Weyfest, Tilford

Weyfest, Tilford - Saturday 20th August 2022.

Sometimes when you’re a gigging band everything falls into place. It’s so lovely when it happens. This gig was one of those occasions.

Weyfest has fast become one of our areas biggest and best festivals with its family friendly, dog friendly ethic with a wide array of local and international talent on offer across several stages. Not to mention the great range of food and drinks stalls.

Last year we were lucky enough to be asked to play the indoor Rustic Stage (essentially an acoustic stage) by acoustic curator Vic Cracknell. We had an absolute ball closing the Saturday night. They even had to turn people away from seeing us.

Fast forward to this year and we are delighted to have been upgraded and booked to play on the larger outdoor Old Kiln Stage. This is a delightful stage tucked into the woods.

Sandy and I arrive first on the day with honorary TR5'er Poppy Popstar (our 14-month-old Cavapoo). We have a little mooch around, grab a coffee and a copy of the programme and proceed to set up seats in front of the mixing desk in the Old Kiln Stage area. It’s pretty busy.

The rest of the band arrive and we share Zeros (alcohol-free beers) while we wait to get set up and play. The quality of acts at Weyfest is always good and Jana Varga, who plays while we set up backstage, is no exception. A fabulous voice.

Then it’s our turn. We set up in the blistering sun and we’re ready to rock. By this time the crowd in front of the stage has swelled to bursting point. It’s absolutely packed! We start early so as not to keep the crowd waiting and boy, are we glad we did.

The crowd just goes for it, right from the start! There’s singing and dancing as far as we can see and it’s no exaggeration to say that everyone in the field is grinning from ear-to-ear and enjoying what we do. Us included. We’re on cloud nine.

But then disaster strikes! Richey’s amp goes down. He’s fiddling with it and several tech guys appear from everywhere trying to help out but it’s not coming back to life. Thankfully the band that are playing after us offer to lend Richey an amp. So, while he’s getting that in place Rusty pulls out an off-the-cuff acapella version of Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” to keep the momentum going. To say she has the crowd eating out of her hand would be doing her a disservice. The crowd simply watch in awe with spontaneous clapping starting to take place. Finn and I join in with that while the amp is swapped. Then, when Rusty has finished the applause is deafening.

Sometimes when equipment fails it can break a gig, but Rusty’s quick thinking and great vocal powers has absolutely made this one. The audience are totally on our side.

We finish our set and the cheers and applause seem to ring out forever. There’s no time for an encore unfortunately, but we have had simply the best gig so far of our short career.

Playing the long game while we are building up our following and the awareness of The TR5’s is proving very fruitful 😊

- Lucky