Folk Grolloo 2003

What the hell, if there were a few who enjoyed reading those bits, here's the full write-up from just a few days after the event!! --

We don't go to Cropredy this year, for a variety of reasons. Instead we made a bit of Cropredy come to us. It cost us just about as much! As some of you will know, Renate and myself have moved to the countryside in the northeast of the Netherlands in June last year. To a very picturesque village surrounded by fields and woods, called Grolloo (pronounced Grol-low with that fat Dutchly G), which is also dubbed the bluesvillage of Drenthe (Drenthe being the province).
This because of links with Dutch 60's bluesrock band Cuby & The Blizzards - legends in this country. And we came there for the first time 3 years ago because of a gig by Iain Matthews and Ad Vanderveen which we wanted to attend, which took place in the nice nearby hamlet of Amen ... a concert recorded and released as The Iain Adventure in 2001. That weekend we were in a B&B in Grolloo. We liked it so much that we returned 2 weeks later, and returned, and returned ... until the idea came to settle there, which, to make a long story short, eventually we did back in June last year.

In September our mate Dick, Renate and myself got together and came up with an idea. Grolloo is known for its musical links. In the 60's, Van Morrison, Alexis Korner and John Mayall came and visited the place and its well known band, who all lived in a farm (which is still there). Why not expand on that. Not with blues. But with some of OUR favourite artists. Grolloo, we think, has a rather folky air, whatever that is. It would be ideal. The local pub has a nice venue which is used often for parties and weddings, but far too little for what it is ideal for: gigs! We asked John Hofsteenge, the owner of the place. He basically said, if you do the artists and the sound and everything, and come up with an audience, you can have my venue. For free. Wow!

Things then went fast. Within days we had a line up. We'd have Sido Martens, formerly of Dutch folkrock bands Fungus and Farmers Union. We'd have Simon Nicol and Ric Sanders, first time as a duo since the early 90's. We'd have Iain Matthews and Ad Vanderveen with whom it all started for us in Grolloo back in 2000. And we'd have Little Johnny England. According to us, the finest folk ROCK band since the 70's. And we had a date: March 1st, 2003.

John Hofsteenge knew someone who could handle the sound. Although I trusted this man's credentials (and he'd supply the equipment), I thought I'd better bring someone in who would be very familiar with the acts - Grolloo never saw folk bands before. Lesson one: whatever big names you have for a concert, don't ever save money on sound. It's what counts the most! So Paul Smith, sound man for amongst others Little Johnny England and the Albion Band, was contacted. He was happy to help out. We were going ahead, jump in the deep, see what would happen.

It was a bit of work to get it off the ground, and I won't bore you with details (and the frustration of having posters in shop- and pubwindows after getting permission from the owners, only to see them -in many cases- gone again a week later ... let alone the bastard CD store assistant in Groningen who said "thanks, I'll hang it in the window" only to see him tear the thing up behind our backs - well he THOUGHT we didn't see it!) but we did put it on.

- 28 February
Renate's Mum as well as her nephew had already come over to Grolloo the day before to help out; the former to sell the tickets at the counter, the latter to do the ticket control at the door. Dick, who was to be the compere, had a drink too much the day before and slept through his alarm clock, so he was a bit later but finally arrived at 4pm.
Around this time Paul Smith, who was travelling with the Little Johnnies, phoned me up to say they were still in England. He probably expected me to go aaaaaaaaaargh, but thankfully I didn't believe him in the first place. No, they had arrived in the local B&B; at least some of them. PJ Wright was in the car with Simon and Ric arriving a bit later, and LJE's bass player Mat Davies I knew would arrive the next day - he had spent a day or two in Amsterdam with his girlfriend.
After a lovely mustard soup (local speciality) and a hearty pancake meal courtesy of Renate we went to the local pub Cafe Hofsteenge, which is linked with our venue. There we met Charlie Monck, one of the few (the others were Chris Bates and John Bush) who had come over from England to attend Folk Grolloo. Having just arrived an hour or so earlier, he was already quite taken by Grolloo.

