Friday 15th & Saturday 16th July
Another fantastic weekend at Reggufam headquarters! I suppose this weekend the Reggufam headquarters was mainly the car...
We started off our weekend travelling to Todd in the Hole festival in Stevenage, Herts. Local people, you will know what we mean about Birmingham traffic on a Friday. Our lady Sax did an amazing job driving and we arrived in plenty of time to get to the stage.
Unfortunately, the staff seemed a little bit confused - despite us having parking permits for the stage we were at, 1 car ended up in VIP, which was apparently different to the 'artists' parking, and 2 cars ended up in what we think was just the main car park... Then we had a mad dash to try and get all the way across the festival to our stage, which was right the way over the other side! Amps and all! It was hot and far lol.
We did have a giggle when we collared a fella on a quad bike with a trailer. Next thing you know, Clive and some amps are scooting off towards to booking office! He was holding on to his hat.
Trials and tribulations unfortunately made us late starting the set, as once we eventually reached the stage the sound engineers had to set us up etc. It was a shorter set than we intended, but the feedback was really good! The sound engineers were absolutely fantastic with us, especially Greg, who we really enjoyed working with. We got to see some familiar musicians' faces as well who happened to be at the festival too! It was a shame the communication wasn't great between the staff as the festival itself seemed really cool.
We headed back home to Brum and got in our beds late and hoping the sun didn't fetch us out of them too soon for Saturday!
When Saturday arrived, we all buddied-up again with travelling, and off we went in the opposite direction to Friday, for about the same amount of time, to a land where the accents are almost as strong as ours - the lovely city of Bradford. This was our very first trip to Bradford, and we have to say, as much as the one-way system was annoying, the people and the venue were bloomin' amazing. We unloaded and got in for sound check. There was lots to set up so we were shown to the green room for a chill out and a cuppa. What a fabulous green room - overlooking the busy streets of Bradford through original pane glass windows, modernised inside with a comfy sofa, lovely carpet, two toilets and a dressing room with a bar for doing your makeup and hair (obviously the men didn't really utilise this part!) They'd got milk in the fridge, tea, coffee, biscuits. Every plug had USB ports as well which was a god send after a few hours on the road.
Soundcheck was so much fun! We had a new bass player helping us out for Bradford - the FANTASTIC James Crosdale. What. A. Vibe!
Somehow, we ended up accidentally learning a new tune, which uses the 'LOVE BUMP' riddim. This works for Sanchez's 'Missing You' and Freddie McGregor's 'Love You Too Much'. You can check out the videos here on the website or on our Youtube channel.
Back in the green room, we checked out some videos of Clive on bass playing with Macka B, and talked about how he never really changes much!
The show was awesome. The Tickles crowd were ready to party from GO! Lots up and dancing from the first song. We're very happy to have debuted our cover of Dennis Brown's Promised Land which was absolutely firing! Now that is reggae music!
The staff and management at Tickles were just beyond awesome. Highly recommended venue for musicians, bands, artists and of course those looking for a quality night out. The place just lends itself to that live music vibe. We're back in October and we actually just can't wait to go back!
There were a few snoozing musicians on the way home, but we got there eventually. Honestly, it never gets old. We are always humbled and know how blessed we are to have people who enjoy what we do. We're thankful for the management who approach us to come and play at your venues and meet new crowds. And of course, we are so so proud of our top quality musicians, bringing the best brand of reggae to everyone who joins us, wherever we are.
If you'd like to check out Todd in the Hole festival, you can find them on social media, or you may see us in their website highlights: https://toddinthehole.co.uk/
We strongly suggest trying a night out at Tickles in Bradford. You can find them here: http://tickleslivemusichall.co.uk/
If you'd like to see Clive in his full 80's glory you can see the video for Macka B & Mikey Dread with Prewax here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK04f_pm2-E
If you'd like to check out our YT channel for our videos over the weekend: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFZXV8Nj-mjDeT4zuAowxsw
Thank you again for supporting us, reggae, live music and good vibes
Comments