Grimsby,
United Kingdom
Saturday, November 8, 2008
I don't know why its called the Latitude Festival despite spending the weekend there at Henham Park near Southwold, Suffolk, and despite hearing literary "snippets " recorded there, ever since on radio 4. On the way we called in on Pat Wallis in Boston, Lincs.; she's helping me find old friend Andrew Penman. Pat was a family friend of the Penmans of whom all but Andrew are deceased. Pat knew my parents, Don and Connie Milsom, and her daughter was at Kitwood Girls Secondary School with my sister Amanda. After parking up at the venue and then carrying the tent etc a great distance to its pitch near to the arena entrance, we remembered why daughter Eloise and Danny had taken a sack barrow when they went to this years Glastonbury Festival . For those who haven't caught up with festival going these days- there is an abundance of staff manning every field, path and gateway. The camping areas are divided by fire-breaks and are watch over from high scaffold towers with an extinguisher person at the base. No bottles or cans are allowed in to the arenas area (so it's plastic bottles only) and no illegal substances either! So quite what that "Herby" aroma was that I was forced to passive smoke I don't really know. The couple moving white powder about with a credit card must have missed the rules too. Other changes to the "old days ", include having a supermarket, debit card cash machines,Samaritans and free ear plugs on site,(some young children and babies were wearing "headphone" earmuffs too, though not all). Sanitation has advanced in leaps and bounds: from returning home smelling awful in the same clothes we went in, to todays youngsters getting daily showers and seemingly endlessly cleaning their teeth. The loos are unisex and sat way above the reception tank providing gruesome sights and sounds, but no fear of splash-back! and you no longer wash your hands just alcohol gel them like in hospitals. The entertainment of this "not just music festival" came in the forms of book and poetry readings, theatrical plays, mime,dance and cabaret. So much to see and do, so we decided who to listen to by socializing with the young people either side of our tent and by talking to my son Rob Milsoms' mate Lewis Duckworth who was there with friends Afra, Dan and Carol. Regarding the music, needless to say, not all of it was to our liking; Sue likes Disco and I'm into Prog. Rock and because of the different stages and when we could attend we missed a lot of the good groups including the Guillemots(who we enjoyed at the Hop Farm concert), the Coral, Blondie, Noah and the Whale, Nizlopi(remember the JCB song),the Crystal Castles and the Maybes. But amongst others we did get to see and enjoy the music produced by Johnny Flynn, Beth Rowley, The Mars Volta, Martha Wainwright, Amadeus and Mariam, Joanna Newsom, Fields, the Twilight Sad, White Lies, Team Water Polo, I am Kloot, British Sea Power, the Go Team, Deus, Seasick Steve, Elbow, Deathcab For Cutie, Franz Ferdinand, and of course Sigur Ros who put on a fantastic show and to say they left the audience stunned would be an understatement.
On the way back home from Southwold we called in at the Old Kings Head, Laxfield ,still genuinely unaltered, this friendly16th century Inn serves real ales and home cooked food. Commonly known as The Low House, this fine old pub has NO BAR( only one other similar left in the country), but dispenses the beers straight from the casks in the tap room: the high backed settles and a warm open fire adds to the appeal..We sampled some Adnams"carbon neutral beer", a bit modern for this place but it still tasted good.
Finally we called in at, old mate, John Vellams new place in the wilds of Norfolk He and Lily (now married) are doing an impressive double barn conversion and plan to invite us to a bit of a do there when finished next year.
The following Saturday saw a group of us from "childrens services" Dudley St, Grimsby, form the Barnardo's walking float (all in fancy dress) in the Parade at Cleethorpes (part of the annual Carnival). All went well and we had fun interacting with the spectators while collecting for the charities "pot", on that, for a change for this event, sunny day.
Sadly, the last day of July saw the funeral in Grimsby of Susan, a striking, gifted, and long suffering friend, Linda Mortlocks sister, and ex partner of Roger Coult (who also tragically died this year). I'll always remember them both as valued regulars on the real ale bus trips and at the boozy parties at my old flat at 8A Abbey Drive West, in the Seventies.
