Hi folks,
Happy, belated, solstice greetings to one and all. Hope it was good for you, wherever you are on the planet...
Earth Lab arrived at the site for the Sonic Rock Solstice, located up in the hills to the north of Builth Wells, Wales, early in the evening on Saturday.
With the weather being fair and the crowd being gorgeous, all looked perfect for a superb set of acid funk rock from the band.
And so it was;
Earth Lab personnel at the show:
Jerry Richards - guitar & vocal
Alf Hardy - synths and keys
Robin Hill - drums
Barry Jones - bass
After a brief line check and a quick run through of a number for the sound balance, our space friend, Kosmik Ken, turned up and announced the band...
(No time even for a cup of tea, then? Ed.)
Er... No.
However, that oversight didn't detract from a blistering set of material, most of which is from the forthcoming studio album which the band is recording at the moment. (More details on that will be divulged in due course.)
Kicking off with the 'hit single', (Is this right? Ed.) Sacred Spaceman, the band progressed into the heart of the set, drawing in a very enthusiastic crowd to the main solstice stage...
Taking full advantage of the beautiful, laid back atmosphere of the event, Earth Lab played for over an hour, with spiraling transcendental improvisations around the central themes of the tunes. Much to the delight of the audience. (We know who you are and how well you can dance! Ed.)
The show was filmed by various people, including Dave Roberts and Harry C. Many thanks, guys, as our K4 video production outfit couldn't make it to this show.
Footage of the gig will appear on this site as soon as we have something.
We are looking for any footage that anyone else has, too, so please contact us here if you would like to contribute video or stills. All credits are assigned to the photographers, naturally.
This was a great debut by the band for their first appearance at a British music festival.
Hats off to Dr Hasbeen, for putting together this fantastic event. (Go get some sleep, now. You've earned it!)
.... and Jerry says 'High', to all those that said hello after the show and that Steve PXR5 (wot a lovely guy!) should make contact with The Lab as soon as he can...
Your request for the archive stuff will be sorted out, I'm reliably informed, by Group Captain Richards. Cool.
Full set list:
Sacred Spaceman
The Television Will Not Be Revolutionised
Death Row Wish List
Be My Thing
Seperation By Skin
Money Monkey
8&1
Microwave Witches
Pogle's Wood Chainsaw Massacre
Digital Age
A big thanks from the band for all the help from the sound and stage crew, (particularly Jamie. Nice one.) who were simply fantastically professional, from start to finish.
.... and so to another motley collection of mutant musical miscreants:
The Hawklords.
Following the thrilling Saturday evening headline show from Alan Davey and Danny Faulkener's, Pre-Med outfit, Hawklords played an impromptu set of brain blasting, bone crushing, space rock, much to the delight of the assembled throng...
I'm reliably informed that many of the highly enthusiastic and extremely vocal crowd, felt that they had been transported across time, to another dimension, by A Live Ritual of Space...!
.... complete with a combination lightshow from Big Dave's Lighthouse and ZenJen lighting that was probably the most spectacular this side of a Hotblack Desiato concert. Simply awe inspiring visuals and lasers.
Sounds pretty far out, huh?
Apparently, it was exactly that: Sensational.
Hawklords personnel:
Jerry Richards
Nik Turner
Ron Tree
Alan Davey
... who were joined onstage by:
Marek, from sensational space rock friends, Litmus, on drums.
Alf Hardy, from Earth Lab, on audio generators and synth.
Josh Dreamspirit, on theremin.
Set list, evidently somewhat hastily conceived 10 minutes before showtime by Davey, Richards & Turner, as follows:
Born To Go
Spirit Of The Age
Quark, Strangeness & Charm
Children Of The Sun
Orgone Accumulator
Right Stuff
Approximately 50 minutes of sonic rock, with the music license for the festival dictating
the final curfew... I think the band stopped playing at around 2.30 am on Solstice morning.
Much video footage was shot of the performance... Expect some of it to find it's way here, to The Lab, to our sister sites around the web and also on to YouTube at some point.
Keep your eyes peeled for more news on that as we get it...
Once again, well done Doc Hasbeen, the only festival promoter to host Earth Lab & Hawklords (so far) this summer... Groovy.
.... so with Jerry Richards and the rest of the Lab personnel safely sealed once more into their regenerative cryo chambers until this Friday's (26th June) gig at Coventry's Beer Engine venue, all is quiet once again, here at The Lab.
Good. Now, back to my voodoo doll collection, I suppose... Ho ho.
Pointedly yours, etc, etc
The Lab Tech