It didn't take long until we saw the familiar faces of Paul Smith, Gareth Turner, Guy Fletcher and Edd Frost. Who immediately got into a hefty study of Grimbergen (Belgian ale); a study which would make bar owner John a satisfied man at the end of Folk Grolloo. Dick had made a couple of folk/folkrock compilation CD's to be played before/after the Festival in the pub, so this was put on and soon Cafe Hofsteenge in Grolloo became folkrock heaven. For as the Albion Country Band's Albion Sunrise started followed by that lively set of morris tunes that follows it on the Battle Of The Field album, in wandered Simon Nicol, Ric Sanders and PJ Wright. A rather surreal moment, in your local pub. Again Grimbergen proved rather popular.

First, the now empty venue was checked out, and everyone seemed real pleased with it and confident that it would all turn out OK. Solid stage, nice room.

The boys all had dinner and after that, a nice time was had by all at the bar. Time flew, and Dick was at times astonished (and moved, something he'd be for many more times later onwards) when he looked at the people sitting at the bar chatting away and grooving to the music.

Memory became hazy after that. I believe we left at 3am, at that point Paul, Gareth and Guy were also still there, the latter two now studying Jaegermeisters.

- March 1st
We slept pretty well, considering the circumstances: it was The Big Day. After a nice breakfast, Dick and myself went to meet Charlie Monck in the village, and the three of us together with our Labrador Retriever dog Harry went for an hour long walk through the woods. It was a beautiful day, and a relaxed woodswalk was most refreshing. After dropping off Harry at home, Dick, Charlie and I went back to the pub, and had a coffee. One of the barmen, Ronnie, said he was worried about whether we'd in fact still have a fiddle- and a melodeon player that evening. Guy and Gareth had finished nearly two bottles of Jaegermeister after a number of Grimbergens, and were last seen crawling out of the pub at 4am.
Just 5 minutes later, in walked Gareth, fresh as can be. A true professional, I must admit.
We then went for the venue again, soon after followed by Renate et al. The hall looked by now most impressive, with the arrival of the equipment. Bassist Mat had by now arrived as well and Little Johnny England was ready for their soundcheck. It felt good. There we were, in a as-of-yet empty hall, with Little Johnny England playing on stage in our home village. It was happening and we did a high-five!

While they were soundchecking, Iain Matthews arrived, and following that (and following his impressive bag of CD's), I became busy with arranging the merchandise table. Joyce, a village girl who sometimes looks after dog Harry and our young cats Willem & Trees for us, was going to be the merch girl, and very well she did this too (at the end of the day she had sold for 800 Euros, and the cash contents down to the last cent exactly matched her sales sheet).
Ad Vanderveen, Simon Nicol and Ric Sanders followed soon after Iain, and with Sido Martens and his musicians arriving in the pub where they would be doing two sets, all musicians were in. A huge sigh of relief!

This was Dick's big day (as it was ours) and he had asked some friends from way back over, some of whom indeed came to see him go bananas. He was sad to learn that a female friend of his of 35 years wasn't able to attend because she was in France ... except she wasn't. So, first Tineke sw Renate and me, asking where Dick was, and saying "don't mention to him straight away that I am here!". So I pointed him out in the bar, she patted him on the back, and Dick's eyes were as big as saucers. This already made his day and it had yet to start.

At 4, we opened the venue doors. And saw frustratingly few people get in to the hall. We looked at each other, a few minutes before Simon and Ric came on. We failed. s**t. What the heck, we'll just make it unforgettable for us and hopefully to those who were there. We always took a loss into account. As said before: we aren't coming to Cropredy, and that costs a lot for a week too.
But in the middle of the following set we looked behind us - we had taken first row seats: hell, it was our money, so we might as well have fab seats, right? - and noticed that, thank God, the hall was a lot fuller than it had been at a few minutes before showtime. Maybe it would turn out okay after all!
Anyway so Dick came on, doing his first act as compere. And on came Simon and Ric - playing as a duo for the first time since I think 1991. They were fabulous (and the sound was real good, a huge relief), and revisited some of the pieces they used to play when they performed more regularly as a duo - this wasn't just plain acoustic Fairport stuff. Starting with a set of morris tunes, a highlight for me was a coupling of two tunes, Sophisticated Lady by Duke Ellington and Here There & Everywhere by Lennon/McCartney - all instrumental. Very moving and classy. Also some classical piece, and songs like Rosemary's Sister, Lancashire Hills, an energetic Swimming Song, and Crazy Man Michael. Simon's voice was excellent and the very acoustic setting once again proved what a fantastic guitarist Simon really is. And what can I say about Ric's beautiful fiddle playing.

