Before I start: one thing did seem to be missing from Surfer Joe this year; Unsteady Freddie. He's had a few health problems and had to cancel at the last minute. You were missed Freddie, keep well and be in Livorno in 2015!
Thursday 19th
The HangNine party (Clive Surfin’
Lung, Jules Deadman and myself) depart Brighton (after a hearty breakfast as
the excellent Lange Lees) and head to Gatwick for out flight to Pisa. The weather
is good and the forecast for Livorno has been getting better by the day and now
seems set fair for a weekend of great surf music and, we hope, even greater company.
The flight and the journey from Pisa
to Livorno are uneventful and we make our way to a favourite bar on the Piazza della
Repubblica for a well-earned cold Moretti, before walking the last mile or so to
the excellent Parking Hotel Giardino, where we are greeted like old friends.
After a chance to freshen up, we head out to the Surfer Joe Diner, where we
track down Lorenzo, Lucca, Tonio (and his very impressive new beard) and Tommi,
who is busy rigging the stage. This will basically be home for the next few
days and boy it feels good to be back in the Livornese sunshine.
After a short stroll to a local Pizzeria
for a meal, it’s off to the improbably named (and improbable) Nelson Pub, where
we watch as the England football team, fresh from their promising performance
against Italy, revert to headless-chicken type and capitulate to Luis Suarez
and his Uruguayan compatriots. Still, all is not lost, since Costa Rica will
lose to Italy tomorrow and England will raise their game and thrash the plucky Central
Americans and qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup in Brazil.
Thus reassured, we move back to the
Diner and catch We Love Surf in the Tiki Garden. They may love surf, but they
surely don’t play it, but we have a nice time and get to meet up with Da-Ron
and Adam from The Waterboarders, who were due to play at the festival on
Sunday, but have had to pull out due to unforeseen drummer-related issues. In
the circumstances they seem remarkably chipper! We also catch Martin, Andi and
Michael, who constitute this weekend’s version of the Razorblades (and who have
all stayed with us in Brighton in the past, so it’s lovely to see them again:
such well-mannered boys!).
Friday 20th
We spend much of the afternoon
lounging in the sun-soaked Tiki Garden, listening to Paul Johnson and Friends
rehearse upstairs in the Ungawa Tiki Bar, drinking the odd beer and catching up
with more people, including the North Sea Surf Radio crowd: Niels from the
Phantom Four, Ralf Kilauea and JohnPaul Balak. The station will make history on
Saturday and Sunday, broadcasting live from the festival for the very first
time and I’m supposed to be part of it. Fortunately for me, Niels seems to
understand that this is also my summer holiday, so he won’t be expecting me to
spend all of the next two days behind a microphone, but it’s certainly
fantastic to be a part of all of this.
We also meet up with Letty and Justin
from Hastings’ finest, The Sine Waves, as the British contingent at Surfer Joe
continues to grow.
Later we join Da-Ron and Adam in a
nearby bar to watch Italy crush Costa Rica. Unfortunately for us (and the
watching Italians), Costa Rica haven’t read the script and run out deserved
winners, so England are out and we can now properly concentrate on the surf
music.
Back at the Diner, the festival proper
gets under way. Monokini, from Germany, start proceedings in lively style on
the main stage, but once El Ray appear in the Tiki Garden, we know that this is
going to be a special weekend. My word they are tremendous. El Firetone is as
crazed as ever (although Martin informs me that during the daytime he is
perfectly normal) and they rock the joint good and proper. The only slight
disappointment is that the new CD has not turned up so we can’t grab a coipy,
but I’ll certainly be playing it on HangNine FM, once we’re properly back on
air.
Even El Ray, though, don’t prepare the
audience for the splendour that is The Phantom Four. This is my fourth time
seeing the world’s tallest surf band and, while the other three occasions were
great, this time is awesome and plenty of tracks from the new album, Mandira, will
also be featuring on my show in coming weeks. Amazingly, Niels, who seems to
get barely any sleep all weekend, walsk straight from behind his drum kit on
the main stage to the DJ booth in the Tiki Garden and is still wowing the
assembled punters with cool surf tunes when we drag ourselves back to the hotel
for some sleep.
Saturday 21st
More Brits join the party in the shape
of our good friends Keith and Claire, from Brighton and we’re also introduced
to Martin, of the Q-Trons from Colchester. Later we’re also very happy to meet
up with Andrea Manges and the lovely Linda, who have to drive to La Spezia at
the end of the evening and will be back again on Sunday (and have to drive even
further after Slacktone finish on Sunday night, which shows real commitment to
the cause) and there’s also time to catch up with Dusty Watson, who we last saw
in Brighton in May, when the Sonics were in town. Such a great drummer; such a
lovely man.
If I seem to be reporting more on the
social aspects of the festival, by the way, it is because this, for me, is what
really makes Surfer Joe so special: the chance to hang out with lovely people,
in a glorious setting, while listening to some great music at the same time. It
would be good if it was only the music, but it wouldn’t be quite so special.
