2011 Rockfield Country Music Festival "Best In The UK"
From Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June 2011, the tiny village of Rockfield, 3 miles
outside of Monmouth, saw a cavalcade of 200 caravans and more than 2000
country & western music fans travel down to the fields by the River Monnow
for the second Rockfield Country Music Festival. People journeyed from all
over the UK and beyond, from as far afield as Scotland, the Channel Islands,
Ireland and Holland to be at the event.
The weekend saw 24 country music acts take to the stage in a massive 4800
square-foot, poled marquee, as well as other Wild West entertainment in the
arena including line dancing, horseshoe throwing, birds of prey, native
Indian dancers, and fast draw contests. Twenty trade stands sold authentic
American cowboy hats, boots, belts, crinoline dresses and other western
wear, which was worn by a majority of the attendees at the event, making for
an amazing 'American frontier' atmosphere.
Each night had a Western clothing theme: Thursday was Saloon Girls and
Gamblers, Friday was Cowboys and Crinolines, Saturday was Hillbilly and
Sunday was Native American, with prizes being given for the 'Best Western
Dress' on each night. Many of the entrants took part in the nightly
Trilogies - a moving salute to those souls of all Flags and Nations who have
given their lives in war – both civilian and military.
There was also a nightly raffle with ?860 being raised for the Festival's
chosen charity, the Victoria Eye Unit at Hereford County Hospital.
Local ales were on on sale from Crockett's Saloon - a specially made bar
faced with sawn logs, and with wooden barrels being used as tables, which
sat in front of a 30 foot wide, hand-painted backdrop of the fictional
pioneers' town of Rockfield, USA.
The show started under a warm Thursday evening sky and kicked off with the
2010 Rockfield Battle Of The Band winners, CC Smugglers from London, playing
an hour's set which entertained the crowd with many different sounds and
styles being played including banjo, lap steel, harmonica, double bass,
acoustic, slide and 'chicken picking' guitars, in a swing-beating concoction
of bluegrass country and blues.
The main act for the evening was blind singer Dave Whitmore who showed why
he has previously been nominated for British Country Music Entertainer Of
The Year. After playing in bands for over 20 years, Dave recently decided to
go solo and played a variety of styles including country, line dance to rock
& roll and 60's/ 70's.
Friday afternoon started with country duo, Double JR, playing a set of
classic country music. Double JR consists of John Rowdy and John Ryder who,
individually, have been part of the country music scene for decades with
Rowdy formally in Texacana and Ryder being in many bands since the mid 80s,
including playing bass in The Henry Smith Band for 11 years.
Double JR was followed by Kentucky Fryd from the Forest Of Dean. The band
are led by Jane Pearl from Kentucky, USA who over the years has met and
performed with many top country and blues legends including BB King and
Dolly Parton. After performing at Rockfield in 2010, Jane wrote a song about
the Rockfield Festival which has been recorded by herself and Blackwood
band, Bleedin' Noses. The Bleedin' Noses have also recorded a video for the
song which is viewable on YouTube. And a line dance has been written for the
song which was performed while Kentucky Fryd debuted the song in the
afternoon.
Friday evening saw two of the UK's best country acts take to the stage.
First up was Henry Smith's Country Dreams who played songs by many great
artists such as Hank Williams Snr, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie
Nelson, Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, George Strait and Garth
Brooks. If you missed Henry this time around, he is returning to play in the
Monmouth Festival later this summer.
Henry Smith was followed by Chris James. Chris played along with backing
tracks, but unusually, all the instruments were played, recorded and
produced by Chris at his own small studio. He also plays all of the lead
guitar live. As Chris says. "There's no point having guitars and not playing
them."
As last year, Saturday proved to be the most popular day at the event with
many day ticket holders joining the other campers and caravanners who had
been at the festival for several days already.
The morning saw several people taking the free line dancing classes from
festival co-organiser, Rachel Watkins. Meanwhile, outside the marquee in the
arena, the horseshoe throwing contest was being held under the fantastic 23
degree June sunshine.
Live music began at high noon with the first heat of the Battle Of The Bands
contest - an event sponsored by local recording studio, Monnow Valley, who
had donated ?2000 of studio time to the band who received the most audience
votes for being the most talented. The standard of bands playing on Saturday
was incredibly high and was watched by several hundred people.
First up were Newport band, Peel Your Own Spuds. Having several band members
from Ireland and the sound of accordion, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo,
and tin whistle and with a a mix of male and female harmonised vocals, their
style hinted towards The Corrs' Irish folk sound.
Next saw a return of 16 year-old Loren Balaam who performed solo at the
festival in 2010. This time she returned with a backing band of drums,
guitar and bass. It was obvious last year that Loren has an amazing voice.
But over the last year, Loren's father and manager Chris Balaam, told me,
"Loren has been gigging as much as possible this year," and this really
showed in a more confident performance with a mix of self-penned and cover
songs by modern country artists such as Gretchen Wilson.
Roosevelt Bandwagon were next, featuring a fluid line-up of extremely
experienced musicians from London who have been writing, recording and
touring internationally in various guises for many years. The ethos of the
band is "to play the music that comes most naturally to its members with
absolutely no consideration whatsoever for the trends, fashions and formulae
of the music industry."