Being the occupants of front row seats, we thought at the end of the (all in all 80-minute) set that we might as well use them, and led the standing ovation to good results.

Dick subsequently had to hurry to the pub right next to the main hall, where Dutchman Sido Martens plus 3 other musicians would play, and he had to announce them. Sido used to be a member of Dutch folkrock band, Fungus, amongst others - well known in the Seventies. We subsequently saw very little of that (being busy elsewhere), but did quickly realize that putting a band in the pub - where also there was no ticket control - had been a bad idea. The music played wasn't quite suitable for a full bar with people chatting away, and we now know that a break between sets should have been just that - a break from live music. Instead we almost had continuous live music from 4:30pm until near midnight. That wasn't needed: this was one of our two main faults, though Sido was afterwards full of praise for our initiative. Maybe a next time for him in the main hall, which would have been more suitable.

Our second main fault on March 1st was sloppy ticket control. Though 150 tickets were paid for (80 in advance, 70 on the day), a rough estimate by the venue owner himself (who should know) learnt that there must have been at the very least 200 present. Part of these were people without tickets who had been in the pub during Sido's set and upon hearing that the proceedings were to continue in another room, simply came along - and apparently, though I wasn't aware of this at the time, control was minimal. I cannot blame the one who was supposed to take care of this, because he (like we) had no previous experience. It was our mistake to put him there in the first place. Next time we will use someone who has no affinity whatsoever with what is happening on stage. No ticket means no entry, period.
But that's all water under the bridge. These were our main mistakes - we knew something would go wrong - and luckily what did go wrong had nothing to do with what was happening in the main hall musically. Live and learn, we'll easily take care of this next time.

Another less positive thing was that catering was there, but wasn't quite prepared for a fair number of people wanting to eat something at the same time. They had snacks, but when we ordered a portion of chips at 6:15 we didn't get them until half an hour later - and this was just a portion of chips. Next time: (at least) one act less, so that we don't have to start until after main dinner time and no one has to deal with that.

Anyway, back to the music. We overran already, with Simon and Ric playing 15 minutes longer (well we had said that timings were very approximate), and in the bar Sido and Co. Had to play a bit of a set too, so I think Iain Matthews and Ad Vanderveen started some 25 minutes after their actual time slo; this was also the trouble with having way more than one act ... but luckily we didn't have to finish at any specific hour. In the end we overran 75 minutes; Little Johnny England on paper would finish at 10:30 but I think it was actually 11:45pm!

Iain and Ad had not played together for a couple of months now, in fact Iain was currently into a tour of him and a band of Dutchmen called Beats Working (their last gig was the day after) so this was a bit of an inbetween thing. But it felt so good. They just needed a small room for a bit while Simon and Ric were playing, which I arranged for them next to the kitchen, to do a little rehearsal. They didn't need a lot of rehearsal. These guys compliment each other perfectly and are natural players. They were to be joined a little later on stage by another natural.
Many people seemed to have come especially for Iain and Ad who have done quite a bit of touring in Holland in 2000-2002 be it as The Iain Adventure or, with Eliza Gilkyson, as More Than a Song (whose brand new live CD Witness is just beautiful). Ad Vanderveen is also getting quite some exposure in the press (with a big interview in northern daily newspaper Dagblad Van Het Noorden which was printed the day before Folk Grolloo). And his new CD The Moment That Matters actually sold out on the merch table. He bloody well deserves it, too. He'll be the support act on Plainsong's UK tour later this month. Check him out if you can!

