Chasing chickens

The J Tillman gig (a Fleet Fox) was a great success and Kate and I managed it without the domestic that we used to have at around 5pm on the day after the gig. Thanks to all who came and all that helped. We had a lot of new faces, all good.

The artists we have on at the courthouse will usually stay over at our house on the night of the gig. I'm sure it worries them more than it worries us, no one wants to wake up with a stranger in the bed as once happened to Boo Hewerdine. I had to, Snow White like, make seven beds for the seven members of the band and crew. Making beds is the hardest work I've ever done, except when I worked on a mobile grain cleaning unit when I was 18 and had to lift 50kg sacks. Another job my Mum got me which I didn't get sacked from, and only later found out why. Our friend Wilf says catching 100 specific chickens out of a shed of 1000 is harder.

Someone has to have youngest daughter's princess bed. This time it was Jason. The princess bed is a small double four poster that we've draped in pink cloth. It was abandoned in a house my father-in-law rented out along with various uniforms (police woman, nurse, french maid) and interesting accessories - you get the idea. I hope the rightful owner doesn't ever want it back as it was a pig to get up the stairs. It is not very comfy either, presumably down to the small pea beneath the mattress.

So, a good gig. I didn't do the sound so could drink lots of the Hambleton Ale cask beer that we got for the first time. Stefan was the sound guy and we ended up with just a single microphone on stage, it sounded great. We also did a survey on the night, asking questions about the sort of festival our crowd would like, if at all.

Everyone was more than happy to fill it out and we got some interesting responses. We asked, amongst other things, what sort of bands people would like to see. For example 'local bands', 'well known headliners' or 'up and coming hipsters'. We put 'tribute bands' on the list, just to see. Thankfully our audience went out of their way NOT to check that option, many putting NO! NO! NO! next to it. Phew. We are on the festival day going head to head with a Thirsk show put on by some nice folks from the North Yorkshire carpet mafia. Last year they put on an Abba tribute and sold 1800 or so tickets. The venn diagram of our event and theirs will not have much overlap, to the relief of both parties I'm sure.

We asked specifically what bands they'd like to see. Today we've spotified The Decemberists, Midlake, Band Of Horses, Birdman Rallies. Surely to 'spotify' is now a verb. We asked what might make the festival a success. If people suggested anything here it was good loos, someone wanted no teenagers. We'll try to get some good ones, perhaps insisting on Duke Of Edinburgh Award Scheme bronze medal is a minimum requirement. We are looking at building some composting toilets though, just looking into the legal and scientific details, have a look at Comfy Crappers (bad site and name). Going to the loo at the festival shouldn't be the miserable experience it so often is, and the people have spoken.

STILL no word from Rolly the tent man or from Helen Roddy. Thinking of naming something after Helen Roddy, like the Helen Roddy stage or similar.