Birthdays/death days/Weekender
Today, September 29th, is my favorite performer’s 73rd birthday, Jerry Lee Lewis, who performs in UK again in late October, two London shows. I’m also seeing him in Paris in November.
Today is also the 17th anniversary of the death of my partner, George Miller. I try to think of it as his 17th birthday on the Other Side, but of course it is always a sad day for me, bringing back painful memories.
I’m just back from the Kings of Rock’n'Roll Weekender at Sand Bay Holiday Village in Somerset. I enjoyed most of the performers, but it was the most disorganized, chaotic Weekender I’ve ever been to.
The camp itself had a restaurant which was total chaos. A mixture of self-service and waiter service, where you had to be served with first and last courses, but could if you wish get up and serve yourself with the main course. You also had allocated tables, which ensured nobody was able to sit with their friends (unless they all booked together into the same chalets), and so had to sit with total strangers. Also there was a ban on smoking in the chalets themselves, which wouldn’t have suited my mother had I taken her along.
The actual Weekender had three different flyers advertising different headliners and other acts, apparently. The actual program we received on arrival bore little resemblance to what actually happened. Acts appeared at different times, sometimes on different days, and two of the main ones I wanted to see didn’t come on till well after midnight on Monday morning, because they’d added two extra acts earlier on.
This meant the last group, Flyin’ Saucers, were playing to a largely empty hall, as people had to be up early. As it was I got about 4 hours sleep.
I’ll never go back to that camp or that Weekender. I’ll leave that to those who enjoy total chaos.
