Report by Barry Martyn
(Click on any picture to enlarge)
When you spend 5 1/2 hours in a car you get to know a lot about the people you are traveling with.
However, with Grassroots you tend to get to know a lot about what they have been eating! Fortunately, on this trip despite numerous Gingters Curry Pasties being consumed by certain group members, the trip to Conwy, North Wales was, thankfully, largely uneventful.
This was our first visit to the NWBF, an event that has gained a deserved reputation for being both friendly and well organised. As fiddle player Rick had a long standing commitment for the weekend, we arranged for Ivor Ottley to come over from his home in Ireland to join us. Ivor did of course play with us in the early 1990's and featured on our CD 'Full Circle'. As it turned out, Rick found that he could get up to Wales for the Saturday, so we had the exciting prospect of 'twin fiddles' to look forward to! This would take our band numbers up to six but as it turned out we gained a seventh member as shall be revealed later . . . . . . . . . . .
We had arranged B&B in nearby Llandudno at the
Ashdale Guest House, which
turned out to be an excellent choice. Our hosts Susi and Mark were really
friendly and dispensed with the usual conventions and allowed us use of a
sitting room at any time over the weekend for rehearsals. This was invaluable as
we needed to get Ivor up to speed with our repertoire and it also enabled Rick
and Ivor to work out some fabulous twin fiddling.
The
festival is based in two locations, firstly a large flat area for camping and
workshops, and secondly at the Civic Hall, only five minutes walk away in the
center of Conwy. The view from the dressing room at the Civic Hall is
without doubt the best we have come across and provided a calming backdrop while
getting ready to go on stage. Just as well, for on Friday evening, taking the
cover off of Ron's bass we were horrified to discover that the tailpiece wire
had snapped, leaving the strings slack and the bass useless! After a few minutes
staring at the offending item in disbelief - as if it was some sort of
Bluegrass nightmare and we would soon wake up and everything would be back to
normal - Ron sprung into action and disappeared down the corridor arriving back
almost as soon as he had left with a bass preceding him through the
doorway. The instrument was courtesy of the 'Britannia Band' a wonderful
group of fellers who didn't hesitate to help us in our hour of need. Talking
later to the band, we were to find out we had one sad thing in common - we both
claim to be the British bluegrass band with the oldest average age!
Despite
the stress of the incident with his bass, Ron sung superbly well and our set
went down very well. Ivor showed us all that he is now a consummate musician
fitting as if he played with us every day. The only time he was at all phased,
was when we came back to do our encore and we chose a 'reserve number', Crazy
Heart. Now this number has a fiddle start and as we had only been through it
very briefly a few hours earlier, it probably wasn't the wisest of choices. The
next 30 seconds took on a somewhat surreal atmosphere as Ivor asked me how the
number went. Those of you that have followed Grassroots over the years will know
that I can't sing a note . (I can in fact sing a note, its an A, but its always
out of tune) Somehow Ivor understood my frantic efforts and launched us
successfully into the number.
On Saturday morning we set about getting the bass fixed. Plan 'B' was to use
a wire coat hanger for both the tailpiece and the internal sound post . This had
fallen down without the pressure of the strings to keep it in place. Plan 'A'
was to find a local instrument maker who could make a professional repair. Plan
'A' sounded much better, but what chance would we have over a weekend in North
Wales? Amazingly, through the Yellow Pages we tracked down one Anthony D
Budrewicz who was only about 45 minutes drive away at Clwt-Y-Bont .
Unfortunately, he was just leaving for Manchester Airport but would be back
later in the afternoon so we arranged to see him on his return. Like most
Instrument makers Mr. Budrewicz appears slightly eccentric at first sight and
also like most instrument makers, was eccentric once you got to know him! In a
wonderfully cluttered
workshop with pieces of instruments taking up all the available space and more,
Anthony Budrewicz set about Ron's bass as if it was a mother about to give
birth via cesarean section. Wiping the sweat from his brow, with Ron holding the
patient steady, Mr. Budrewicz, using various probes, internal inspection lamps
and clasps went about his work. Some hour and a half later the operation was
complete and pronounced successful - the bass was alive and sounding better than
ever!
Our Saturday evening concert was a real treat for us (and hopefully the audience), as its the first time we've ever played a full set with twin fiddles. We could tell just how much work Ivor and Rick had put in together while we were out getting the bass fixed, as they came up with some beautiful harmonies. The highlight for me was a driving version of Bill Monroe's Roanoke superb.
For the Sunday concert we had worked out a 'Gospel set' This was another first for us and although not mandatory, it was something we wanted to have a go at. We had recently been learning the song A Beautiful Life, which has four singing parts, three of which take the lead at various points. Its a bit complicated and the Sunday concert gave us the impetus to really get this number down. We also had from our normal repertoire, Little Mountain Church House, Follow Jesus, Sin City and All Gods Critters to give the set a gospel feel.
I
nearly forgot. Our seventh member? Not to be outdone by the likes of David
Beckham with his own personal trainer, Tiger Woods with his own coach, Tim
Henman with his own sports psychologist, we have appointed a 'Group Psychotherapist',
the lovely Elaine. She came to us in the guise of Ivor's girlfriend and once we
had worked out that we couldn't keep up 'acting normal' all weekend and she
stopped taking copious notes of our behavior, we all got on rather well! We have
booked her services for our visit to Ireland in August.
Overall thoughts on the festival? Very enjoyable, we missed out a bit on the atmosphere by taking a B&B, but we are just to old for this camping lark. We made a lot of new friends and look forward to returning next year.