Dorset is positively bulging with festivals over the next week or so, veritably splitting apart at its verdant and aquatic borders with musical goodies.
There’s the Beach Live shenanigans in Weymouth, with nearly 60 bands appearing on the stage on the beach between Friday 8th and Sunday 17th July, the Christchurch Festival, on an idyllic spot on the banks of the River Stour, the Lyme Regis Jazz Festival at venues all around that town, a Boogie Festival in Sturminster Newton and a Cider Festival in Upwey.
So many festivals, so hard to choose which one to wang on about. Well, the details are all in the Gig Guide, the who, the what, the where and the when, so I shall do my wanging about something else. I have also just written ‘the who’ in a sentence without breaking the rules of grammar, which has made my day. It’s the little things.
Instead, the wanging in question will focus on the collaboration between Hourglass Promotions and Weymouth Pavilion, which has brought some great gigs to The Crow’s Nest bar in the Pavy recently and pulled off a blinder last Wednesday 29th with the concert featuring Sepultura, Bull Riff Stampede and Kill The Conversation, which nearly took the roof off the place and has Facebook and the like all of a twitter with tales of ‘best gig ever’ and suffering eardrums.
It’s so good to see the Pavy stepping beyond its usual remit of tribute bands and 60s revival acts and bringing relevant contemporary bands back to what is a great venue. It’s happened before – in the 60s, bands such as Pink Floyd, Free, Yes, Procol Harum and The Nice all graced that same venue when they were right at the top of their game.
The Hourglass/Pavy partnership has a series of intriguing gigs booked through the summer, including Flood Of Red, My Passion, Kids Can’t Fly and Glamour Of The Kill over the next few weeks. The bonus is that local bands are being given the chance to do support to these national acts, gaining invaluable experience (and an enhanced CV) in the process.
Speaking of invaluable experience, you may have read in the Echo the story of 22-year-old Matt Turnbull and 20-year-old Shelley Goodall’s forthcoming trip to Kenya on a Leading Edge expedition in association with the Dorset Expeditionary Society.
The pair will be involved in projects ranging from education to health to carpentry, and Dave Taylor of Rumshack fame has organised a gig at the venue on Saturday 3rd July featuring the Lo Numbers and Hybrid in support of the venture.
The Lo Numbers will be taking to the stage at 7.30pm, followed by Hybrid at 9.30pm. Admission is free, but the staff at the Rumshack will be going amongst the revellers over the weekend in hope of enticing donations for the expedition, so if you wake up one morning after a night out at the venue this weekend and find yourself short of a few quid, it’s probably gone to a noble cause.
Comments are closed.