The idea sounded good. A free festival reuniting quite a collection of up and coming bands in Rotherham and offer a day of entertainment.
The Dickens Live venue is a stone’s throw from the bus interchange, always a good thing to know when you don’t own a car and might need to zap back to wherever you came from or face the prospect of squatting in a city bench, something I can only recommend if you’re in Manchester (don’t ask).
So, once inside The Dickens Live, the situation struck me as odd: the place was empty. There were maybe 10 to 15 people tops per set, maybe less, a little stark moment accentuated by a girl in the stage was singing a cover of ‘Imagine’.
The band that followed was The Lucky 27s, a band from Birmingham, who took the stage and then played some decent tunes, with the set getting progressively better. They tried not to mention the obvious problem of attendance, so they kept playing, taking it in stride.
According to the program, they were supposed to play in the Star venue in Rawmarsh, but due to circumstances beyond the organiser’s hands, said venue was closed and bands scheduled to be there were sent to Dickens Live. This compounded the problem, as bands now had shorter set times and fans who were coming to see them at the allotted times would need luck on their side to see their cherished bands.
Still, the sound in the venue was pretty good and the sound dude was always moving around, checking that the sound in all parts of the venue was the best for the bands. Good man.
Risky Heroes went onstage and they took the situation in stride. Guess humour is the best thing you can do when a gig turns into a rehearsal, but still, they soldiered on, with the songs ‘She said’, ‘Hangman’ and ‘Take me home’ being particular highlights of their set, with a few funny comments. “Please, let us breathe! Stand back!” they pleaded.
As I was covering The Violet May for a feature for this website/zine/blog (apply as desired), I went to talk to them when they arrived to the venue. Their drummer Alan told me what was going on: there was an alcohol ban and that they would be going out for a pint in a nearby boozer.
So I tagged along. When we came back, Jack Athey was playing, doing spoken word over beats set up in his trusty laptop. Sometimes he would play guitar and sing with a fellow friend who got invited to stage and did his duty.
A small interval with spoken word acts ensued, with one particular fella blindfolding himself and talking while his head was inside a drum. Just go with it.
It was time for The Violet May to take the stage. After seeing them earlier in the day at Frog And Parrot in Sheffield, I expected their show would be equally good. And it was, for all 3 songs of it, when they got taken off stage after a banner got pulled down by lead singer Chris McClure, followed by a cigarette being lit.
The banner pulling felt a little uncalled for, but so was getting thrown out of the venue because of the one cigarette being lit. There’s the issue that there were under 18s present, so that probably was what sent the venue owner’s alarms into overdrive.
There are rumours on why was no alcohol sold that night and if they are to be believed, then the event was already tiptoeing in eggshells and the whole cigarette thing forced the organisers to take them off stage or get into more trouble. Bouncers came in and started checking people’s ages, so probably something wasn’t right.
I went off the place, as the tense atmosphere was getting me cranky. As I was outside talking with Alan, a police van came suddenly and policemen went into The Dickens Live. They came out after a few seconds. I assumed they were looking for anyone under 18.
Eventually, I try to go back into Dickens to take photographs of the Wet Nuns, a band that always delivers one hoot cahooting good time. The bouncers deny me entry, saying that I’m not allowed back. I did mention I was doing a review and they still said no, so I left it at that.
Rawfusion could’ve been much more if so many things hadn’t go against the organisers. The bands did their best and still played with gusto, and the venue had a good sound. The idea behind the festival was good, the execution, sadly, wasn’t up to par. Hopefully all lessons bitterly learnt this year will help the next edition.
—Sam
Thanks to Risky Heroes, The Lucky 27s and Jacinto Widdowson for contributing to this story.
Links
Jacinta Widdowson
Lucky 27s
Myspace. Facebook. Last.fm. Twitter.
Risky Heroes
Website. Facebook. Myspace. Twitter. Soundcloud.
Jack Athey
The Violet May
Bandcamp. Facebook. Last.fm. Twitter. Spotify. Soundcloud. Myspace.
Sloucher.org 