Summer's End

Well, it has been a whirlwind month so far! I was invited to accompany my brother's band, Phideaux,  ( http://www.bloodfish.com/ ) to the UK, where they were performing in the Summer's End  Progressive Rock festival,( http://www.summersend.co.ukm/ )  in Lydney, UK, at the Lydney Town Hall, the same stage where the Beatles played in 1962.

We flew into Bristol Airport, on an overnight flight from Newark, NJ, landing in the morning after not much sleeping on the plane. The weather was foggy and cold, but it was delightful to be driven on the "wrong" side of the road and to be hearing English spoken properly.

Bristol Airport was small and cozy, and we were glad to be here, especially since we had a lot of instruments and equipment to schlep. Amazingly, none of it got lost..

Phideaux performed on Sunday, so we had 2 1/2 days to enjoy the music festival, check out the local Tesco supermarket,and  enjoy our accomodations at Whitemead Forest Park, a "fabulous holiday setting in the idyllic Forest of Dean"( http://www.csmaclub.co.uk/ ). On Saturday, the band had an acoustic rehersal in the apartment.

The festival was wonderfully organized, thanks to the efforts of Stephen Lambe, Huw, Graham and the rest of the folks who laboured tirelessly to make this a success. People came from as far away as Cairo, Egypt, Norway, Spain and all over the UK to hear the music and enjoy the fun of listening to the 13 bands who played over the weekend.

It was such fun to hear the rehersal and see how wonderfully prepared   the band was after a week of rehersal in New York.

Hearing Phideaux play was the high point of the trip, of course, and it was magnificent to see how much the crowd loved the music.



A large crowd enjoyed the music



Anyway, back home we flew on Monday morning, after an amazing weekend ,having made some new friends, eaten some great Indian food, heard some lovely music, and not gotten much sleep!

Setting up



Phideaux performing

All in all, an unforgettable weekend, despite being completely exhausted afterwards! But so worth it. I am already looking forward to their next performance at Rosfest, http://www.rosfest.com/ , in May 2011..