We got an unexpected treat when Ric Sanders was invited back on stage to do the fabulous Funk And Fire with Iain and Ad. This was a first; these guys as far as I know never played together before. Ric was very much on form and there was a fab guitar-fiddle duet between Ad, who visibly enjoyed it, and Ric while Iain kept the rhythm going. This was a high point!
Of course they deserved an encore, they got two actually. First Iain solo with a beautiful To Be White, and then Ad came back on ... and was it him or Iain who suggested there and then that it might be a good idea to invite Ric back on, who had to run from the back of the hall to perform on a song he had never heard before? This was all improvised stuff, and it shows what a craftman he is, playing merrily along with the last song - it was a cover and the name totally escapes me, but it was good!

So for many it was now back to the bar again for Sido's second set. After 10 minutes I got there too after having dealt with Iain/Ad's fee. I hear no music and see Sido at the bar asking if he could start already. s**t! Quickly grabbed Dick by the collar who simply completely forgot (as did I!) and had him announce Sido's second set. Hey - we're green as grass with organizing this, and if this was all that went wrong, then I am happy enough! Ah well, so there was another slight delay. By now we were 45 minutes behind schedule and Little Johnny England were to be on at 9pm instead of 8:15.

Dick's an emotional guy. Had you seen him at Folk Grolloo you would have known. He sometimes went on a bit in his announcements, but his huge enthousiasm shone through. Dick was so proud to be the compere (well, I wouldn't have done that bit for the life of me and neither would Renate!). He had the time of his life doing this, and his smile hit the ceiling when he finally got to say "dames en heren: Little Johnny England. Veel plezier!!". Because this is a fantastic band. And we had the privilige of being able to host the band's debut on Dutch soil. Ain't that something to be proud of? Triple yes!!

Dick's bit was also almost over as Gareth, Guy, PJ, Mat and Edd hit the stage, and we could sit back and be overwhelmed by the sheer power that was happening on stage. What a band! Thoughts went back to early 2000 when I was in England and Sue Workman, Richard Hamilton and Richard Barnes all continuously said "You have to hear this band!"; just before seeing the Albion Band in Stratford-on-Avon that was. Back home I heard the CD and thought, this is fantastic.
Cropredy 2000 (Renate's first) was the first time that we saw the group, and we were in awe. Later on we saw them at the Spitz in London, the day after Show Of Hands' triumphant concert at the Albert Hall, where Gareth Turner did a guest appearance. Then again, Cropredy 2002. Where after Fairport's set backstage the three of us ran into their fiddle player Guy Fletcher. We asked: "Do come to Holland please. You were bloody marvellous!". Guy said: "Well ... arrange something for us then, we're happy to do it!". And so, Guy, we kept our promise ... and thus the 4th time we saw Little Johnny England live was in our home village of Grolloo. Ain't that something?

The boys did a storming set of energetic folk rock, and what is engraved in my memory is Dick's reaction. "Look!! Look!! Look!! That guitar!! I can't believe it!! Go PJ!! This can't be happening!". He literally cried in Renate's arms (and I, bastard that I am, made pics of that). Who cares we lost money. We put it on, and there we were having the best live folkrock band of the moment playing there for us after having enjoyed magnificent sets by none other than Simon Nicol and Ric Sanders, and Iain Matthews and Ad Vanderveen. It was an incredible feeling, truly, truly a dream come true. And for us personally the best was yet to come.

