2008 East Barnet Festival - Part 2

Subject	East Barnet Festival - Part 2
PostedDate	7/6/2008
	The weather on the Saturday for this year's East Barnet Festival was reasonable, but on the Sunday it pissed down!  I didn't get there early enough to see the first bands, and when I arrived there was a Free tribute band called Alright Now playing. They were very good and the singer had a great voice. Note the water on the stage... I think they were followed by Martin & Towers, who attempted to play a set of 'blues based funk'. That's when things started to go seriously wrong and the power to the stage cut out.  Somewhere, the rain had seeped into the electrics. Power was restored after a fashion, but it cut out again almost straight away. The power went on and off several times as the rain came down while the festival staff tried to solve the problem. Things started to get seriously behind schedule...  Singer/songwriter Lauren Derwent was due on next. The poor girl sat on the stage behind her keyboard for what seemed like ages as the staff desperately tried to restore power to the stage - then she left the stage while they tried to sort things out. Eventually, things got sorted out and the power came back on. The sun even came out for a few minutes!  By then things were running so late than Lauren was only allowed time to play two songs - she must have been gutted.  Next it was the turn of some rather dubious characters to take to the stage - one of whom had appeared on the same stage only the day before with another band. As soon as they took to the stage, the sun went in and the rain came hammering down!  All dressed in black, leather jackets, funny shaped guitars - who do they think they are? The schedule was still running really late, so this lot had to drastically cut their set down as well - they were only allowed four songs. They weren't supposed to be a punk band, but apart from starting with a T-Rex cover the remaining songs were punk rock classics and it was all over in ten minutes. If this band look familiar it may be because they played at the festival last year as well - or half of them did anyway. By this stage a lot of people were sheltering in the beer tent - which was unfortunately situated by the side of the stage so no one in the tent could watch the bands.  And then it was time for something completely different. The next act was Digress playing a mixture of hip-hop, rap and soul - not my sort of thing at all, but they were rather good at what they do. They were followed by The Bizzarros - probably featuring more members than any other band over the weekend. Their set was a well played mixture of rock and soul. Next up were Roadhouse Dogs, who also played at the festival last year. Like the previous band they are excellent musicians, but play more straight up rhythm & blues and rock 'n' roll. They are followed by something a bit different - Guns & Guitars. This band look like cowboys and play rock classics, but in a country style. The weather actually starts to improve later on and the rain stops. The day is closed by well known local band Texas Flyers playing a popular mixture of rock and blues standards and fronted by their larger than life frontman 'Big Steve'. So once again, the festival was spoiled by the weather. Having it the same day as the British Grand Prix and Wimbledon it was bound to rain - and even if it hadn't, plenty of people would still have stayed in to watch those events on TV. Oh well - better luck next year maybe - the law of averages means the festival must take place on a warm sunny weekend sooner or later. So after all this in one day, there is only one place to go - to the pub...