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So, Boxstock is all over for another year..and I’m counting the cost...financially, emotionally and physically, but it’s been an amazing couple of weeks.  This year Ben took over the organization of the event, and planned an ambitious line-up…which meant even more effort and co-ordination than before, plus bringing over two overseas touring artists in the week before the event.  So here’s the first installment of the full unexpurgated story…or at least what I can remember of it.

Thursday afternoon, a full week before Boxstock, I get myself over to Birmingham airport to meet Mike Snowden, who’s flying in from Atlanta…via Toronto and Amsterdam...and I’ve already had an email from his wife to tell me that the airline has lost his luggage before he reached Toronto.  The good news is that they’ve not lost his guitars.  So, off to the shops to buy socks, underwear…and throw in a HGMC tee-shirt plus one of my fleeces and that’s his wardrobe sorted!  Anyway, an hour’s wait at the arrivals gate and I’m nervous of the long delay, as I’m just hoping that his visa is all in order...but eventually he turns up and we are out of the airport on the way to our house.  We make a little tour of central Birmingham and catch a few local sights…and Mike spots his first black cab, double-decker bus and British bobby. A quick stop-off at my house and then off to the Travelodge to get him checked-in, as I thought he’d appreciate a proper bed for a couple of days rather than roughing it on our living room floor. Back to our house (via the off-license to pick up a selection of fine British beers) for a sit down dinner with my family. He’s a really approachable, easy-going guy, and we shoot the breeze for an hour or so, sort out the gear he’ll be using, then drop him off at the hotel for his first night in the UK.

Next day, I put together Mike’s snare drum rig as per his specifications that we’d agreed the night before (a beer crate with a plywood base screwed to it, kick pedal and two luggage straps) then it’s an 11.00am pickup, and a drive north to Stockport for a radio recording session.  All goes well for half an hour…then the traffic slows to a halt behind a patrol car, and over the motorway we see a sign “Slow – Animals in Road”. So we’re sat there for 20 minutes or so, speculating about the likely cause, and I look out of the side window and three sheep come trotting down the fast lane…we spot one of the motorway patrolmen trying to chase them, but he’s got no chance, so it’s another half hour before we are rolling again, after they’d managed to herd them off at the next junction.  Anyway, we are really late now, so I phone Rik and Justin at Pure FM to tell them we are running late due to sheep on the road. We arrive at our destination...Robinson’s Brewery in Stockport, to find we are recording in the boardroom.  The session goes very well (free drinks available courtesy of the directors private reserve, but I have to limit myself to just a little sip of the stuff as I’m driving) - we are told that we are honoured to be the first people allowed into the boardroom without a member of the Robinsons family being present!

Robinson's brew a range of excellent beers, but I think they might have overdone the yeast in this batch....

Back on the road….and we head for the road over the Pennines to Yorkshire (and as any Yorkshireman will tell you…it’s the best thing to come out of Lancashire).  I want to take a scenic route and make a quick visit to my parents in Barnsley, as we have a little time in hand before the evening gig in Dewsbury.  I get us a bit lost trying to find the route to the Woodhead pass..but after a while we are on the right road…and into yet another motorway traffic jam.  Well, as you all know…drinking beer has an effect on the system, and Mike is desperate to relieve himself…but we are stood in traffic. He stoically puts a brave face on it, but it’s apparent that he’s fit to burst, so I spot a likely spot with some bushes, flip on the hazard lights, pull out of the queue over onto the hard shoulder. Mike makes a quick getaway into the undergrowth while I open the bonnet and make a show of looking concerned and fetching a bottle of water to pour into the rad.  Disaster averted, we squeeze back into the traffic, and a few seconds later a motorway patrol Range Rover zooms past us up the hard shoulder… we just managed to get away with it without attracting the attention of the police!!!  Eventually we clear the slow traffic, and pick up a quick sandwich and a drink from a petrol station. We’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) all day to phone the airport to see if Mike’s luggage has arrived, so I phone home, and my wife takes on the task of tracking it down…and just as before we start driving into hills I take a call in standing traffic..the courier is outside my house with the luggage! I authorize him to deliver it, Jane texts within minutes to say it’s been delivered –job done!!

Then over the Woodhead pass in true British uplands summer weather - leaden skies and rain…and more sheep…this time they stay well away from the road…and the route and the views are spectacular (even the roadworks where part of the road has fallen into the valley).  A flying visit to my folks, and then up to Dewsbury for the gig. It sounded a bit weird, a gig in a railway station and we weren’t sure exactly what to expect, so we strolled past the ticket gate, onto the platform, and into the “West Riding Refreshment Rooms”, the old waiting room which is now a very popular real ale bar. We check out the stage, which is outside under a canopy, (although our fears about the worsening weather are unjustified, as by now it’s stopped raining and it’s a pretty fair evening).  A couple of pints of Yorkshire bitter and some huge cheese and ham sandwiches, all on the house (eeeeh, luxury...they don’t know they’re born these days etc. etc.….), a quick set-up, soundcheck and we are ready to do the show.  I start off…it’s a bit weird as most people are taking advantage of the shelter over the outside decking, so they aren’t stood right by the stage, but the welcome seems warm and appreciative, perhaps helped by a combination of copious drafts of real ale and the special tobacco some of the audience were smoking (I think it’s a traditional Yorkshire herbal remedy, that’s supposed to be good for the chest and throat).

That all seems to go well, and Mike takes over for the main spot...it’s cool seeing him playing live in the UK for the first time and he plays a great set...although my basking in his reflected glory is somewhat knocked-back when someone asks me if he’s my son!!!  To finish the evening by the 11.00pm curfew, Mike calls me up on stage to jam...we’ve never played together before, but we seem to mesh together pretty well and I really enjoy it.  We have quick break, finish off our drinks (by now I’m drinking Coca-Cola...just one pint for me at the start of the evening), pack the car, collect our pay and head off back to Birmingham. It’s an easy journey back, with me talking non-stop it seems to fly past, and by just after 1.00pm we’re back in Brum.  That’s the first working day over with...and boy, we’ve been pretty busy…and it’s still a week and several shows to go before Boxstock.

To be continued.....