To most, โfullโ and โtoneโ are two separate words, but around here it’s been a portmanteau and a proper noun since 2019, conveying a unique musical experience where orchestral meets pop, thanks to The Fulltone Orchestraโฆ.
Yeah, they may play elaborate concerts around the South West from Exeter Cathedral and Bath Abbey to Londonโs Cadogan Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall, but it is here, in Devizes where they proper job zip up their boots and return to their roots for a festival like no other.
To put it in dictionary form, it might look something like this AI invention:
Fulltone / หfสlหtoสn /proper noun
1- The Fulltone Orchestra: A large, independent British symphony orchestra based in the South West of England. Founded in 2017 by musical director Anthony Brown, the ensemble consists of roughly 50 to 65 musicians and is celebrated for performing diverse, cross-genre arrangementsโranging from classical masterpieces and movie scores to rock, Motown, and electronic dance music.
2- The Fulltone Music Festival: A prominent annual multi-day outdoor music festival organized by the orchestra in Devizes, Wiltshire. The event showcases the orchestra alongside headline artists and guest vocalists performing large-scale symphonic concerts across a single weekend.
Origin: Formed in Devizes, Wiltshire, as a compound of full (complete, maximum) and tone (a sound of distinct pitch and quality), reflecting the expansive and powerful sound of a complete live orchestra.
Example usage: โWe are buying weekend camping passes to Fulltone at Park Farm this summer.โ
Editorโs additional note: โfor the love of Jason Donovan, make sure you do!โ
If you know me and my grammar, youโll have come to the correct assumption Iโm not one for dictionaries anyway! Iโm no scholar in the classics either. I just know what I like, and through all the bobsy-die and Tempest in a teapot online skullduggery, the bottom line is, I promise you from past experience: when you get into that dome-shaped stage, almost iconic now in Devizes, and allow the sublime acoustics of a full orchestra to flow through you, it is magnificent.
And you’re not going to find anything like it hanging around Sidmouth Street waiting for your chicken sandwich to be cooked, or staying in watching a show hosted by Ant and Dec.
โWeโre bringing Jason Donovan to a field in Potterne,โ organiser Jemma Brown told me. โWhy would you not get behind that and see what two local people are trying to achieve?!โ
Jason, Wurzels. Rozella, and all other gubbing or not, are only added bonuses. I was of the generation to reject pop crime manufacturers Stock Aitken Waterman, being honest, and Jason was used as a pawn, a male equivalent of Kylie, and I can’t give you the key to my combined harvester, because I haven’t got one, have I? But hey ho, a shuttle bus pulls in at the Pelican, even I have to admit, Jason Donovan coming to Devizes IS a BIG deal.
The Wurzels may be too far east for their liking, and quipped about Devizes in a song, but aren’t they the only band who made a greater success with a parody song than the original?! And I wouldnโt mind if I do; time is healer, and thereโs too many broken hearts in the world, anyway. Jason was right, dammit!!
Donโt be that subject; communal love to be found at FullTone, but only if you’re there, looking gorgeous! Iโm not out to repeat myself, weโve done a preview for this extravaganza already. I can lead a horse to water, but Iโm not prophesying that I can make it drink. But I think youโd be seriously missing out if you donโt buy a ticket, and one for your other half, maybe one for Auntie Doris too, to this one, at a new venue, with new horizons. Put her in the deckchair, let her rave.
The biggest mistake you could make is that Fulltone is a massive commercial enterprise, and that youโre going to be ripped off by a professional consortium, stuffing your dollar in their ears and laughing at you. โThe reality of it is,โ Jemma explained, โwe are a husband and wife team running an independent orchestra and event, with no financial backing other than ticket sales – which is a massive risk for anyone to take.โ
Slap me down and call me Madge Bishop if it ain’t true. Jemma’s been all over that book of face again, interrupting your constant stream of political propaganda, overkilling the advertising. Sโ only cos she gets jittery, worrying no one is going to show their face. Everyone who organises any event gets this. Please believe me, it’s perfectly natural.
Don’t we all get a bit Nelson Muntz, and on our high horses when we mount that poisonous social media platform?! Just a tad?! I’m a bloody nightmare, right?! Just ignore me, I do.
Bottom line; it’s not about any singular person, not even Jason, or The Wurzels, risking their safety crossing the county border. It’s about the show, and how it MUST go on. It’s about showcasing all those talented artists, all those musicians, singers, all of them, invited to bravely take to the stage.
We could walk up the canal, remembering the Boto-X, and its sad demise. Wander into town; first met the wife at that pub, now derelict. And who remembers the arcade where you hid away school lunch hours? Shame it’s gone, like the pie shop, Woolworths, Street Festival, the comfy sofa at The Four Seasons. Yeah, Fulltone has become a proper noun here, but let’s not allow it to be only used in past tenseโฆ..
Get a ticket here, enjoy yourself, and know we’ll be back together, together, because I really want to show you my heart is oh so true, and that all the love I have is, especially for you…..and everyone else going to Fulltone!
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