International Gypsy Guitar Festival Rundown
The 6th Annual Gypsy Guitar festival was held in Gossington, Gloucestershire on the Friday 28th to Sunday 30th July 2006. We left from Paddington Station and stopped at Bristol Parkway for our scheduled change. We arrived at the remote Cam & Dursley station early friday afternoon in a taxi after our connecting train was cancelled.
By flagging down several passers by, and calling nearly everyone in Tony’s mobile phone - we hauled our backpacks towards the sound of a few lone guitarists in a field off the A38.
The event is pretty far fetched from your Reading and Leeds rock weekend, set in a small field with a camping population of 300 once the weekend was in full swing.
Over the three days, we were treated to main stage sets from Andreas Oberg, Lollo Meier, Tcha Limberger (Violin) and Moreno. Each of them were backed up with varous bassists and rhythm players - sorry to those I have missed out.
One of the main attractions to this sort of event is the interaction between people, and also with the big shot players. Perhaps that is the wrong term, since once a set is finished - you won’t see them hurried off stage to some hotel - but rather a casual stroll to the portable bar and a quick round of beers with the audience. Rather more amazing, is the way in which they will quite happily come and jam along with the rest of us around the campsite.
Moreno Jams with us
As the day awakes, people will begin with a typical camping breakfast, followed by groups of players dotted around in jam sessions. Either pull out some chairs and ready a selection of drinks - and then await for other players to come along - or do as we did and follow the sounds and join in.
Jam Session Saturday Morning
As a non-jazzer, I was happy to take in this new style (it really was my first taste of gypsy jazz, and jazz as a whole for that matter). These sessions would continue on through the morning until the main stage was setup ready for the first sets to begin.
Typically, we could expect 3 or so groups to form, and each play a couple of sets. Here are a couple of shots of the sets. The final shot in this list is of a mass jam session of Minor Swing. Everyone played through the rhythm and a sound chap went around the stage and introduced people and invited them to take a solo. Pretty great to watch.
Gary Potter, George Trebar, Andreas Oberg
Lollo Meier, Andy, Dave Kelby, Tcha Limberger
Marina, George Trebar, Moreno’s Cousin, Moreno, Colin Cosimini
Lollo Meier and Stuart Carter-Smith
Minor Swing en mass!
After several hours and as the night really drew in, we again returned to the jam sessions. Typically many would remain in the main tent and those that had brought along instruments would continue to entertain anyone that was still seated. Some would go back to the tents for more beer or food - and jam there. Either way, you could expect music until 3am at least.
So I think here is a good place to thank Stuart Carter-Smith for organising the event - but I must ask for a better map next time as to avoid any problems getting to the event. A big thanks to the players on stage, and to those around the camp that kept us entertained and showed us new songs. Finally a big thanks to Tony for lending me his guitar and for setting me up to learn minor swing.
Now if only I could stop humming the double bass riffs.
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