There are probably only a couple of dozen people in the entire history of popular music, that have been in so many places at the right times, as Joe Boyd. Today he is giving a talk about his new book, And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music. The stories Joe tells are of Norwegian Wood, Carlos Santana and Django Reindhardt; the first of which I knew, the others I didn’t. He’s an engaging speaker, his flow is only interrupted when the wind blows his notes all over the stage. After he’s finished, I go straight to the CD tent to buy the book as it’s on pre-release sale and Joe will be doing a signing session. It’s a monster, well over eight-hundred pages, one for cold winter nights by the fire. In the queue to get Joe’s autograph, several people ask me where I bought it and I point them at the CD tent. It’s sold out in minutes – no exaggeration – and then, from the stage, as I chat with the bloke behind me, all hell broke loose.

For those of you who have never seen Black Water County live, they are loud and fast to say the least. This band crunches craniums at breakneck speed with a Rock line-up of instruments as well as a banjo, a mandolin and flurry of tin whistles. Their melodies are based on Celtic tunes and shared between two leads: male and female, both of whom, along with the other band members, only stop bouncing around the stage to introduce the next song or to sing one of the quieter parts. Those moments are brief respites in the energy coming off the stage though. We are a few people away from getting our books signed when the lady in front of me shouts too me that she’s been to a lot of Cropredys and that these are the loudest band she’s ever heard here. I shout back to her with a smile on my face that she somehow made ‘loudest’ sound like a bad word.

They are halfway through their set before I finally stand in front of Joe. I thank him as he was one of the people who made me want to pursue Rock history as a journalist and he smiles asking me what I do and where. I’m aware of the long queue behind me so I keep it brief, thank him for signing the book and move on. Back in my chair, I watch BWC end their set with the same amount of energy they started with and the bonus of seeing the mandolin player play his ‘axe’ behind his head à la Jimi Hendrix. That’s another first for me and, I suspect, most people in the audience.

By contrast, SilverBlues are as Folksy-acoustic as you can get. Advertised as ‘2 from Lindisfarne, 1 from Fairport Convention and 1 Mysterious other’ they are, in fact, Ray Jackson, Tom Leary, Ric Sanders and Vo Fletcher. This quartet sort of, fall-together occasionally to play a gig and have never recorded anything under that name so it’s no surprise they draw on the Lindisfarne catalogue and throw in a healthy helping of covers. Ray’s voice, with its Geordie charm, is as good as ever and he’s still for my mind, one of the best harmonica players England has ever produced. They pay tribute to John Mayall who had died a couple of weeks before by performing Parchman Farm, a song that John recorded on his debut Bluesbreakers album. Their stripped-back rendition of Evening from Lindisfarne’s The News album was one of the highlights of the afternoon. Full of pathos, it made this journalist very melancholic, evoking a memory of someone lost from his life not so long ago. That temporary veil was lifted soon after with a couple of Lindisfarne classics to end the set after which I hurry backstage for my first interview of the day.

Elles Bailey
There are those musicians that enter a party and are instantly the centre of attraction because of their personality and charm. I saw Elles Bailey do that in a field. She stepped out of her car, walked towards the press tent and greeted every person on the way.

Q: Your new album, Beneath The Neon Glow, is released today. The title and the lead track, Enjoy The Ride, suggest it’s a bit more personal than your previous albums. Am I reading too much into that?

EB: The record is definitely more personal. It’s very autobiographical and I did a lot of soul searching. It’s the first album I’ve written since becoming a parent and although there is nothing specific on there about becoming a parent, I think, in the way that your heart tears open and you have this love that you never understood, that has come through in my song writing. The fear as well! The amazing love and then the absolute fear of what if something happens to this child? You want to protect them from the world and you want to show them the world and I think that has all come through in my song writing. It’s quite reflective but I do believe it is uplifting as well.

