Hobbs Farm Music Festival, Saturday

I got a lift down to Hobbs Farm, near Yapton in West Sussex, with Matt and Other Val. It’s always a pleasure to travel through the downs – I navigated Val through Petworth and over Duncton Hill, fantastic views. The farm was a pretty, typically Sussex place with flint stone walls, oak beams etc – there were a few craft stalls, a real ale bar with ales from Gribble, cheese stall, music stall, hog roast and corn roast (for the veggies!)
We arrived, put the tent and deckchairs up, then we immediately tucked in to some of my Westons Dry Cider, aarrr!
First music session we went to was a French band with Breton pipes, hurdy-gurdy and melodeon. It was all French dance tunes, no singing, so I became slowly hypnotised by the turning disc on the hurdy-gurdy. Next there was a young man on his own, playing acoustic rock – we sat outside in the sunshine and listened from afar, as he was rather loud. Eating cheese and fruitcake and supping Val’s Hogsback Autumn Seer was very pleasant indeed!
Next up was Nick Burbridge, playing with Mal Simms (bodhran), to my surprise and pleasure – Mal used to attempt to teach me bodhran at Fareham and Gosport Folk Festival. Poor Mal seemed to be struggling to keep up with the fast tempo of Nick’s songs, which made me laugh! The crowd was a bit thin, but then if you don’t put it on the gig list on your website, Mr B (or Mr B's webmaster)!
Nick played a lot of my favourites including ‘Refugees’, ‘Darkness and Sail’ and ‘Dicey Riley’, finishing of course with Dirty Davey. Perhaps ‘Summer Song’ was not such a good idea with so many kids in the audience – hope they didn’t get any nightmares! Nick came up for a chat afterwards, as me, Val and Matt were cooing over some piglets, probably because I was wearing a McDermott’s 2 Hours t-shirt, but he may have recognised me from Glastonwick. He’s a nice chap, and it’s good when someone you admire likes you! I also had a chat to Mal as we were in the queue for the hog roast – half of his band Legacy had moved to Eire but he had a new band – and Tim Cotterell, the violinist, was touring with Martha Tilston.
Next were a not-very-good Irish band and more bands of talented youths, so I voted to slope off to the Good Beer Guide pub in Yapton, the Maypole. Had some very nice Berrow S’Port (appropriate for England on the way to winning the Ashes), then it was time to catch the train to Shirl’s.