Chris Butler
The Tallington Ashes 2006
I’m sure most of you who read this are familiar with the band Blyth Power and
their annual weekender in Lincolnshire by now. If not, all you need to know is:
This was the 6th annual festival called The Tallington Ashes. It’s a weekend of
outdoor music with a cricket game sandwiched in between the music during the
Saturday afternoon. It’s held at The Whistle Stop pub, Tallington, Lincolnshire,
a few miles to the east of Stamford. I’d played the previous 5 weekends and
wouldn’t have missed this year’s for the world. It’s free admission to all the
music held over the weekend in the beer garden of the pub but there’s a small
£5.00 charge to pitch a tent on the campsite behind The Whistle Stop’s beer
garden. Each year seems to attract a larger crowd and this year was no
exception. The festival ran from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th August and here are a
few recollections…
We actually headed off in the direction of Lincolnshire on the Wednesday morning
prior to the festival. We’d decided to have a couple of days at Rutland Water
before moving onto Lincolnshire and arrived at Rutland on Wednesday lunchtime.
We checked into our hotel in Oakham and then headed off to the water itself. It
was a real shame that after the great weather we’d been having over the summer,
it had suddenly become cloudy, cold and wet over the last few days and was the
last thing we wanted for walking around the outdoors of Rutland Water and
certainly not while camping out at Tallington later on that week. The hotel was
very nice (though a bit more posh than what I am used to without being
expensive) and the buffet style breakfast each morning was great for a non-meat
eater like me. The weather brightened up for the Thursday and we had a full day
at Rutland Water seeing lots of different bird species. We saw Shelduck, Common
Sandpiper, Reed Bunting, Willow Tit and Greenshank amongst other birds for the
first time ever as well as the bird of prey that we had hoped to see on our
visit – Ospreys. It was our main reason for our visit, the chance to see
Ospreys, and we did see three of them very clearly from one of the bird hides
and it was our first highlight of the few days away to see these magnificent
birds in flight and on their nest.
Friday came and time to move onto Tallington via Stamford (checking out the town
and shops for a while) and so we arrived at The Whistle Stop at around 2pm in
the afternoon and we weren’t the first to arrive even at that time. We quickly
erected our tent so we could go and get some lunch in the pub. While there was
nothing happening during the afternoon, it gave us a chance to head over to the
Tallington Lakes (which is just a 5 minute walk away) for some more bird
watching. We did see a few different ducks and wading birds before heading back
to The Whistle Stop to chill out before the entertainment. First act was The
Lying Scotsman who were a good act to kick things off. Some fine acoustic guitar
playing as I recall and a good choice of songs including covers of Great Big Sea
and Chumbawamba songs. Jessi Adams of Eastfield sang and played acoustic guitar
on a couple of songs with them and that was great to watch too and made it my
6th gig with Jessi as well as the 9 with Eastfield. Phil Doleman followed and I
was really pleased with the reception he got. He had a great sound and the crowd
enjoyed his set including such songs as Maureen, Up A Tree, Rock N Roll Casualty
and 7 Inches. This was my 12th gig with Phil and it’s always nice to see him
play. Cracktown were the next act on and demonstrated again the diversity that
is The Tallington Ashes weekend. The Hull based duo played some great
alternative country style acoustic music with a heavy dose of social commentary,
a Phil Ochs cover version and some absolutely foul language. It wont make a lot
of sense to you as I type this but whenever the harmonica playing cowboy cried
“I touch your face” in an almost Papa Lazarou (from The League Of Gentlemen)
style voice and touched an audience member’s face, it did make me laugh. I think
you perhaps had to be there, and it certainly gave me something to annoy my
partner with over the weekend… After Cracktown was my performance. I got a 45
minute spot and have to admit that it wasn’t the best gig I’ve ever done. I
started dreadfully as I couldn’t hear the guitar through the monitor on stage
until Phil Doleman came up to lend a hand with the PA. I struggled with the
first song from start to finish basically. Also, the guitar was slightly out of
tune, though I couldn’t hear that through the monitors and so that wouldn’t have
helped the first song sound any better! Things got better though, as I got it
together, got things under control and even enjoyed my set a lot. Phil improved
things by playing both harmonica and percussion (at the same time!) on Sharks
Against Surfers and I did play Welcome To Hell and We Try for the first time
ever. My full set was: - Johnny No-Following, Don’t Vote BNP, Tony’s Date With
The Devil, Welcome To Hell, Don’t Come Back, A Good Upbringing, Sharks Against
Surfers, The Tallington Ashes, We Try, The Council Workers Strike, Wish You Were
Here, Just Do It! Steven Cooper And The Charlies followed my set to round off
the Friday evening’s entertainment. Steven (of Blyth Power/ Red Wedding) is the
singer and guitarist and the accompanying Charlies were Joseph Porter (of Blyth
Power/Red Wedding) on drums, Bambi (of Eastfield) on bass and Trina (also of
Eastfield) on vocals. They were excellent and my next highlight of the weekend.
Steven’s relaxed attitude and great on stage banter is always a joy to watch.