Q: Definitely. You’ve often written personal stuff anyway. When someone relates to your lyrics – as many have – it’s very rewarding but how cathartic is it to write those lyrics in the first place?

EB: It really depends on the situation. There’s a song on this record called If This Is Love and that is about a situation that happened sixteen years ago so I went deep into the back catalogue of heartbreaks. It was funny because I really enjoyed writing that song and we sort of rewrote it a bit because in real life, I never left so this was me saying had I been thirty-six when this happened, I would have walked out the door…but I didn’t.

Q: That’s very honest of you to admit that.

EB: Yeah, well, if all I can be is honest, then I’ve done my job. (smiles) When we released it as a single, I found it really triggering. It was a bizarre thing as I had not had that as an artist. It brought back so many unhealed wounds so it wasn’t in the writing but in the releasing of it, reliving it almost I guess…that was interesting.

Q: You wrote forty songs for it. Do you have plans to record the others or are you the kind of writer that will shelve them and move on?

EB: No! They are now sat there, ready and waiting. There are some I will definitely record – probably some I have recorded (smiles). I’m always recording; I just love it.

Q: Using your live band and Dan Waller, presumably it came together quite easily.

EB: Yeah. The interesting part was just trying to co-ordinate us and get us all in a room at the same time. I think I started talking to Dan in maybe late 2022 but it wasn’t until the end of 2023 when I could get everyone together with three weeks off to make the album. In terms of the recording, we all knew what we were doing and knew what to expect.

Q: Recorded on tape again?

EB: Yeah. On Let It Burn you can really hear the tape. It’s great.

Q: Not even a decade into your career and you’ve already achieved so much, most notably, the recognition of some of your idols who are now your peers. Are you still in dreamland or has reality kicked in?

EB: We were playing the Nottenden Blues Festival in Norway and someone came up to me – an artist – and she was like ‘You are, unapologetically, you. You haven’t tried to fit in a box, you’ve just done what you wanted to make’. She said she had spent her career being told to do this and this and this and then she found me just being a little bit of everything and that that, was so inspiring. I couldn’t believe that there was this woman, an artist, in Norway that found me inspiring. It’s very surreal as I still feel like the new kid on the block. I still feel like it’s 2016! (laughs) Don’t we all feel like that and then that we can go back to 2015! (laughs)

Q: Do you have any plans to expand Outlaw Music?

EB: I’m sure I will. The problem is, there are not many artists who are like me and I’m not really at the point yet where I can dedicate enough time to it. The industry definitely interests me and it’s something I feel I could do in tandem but I’d want to work with someone as dedicated as I am.

Q: Time out from music, what do you like to do at home?

EB: Wear a tracksuit…

Q: I cannot possibly imagine that. My next question was going to be ‘Where do you go clothes shopping?’

EB: (laughs) My friend messaged me yesterday saying ‘Happy Release Eve, I imagine you are sat at home, sipping champagne and staying up until midnight’ and I was in my tracksuit, wearing no pants, just sold a mirror on marketplace and dropped it off and about to go to bed. (laughs) That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll in the 21st century! My husband calls me bag-lady. He’s like ‘How come I get the bag-lady and everyone else gets Elles Bailey?’ (laughs) I went to pick up my son from nursery yesterday and I had been in London, been on Women’s Hour so I was quite dressed up and I was ringing the buzzer and no one was answering. About ten minutes later, someone came and said ‘we didn’t recognise you’. (laughs) I was like, ‘Is that because Elles Bailey has come to pick up Jasper today rather than the bag-lady’ (laughs) So, where do I get my fashion from? Lots of the ones I wore on this album are from The Hippie Shake, other than that, I generally get myself stuff from Zara.

Q: That’s a terrific belt you’re wearing.

EB: Yeah I got this from a local store in Chipping Sodbury about eighteen years ago and I’ve worn it on basically, every show I’ve ever been on. It’s great because I can put my in-ears on the back. Yeah, this broad belt has seen a lot and it’s at the end of its days now but I will eke it out.

