Some of you may know that I spend part of my life making music in an average band of misguided humans intent on nothing more than making noise. Sometimes it is a gleeful racket, other times it’s a living nightmare filled with stress, unease and bitterness. Being in band – brilliant.
After we nearly broke up after our first show in January 2009, we were fortunate enough to catch the ear of Cornbury Festival owner Hugh Philimore who kindly invited us across to Oxford to be part of the lineup on the Riverside Stage. The festival seems to have been plagued by poor ticket sales which can’t have been aided by the lack of a substantial headliner (Scouting for Girls and The Sugababes headline the two-day affair).
Nevertheless, it’s a big deal for me. It’s the first time I’ve ever played a festival, and we may play to more people than we’ve ever played to before. Or not. It could be that we’ll be on a wet stage playing to four adults and a drunk child who are waiting for their son’s band to come on and play. We’re on at 1pm, which means we can spend the rest of the day at the Second Stage watching Kingsize 5, Shortwave Set, Peter Green, Teddy Thompson and The Damned. Pretty good, I think.
In these thrilling, digital times I shall be tweeting from the festival (@Sheq). Overall, even after all the band arguments about ‘sets’; negotiations and compromise on songs, I’m pretty excited about the whole thing.