Back and almost recovered from Bearded Theory Festival.

The heat made it pretty hard work and meant that I missed a few acts as either couldn't get in to a tent or had retreated to a place of shade and rest for a while.

However, The Unthanks at night in a Woodland copse were superb, and I just about avoided a full blubber during King of Rome  

Other standout performances for me were Skunk Anansie, better than when I saw them 30 years ago. Kate Nash, fierce, angry, funny and with a great all female band. Walpurgis, a one off 'super-group' featuring Mike Vennart of Oceansize & Biffy Clyro fame who did a set of Ozzy era Black Sabbath, introduced by Stewart Lee. It was genuinely more authentic to the original sound than any of the times I have seen the real Sabbath. And lastly, Garbage who put on the best show I've ever seen  them do. The band were heavy and tight and, at 59 and following a double hip replacement, Shirley Manson is a new woman.

I look forward to doing it all again next year.

Good innings, but Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra) still going strong at 102!

BTW, Miles Davis was born 100 years ago today - another music colossus (IMHO), but a deeply flawed person.

Saw Kate Rusby at the Corn Exchange in Exeter on Saturday.  It was rather hot in the room (no air conditioning and a near sell-out!), but it was good to see the Barnsley Nightingale for the first time in a few years (probably when she was at Cropredy).

Reg Meuross at the tiny family chapel in Crewe Hall , capacity about 25. No amplification and no lighting apart from the fading light through the stained glass windows. Absolutely magical. Reg has been one of my favourite songwriters for a while and is certainly up there with the best of British (IMO) including Sean Cooney and Difford and Tilbrook. (Bob Kettle would be in there too if he was a little more prolific). Looking forwars to seeing Reg again at Bodelwyddan in a few weeks and especially at NFFF with The Fire and Dust Band featuring Marion , Phil Beer , Geraint Watkins etc, could Pete Townshend turn up?, probably not.

Sonny Rollins https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1e224dwz18o

Poundland could, I suppose, best be described as Hawkwind at their most witless being fronted by (say) one of the less likeable characters from The League of Gentlemen TV series. If you ever hated The Fall or Captain Beefheart, they embodied everything that drove you to that conclusion. Even if you did like The Fall or Trout Mask Replica, there would be something to take away from their performance to lead you to reappraise your opinion.
EMF on the other hand embodied all the best of The Stooges meets Joy Division in an exhilarating and self deprecating (“We’re the face of Ipswich’s City of Culture bid - it’s us, Jah Warriors, Extreme Noise Terror and Ed Sheeran. We love CoC!”) cavalcade of noisecore, riffage and sonic road movies. “We were expecting a bigger audience” they opened with, “And better looking. But we’ll work with what we’ve got”
The Baths is part of the impressive regeneration of the Ipswich music scene by Brighten the Corners in that they now run four or five venues of various sizes in the town and - trivia buffs - was host to the fourth ever live performance of Stairway to Heaven.

Which was which?  Tell us (much) more

Antigen Records’ anniversary party at The Baths in the heart of swinging downtown Ipswich featuring Earth Mother f****r and Poundland. One of the best and worst bands I’ve ever seen on a single bill.

I think Andy meant he only saw him once because Andy himself didn’t start attending til 2004… I believe Dennis’ first appearance was 2003.

He definitely played twice . the second time was the best so was probably 2012. There were not many years between the two. The first may have been at short notice.