talent is on show a plenty at Glastonbury Calling 2016

Glastonbury Calling 2016

Saturday 27th February 2016
various venues, Glastonbury, Somerset, BA6 8DB, England MAP
£11

Well its February and cold, but here I am in Glastonbury, obviously not for the other festival but for a new one Glastonbury Calling. This festival has been set up as a fundraiser for Glastonbury FM and will showcase local talent and some other acts from further afield.

Set within the town itself the music is held in four of the local pubs/bars, namely The Riflemans (a beautiful old pub closest to the Tor), The Hawthorns (an intimate pub with the smallest music area, but central to the town), King Arthur's (a smaller fronted pub which disguised its large performance space at the rear of the building - also just off the town centre) and the Bocabar (largest of the venues but a bit of a trek out of the town towards Street). It's the first year for this new venture and so it'll be interesting to see how it goes. The budget ticket price of £10 sees you entry into all the music venues and with so many performers on across the town provides real value for your money. I've opted for hotel accommodation for the night at a chain hotel, purposely out nearer to the Bocabar with my festival companion staying at a B&B in the centre of town. Both our options were sub £50 and there are plenty of different places to stay in and around Glastonbury suiting all pocket depths.

Music starts out in the early afternoon at the "Rifs", which is on the opposite side of the town to where I'm staying, so I drop Ruth there and head off to pick up some local cider and park my car up for the night. a brisk twenty minute walk back. I exchange my ticket for a wristband and programme and I'm in time to catch Tolly Snell's set. He opens with 'White Hare' a cover of Seth Lakeman's, he's a Solo acoustic guitar (from literally just down the road) who continues with some of his own penned compositions, 'Winter's Arms' and 'The Chase'. With plenty of music to choose from we decided to head off into the town centre, a short walk away.

We potter through the town taking in some of the sights and sounds of the place. Glastonbury always has a buzz about it and with a rich mixture of people around it. A quick stop for lunch, of which the choices are plentiful, from expensive restaurants to more affordable café eating, though I choose the simplest, a portion of chips from Knights, handily near the Hawthorn's venue. Knowing where that is now and properly orientated using the map handily provided in the programme, its off back along to King Arthur's for Apherium.

Theirs is a sharp set, which seemed short but I think just flew by, playing lots from their forthcoming ep. A modern melodic rock with the odd hit of screaming. Any Other Day are on next in the King Arthur, which appears to be the louder venue. A young group fronted by an energetic female singer. They hold a reasonable sized crowd in this fair sized hall.

Billy Shinbone (of Flipron) along at the Hawthorns. this is small intimate setting with a quiet listening audience, clapping in a "pâté" of sound. He sings songs of the floods on the levels and bunches of flowers on guitar and banjo and welcomes two musicians further on in the second half of his set with tunes about temptation and another bunch of flowers!

We make a supper stop in the George and Pilgrim, a beautifully atmospheric hotel/restaurant of some age and ghostly repute. The nut roast I had was excellent as was the choices of drinks which included locally produced Heck's Kingston Black cider!

Its a bit of a walk out to the Bocabar from the town, but worth it for me as this is where I'll be for the rest of the evening. this is the largest of the venues taking part in this inaugural Glastonbury calling. It's a re-purposed industrial building with low slung girdered ceiling, the seating is a mix of tables and chairs with sofas around the outer edges with coffee tables, all very relaxed and a nice little buzz about the place. I managed to catch the end of Chloe and her band's set which was an upbeat deal, I'll look her music up some more. plenty of beers available here to including most of Cornwall's Sharp's offerings and a more local bath ales Gem which does for me. It's onto Funke and the Two Tone Baby who has travelled a good 3 hrs to get here (a there n back doable trip he tells me). This guy gigs all over the country at many of the festivals too, though never at Pilton's Glastonbury Festival, and so asks the audience if anyone knows Michael, no luck for him tonight though. He's a whirlwind of a musician playing guitar and harmonica and heavy loopback use allowing for a real depth of sound and intensity to his performances. He manages to coax some dancing out of his crowd and participation too.

Foreign Affairs appear tonight as a two piece act (I'm sure there were three in the band when I last saw them). They play a modern country style which is tight, polished and enjoyable. this band of brothers share the vocals, guitar work and percussion duties between them and it seems to work well.

Last up for this venue and rounding of the day for me are Bridges, who played a great set but unfortunately to a dwindling audience. These guys play well together and I'd guess that's through gigging hard and they appeared to be so comfortable that most of them played in their socks. Personally I don't know much of their material but another band that I'll have to look up more of and bound to catch on a bigger stage soon I'm sure.

I feel the whole event was a success (including raising some decent funds for its cause), each of the venues played their parts well and the sound for all the acts I saw was top notch. If Ian, his team and the venues can build on this first festival then I'm sure it has a place within the festival circuit and I for one will be happy to return.