She was a Swansea legend, would arrive at her local pub and sing all evening with the locals.

She'll be especially mourned in South Wales.

Very sad news

Somewhere secreted away I've got their autographs from when they were Dave Dee and the Bostons!

Oh no, that is sad news.

Bonnie Tyler, aged 75, following emergency intestinal surgery in May.   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9326rq1509t?

I agree.

Begs the question, why open at 9.00. I think it happens at most festivals if you say 7.00 people arrive at 6.00 to be at the front of the queue for a better pitch but with new forest non of the pitches are better or worse and non are too far away from the arena, why not open at 12.00 knowing people will get there at 11.00. I'm sure there has been much discussion and learning over the years and of course there will be the unexpected on the day problems to deal with but it just seems that  by telling people they can arrive at 9.00 it is compounding the problem.

Only one of them left now

I met Beaky in 2009 at his club The Gig in Benavista in Spain where my brother-in-law was living. He was a great host, chatted to everyone and sang “With A Girl Like You” (The Troggs song, not the Rutles) for me.

RIP Beaky

From Facebook:

Hello all, Ash's son Blair here.

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments re: Dad's health update last week. It's been lovely reading the well wishes, and Dad was very touched by the outpouring of love.

Dad has settled very well into his new home. He is receiving residential care, and is adjusting to it admirably. We watched the Egypt vs Argentina game last night and both agreed that Egypt should hold their heads up high after a valiant effort! I guess we'll have to knock out Argentina ourselves...

As mentioned before, we sadly had to knock the Guv'nor Podcast on the head (at least for the foreseeable future). The final episode was only live for a few days, as it was the only way to avoid patrons being charged an extra month.

As requested by a few people, I'm reuploading the episode so people can have a chance to listen to what me and my Mum recorded on the day of Dad's discharge. We spoke candidly about the situation as we thought it the best way to deal with the situation. Maybe at some point we will reupload the rest of the Guv'nor Podcast archive, but I guess that's something to be discussed down the line...

Thanks to everyone who listened and supported. Our monthly chats gave Dad so much pleasure, and that wouldn't have happened without the loyal podders!

Again, thanks for all the comments and love re: Dad's health. We're all very touched.

Much love,
Blair, Judy and - of course - The Guv x

Episode available below. It's on Soundcloud so it's free for everyone to listen to 👇


Guv'nor Podcast Episode 48. Goodbye, for now x

Just so there's no doubt: the festival Q&A and the information leaflet about it and the email sent out all say that the gates open at 9:00am but the camping fields don't open until noon. Some people do conflate the two, but they are different. Currently the license for the festival camping runs from noon on Wednesday to noon on Monday, so unless that license is changed, queueing will continue for people arriving before noon and those after noon will be queueing behind the early arrivals. The Police won't let us send early arrivals around the block, fyi. I agree that the holding field is not the right solution.


A number of factors exacerbated the situation on Wednesday morning, including a fatal traffic accident on the A36 first delaying, then releasing, a high number of festivalgoers, causing us to have a massive bump in numbers at one point.

But that's no excuse. We recognise that the holding field is a temporary measure whose time has hopefully come to an end. We're working to get a better system in place for next year.

My apologies for the inconvenience caused. We're working on it.