He’s a great performer but also has the songs to match it. The set consisted of
all the songs from the CD (Life In The Shallow End) which I couldn’t recommend
highly enough. It’s a great CD of up tempo catchy punk songs with some touching
and humorous lyrics. Thanks must go to Steven for name checking me as an ok
singer songwriter too! It’s much appreciated Steven. Also, I must thank the guy
who was walking around all weekend in the ‘Chris Butler - Folk Hero’ T-Shirt.
It’s great publicity for me!
Saturday was a really hot summer’s day from the moment I awoke. After the
customary cooked breakfast in Stamford, we headed back to The Whistle Stop in
time for the music to start. Funsponge, Daddy Those Men Scare Me, New York Scum
Haters and Rachel Pantechnicon all appearing before the cricket match took
place. Again, with little space on the campsite this year, the annual match
between Joseph Porter’s team and Chris’s (Eastfield drummer) team was played in
the beer garden just in front of the stage area. The match was won by Chris and
the presentation of the plastic train filled with cigarette ends was a moment
for Chris to be proud of. The music then started again with Jack, Project Adorno,
Pog and then another highlight for me: Eastfield. An excellent set with the band
sounding great and on top form. Aspartame, Drive On Henry, Vic Berry, God’s
Plastic Railway, Burt Reynolds, Pepper etc! Lots of great songs and a set that
always finishes before you would have liked. Wob then calmed things down
slightly with his acoustic playing. Wob’s got a great voice and plays the guitar
well and had the crowd listening or singing along to every song. Then it was
time for Blyth Power to close the evening. A mixture of songs from the new CD
(Fall Of Iron) such as Bomber Harris and Born In A Different England as well as
some classic Blyth Power songs such as Vane Tempest, Ixion, Animal Farm, Marius
Moves and It’s Probably Going To Rain. Chris of Eastfield joining the band on
drums for a version of the Zounds song Dancing was great also. Yet another
highlight of a great weekend.
We couldn’t stick around for the entertainment on the Sunday lunchtime so after packing up our tent on the Sunday morning, we headed home to have some late breakfast and a bath. If the music was anything like the previous two days, I’m sure it went well. Another Tallington Ashes over and another great weekend. Thanks to everyone who took an interest, to Blyth Power for all the hard work organising the acts as well as the event itself (and for letting me play yet again), thanks also to Eastfield for the friendship, support and for letting me cover their song, thanks also to Phil Doleman for help, support and friendship and to Loz for being there.
Also see: Tallington 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
The Tallington Ashes song
Instructions:
Right-click your mouse on the
above song title to download the song in MP3 format. Choose save target as...
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you have a normal dial-up connection.
As you can see, after appearing at the Tallington Ashes each year, I’ve written some sort of diary or review of the event. It’s just a bit of fun and it’s good to put my thoughts onto the website for anyone who didn’t get the chance to get to those festivals. But I was thinking, really, I’m just this writer of songs. I’m no Patrick McCabe or Iain Aitch and I didn’t take any photographs to accompany the write up for the 2003 article so I thought I’d put the Tallington experience into song!
Written in 2003 © Chris Butler. Recorded live at Terry’s, Belper, Derbyshire on 20/01/2004. Thanks to Terry and Allan for making it possible and to Blyth Power for having me along from time to time.
The Tallington Ashes
It’s always nice to get away
A break from work, some rest and play
So with my clothes and my tent in the car
And not forgetting my acoustic guitar
I head for Tallington
I like to set off around mid-day
I like to take my time and find my way
Arriving sometime in the afternoon
It’s always over all to soon
In Tallington
Out on the campsite pitching my tent
There’s pieces missing and the pegs are bent
With our home fixed up we’re high and dry
It’s now that we’ve finally arrived
In Tallington
Meeting friends not seen all year
Laughing and talking over a beer
Sharing a joke or sharing some food
It puts us in a real good mood
For Tallington
I tune my guitar for my Friday night spot
And I think of all the songs that I’ve not forgot
Joseph’s on form and he’s sounding fine
With his tale of poor old Rubenstein
In Tallington
At the end of the night it’s back to the tent
It doesn’t really matter how my playing went
It feels so good when I play my songs
I’m on top of the world all night long
In Tallington
Saturday comes and no sign of rain
It’s time to start the cricket game
I’m soon bowled out, so much for winning
“ And with grace I retired from my innings”
In Tallington
Soon it’s time for the bands to play
And we sing and dance the night away
I love live music in the open air
But the trains roaring by don’t seem to care
Much for Tallington
As the sun goes down more bands do play
And beer and food is tucked away
Eastfield are playing faster and louder
With a grin and a guitar it’s Jessi’s hour
In Tallington
Now it’s the time we’ve been waiting for
Blyth Power playing for a hour or more
Alnwick and Tyne- It sounds just right
Marius Moves and Signalman White
Are in Tallington
It’s off to our tents for the final night
With our sleeping bags all zipped up tight
With a smile on my face and a buzz in my ears
We’ll do it all again- Next year
In Tallington.