How blessed were we with the weekend weather? Thank Goodness the rain sodded off for a few days so that we could enjoy some incredible music in the sun!
Firstly, I want to say how incredibly hard the event organisers worked to make this festival happen! It was touch and go for a hot minute, and lots of people thought it would never happen, but they pulled it out of the bag and produced a really amazing festival for us all to enjoy and take part in. The organisation was superb! The stage management, PA and sound tech-ing and the festival coordination was to die for, to be honest! Everyone was wonderful, and we had an amazing time performing!
Secondly, I want to say how bloody impressive Liv Linley was as compering! She was absolutely brilliant at it! Liv has the most natural stage presence and she was in her element introducing everything! Plus, it was great to have a friend introducing us - as she quite rightly pointed out, our band is suspiciously Rude Six heavy... lol - and she stayed at the back of the stage to get her dance on while we played! Big love, Liv!
We arrived during Natural Right's set, and I was so excited! I've been wanting to catch them for ages - they're just mega cool. Everyone was incredibly chilled out, and the guys from the band that I spoke to were so friendly and down to earth. Fan girling!
And so, we did our slot and we had so so so so so much fun! If you catch any of the vids of us you'll see how much we enjoyed ourselves. Performing in Birmingham to our Birmingham reggae family was just the best feeling. I forgot I'm getting too old to get my groove on and I've done my knee in! Totally worth it. We wanted to come with something different - you know us! - and we compiled a set list made up of our most recent favourites, including 'Last War/Come Around', 'Revolution', 'Who Knows' and 'Picture on the Wall' that we recorded at the beginning of the year. We also included 'The Barrington with a twiss' that really got some attention. The best quote of the day was most likely Basil Gabbidon:
"That Barrington Medley. Outrageous. Loved it."
He's a man of few words, but man, those words hit, especially coming from the legend that is Gabbidon. It was great to catch up with you about all things music backstage whilst we listened to an incredible set from Xodus!
It also got the attention of a wonderful lady and her husband, Jenna and Elliot, who were running the donut stand. They're life long Barrington Levy fans, and they really did give us some compliments! Thank you so much, guys. We absolutely do need to record that medley, you're right!
I want to dedicate this little section here to some past faces that we saw. Some of you may have seen Island Collective earlier in the day. We missed their slot, but I'm mentioning them because quite a few members are previous Reggufam, and the parting ways wasn't exactly peaceful. But this amazing festival really gave us the chance and the right atmosphere to put that in the past. We buried some...hatchets? Is that the phrase? No one had weapons, but you know what I mean! Anyway, I want to give a big shout out to Steve Ross and the brothers Steve and Richard for talking to us and for mending some past errs with us. The world of music is too blessed to hold onto that sort of negativity, and for those of us who still remain from the band at the time, I'm glad we can leave the past in the past and that you are out there making beautiful music! Not one of us can say we're perfect, and I'm glad that music gave us the chance to get back together and to clear the air.
OK, so moving on from that, it was just an incredible experience, the weather was gorgeous and we truly truly had a great time. There's far too many people that we met for the first time, saw after a long time or that came and supported us and the other bands, even when they were poorly (Jane Guest, I'm looking at you, you beautiful human!).
Oh! I also want to give a massive shout out to the incredible performance that The AfroBians gave earlier on Sunday. For those of you who caught it - how incredibly fresh and exciting are they? They're SO talented and original, and we're absolutely rooting for them!
Our next performance is at Soul Revolution festival, where we'll be embracing positivity in the finest and achieving solace with beautifully-minded individuals.
A huge congratulations to everyone who was involved in Birmingham International Ska and Reggae Festival - The First Edition! Let's hope for many many more.
Please do check out these fine fine musical people:
and there's so many more... so please like and follow Birmingham International Ska and Reggae Festival and make sure to let them know they need to do it all again next year!
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