young was, but istead just give you a couple of pictures of the rest of our day - including a super cool lady playing guitar-umberella!


Thursday 2 July 2009

Glastonbury Diary: Day 1

So this weekend was a big one for us as we we're off to Glastonbury! It was the 1st time at the festival for Urusen as a band, as well as the 1st time ever for Nick and I. So stocked up with rum, face wipes and pepperami (150% pork - figure that one out!) we set off down our favourite stretch of British tarmac (the good old M4) for Worthy Farm.


We arrived at the sight after some negotiating with security to ensure that my van Valerie was allowed to park in the special reserved area (not because she's ugly, she just had the wrong ticket!) where we were met by Colin who ferried us down onto the site (1st bit of luxury!) along with our gear. We were joined in transit by a band called Mik Artistik who had been travelling since 11am the previous morning and were taking it easy this year after having played 14 times last year - we thought 4 on our debut was impressive!


Anyways, campsite made (Ben arrived the night before and literally hoisted a Urusen flag to mark our territory) we sped off to our 1st gig - a 2pm slot in the backstage theatre stage bar. It was a perfect way to open our Glasto account, a really chilled affair with cajon instead of drums and doubling up on mics for harmonies. There was a moment of excitement when I thought I'd spotted Johnny Lee Miller in the audience, but it turned out to be a false alarm!


With a couple of hours to kill until the next show (8pm in the Avalon Cafe) we went for a bit of an explore. The sun was baking and there was already 1000s of people milling around the site - a trigger for us all to very much get into the
festival spirit. Meanwhile, Ben slipped off to do a quick interview for Glastonbury Radio, which led to an interesting meeting that could end up with Urusen doing a Ministry of Sound chilled session - who'd have thought!!


The Avalon Cafe is the second stage in the Fields of Avalon. It had doubled in size since last year and was a great venue for us. When we took to the stage the crowd was a good one but then, as if things couldn't get any better (we were playing at Glastonbury after all!) the heavens opened, driving ever more people into the shelter of the tent and by the end of the gig the whole place was rocking - in a Urusen-stylee! We all agree it was up there with the best gigs we have ever played - we were all walking on air for the rest of the night, and so a big thank you is in order for everyone who braved the rain to come out and see us. We celebrated with a few Ciders and a bit more exploring, before heading back to the tents to escape the rain. What a day - and the festival hadn't even begun yet!

Sunday 21 June 2009

Welcome!

Hello there!! This is the first blog by us - but rather than talk about who we are and what we're about I'm just going to plough straight into what we've been up to.
I have spent most of the last two weekends driving (almost 1000 miles in total thus far) taking us back and forth to some very cool little festivals in the South West as we begin our summer of activity.

Last weekend saw us pop our 2009 festival cherry at a brand new festival called Tea On The Farm.Set in the gorgeous surroundings of Box in Wiltshire, the festival was great fun with a lovely atmosphere, and it was a shame that we weren't able to stay for the whole weekend. Special mention must go to Alex the quad bike man for ferrying our ever increasing array of instruments to and from the stage!

On Tuesday we headlined our last London gig for a while at the new Proud Galleries in Camden. The gig was a real success, we're all very aware that the new songs in the set are getting better and better and really lifting the live show to a new level - just need to get them recorded now!! Also lovely to be able to sit and have a drink and a chat with the lovely Helens (you know who you are!) as well as having my mum down for the gig!!


This weekend was the Gold Coast Ocean Festival in Croyde, North Devon. We were meant to play this festival last year but were unfortunately unable to make it work so it was good to get back there this year and play. Pete and I came down on the night before and had a lovely, if slightly chilly evening at a local camp site where we tried, and admittedly failed, to savour the local cider. It had a taste which neither us, nor the people in the neighbouring tent, could fully come to terms with and so I say to the people of Georgeham: fair play, but I'll stick to the lager.

Sunday the rest of the gang came down and we wandered around the site and checked out some other artists (Jim Jones in particular was cool) and played our set around 3ish. The vibe was very chilled after an apparently heavy Saturday night at the festival for all, but we really enjoyed the gig (lovely playing on a big stage with great sound!) Filled with positivity & red bull we set off for home, via our second home the M4.
Next week...Glasto!!!!
Kieran