Q: I noticed your Afghan coat as well. I had one of those a long time ago…

EB: That was from when we were doing the photoshoot for Beneath The Neon Glow. Vera organised someone to lend us that coat and at the end, she was about to send it back and I said ‘Don’t send it back’ and I bought it. It’s not a coat you would wear on stage because you would get too hot and then festival season happened and it’s been perfect because it’s windy and stuff.

Q: Last question, a bit off the wall, what’s your favourite audio format?

EB: I do like the convenience that you can just access any music at the tips of your fingers but I really like the CD - my son calls them the disco cards (smiles). I love vinyl but I don’t have a vinyl set-up. I buy it because it looks pretty but I never listen to it but I have a CD player in my car and I love touching it, feeling it and reading the lyrics. If you buy Beneath The Neon Glow on either CD or vinyl, the quality is amazing and the artwork is incredible. This is an album I’ve licenced which meant I didn’t get any of the product until yesterday so I’ve only just touched it and felt it so it feels real now.

Joe Boyd signing a lot of books and albums

DeWolff are already playing by the time I have to tear myself away from Elles so after photos, I need to head back to the arena to catch their show but outside the press office is one of the great Rock photographers, Jill Furmanovsky and I’m not going to miss an opportunity to meet her. We chat briefly and she mentions she has something going on in Tokyo soon; I promise here I’ll be there. As it happens, DeWolff are still on the first song because these guys, as they tell the audience, like to ‘stretch things out a bit’. The formidable trio of guitar/vocals, Hammond organ and drums are straight out of the seventies and it isn’t long before Cropredy is appreciating their improvisation. Playing off each other, they seem to have a rough idea of how the songs go but if it goes somewhere else, wing it; having been together for seventeen years, they are more than capable doing that. They have dynamics. Peaks and troughs, light and shade, knowing when to take it down and the ramp it up again. In fact, in their allotted hour, they play only four songs, the last one being well over twenty minutes, but all four are masterpieces of Blues-Rock that their heroes would have proudly performed the same way. I doff my hat to them both literally and figuratively.  

I’m waiting to interview Black Water County. Elles is sitting in the sunshine, touching up her make-up and already doing vocal warm-ups. She’s not due onstage for over two hours and I admire her dedication. I notice Black Water County are heading my way, still bouncing, this time with beers in hand.

Black Water County

Extra chairs are needed to accommodate Tim Harris, Shannon Byrom, Oliver Beaton, Gavin Coles and Bradley Hutchins-Clarke, They have been offstage for over two hours but the adrenaline is still flowing and the banter is so rife, it’s impossible to document so here are the basics…

Q: You guys are manic onstage. How much coffee do you have before you go on?

TH: Not enough.

SB: It was a lovely cocktail of service station cold coffee and Monster energy drink.

Q: You came up this morning?

GC: I left Swanage at six o’clock.

SB: We are sort of scattered all over the place…Bristol, Eastleigh, Bournemouth…

Q: It’s a Bournemouth day today isn’t it because Big Big Train are also on.

SB: Yeah!

OB: I thought you were going to say because the sun is there.

Q: You lot do have fun. On stage, in interviews, whoever meets you, they all say the same thing. Are you the same writing, rehearsing and recording?

BHC: We are all terribly miserable.

OB: I can definitely put my hand up and say I am well miserable when we are recording.

TH: Gigs are the release for all the energy where we put in a bit and time and effort to where it needs to be.

SB: We knuckle down a little bit behind the scenes.

OB: I am massively stressed when we are recording. I can’t play drums at the best of times. When we are writing and recording, that is when we hate ourselves the most.

SB: It comes out, our hatred for each other. (all laugh) We’ve been doing this for nearly twelve years now so we are basically siblings

Q: Does Lewis Johns reign you in or let you fly in the studio?

GC: Oh he definitely has to reign us in!

