FRIDAY 7 September 2001

Today's GRIEF SOCIETY gig is at the Fox & Goose in Southport in Merseyside.

Takes us ages to get there as we've got the slowest van in the world. Plus the infamous M6 traffic jams slow us down considerably.

SUNDAY 2 September 2001...

Today's GRIEF SOCIETY gig is at the K-Live Music and Arts Festival in Kettering (Northamptonshire). The weather is more than a little bit unsettled and it doesn't look to me to be a decent day to be playing an outdoor festival.

Steve arrives to pick me up around 12:15 (that's just after midday!!) and he is being depressingly cheerful! He's hurt his back so he might not be able to lift anything. for some reason this makes him even happier as I lug my equipment into the back of the motor.

It's only about 25 minutes to half an hour down the road and Don and Stef are meeting us there. I have childhood memories of going on the mini railway at the festival site, but I decide to keep this to myself (I later discover that Steve has the same memories but that's another story...)

The festival itself is in the middle of the park site and its quite nicely laid out. Rather than 'Party in the Park' Steve dubs it 'Picnic in the Park' on account of the family orientated atmosphere.

The stage is two massive Weetabix trucks put together and its a fairly large stage, nicely laid out. Because there's a number of bands on with a relatively short set up time there's no time to get a soundcheck so it's pretty much straight on and straight into it.

It's hard work!! There's no other way to describe it. The onstage sound is OK (with a smattering of feedback) but it takes a bit of getting used to. With no walls to bounce back off the sound goes straight out into a field and we can't quite hear what's going on. This has quite a dramatic effect on my singing and its a couple of songs before I get to grips with it all. I look around to see how things are going for the others and see that Steve is frowning and whacking the hell out of his kit. Then Don breaks a string and does one of the fastest guitar changes I've ever seen.

From then on everything settles down and it all seems to be plain sailing before a mellowed out and polite crowd. (Or maybe they were all stoned, who knows?)

Not a bad gig, a nice Sunday out and a good vibe all 'round.

...and I got to see that mini railway again....