A Few Hours at.....
Freshfields Festival
Fawcetts Field New Milton Hants August 18th 2012
Ah, Milton,
New Milton-what a story! From the little history I know , I`ve always assumed
that the “new” bit of the name was probably added after the second world war
when much rebuilding had to be done to firstly recover buildings destroyed by
bombings , then further to cope with the “Baby Boom” and so on as the town grew
into the largest town in the New Forest
which it is today. There has always been towns in Britain with an individuality
stamp and New Milton has been one of these for quite a while, but the feeling
displayed by the sheer enthusiasm in the putting on and ear-to-ear smiling enjoyment of the
Freshfields Festival event by the towns people displayed a town with an
attitude towards really gearing itself up and forward into a whole new stature
of arts and entertaining for the area.
You see,
just about every town of similar stature has its varying degree of local
singers and bands, but NM has recently gained the elusive golden Olympiad prize
in this and has one that has, actually,
“made it!” And how. RUMER, or
Sara as she is still to many ,returned to her hometown for the second time in
recent months to headline the Freshfields Festival this year easily launching
the event into the Premier listings and giving the organisers the daunting task
of living up to this which they not only did with apparent ease and dignity,
but with a wonderful sense of pride and above all, thorough enjoyment.
Arriving a
little later than I had intended, I caught the beginning of DARREN HODSONs SOUTHERN COMPANION`s set just in time
for the day to start to swelter. Mr H has an excellent US west coast vocal
delivery that sounds just so radio friendly that you honestly expect to hear it
immediately in the car when you pull away, and yet his subject matter as a
songwriter is just so wonderfully southern England, all correct for the day too
in that respect. Image wise, he is also pretty much a one off and you just have
to take your hat off to that although he would it seems prefer to keep his own
on. A drum and bass section featuring Milton`s own Danny Pearson and the
legendary Pat Davy are tight and perfect really-simple as that. The Southern
Companion also use the odd cover version in their set with a great deal of
expertise , just “in case” they lose the odd ear on their own songs-in this
environment-in this town-on this DAY! ...This is not going to happen!
All other
activities in the field were stopped at 3pm for the appearance of RUMER on the
main-stage, who was to be backed by the same top line band mentioned above ,
augmented with Julz, Esther, Liddy and ....... on backing vocals and Ian Ellis on sax. This is probably one of the only times that an audienece has seen the
person who is to introduce the act be actually introduced himself to the
audience when the occasion is not an awards ceremony, but I guess in many ways,
its much more than that as Martin Dunford introduces us once again to the New
Milton Town Mayor, probably the only political figure in the UK that you could
call a Deadhead to his face and he would smile and say thank you, but this town
is rocking this year and its proud of its heritage even if it hadn’t always
admitted it before.
For RUMER
fans, these returning home performances , (of which I believe this is the third
one live) have to be the most unobtainable collectors items about, if only to
collect in the fans own memory stream. One can only wonder what a songwriter
imagines a song to sound like live in full production or in a live format at
its birth, but it is a fair argument that it would have a sound akin to the
local flavours and the Homecoming Band certainly have THAT south of England
sound and it adds a very slight rawness to RUMER`s songs that, is not at all
missing or missed on the multi selling albums, but is certainly another set of
listening buttons to shine whilst enjoying the music. The stand out moment for
me and I`m sure many others, was the wonderful duet performed with Darren
Hodson himself , I do hope that this sees the light of day in as close a
recorded format to that which was heard at Freshfields 2012.
Moving over
to the acoustic tent, we caught up with a very trim and fit looking JINDER, who
having emerged from a routine which has not only made him look brand new but a
banter that was as fast as any comedian/storyteller working live currently.
Fully aware of repeat venues, the man has continued changing and adapting his
set and surprised all with his closing number as well as faithfully recreating
his loved album tracks and hits-that WILL come. The name of the closing number
you ask? I, not telling-go and see him yourself-I guarantee you will sing
along.;)
Stalls, beer
tents, THE BLUES MACHINE (watch out for them),
a hog roast and I sign off to catch
you a little later and leave you with this brief report which I clearly hope is
a clear idea of a spark which is turning into a flame that will burn and burn
for years to come in August of every year.
Freshfields
Festival is the result of hard work by
the Common Ground Charity and the town council, and it`s great to see
them enjoy the work that they have put into it all.
Mk (c) mkm 2012
