Regretfully I must report that due to a personal issue Jason Donovan is unable to sing at Devizes’ Fulltone Festival this afternoon. But all in attendance yesterday will be aware, if Jason was a cherry on the cake, Fulltone is not one big cake. Fulltone is an industrial sized tray of cherry bakewells and each individual cake has its own cherry…..
If a tray of bakewells required one chief cherry, it would be the fellow with the most familiar parietal lobe in Devizes, Anthony Brown, conductor of the FullTone Orchestra, delicately or furiously waving his baton around for hours, as the mood of the music requires! Or it could also be his wife, Jemma, who miraculously finds time off from promoting and marketing this grand show to sing at it too. But a tray of bakewells does not have a chief cherry, each individual cherried cake must be credited and praised for what is one of the most magnificent shows this side of Barnard’s Star.
There’s one violinist who reminds me of Chris Kamara, but unfamiliar with all the names of this seventy-piece orchestra, each and everyone of them are cherries! And their combined efforts is what makes Fulltone so tasty. To them, and every volunteer, well done and thank you, for, from start to finish, Saturday was totally and unequivocally magical.
Social media posting expected today, or thoughtless clickbait headlines, casting opinions on Fulltone whether or not they attended! The move to Park Farm I suspect will be under scrutiny, particularly by those who once makeshift their own free party by pitching up by the exterior fence. Transport issues with the times of the shuttle bus might rightfully be criticised, and for an event dedicated to its town, its regularity might need evaluating for future years; teething troubles. But with the campsite option, the Fulltone Festival 26 is more accessible to a wider audience, and folk from afar communally rubbed shoulders with dedicated Devizons for a series of showstoppers back-to-back, heralding a new chapter for Fulltone.
Social media can be toxic, Park Farm is where you must be to assess this. And should you require an example, let’s take the grand finale of Saturday night. That iconic stage, like a giant sky-reaching gothic church window, barely shaded partygoers from the heatwave, as Two-Tone tribute Mostly Madness did what it said on their tin. With emphasis on the trombone player rather than the singer, it was an incredibly lively show of second gen ska, and went down a treat. Then the orchestra came out, glittered up, with a rendition of Fatboy Slim’s Right Here, Right Now, but rather than the repetitive sample which might’ve been acceptable in the nineties, a young guy, conveniently called Guy I believe, interpreted a rap over it; and it was sublime.
The stage was set for a number of club classics, each with a different singer, as Devizes-own smiley BBC legend James Threlfall prepared his decks for a “large” mix continuing the club classic theme. What was earlier a stage wonderfully reciting the classical themes of John Williams’ Star Wars was now a pumping house festival, where the exhausted orchestra took a hydration break. But this was not the grand finale, only near to it in timings.
Now the orchestra came back out. James remained on the decks providing the beat, the orchestra played the melodies over it, Rozella came out too, glittering, and they did a few more vocal club classics, using Guy to rap Snap’s Rhythm is a Dancer. Then, a singer from the orchestra backed her with her most memorable hit Everybody’s Free. This was my personal favourite thing ever to happen at a FullTone Festival, as sparks of the fondest memories flooded my neurons, aided by a Muck & Dunder Bajan rum punch, and we danced like there was no tomorrow, even though there was and FullTone continues today!
For an Uncle Albert perspective, back in the day, “when I was in the rave,” house, jungle, techno and all other subgenres were virtually the same shebang, or at least their roots were bundled together. The only divide was songs for cheesy clubbers, aching for the commercialisation of rave culture, and those for the “hardcore” free party people illegally raving in some field or other. Then there were those songs which transcended that boundary, that appeased whatever side of the fence you sat on, and in 1991, Rozella’s uplifting piano-breaking anthem was “the one.”
But, looking at the faces of those dancing to it last night, my personal significance mattered not a stitch, as for many 1991 is a page in a history book. Still, I couldn’t have imagined this “throwaway music” would ever become classed as “classics,” as they relished every second of it as much as me, and the few other matured ravers!
For those younger, 1991 was not a live music era, it was governed by DJ culture. I didn’t know (much care) what Rozalla looked like, but as she sang on that stage, she looked and performed as beautifully as I could’ve ever imagined. In some vague similarity, The Wurzels seemingly did too!
Imagine, if you will, the most unlikely break between sections of the Proms, but, as we’re West Country, the glove fitted with danceable jollity. Professionally accomplished, where age didn’t seem to come into it, and I am a Cider Drinker encouraged a bra to be thrown in their general direction, the Wurzels were expectantly brilliant!
The Kaiser Chief’s Ruby Ruby perhaps not as apt as other pop hits they’ve covered, and the encore Combined Harvester had the techno remix backing, which would’ve been acceptable in 1992, but I take into consideration their ages and if it had to be the last song, they were likely completely knackered by the end of it. They put in the shift, with hilarious banter and skilled scrumpy & western, as those bumpkin legends were the making of it.
There were parts I regret I missed, such as the orchestra playing a Queen set; it sounded smashing though, as I rushed carefully back across the dual carriageway, assuming the last thing folk want to see driving home is a milkman as roadkill. Too conveniently located to home, I nipped back for my dinner and a spray of Lynx!
But, John Williams, the whole Star Wars catalogue, made me remember why we were there, for the grandness of this orchestra, for the experience of this conglomerative of excellence, for the acoustics of ye gods running through you, and for the institution the FullTone Festival has become; and I’m not even a cherry bakewell kinda guy, I’m more brownie!!
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