I do a couple of stints on North Sea
Surf Radio during the afternoon and early evening and also take in some of the
Symposium on the Fender Stratocaster (I now know more than I am ever likely to
need to about the number of screws on a Strat scratchplate and how that varies
according to year!) and Paul Johnson’s (the actual Paul Johnson!) fascinating
part of the Surf Guitar Seminar, before heading off to eat and return just in
time to catch the last part of Threesome’s thrilling set in the Tiki Garden. It’s
been commented on before that surf music appears to attract a lot of female
bass players, but threesome buck that trend, with a female drummer (and what a
powerhouse Jovana is). I’m already looking forward to seeing Threesome again
and I promise to catch the whole set next time.
The Bradipos IV are next up, on the
main stage and I enjoy them as much as I have at three previous Surfer Joe
appearances, although, it’s a shame there aren’t a few more people watching
them. The space in front of the main stage on the Terrazza Mascagni is pretty
huge and it’s only quite late at night that it really fills up. I gather that
El Ray specifically asked to play on the smaller, more intimate, Tiki Garden
stage and I can fully appreciate why they would do that.
Paul Johnson and Friends are next up
in the Tiki Garden and provide me with my single most thrilling moment of the
weekend, when they play the gorgeous Tally Ho! The Pyronauts hit the main stage
next and really rock the crowd, before The Razorblades tear up the joint with
an amazingly powerful punk-fuelled set back in the Tiki Garden. I know I’m
biased, since I count the Razorblades as friends, but I never tire of watching
them and I swear they are the only band of the weekend who have people, amongst
them Letty Sine Wave, dancing on the stage (although, to be fair, security
wouldn’t allow this on the main stage).
During The Razorblades set, Martin describes
Fifty Foot Combo as the best band in the world and their
garage-with-some-surf-thrown-in set back on the main stage is certainly
impressive and I look forward to seeing them again at the North Sea Surf
Festival in Amsterdam in September, although by now I’m so tired it’s hard to
take it all in. I really must develop more stamina and, maybe, start the partying
a little later in the day.
In the Ungawa Tiki Bar the party
continues until daylight, with an apparently very impressive set by The
Surfites (actually members of Les Arondes and Les Agamemnonz, in the absence of
the studio-bound actual Surfites) and a vocal set from the Bradipos IV, but I’m
afraid that I’m back at the hotel and miss out.
Sunday 22nd
Research proves that the sun is
traditionally over the yardarm at 11:00 am (the time that the first rum ration
of the day was served in the British navy) and that we have been denying
ourselves valuable drinking time by starting later than this, so I resist the
temptation of the Precision Bass Symposiumin favour of more socialising in the
sunshine over a beer or two. I do, though, see much of the Surf Drumming
Seminar, including the hilarious moment when Dusty demonstrates some nuance of
drumming by putting Paul Pyronaut across his lap, pulling down his shorts and
beating out a tattoo on his backside.
We then gather a large party of Sine
Waves, Q-Trons, Razorblades, Manges and friends and head back to the restaurant
for my favourite non-musical part of the entire weekend. There really is
nothing like spending time with lovely people on a warm evening over a nice
meal and a few glasses of wine and the chance to repeat this will, I hope, draw
me back to next year’s Surfer Joe.
We return to the Diner and spend some
time at the Guitar Rumble, admiring the most amazing collection of Fenders you
could possibly imagine. I even spend ten minutes or so playing a lovely 1962 Fender
VI (not as nice as my 1961 Bass VI, mind you!) and Keith plays a Precision
previously owned by Jerry Lee Lewis’s bass player. I don’t think Keith will
ever wash his hand again.
All the eating and gearlust means that
we largely miss performances by Watang and Tony Dynamite and the Shooting
Beavers, but we do see Bang Mustang, who, despite some frustrating technical
problems, are mighty fine indeed.
And so, the ninth (and my sixth)
Surfer Joe Festival is almost at an end, but there’s still time for Slacktone
on the main stage. Wow! Third time of seeing them in Livorno for me, the first
in 2003, and the set has barely changed in that time… and yet… and yet they
still have that something so very special. In fact they maybe have even more of
it than previously. Of course, Dusty, Dave Wronski and Sam Bolle are fabulous
musicians, but it’s more than that and Slacktone is more than the sum of its
parts. Fabulous is all I can say.
Monday 23rd
So, that’s it for another year. We
have a few hours to kill in Livorno and a last chance for a bite to eat and a
quick drink, before heading back to Pisa for the flight to Gatwick followed by
a curry in our favourite Brighton curry house (that’s Shahi, if you’re
interested) and a weary trudge up the hill and home for bed. Still, the North
Sea Surf Festival is in only about three months and the tenth Surfer Joe is now
less than a year away! I can hardly wait.
Saturday 28th
What is this? Surfer Joe Part 2? It's the Big Itch Surf All-Dayer at the Green Door Store in Brighton and, unlike last year, all the bands are actually surf bands! And both The Sine Waves and The Q-Trons are playing, as are The Space Agency, although for some barely-understandable reason, their set is moved from 10:00pm to 7:30pm, so we miss them. Never mind, they're playing in Lewes next weekend and both The Sine Waves and Q-Trons are fab. Ok, the Green Door Store is very far from being the Surfer Joe Diner and the weather's not quite so nice, but it's lovely to have the chance to meet up with people again so soon after such a great weekend and there might be another chance when Los Fantasticos celebrate our tenth anniversary on July 11th. And just to cap it all, Clive wins over £200 thanks to his uncanny ability to correctly predict TWO scores at the World Cup!
