Exit Calm@Leadmill Sheffield June 2008

Nicky Smith Exit Calm

And what a fantastic show delivered by Exit Calm in Sheffield last weekend. I ve meet lots of mates and had an smashing time.
I' ve seen hundreds of bands on the last 20 years but that night its already on my best top 3 ever.
Full review and lots of photos on the next days. Watch this space!

Here is in advance a video I recorded

You've got it all wrong-Exit Calm Thanks to Yvo for the editing help

Rocket Festival [End]

Me Becky Ward and Dave Fielding

Me and Dave

And here are the last photos from the Rocket Fest. Fantastic days on the mountains shrouded by beautiful mountains and great music and friends. Thanks to Dave&Becky and Jam for such a great time.

Dave Fielding Chillin




How the hell this new camera works?

Laughing at Dave Jokes

Becky playing...football?

By the time you see today this blog updated automatically I will be flying to see Exit Calm supporting The Music at the Leadmill in Sheffield. I hope to meet a lot of good friends there, Sean and Tony [Lefty] from Barnsley, Gaz&Ness from Lincoln, Jam, Oscar from Premia del Mal, Darlow, my tattoist Nigel [Biggy] from Barnsley too, etc, etc...
Lots of Exit Calm photos promised!.

Rocket Festival Granada [Part 3]

Fest sunset

Here is some random photos I took while we were on the Rocket festival. Its hard to choose the ones to upload here on the blog as I took sooo many.
But there you go

More Mud fights on sunday!

Mud fights

It was fun, but this one a bit unfair to be honest. I guess they could not find another female contender on the moment. Brave girl, even more because it was a bit chilli! But I guess been from GB they werent bothered it was probably like a hot summer for them!

Kids were shouting, 'fight, fight, fight!' lol

We had a gorgeous weather all the fest, no rain at all, although sometimes we had a bit of a chili wind [We were very high], and also some black clouds were seen on a far distance on the mountains. At some point you needed a jacket and suddenly it was a strong sun, to make it more feel like if we were in England.

nice ...err.. ginger crowd

Tent Dj. Wiked robots they moved along with the music


Lunch time

The view from the main stage from the Trash and Wasted bar.


That was the view from our camp site

yeeehaaaaa!!

Marcelle and Ruppert friends of Dave&Bex from Lincoln

Main stage and Jam on the right

Bored security bloke in a sunset


End of part 3

Pedro Vila

Rocket Festival Granada May 08 [Part 2]

Circo Abusivo

Later on it was time for Circo Abusivo. They did a sort of Balcanic, folk, Polka Irish, yiddish...well a mixture of stuff really. Most on the line of the pioneer of this genre Manu Chao when he played on the 80's with Mano Negra. They were very good and made everybody dance around. Dave said he enjoyed the band a lot.

Dance&live bands tent

Later that night I ended up on the dance tent until silly hours in the morning. Dance or die

The morning after, well a few hours after I needed a hole in the wall so we decided to go to Alhama town and also take the opportunity to see a little bit of the area.

Alhama de Granada Mountains

Andalusian village

Lake on the way to the Rocket Festival

The countryside was very beautiful. Alhama is a small village with tiny white houses in the middle of the mountains. Very typical andalusian if you ask me. Nice

Festival sunset

Discipulos de Otilia

That night was the time for the headlining acts. First we had Discipulos de Otilia a Barcelona based SKA band. I ve heard about this band before but never had the chance to see them live. Very intense SKA music and mad singers!
At the start of the concert the on the middle of the introduction chat the singer commented that he didnt know how to talk in English or spanish as he was surprised as well that all the people there were mostly English, when I shouted 'do it in Catalan [Not a very popular thing to do in Andalusia to be honest] !' which he did smiling at me...ha ha ...nice one...

Brilliant strings section

Mad

There were 2 singers, one dressed black and the other one white. It was really hard to make them a photo as they wouldnt stop for a second. Tireless!

Then we went to see the so awaited Pole dancer girl. She seemed very experienced and gathered a quite big crowd.
Amazing woman!

Pole Dancer

The next band on saturday night were The Bad Manners!! I ve never seen them before although I had a few opportunities back on the eighties. My friends though have seen them several times. Dave said he saw them on the Wicthwood in Ashton back at the time. But this time they were not gonna be a small club sort of band. They were huge! Brilliant musicians on the style of a big band. The kings of british SKA. I only was hoping they played 'Walking on the sunshine which is my favorite track...and they did! here is their funny video

Buster Bloodvessel, the singer, looked very different from the old videos I saw. He looked much older, but I guess time doesnt stop, does it? They were brilliant anyway, and very intense! Everybody was dancing around. They gathered without a doubt, the biggest crowd on the main stage. We agreed it was one of the highlights of the festival.
I took a few photos, but due to the beer intake they are a bit shitty, so apologizes for that. You cant dance and take photos at the same time, can you? :-D

There was no encore as the singer was exhausted, but they display their wide live experience well proved along all these years. I ve been told by my friends that Bad Manners were a bit controversial back on the 80s here in Spain as you could spot bone heads on their shows carrying far right wing t shirts and badges. But to be honest I didnt see a single one here. Good. I went to the backstage after the show. My friends werent bothered about. I guess Dave Fielding had enough of Backstage before on his life ;-) I had a couple of beers on the bar, courtesy of the organization, and went to the caravan were Buster Bloodvessel was. There was a lot of people around him, you know the typical after show stress. I wanted to take a photo with Buster but after stay about 5 minutes on the caravan and grab more of the free drinks were offered there I decided It was better to leave and go meet me friends.

