Sorry this blog update is late. I was busy being a Best Man at a wedding last weekend which was quite a responsibility and I didn’t get time to type up my report from Ditchlicker. Last week was also been busy as I am trying to do as much money earning website design work as I can before autumn term starts back at Goldsmiths College. Last week was also the start of the new season in the art world so I have also been out schmoozing at some posh private views and I am sure there will be lots more schmoozing to come in the run up to Frieze Art Fun Fair.

This week I am working for Gary Stevens. I am a performer in a new interactive movie he is currently shooting. My role mostly involves hiding behind a chest of drawers. The movie will debut in Matt’s Gallery in January.

This weekend I will be appearing in The Swan in Ipswich again hosting another punk and funk night with Skrewworm. Apparently there had been a lot of talk about my previous show and they want me back again.

The Folkestone show has been postponed until later in the year so the Ipswich show will be my last booking for a while.

Dicthlicker was intended to be an alternative to Frogstock this year. We changed the name and organised a covert publicity campaign to the numbers down. The event was named after The Ditchlicker Sound System which had been built by our good friend Jonny Steel.

We had two stages rather than six this year and only about 100 friends visiting rather than 600. The day was much more relaxed and we got to sit back and enjoy a few ales, which is often hard to do with 600 people in your Mum’s back garden. We also invited back a few acts we have enjoyed performing with over the past few years.

Victor Mount was our star guest who did a great performance despite his hangover. We billed him for his legendary guitar playing. Nobody quite knew what we meant but by the time he reached his final astonishing solo everyone understood.

I missed the first gig of the recently reformed Opposite The Hotel but reports were surprisingly good so I might have to book them for some more shows. They’d obviously come a long way.

We managed to talk Sarah and Joel into getting up on stage and doing a few numbers for us. We had been big fans of their previous band the Fashion and it was good to see them perform again even if they had been reluctant about the idea. After the show I heard a demo of Joel’s new band, it was very impressive. If Joel or Sarah ever could stick at a project they could go a long way.

I did my poetry set in the afternoon. I wasn’t bothered about doing anything new so I did a selection of my favourites from the last few months of shows. It went even more smoothly than I had anticipated. My brother Tavy said I held on to the largest audience he’s seen me with at Frogstock.

Later in the evening I returned to the stage with The Blo Boys. The show was stolen slightly by our drummer Jeep. Jeep had told us that he got married in pagan wedding ceremony under the tree outside his house on Monday night and he spent most of the evening in his tent with his new bride sharing a horn filled with ale (not that type of horn). Before our set Jeep gave a rousing speech which can not be repeated and then fell of his drum stool. The set went well and we sounded good even with the absence of our guitarist Parker who was on a Nazi sight seeing tour of Germany. We ended with a short lecture by Theo on the philosophy of Foucault and a version of our song by the same name and a finally of our song about feminist theorist Judith Butler.

The Blo Boys were followed by Skrewworm. Skrewworm had added and second female vocalist to their line up which gave a fresh vigour to their set.

The final live act of the evening was a rare set by the mythical Ophopaedic Cheese Surgeons. The Cheese Surgeons are an experimental band and they experiment liberally with both music and narcotic substances. Sometimes these experiments work and sometimes they don’t. As usual it took them a long time to set up all their kit. Often their set up is too technical for a group of half-cut musicians and they don’t make it on stage, but tonight after blowing a few fuses and a lot of swearing they finally made it. They had so many speakers they filled the stage and had to build a second one next to it and proceeded to blast out across the countryside a ingenious concoction featuring the theme tune from Super Mario Bros and rapping in Suffolk accents. Their set included songs with such inspired titles at ‘Rob’s Bingo Bongo Finger’ , ‘Up Yer Face’ and their ode to Ketamine ‘Camilla, Where’s the Horse?’. It was one of the most fantastic shows I’d seen in ages but the Cheese Surgeons are far too wasted and disorganised to play anywhere other then the Frogstock field. I guess these special opportunities are what Frogstock is all about.


DITCHLICKER VIDEO
Sing along with The Blo Boys performing 'Judith'