TH: He wrangles us pretty heavily.

GC: You know that film Whiplash?

Q: Oh…right.

OB: He writes all the drum parts…(all laugh) records them…plays them

TH: He is a superb engineer that helps us a lot.

SB: He’s been part of our journey from album one.

Q: You are very fast, very frantic and you had to add an extra song today because you played the set too fast.

TH: We normally natter a bit between songs as well but we made an effort not to do that today.

BHC: We never want to overrun because there is nothing worse and it’s not fair on the other bands so we try to make sure we are early rather than running over.

SB: We’ve been on the receiving end of that many times.

Q: Do you write with that intensity and speed?

TH: Gav likes making everything faster.

GC: Yeah. If it was up to me, everything would be a lot quicker.

TH: We did once record a song much faster than we now play it. That was a slightly formative moment because up until the, we were all going ‘Of course you can’t go too fast – what a stupid question’. Then we went ‘Oh…maybe you can actually…’

OB: We had some Punk tracks that didn’t make the new album – which might make another album – which were really fast.

Q: You had some tracks that didn’t make the album…how many?

OB: Between three and five

TH: That was a very deliberate effort this time around on writing an album because previously, we had the list of songs we wanted on the album, went in and recorded them and then after that, we came away thing we wished we had another option. This time, when we went in, we made sure we had lots and lots of ideas and were properly prepared. It made a big difference.

Q: How do you write?

TH: We used to have a fiddle player, Russ Scagell, that played with us and he took up a teaching position in Sweden but he is still a good friend of the band has always written with us so lots of songs originate in that relationship.

SB: He’ll come up with a lot of ideas even if it’s just a riff or a chorus or something and then he sends it to us. He still thinks of us lot over here and he’d rather have us play it. Here, we get together and flesh stuff out – we each write our own parts.

BHC: Me and Russ tend to do the initial Facetime and then it goes out to everyone from there.

Q: Who comes up with the ideas for your videos? I love the one for Cruel State Of Mind.

TH: Shannon does that.

SB: Meeee. I’m a visual gal! We work with a friend of ours from many moons ago – since our first album – named Joey Hoey and he actually came up with that concept. We and the farm and brought the characters and everything and he had the idea to do the mini-movie that day.

BHC: On the hottest day of the year.

TH: And all of us wearing masks which contrasts the one we filmed in November with all of us wearing shorts.

SB: I love coming up with our stuff even the posters and photoshoots – all the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Q: What’s the best cure for a hangover?

TH: More beer.

BHC: My cure for a while was a mocha with an extra shot of expresso and two shots of Baileys. It was like drinking a cake.

SB: I like coconut water.

TH: With vodka in it!

Q: An answer form each of you on this last one please. What’s your favourite audio format?

TH: I’m not particularly fussed if I listen to an album on vinyl, CD or Spotify but I have to listen an album rather than just a few songs from a catalogue. I find albums tell quite a cohesive story if you listen to them all through.

BHC: You’ve kind of stolen it for me. For me, it’s vinyl for that exact reason because you listen to the album front to back. There’s no skipping. When we record an album, we think a lot about the flow of the album, the sequencing and that’s been thought about on albums, side one and side two, so for me, that’s how it’s supposed to be listened to.

OB: I’d say midi files when Lewis sends the drums…(hysterical laughter from all)

SB: Vinyl, I collect vinyl. They do collect a little bit of dust now so I’ve got to get a new player but at work, we just listen to Spotify playlists unfortunately.

GC: CDs are great because if nothing else, if you put them in a microwave, you get sheet lightning.

OB: Gav is probably the only person that still has a CD collection.

GC: Yes but most of my CDs are from charity shops so I am doing two people a favour.

TH: I think, the main thing is that physical media for small bands is really important. If you are at a gig, wondering what to buy, the music. It’s a memento of the time you spent with the band and a really good way of supporting the band as well. It’s a huge help.