Rocket Festival backstage bar

Time for the dance tent again that night , after The Bad Manners brilliant show.

End of part 2

Rocket Festival Granada Part 1

Rocket Festival Mountains

The Rocket Festival its an alternative event held on the Granada mountains. Its organized by english people every year in May. I ve never heard before about it. In fact all the people came 95% were from England, even the staff was english. It was a weird sensation like to be in England but without to move from Spain.
My friends from Lincoln Dave Fielding and Becky Ward came to Madrid to visit me and we drove all the way to the fest. It was the first time I went to this place as I never visited Granada before, and I have to say I was well impressed with the beauty of the countryside, the high mountains and the green fields. The location was about 15 miles from a small village called Alhama de Granada, but we had to drive through narrow paths to reach the actual fest.

Rocket Festival surroundings and security staff

Before we got in the festival main entrance we had to go through a few security checkpoints. I can guarantee you there was no way to get inside without paying as there were bouncers with quads all around the perimeter.

Getting inside the festival

We got in there the night before. You want to find the best place to camp and not too close to the area where the stage is and the several drink/dance tents. The quieter the better for when you want to get some sleep.
My friend Alex [Big Clive] got us on the guest list a few days before. He is a friend of the Manchester band The Calvin Party who were playing on sunday, and after rang John, The Calvin Party singer, they gave us a all access wrist band, which meant backstage access and also the possibility to use the guests/bands toilets, showers, bars etc.... . And thats a privilege on a fest believe me, more particularly the toilets!
Nice one Alex!

Sierra nevada with snow on the back

The first afternoon there were no bands on, so after we unpacked the tent and place it on the staff area access only, we decided to have a look around to see how the Rocket Festival was going to be like.

There was a main stage and lots of tents all over the place, some were dance orientated, some had a small stage for live bands, others were for Djs etc...

Trashed and wasted bar

It was a beautiful place like I said, we couldn't ask for a better surrounding. There was still people fixing everything up. I feel great on this kind of alternative festivals. They arent over crowded, prices are far reasonable and the atmosphere is very friendly, young people and also families with kids. Some looked like gypsies to me, or hardcore festivals users if we can say. Sounds like a pleasant way of life.

Main stage

Granada mountains. The Sea behind!

There were also, how not, the hippie shop area, where you can find all sorts of weird stuff and hippie paraphernalia.

Dave and Bex

The morning after, after a severe hang over it was time to start to see live bands around. When you are on a fest there are so many acts at the same time, which it makes it almost impossible to see them all, so you have to be a bit picky and try to make the most of it.

Rothchild

The first band we saw was called Rothchild.Young lads playing Rock'n roll Guns and roses style I would say. They were good. Its a shame this time of the day no one is watching but is the normal thing when you are starting and you are an unsigned band.

The weather was great and people sat around the fields chillin with the music, having a drink and enjoying with friends.
It was like to be in England like I said, less grass but with better weather!

Next band were from Devon and they were called Hello Molly. I didnt pay much attention to it to be honest. Here is a pic.

Hello Molly

Robots

There were all sort of robots and weird androids all over the Rocket Festival. Some were very original I have to say.

pole dancer. We will see her later on

Gypsie kids

Then it was time for mud wrestle fights!

Then it was time for The Skies [I got an email from the band the other day and seems they have changed their name to 51/50s]
It was the same situation like The Rothchild, there was only a few people watching, but they were good too. They reminded me a bit The Cult on their 'Electric' era.
The looked skilled and the singer was confident. I meet them on the backstage the night after and chatted with them and also promised them to send some of the photos I took. I hope they get the recognition they deserve one day.

The Skies now called 51/50s. Pure Rock n Roll

They had a special fan. The bloke was wicked ha ha ..


With a mustache and a wig he looked like taken from a Benny Hill chapter!


Later that night there was fire shows on the circus tent.






end of part 1

Pedro Vila

Exit Calm on tour with The Music

Exit Calm will be joining The Music on their first major tour all over the UK. Apparently Rob Harvey The Music lead singer did asked the Barnsley lads to play with them.

I will personally attend the Sheffield gig at The Leadmill the 20th June 2008 [Tickets sold out the very first day!], according to my friend Sean its a fantastic venue! This is their best opportunity to play in bigger clubs, wider audiences and a proper equipment , hundreds of bands would dream with that chance.
I cant wait for it, Exit Calm is the most promising unsigned band of the moment [Probably along with Model Morning].
Full review and photos here.

http://www.myspace.com/exitcalm

Rocket Festival

Rocket Festival Main stage Granada May 08

Me & Becky Ward & Dave Fielding

Well, not yet really. Im hoping to edit and upload some of the photos I took on the Rocket Festival in Alhama de Granada sometime soon [I ve got about 500 hundred!]. Im just busy recently and I never seem to find the right time. Will get it sorted on the next week probably.
Cheers

Pedro Vila