Split WhiSkerS

organisation around the festival site was practically flawless, plenty of signposts and lots of friendly marshalls on hand to help direct us Bentworth virgins from car park to campsite and to and from the three stages, happy bar staff, who were kept busy from the word go, and plenty of loos.

Friday

Cassidy and Robert Plant. Make sure you find out more about her if you love these artists. Who was my stand out band of the whole festival? Well it has to be Chris Farlowe who closed the festival and has for me never been Out Of Time . Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I think it is more than that, his voice was and still is the best of the 60’s singers even though he is now 73, his voice has lost nothing to time.

I can thoroughly recommend this festival to anyone who loves music, a party atmosphere and good company, every year it just gets better and better. Hats off to Julian and Kathy Moore, along with Ian his main man and the rest of the team.

Christine Moore

BenTWOrTh Blues FesTIVal

Bentworth, alton. hamPshire auGust 16th – 18th 2013

As I was trying to erect my tent in the rain, the thought crossed my mind that this camping lark at Bentworth Blues Festival might not have been one of my best ideas this year, however, after a cursory glance at the running order in the programme, I realised that it was probably one of my best! Sadly due to prior commitments, I couldn’t stay for the whole weekend, so I’m just picking out the highlights from my first visit. Firstly and this is a big plus for Matt Williams, festival organiser and landlord at The Star Inn, the

The opening act of this three day festival was King Rollo, on the beer stage, who delivered an all-acoustic set to get us in the mood! A mixture of his own material and some old blues standards delivered in Rollo’s inimitable style. Rollo was followed on the garden stage by Split Whiskers, a band I’d not heard of before, but definitely one I’d go and see again. Vocals were shared by harp player Gilby Fletcher and Johnny Wright playing a custom-made steel resonator guitar. One point of interest about this band, and the two that followed was that they all had female bass players – Claudia McKenzie, Fran McGillivray, and Victoria Smith in Will Wilde’s band. It was touch and go for Will as to whether he and his band would play, as two of them had been stuck for over two hours on Britain’s favourite car park, the M25. When their allotted time arrived and the full band hadn’t, Will managed to find some musicians willing to step into the breach, just as they’d set up, Will’s band finally appeared, poor Will, I thought he was going to blow a fuse, but showing himself to be the polished musician we know and love, he managed to channel his stress and frustration into his performance and delivered a set which was for me the best that I saw over the two days of the festival.

Next up on the beer stage, now referred to as the ‘Butcombe’ stage was Laurence Jones, I’ve seen Laurence once before about six