The Glasgow PodcART

It’s Sunday 25^th July. It is approximately 4.30pm and I have just woken up. I think I have been at Wickerman Festival for the last 2 days, but it all may be a beautiful dream.

Friday morning team Podcart arrived on site and it was a very smooth entrance! Dan Schmitz (Orange Slice Records) was our sound engineer for the weekend and Luke Joyce (photographer) had very kindly transported us down and was going to photograph proceedings! We were lucky enough to be parked and camped right behind the Solus Tent and could not have asked for a better position (can I point out at this stage I am not trying to insert as many innuendos as possible into the writing of this).

Sean had very kindly lent us a 4 man tent, this was possibly the most stressful thing of the weekend and even with 2 litres of liquid Viagra this bastard would not have erected any quicker. Luckily a lovely Irish man nearby gave a helping hand and we had a home for the weekend.

Off we went to meet the Solus Tent team backstage, Chay Woodman, Chris Connick and the lovely other man whose name I cannot remember, however, I can remember him eating pizza behind Gogobot when they were playing which was amusing. Oh and Chay’s lovely wife Louise was also present!

Next….Detour! Weaver arrived with crew in tow which consisted of Ben and Gordon (two very talented cameramen), the beautiful Kerry who made me laugh a lot over the weekend (she also made me happy that there was another ‘XX’ in this pool of ‘XY’ chromosomes! Euan (photographer) and some other boys which I am going to get killed for not remembering names! We quickly got ourselves organised and Weaver managed to source a last minute gazebo which was to be our humble settings for the weekend.

First band to come into our live session were the very handsome Call Me Ishmael and my, has frontman Ryan got a set of lungs on him! We must extend a special thanks to the lads for the use of their acoustic guitars for the weekend. We would have been a bit lost without them!

As the day progressed we welcomed Panda Su, Black International, Make Sparks, Aerials Up and Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers. Every single set blew us away and with a tanked up Make Sparks combined with a lightly refreshed DE-CART (before I forget this is the incestuous amalgamation of Podcart and Detour!) it was inevitable that something a bit crazy had to take place. All I am going to say is litres of cider, a massive ball type – elastic band type ride thing and 2 Sparkies you can probably imagine the rest! The video footage will show all!

Day 2 was quickly upon us and White Heath were our first victims! They wanted to bring a piano in so we though ok, why the fuck not? The weather was working against us as the rain had started and my stress factor had kicked in. Water plus Sean’s electrical equipment is not something I wanted to have to deal with so thankfully trusty black bags acting like giants sheaths and moveable generators are the way forward!

We then managed to do live sessions with Conquering Animal Sound, United Fruit, Withered Hand, Kitty The Lion and There Will Be Fireworks. At this stage I also have to point out that we had 20 minutes in between sets and about 10 of those minutes were being used to sound check so it was proving very tight. In addition, as the bands were being close mic’ed and not going through PA/amps then they could not really hear at points. This to me was by far the most impressive bit and really showed how capable these guys all are. Make Sparks harmonising when there is a metal band sound checking is something pretty special haha!

All the musicians we must thank from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for taking the time to come in and perform often when they were straight off stage again! Every single one was brilliant on and off stage and I cannot fault anyone.

So Saturday evening and we thought right we are going to be finished pretty early and we can see what else is happening….oh no. Weaver approaches and says ‘Alex Kapranos is playing a secret acoustic gig on site at 8pm’ he then gives me this knowing look as in ‘yes young Padwan, you know what we have to do’. So I think you can pretty much guess the rest. Between a tweet, Dan Schmitz and Chay Woodman, Alex Kapranos ended up backstage at Solus! We had had the use of a caravan for Withered Hand (which was so beautiful), but the next band was on and it sounded like the inside of a sardine tin being blasted with Super Adventure Club through a giant woofer. Soooo…..we went back to the acoustic tent like animals going to Noah’s Arc with equipment and set up there. Two songs (including an exclusive recording) and a chat and we were done. It really was the perfect end to a perfect weekend.

I have to say the thanks now. To the Solus team who I have named above you are legends. They let us do pretty much what we wanted and were just incredible. The tent had the best music for me over the weekend and the line-up this year was in my opinion the best yet. Chay and co really are in it for the right reasons and genuinely care about the musicians and the music that is being put on in that tent. I truly hope they are there for many years to come.

Detour, Podcart fucking love you. They made this weekend epic and their laughs, jokes, innuendos and just presence is something that has cemented a long term friendship. We will be working together again and we cannot wait.

Sean McCann for lending us his equipment! You sir are brilliant and we could not have managed without your kindness or your bastard tent!

Finally, my biggest thanks goes to Dan Schmitz and Luke Joyce who were my team for the weekend. Thank you for taking your time out and being part of a weekend that I will remember for a very long time.

Before I went to Wickerman I wondered how a tent of unsigned artists would compare to the big guns. I am sure everyone that was present over the weekend will agree though that the tent of the whole weekend was the Solus and our unsigned artists held their heads very proud along with the big gun we managed to nab! All recordings and videos will be with you soon and you can see exactly how amazing this weekend was! I have no more words.

Halina x