For after an hour of Little Johnny England, there was a break of some 20 minutes after which it wasn't the band coming back on stage ... but just Simon Nicol. And I had to hurry from the back of the hall when I saw him coming on, taking Renate by the hand, because I knew what was to come. We took our seats just in time as he was having a little speech. About how Renate and me moved to Grolloo countryside, and how our beloved dog Harry needed proper parents ... and whether Renate wanted to marry me at all.
I knew all along of course, otherwise it would have been a bit strange for Simon to ask this! And Renate, call it female intuition, sensed something was coming up. Two weeks earlier, I had asked Simon by email if he would mind doing this. His answer came back swiftly: "I'd be happy to: it's only a formality - I can tell by the way you and she are around each other the answer will be both instant and affirmative!".
Indeed it was. And thank so much to Simon for doing it with such elegance and style; I never could have done that! Without me knowing, Simon had arranged a bouquet of red roses, and a bucket with a bottle of champagne. It's all a blur, that moment. I hope pics were taken so that we can remember a bit of it, as we were out there on Cloud Nine. I uncorked the champagne being careful not to spill any (as one actually should!) as we were close to the sound equipment, and we all hugged and everyone cheered, as the music started again with the Little Johnnies.
Unforgettable moment. We quickly retreated to the back of the hall shaking hands with many people known and unknown to us, to be greeted by Renate's mum who was in tears. We left the roses with her, and quickly go back to said Cloud Nine at the front row to enjoy a few glasses of champagne hand-in-hand, and, of course, to Little Johnny England.

After announcing their last number, a rousing I Was a Young Man, Dick had to go to the side of the stage to say his thanks to all concerned, to announce we'd go ahead with Folk Grolloo 2004 and to bring the band back on one last time. And then it was all over. The official part that is!

Many people congratulated us, not only on the obvious but also on how much people enjoyed the show, and we were so happy that it was at least an artistic success, one to remember for a long time. Never mind the money we lost on it. We see it as an investment for later ... we made it happen and it can grow from there, and we learn from the few mistakes made this time.

Most of the audience were gone by the time we got back to the bar at midnight, where some of our friends still were, plus most of the musicians (i.e. LJE plsu Simon/Ric) and a merry time was had by all. That night is again a blur. By 4am I think it was just a few locals, 2 Little Johnnies, Paul Smith, Charlie, Dick and me plus some bar staff who were still hanging at the bar. When finally Gareth Turner and Guy Fletcher made their exit helped by Paul, I literally saw both of them falling over while waving goodbye outside the pub. I don't know how they managed, and pitied them too, as THEY had to travel by boat some 12 hours later back to England. Not something I would be prepared to do voluntarily, in that state!

Walking back home, I think a very drunk Dick hugged me some 20 times, saying "we did it, we did it, we did it". I was in bed by 4:30am and being no musician, I am still recovering from a hangover, 3 days later - which strangely bothered me more on Monday than on Sunday!

I awoke with a headache and, poor me, had to finalize the CD sales too, because Iain Matthews was to drop by the pub at noon to collect his sales and his CD bag which had stayed overnight at the venue. Luckily, thanks to Joyce all the maths matched, and we were greeted by a happy Iain later on, who was to stay in the pub for several hours so he could see a football match live between Arsenal and Chelsea, I believe ... before driving on to Hardenberg where he would have a last gig with his Beats Working band. Iain asked us if we were interested in putting on a show by him, Ad and a bass player later this year, as he really liked it all. We probably will, and this is much less of a risk than Folk Grolloo financially. We see that as a huge compliment.

That evening, while everyone had gone home, Renate and myself went back to the pub. It was empty now, apart from one local and three waiters, who were having a last drink. They too congratulated us with a fantastic evening (and a healthy bar revenue). They did not quite know what to expect of it all beforehand, being totally unaware of the talent we had booked.

It was barman Ronnie who, for them, hit the nail on the head when he said that it probably had not yet dawned on him who exactly they had had in their venue. I'll plan to lend him a Cropredy DVD and show him what they had. See that "nice Mr Simon" for instance, on stage in front of 20,000 people, headlining.
They'll learn!

Koen

postscript - whereas Grolloo was wonderful at this point, some 2 years later the pink tainted glasses fell off and we saw the other side of small-village life - smallmindedness, downright hostility even. We were ever so lucky to be able to escape to our home turf nr Amsterdam in January 2007 - you don't know what you got until you lose it. For about one and a half years by then, Grolloo had stopped being fun. Still, Folk Grolloo remains an immense high point and a happy period too. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.