The next artist to take the stage was Liverpudlian singer Rachel Cain. In
2007, Rachel took part in a Nashville Star Search and won two awards there -
Best Newcomer and 1st Place in the Country Talent section. It certainly was
obvious how Rachel had won such accolades as she gave great performances of
modern country tunes including songs by The Dixie Chicks, Martina McBride
and Gretchen Wilson. By around 4pm, it was looking like Rachel was going to
win the first heat of the competition with 57 votes, but unfortunately for
her, the last act of the day were Sidewinder from Holland...
The 6-piece band was led by guitarist/vocalist Eddy Lonergran and his wife
Wilma also sharing lead vocals. Their set built and built and by the end,
the audience were chanting for encores, but to be fair to the other
contestants who had been limited to half-hour sets, this couldn't be
allowed. Sidewinder received 110 votes from the audience and set the target
for the bands playing on Sunday.
Sunday's heat started with a country music journalist from Maverick magazine
playing an acoustic set of bluegrass on his acoustic guitar and mandolin.
David Petie is obviously a talented musician but a slightly wet start to the
day and first spot on Sunday might have restricted the amount of votes he
and subsequent artists may have received.
Barney's Cookham Cowboys were next. A newly formed quartet from Oxford, this
was only their second gig, although some of the backing musicians looked
like they had been around for several generations!
A new band from Surrey followed called Boxcar Kelly & The Railroaders. The
female fronted band played a mix of new and old country covers which was
warmly received by the contingent of line dancers.
We'd heard great things about our next contestant, 14 year-old Kirsten
Orsborn from Neath. Kirsten won Search for a Star in 2007 and Best All Round
Performer in 2008 with a drama school. In 2009, she went on to win a large
talent competition and sang at St David’s Hall, Cardiff and sang at the
Christmas Lights in Cardiff, then also at her own home town of Neath. She
sang classic country songs, which some said didn't suit such a young girl,
and some by Canadian songwriter and mentor, Dean Jablonski.
The final act of the competition was Charlie Savigar from London. Charlie
sights Bonnie Raitt and Shelby Lynne as her biggest influences. In
hindsight, this more blues/rocky style of alternative country music may have
gone down better with the larger, more eclectic audience on Saturday. And
she found it hard to win over the older audience who had been at the
festival for several days and had already sat for several hours in the
colder temperatures of Sunday watching the previous entrees. Savigar's last
few songs were more traditional country rhythms but it was a little too late
for accumulating votes.
Talented singer songwriter Scott Brunger was supposed to be on next but he
suffered a breakdown on the M5 on the way to the event. Luckily, we had 2010
entrant Darren Jones, waiting in the wings. Darren came third last year and
he gave another impressive performance to get the most votes on the Sunday
with a total of 71 and finish second behind Sidewinder.
Sidewinder had left early Sunday morning for a long 17-hour trip back to
Holland. When they arrived, an email was sat in their Inbox telling them
they had won the Battle Of The Bands. Wilma Lonergran said, "2011 has
reached a new peak for us and 2012 is looking even better if that’s possible
after the weekend we just experienced. We just arrived home at midnight,
opened the email and I jumped up with an 'Aaaahhhhh we won! We won!' And now we are all so happy. I phoned everybody and got them out of their beds to
tell them. We enjoyed every minute with all the people in Rockfield. You are
all so lovely." Due to many requests, Sidewinder are due to return to the
2012 Rockfield Festival and are looking forward to claiming their recording
prize at Monnow Valley Studio at the same time.
Saturday night saw a triple dose of country entertainment with Cole Jackson,
Kay D, and hillbilly rednecks, Hank Mulldoon and the Hangover Band. The
latter saw members of the band walking amongst the audience with their
instruments, with a very tipsy-looking violinist standing on the bar as he
played to the crowd. Mulldoon's show culminated in a performance of 15
musicians from the other bands at the event on stage for the finale.
Sunday night began with British Country Hall of Famers, Campbell's Country,
who's lead singer Campbell Baxter has been touring the UK for an amazing 52
years. One of the highlights of the weekend for some, though, was guitarist
Tim's mesmerising performance of an instrumental track by The Shadows.
The final act to perform at the festival saw another long-time UK favourite,
Pedro, real name Peter Barlow, from Kent. 'Pedro' has been playing country
throughout the UK since the early 1980s and apart from the singer-guitarist
part he has developed his show to encompass his naturally warm personality
and humour. Pedro was endorsed recently when he was voted ‘Artist of the
Year’ at the Rawhide Country Music Club in Essex. "Versatility is the name
of the game for me these days," he said. And that goes for his programme
too: new, old, fast, slow, and all stations in between - that’s what he’s
about… a sort of chameleon that guarantees a good night’s entertainment
whatever style of audience he’s playing to.
In his closing speech, Rockfield site owner and local councillor John
Kennedy announced to cheers that: "The event is called The Rockfield Country
Music Festival but I believe you should think of it as YOUR festival." He
thanked Norman Crockett for all his hard work preparing the site and
organising the event. And Norman then modestly said it had only been
possible because of his team of helpers.
In the Visitors' Comments book which was passed around during the weekend,
one attendee claimed it was already "the best festival in the UK". And with
several artists and bands already applying to be part of the Rockfield show
in 2012, including some from Germany, Finland, France, Canada and the USA,
it could turn out to be a rather special event in 2012.
Thanks to Roger Morgan, Philip Gough and Steve Mitchell for their photos
To view photos of the 2010 Festival, click here
| Rockfield Country Music Festival Sponsors |
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