Smugglers Festival 2019

Thursday 29th August—Sunday 1st September 2019
Little Mongeham, near Deal, Kent

I headed over on the Wednesday afternoon to help with a few last-minute bits of the setup. The night before I'd been hosting Leonie Evans and Gina Leslie (a friend from Colorado who she knows from New Orleans) at a secret woodland gig near Canterbury — two sets of jazz-blues-country-gospel and some originals, just gorgeous.

This was the ninth Smugglers Festival and arguably the best yet. I had a continuously good time from the moment I arrived until I left, and the music was an almost overwhelming feast for the ears and brain.

Thursday: Life of Birds (Natasha from Cocos, backed by sister Poggy, brother-in-law James, niece Mimi O'Halloran and others); Martha Tilston (Matt Tweed in the band, I got to introduce them); Lunatraktors (perhaps their best set yet, including a warped version of "Feeding the Birds" from Mary Poppins); Cocos Lovers (ripping it up on the end stage, featuring Lord Richard Armstrong on theremin!); Starfish Men (Charlie Hannah and friend Xav's hilarious, surreal, duo, featuring beautifully crafted but utterly ridiculous songs)

Friday: Joshua (aka Josh Magill — I was only half-able to watch, from a distance, attending to a friend in need); Lazy Pilgrims (young Margate heads bringing MBV-type vibes and sounding great on an open stage on a sunny afternoon); a storyteller performing "The Ballad of Tam Lin" in the Nomadsland forest; Flying Ibex; Dubi Dolczek reading from his extraordinary novel-in-progress The Omnizoid, suffixed with an extraordinary surprise doo-wop rendition of "Bad Boy" by the Jive Bombers (featuring members of the Fantasy Orchestra); The Scorpios (WOW!! That was my musical highlight...had no idea who this London-Sudanese collective was... a visually extraordinary band, looked like a randomly selected bunch of humans from around Planet Earth had been put in a band together, but musically pure "swooning cyclical ecstasy"... I ended up a the front having a religious experience...special props to the keyboard player who was getting quite Rateledge-y at timee); Lunch Money Life (stage manager Bruno gently plucked me out of the front of the Scorpios' crowd to remind me I was compering...this was formerly just Lunch Money, Stewy's band from SOAS days, evolved into something truly MONSTROUS...free jazz horns, skewed rhythms, banging beats, edgy urban vibes); Kikagaku Moyo (Japanese psych warriors looking and sounding fantastic on the mainstage, felt really generous and inclusive, what they were offering musically); Big Ben Jorge (basically Flying Ibex souped up into a global covers band, great dance tunes throughout)

Saturday: Once and Future Band (West Coast psych prog bands...they're big Canterbury scene fans and were totally in their element on the main stage); We Are Not Shellfish (avant garde droney-ness in Nomadsland); Chewy She (Garance's synthpop project!); London Bulgarian Choir (I was preparing for a DJ set in the bar and missed some of this, sadly); evening DJ set in the bar (wow, that really kicked off... Brazilian vibes, hiphop, dancehall, funk, soul and disco, got the place jumping nicely); Deerhoof!! (John Dietrich came over to say a quick hello while I was about to start DJing, and they were about to soundcheck)... I got to introduce them, and then ended up back on stage for the encore, explaining the so-called "Watkins Objection" to Greg Saunier and a swarm of crazed party people while the rest of the band jammed in the background:

Volume 13 closed out the live music on Saturday down at the end stage. This is apparently going to be the last outing for the occasional Smugglers scene Afro/Ethio covers collective. Guest vocalists this time included Garance, singing a French Creole African song, and The Selkies (whose set earlier I'd met due to maths commitments) bravely tackling an Ethiopian Amharic song. Jamie Dams doing great work on keys and vocals, nice to see Thom Harmsworth up there on trombone, and a brief appearance from Aidan Shepherd playing a typically brilliant keyboard solo.

Sunday: Dubi Dolczek and band (introduced by me, as Professor Appleblossom, flanked by secret agents); Fantasy Orchestra (such a great selection of material: "I Want To Ride My Bicycle", "Les Fleurs", "Ghost Town", "Move On Up", "Venus In Furs", etc. incredibly well arranged for a ramshackle assemblage of singers and players of instruments in eclectic costume); Yama Warashi (Conrad absolutely on fire, the solo on "No Face" perhaps the maddest guitar solo ever); Molly's Lips (beautiful songs, hilarious banter, as usual... the set included a Spitfire suddenly appearing overhead and doing a stunt barrel roll...the audience spontaneously applauded, Phil dryly replying "you're welcome"... devastating cover of the trad(?) song "Morphine" too); Baque Luar (super-powerful women's percussion/voice ensemble); Hellfire Orchestra (playing to a more sober crowd than they're used to but as firey as ever); the Apocalpyse Parade (led by one of Tom Holden's puppet creations, I grabbed something to bang on and joined in); Alabaster de Plume (Conrad in the band, more guitar fire... I was supposed to be playing a DJ set in the bar, so ended up hanging back from the crowd waiting for that to start...everything was running 40 minutes late, so I ended up missing out on fully engaging with AdP's set, but it seemed pretty immmense from back where I was standing)

I also ended up doing my Professor Appleblossom freestyle maths thing in Nomadsland each mid-day, as has become traditional, and DJing on my little 12V soundsystem next to Rosy and Jules' Chai-angles "chaicosahedron" cafe (part of the emergent "chai-celial network") each night for the chilled out peoples. Thanks to Rosy for that opportunity — I was totally in my element! Chamber folk, deep house, spiritual jazz and glitchy electronica on Friday (with amazing hula-hoping from Emilia); roots reggae and dub on Saturday; an eclectic mix on Sunday before handing over to Lewis, aka LeWizard, who played a guest set while I went to check out what was happening down at the secret bar behind the end stage. Sadly I didn't think to record any of my mixes.

Here are some photos from Nomadsland in all its twinkly, late-night glory: