Saturday 12 February 2011
| 6.30 am | Dave from Creative and Dan from Phoenix FM/Tibetan Tea Company get to the centre and start assembling the studio for the day’s recordings. |
| 8.55 am | Paul from Phoenix FM arrives to watch. |
| 9.30 am | The first band of the day, PROTEGE REIGN are playing their three songs – State Of Love, Rain and Soulfinder. |
| 10.15 am | SUCK MY DEFORMITY have started their session – the second Creative Session they’ve done for Phoenix FM. Their Greendayesque trio of songs are Is It Wrong, March Of The Wildebeest (very appropriate given the surroundings) and Spread The Disease (hopefully not so appropriate). |
| 11.30 am | Young band MACKLEY DRIVE finish their set, sounding very much like a cross between Muse and Supergrass! Phoenix FM’s Steve Robertson chats to the band afterwards. |
| 12.00 pm | Slightly ahead of schedule, the TIBETAN TEA COMPANY launch into their first song. |
| 12.15 pm | The Tibetan Tea Company are finished, and off to have an interview with Steve. Time for the first rest of the day? |
| 12.25 pm | We’re actually so far ahead of schedule that LEE BOWERS has been bumped up the order and he’s currently cranking out the first of three songs from his acoustic set. |
| 1.15 pm | IMOGEN HEAP has arrived and duly performs three songs – Wait It Out, The Moment I Said It and First Train Home. Everyone is unusally quiet and we seem to have more people here, about 20 or so! We have a chat with her and she then poses for a few photos with people before she heads back to her busy schedule. |
| 2.00 pm | Up to session number seven and we have THE BRIGHTS from Chelmsford in, playing their first session for Phoenix FM. And I think we hear the first cover of the day – California Dreaming? Alex interviews them afterwards and our gazebo is invaded by dogs. |
| 3.15 pm | LADY GREY AND THE EARLS are warming up, playing an acoustic set for us. In the meantime more Phoenix FM have been and gone. Will was here but returned to the studio to do his show. Graham and Nick are also here with Steve R and Paul. Dan has gone home to get some sleep! |
| 4.00 pm | Still on schedule and a bit of bluesy rock from OLIVER SOUTHGATE and his band. |
| 5.00 pm | Need something loud to keep us going … only one-third of the way through the 24 hours! Luckily SABATTA are here, and they are loud. |
| 6.15 pm | THE SCARLET ECHO are up next, playing their first session for Phoenix FM. The current line up have only been together for a few months but they’re keeping busy with gigs and writing. |
| 6.50 pm | Getting ahead of schedule again … Southend’s BIG DOGG have brought down a bit of soul, funk and jazz with them. They’re keeping busy this year playing a number of festivals including the Strawberry Fair in Chelmsford. |
| 8.00 pm | Great set from STEVE WHITE AND THE PROTEST FAMILY – good to hear bouzoukis, mandolins and songs about banks, McDonalds and Leyton Orient! |
| 9.00 pm | HYPER BLONDE have arrived next, the first of Phil Edey’s two bands to play a session in the 24 hours. Great rock songs, great energy, going down very well with the couple of dozen people still in attendance at the Centre. |
| 10.20 pm | After a few teething troubles the Filthy Vibe get going, a new line-up with Andy West from 3rd Rock Revolution on vocals. After their two-song set, we’re informed that they’ve changed their name to FILTHY REVOLUTION … |
| 10.55 pm | SNEEZY T’S are now up and running and we’re listening to the 16th session of the day – the sound of a Virginia car wreck. |
Sunday 13 February 2011
| 12.10 am | Just under nine hours to go, should be a doddle! TEN TIGERS are here and setting up, fresh from their gig with the Lovely Eggs last weekend. Three songs duly despatched including the first sax solo of the day. We interview the band at 1.15 am in the park and it is a lot colder than last time we went out! | |
| 1.25 am | HERIDA start their set and we appreciate the noise, there’s a few red eyes in the room. Will and Nick from Phoenix FM are still here, Dave and Leena have just returned from their gig at the Rush Green Well, and Ed Wellman is rumoured to be on his way. | |
| 2.30 am | Wonderful sounds coming out of TURTLE SOUP right now. Steve Segar’s guitar is fantastic, and Phil, who was on drums with Hyper Blonde a few hours ago, is now on a djembe drum. | |
| 3.15 am | Our 20th band of the day, SLEEP TALK (formerly known as Loyal 2 No 1) are warming up rather loudly. We don’t think we’re going to get any more sleepy now, only five more to go! Ed will be chatting to his former music pupils later. | |
| 4.00 am | You wouldn’t expect RUSSELL AND THE WOLF CHOIR to be a solo artist, but he is. The first acoustic act for a while, just Russell and his guitar right now. It’s also the 100th Creative Session since we started doing them in December 2005. | |
| 5.00 am | Ed, Will, Dan, Nick and Paul are still here, staying through the night. Next band up is WALK IN COMA – looks like it was a good idea to get all the loud bands in the middle of the night … | |
| 5.45 am | Shortest set of the day came from Benfleet’s BARRIE MILES. In, three songs, interview and out in about 20 minutes! | |
| 6.35 am | A bit of a lull while we wait for the penultimate band … | |
| 7.00 am | CORPORAL MACHINE AND THE BOMBERS make it in at their allotted time and despite having the biggest band of the day (six people) AND a tuba, there’s no messing around … straight into their anti-folk/Romford punk! | |
| 7.51 am | The New Giants’ JOHN BENNETT has come in ahead of schedule, played out his three songs and we’re all done. |
THANK YOU to Dave, Leena, Chris, Lee and Simon from Creative, to everyone from Phoenix who helped out on the day, to all the staff at the Essex Wildlife Trust for their generous loan of the visitor centre for the weekend and to Dan for arranging it, and to all the bands who made it happen.
