FabSwingers.com forum: Moseley festival

By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

This will be of little interest to most here but nice for me to post a feel good post for once

So yesterday was my first ever visit to the Moseley Folk Festival, much to the surprise of someone I got chatting to there. And my second only visit to the gated park that is Moseley Park (memories of Notting Hill movie).

In the past when I saw the line up I did not recognise many bands or thought that most of the original line up were dead. When ever I had attended festivals in the past there were two or three acts I wanted to see and it was an excuse to meet up with a friend.

Then a few months ago I saw a poster for this year and right smack in the middle of the poster was The Saw Doctors. My following of this band causes great merriment in my family but I have fond memories of every time I have seen them. Once I checked the website and confirmed it was the original lineup I bought myself a ticket.

Initially I had thought of popping in late just to see the doctors but decided to embrace the whole festival experience. Looking at the schedule I saw a couple other acts that may have been worth seeing.

So I headed in around 1.30, knowing that the doctors weren't on till 9.i had a walk around the park and was very impressed with the set up and the stewarding. There were crowds there including many families with children. There was even a couple on the lake which turned out to be a wedding proposal.

I found a piece of grass and set out my spot. I tried to avoid the sun, not wanting the repeat of one of my first festival visits, I didn't realise how hot it was and ended up red as a lobster for a few days. I was quite far from the stage but decided my days of standing right at the front were over. I took in a couple of acts, then went elsewhere to see the pop up puppet theatre version of Jaws, which was quite hilarious.

As the time approached for the main act I could see an exodus of people which surprised me, but also a swell of people towards the main stage. You could tell who people were there for with the number of Saw Doctor tee-shirts or Mayo GAA shirts (bit surprising as they are a Galway band).

At 5 to 9 their name lit up and suddenly they were on stage. The way the crowd jumped in with singing when the band kicked off with The Green and Red of Mayo and then continued in style from then. With those first bars the hours spent hanging around for them disappeared and the reasons why I was there kicked in. Though I can't sing a note I was belting out the words amongst thousands of others.

I had been afraid that I would not recognise all the songs as had not listened to the recent stuff but it was classic after classic. They initially ended with N17, one of my favourites and a song about emigration. It reminds me of sitting in a pub writing my first letter home after arriving in Leicester and it came on the juke box.

The ususl encore was I Used To Love Her, one of the first songs they were known for in Ireland. Then it was done and the crowd slowly made their way out. Fortunately l didn't have far to go home totally satisfied with my visit.

Apart from a woman falling on me as she tried to walk past and a couple of people trying to set to chairs in the wrong area I saw no trouble, just a lot of people enjoying the sun and the music and the craic.

All in all a hugs reminder how I always enjoyed the Saw Doctors.