Upton Festival

Wow! What a night this turned out to be, and deserving of a review of it’s own…

This was easily the biggest crowd we’ve ever played to as around 3000 people (too many to count in all honesty!) witnessed our hour long set from stage 2 on the Friday night. This was a brand new audience to us but right from Pete’s opening chord to Shine On You Crazy Diamond the atmosphere was electric. Then when Andy’s lead guitar came in it went up a further notch and by the time Ted brought his drums and Steve’s bass into the mix the sea of raised arms in front of us was an astonishing sight. Our vocalists Mick, Sofia and Janie walked on stage during Jon’s keyboard solo to keep the build up going with the mass choir assembled before us joining us on the chorus! Taz then made his way up on stage to play his dual sax solo and build the song to it’s wonderful climax. The noise as he faded the sax away was just the start of what was to become probably DSOTW’s finest hour on any stage in it’s long history as each song we performed brought the show to new levels with Keep Talking showcasing the girls’ perfect harmonies swiftly followed by Dark Side Of The Moon classics Breathe and Time before Sofia simply blew the roof of the marquee with a quite stunning performance of Great Gig In The Sky. The massed crowds gathered behind the crush barriers were aghast at her amazing vocals and we could hardly hear the piano on stage as she finished that opening crescendo halfway through the number. Money was next up and the boys were bang on form with a powerful middle section led by Andy’s guitar and Ted’s brilliant drumming. Andy and Jon donning their acoustics signalled a mass sing-a-long for Wish You Were Here as Mick had the audience joining us throughout. Happiest Days and Another Brick continued the audience participation theme and to see 3000 people punching the air in unison all shouting “Hey Teacher” as one was quite something. The hour had flown by and we had time for one more, an easy choice really as we launched into every Floyd fans favourite anthem… Comfortably Numb. By the time we reached the solo the crowd were going mental and Andy played his axeman guitar hero to the full with one foot on the monitor whilst he belted out a blistering solo that Mr Gilmour himself would’ve been proud of.

Then, show over, and leaving behind a quite deafening reaction from the crowd we revelled in the buzz this show gave each and every one of us. With most of us staying over at our Camp Dark Side we were able to chill out and enjoy the post-gig craic for once and several celebratory beers were downed before we eventually crawled into our respective tents and caravans. Upton Festival was our first ever proper festival appearance and we now have a taste for it so let’s hope we can grab some more slots in 2014. Can’t wait!

Now, as September nears we have two more great shows to do. The Box in Crewe is an established rock music venue but a brand new one for us so we’re really looking forward to making our debut there on Saturday 14th. Ted and Taz are both unavailable but we’re delighted to welcome back our previous drummer Jody Page and regular sax dep Leigh ‘Spitty ‘ Malin for this one. Then, two weeks later on Saturday 28th we’re back at a favourite venue of ours, the Swan Theatre in Worcester, which being just up the road from Upton will hopefully attract a few people who saw us there!

See you at a show soon!

DSOTW