There was no way I was going to miss Violet Violet, who were first on at the Loud Women Stage. Fliss Kitson, the dance-behind-the-kit drummer from The Nightingales, had a teenage band with Cherie Percy and I'd watched their videos on Youtube. Here they were harking back to their young selves, but in the freshest and most powerful way you could possibly imagine. I loved them: they are such excellent musicians. The bass player was going through an Ampeg stack, the guitar amp was a Marshall, the drums were Fliss (nuff said) and the sound was loud and strong. I loved it that they were playing songs they'd written when they were eighteen, about friendship and horrible boyfriends and all that sort of stuff. There was this great almost motorik drive behind the songs, probably largely due to Fliss's power drumming. I also really enjoyed the vocal interplay- and it reminded me just how powerful unison singing is. It was the late Mat Fox of The Happy End who pointed out to me that unison anything (let alone vocals) is enormously forceful.
Bang! It was a great start to the day!
Then I rushed up to the Literary Stage for the rest of Mollie Tye's talk on her book, Rebel Grrrls. I am going to buy the book but couldn't on this occasion because my luggage was already giving me the weight of an elephant on two stalk legs. But it was very interesting to hear her talk about it: about Straightedge and aspects of punk that were outside my experience. Afterwards, two very nice people who had been at my thing at the Almost Acoustic stage caught up with me to buy my book and a CD- and bought Mollie's book too. They run a label in the West Country, and I had a great chat with them about music and other stuff. They offered to release my next record, which they'd heard live the day before. I don't think I could have had a better compliment for the brand new songs.
I hung out for a bit backstage and chatted to Jo Catlow-Morris, who is absolutely wonderful. Between them she and Paul Raggity make the whole Literary Stage run really smoothly. We all missed Dominic Warwick, the heartbeat of the stage, this year, but he should be up and running again next festival.
(it's really irritating because Google keeps 'correcting' my spelling and getting everything wrong, and I sometimes don't see it until I've published it. If you're a person that it's 'helped' me to spell your name wrong, please forgive me!)
So on to Shanne Bradley, who in true rock'n'roll spirit had been up till dawn the night before. But she did a good interview, mainly because not only is she funny, but she has some brilliant memories of the sheer oddness of those early punk times when nobody knew it was going to be what it eventually became. That's the peculiar thing, isn't it? Here's this massive festival dedicated to the music and the mindset of a massive cultural phenomenon, but nobody sat down with a business plan and worked it all out beforehand. Maybe Malcolm McLaren said he had, but I've always had the impression that he was completely chaotic and was rather good at claiming credit for things after they had happened!
Afterwards I chatted to Toby Woby and Kassy, who are in a The Sweet covers band in memory of Brian Connolly. That's one of the best things about Rebellion- the chatting with people around the edges of everything else. Someone complimented on my guitar playing yesterday so my head has swollen to the size of a pumpkin; they heard the blues guitarists that I listened to in my style. That was just a passing chat but it was great to hear.
In true Rebellion style, the train back to London from Preston was cancelled. I won't go into it. You know what I'm going to say before I've even said it. But I got home, and ate an almost half a French stick with cheese. Most of the Rebellion food is curry, either cauliflower or sweet potato. It's lovely the first time, but after three goes the shine wears off it all. You ok at it, and no matter how ravenous you are (very), your body says 'no'. I also drank a bucket of tea. Although there's no place like home, I am so glad that I get to go to Rebellion: it's a cluster of mad sanity, a bubble of a world that somehow by default manages to enhance your sense of wellbeing for a whole year. Long may she rule!
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