Festival season is in full swing and this weekend saw this year’s Village Green take place in Southend’s Chalkwell Park. 22,000 people enjoyed around 900 artists performing on the 11 stages and I can say I was one of these people and enjoyed every minute. The weather was glorious, the entertainment was superb and I must also give big thanks to everyone involved in putting on the event which included 140 volunteers and 100 production staff, a tip of my hat to all of you. In this case I don’t have a hat to hand so it’s a metaphorical one.
I got to see great performances from Eight Rounds Rapid, Whom By Fire, Kathryn Williams, Eddi Reader, Asylums to name but a few. With so much going on it was hard to squeeze everything in.
I also got to have a chat with the lovely Kathryn Williams before she took the stage. You can have a listen to the interview below. Be warned it features myself partially succumbing to my inner music geek screaming at getting to meet an artist I’ve been a fan of and admired for a number of years.
I also sat down with local band Whom By Fire so keep an eye out for that interview soon (once I’ve edited a couple of naughty words out).
Also I must thank everyone involved in the press area who arranged the interviews and also ran around tirelessly trying to sort out others. I am very lucky and grateful to do what I do and a lot of it is down to the people who work to organise and promote their events.
Finally we took a look ahead to next weekend’s Latitude Festival, which we are covering at Phoenix, so expect lots of pictures, interviews etc to come in the next couple of weeks.
See you soon!
Kathryn Williams – Village Green Interview
1. The Mountain Goats – This Year (The Sunset Tree – 2005)
2. The Ramones – Gimmie Gimmie Shock Treatment (Leave Home – 1977)
3. Honeyblood – Fortune Cookie (S/T – 2014)
4. Caribou – Can’t Do Without You (Single – 2014)
5. Low – Caroline (Long Division – 2005)
6. The Afghan Whigs – Debonair (Gentlemen – 1993)
7. Slowdive – Avalyn II (S/T – 1990)
8. Kathryn Williams – Spit On A Stranger (Relations – 2004)
9. Damon Albarn – The Selfish Giant (Everday Robots – 2014)
10. Daisy Victoria – Macbeth To My Lady (Heart Full Of Beef – 2014)
11. Horse Party – Scarlet & Blue (Cover Your Eyes – 2014)
12. Jenny Owen Youngs – Why You Fail (An Unwavering Band Of Light – 2012)
13. Pale Saints – She Rides The Waves (Barging Into The Presence Of God – 1989)
14. Sleepmakeswaves – Great Northern (Love Of Cartography – 2014)
15. Slow Club – Suffering You, Suffering Me (Complete Surrender – 2014)
16. Tim Hecker – Celestina (Mirages – 2004)
17. Anna Calvi – Strange Weather (Strange Weather EP – 2014)
18. Mogwai – Glasgow Mega-Snake (Mr. Beast – 2006)
You can listen to this show and many others on the 33RPM Mixcloud page :
https://www.mixcloud.com/33rpmphoenix/