Day 4: Swadlincote
Welcome
Yesterday we drove to Swadlincote to perform at Bearded Theory festival.
It was nice to have a slightly later start. We slept for as long as we could and then hit the complimentary breakfast buffet of Holiday Inn Express London – Wandsworth, an IHG Hotel right before it closed. I prepared myself a two-course meal: buttered toast with marmalade and Marmite (in the UK Marmite tastes like Vegemite), and granola with milk, yoghurt, and berry compote (which I think was just tinned berries).
Tristan and I went for a run along the Thames River Path, ending up at the Battersea Power Station, an iconic structure who’s Brick Cathedral architectural style cuts a striking silhouette on this area of the South Bank. It has a steel frame with brick cladding, with the exterior designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, an architect famed for his designs such as the Liverpool Cathedral, Cambridge University Library, and the iconic red K2 telephone box. There are actually two identical power stations which make up this structure, the first completed in 1933, and the second, delayed by the Second World War completed in 1955. At its peak output this site generated around 500MW – about a fifth of London’s electrical needs. By 1983 both stations were closed due to increased operating costs and the decline of coal as a viable fuel source. It was reopened to the public only last year, and now holds a shopping mall with bars, restaurants, and apartments.
Before we could leave for Swadlincote we had a quick errand to run, which involved paying a visit to our backline rental company and picking up replacements for the two amps which had tragically expired. This unfortunately meant investing another hour of our lives in London’s gridlock hell, but it had to be done, and Jonathan behind the wheel attacked this task with an unrequired but welcome enthusiasm.
We decided to replace both the guitar amps even though one was still working, just to be safe, and we replaced our huge bass amp with a small solid-state amp so we wouldn’t have to risk any more tubes exploding.
Returning the broken amps. Bye bye huge bass amp!
It should have been a straightforward drive to the festival, just a bit over three hours. We missed a critical detail in our route planning, however, and it turned out that we couldn’t fit our van inside the Rotherhithe Tunnel with its 2 metre height restriction. We forgave the Rotherhithe Tunnel, since it was completed in 1908, well before the inception of the Mercedes Benz Civilised Sprinter. Our alternative route had us detour to the west, to Tower Bridge, the nearest Thames crossing, which added a good ninety minutes to the journey. This was where we made our second mistake: we failed to consult the bridge’s lifting schedule. Another fifteen precious minutes were consumed as we sat in a traffic jam on the southern bank of the Thames.
Finally, we made the crossing and got to the M11 motorway which began to carry us northeast out of the city, until we could board and head west on London’s orbital motorway, the M25. It wasn’t over. Gradually the vehicle traffic orbiting London in a counterclockwise direction began to slow down and come to a halt before we had attained the escape velocity necessary to split off onto the M1. We sat in stationary traffic for half an hour while we waited for an accident to be cleared some ways up the motorway.
Enjoying the countryside as we approach Swadlincote.
At 6.20 pm we pulled into the artist entry of Bearded Theory festival. Our set time was 7.30pm so we had phoned ahead to ask for an escort to our stage. Unfortunately, no one was waiting for us. There was confusion at the gate as various security volunteers radioed around asking for help. After a while someone turned up in a golf cart and we followed them along the access roads through the festival. At our stage there was more confusion. The stage manager could not be located and instead of people telling us where we could store and assemble our equipment there were only people telling us where we couldn’t put our equipment. The band playing before us went a bit overtime, so we rushed on with our gear as soon as the stage was cleared, everyone heading to their designated jobs. These festival sets are always great teambuilding exercises. Communication, empathy, leadership, problem solving, active listening, project management – these are all skills that we get to hone in these situations. We stand attentively while Gabe calmy gives us calm instructions through our earphones while he works the sound desk, trying to figure out if something called ‘the patch’ has been done correctly.
Unpacking the van.
Just about to execute the changeover.
Our stage at Bearded Theory.
Teamwork makes the dream work, and in the end it helped our set to begin only three minutes late, sound mostly professional, and feel good on stage. Afterwards we were exhausted. There was one task left before we left the festival which was to dispose of my old bass case in a safe and humane manner. It turned out to be quite a cathartic experience for everyone.
Then we left the festival in a hurry to try find food while the pubs were still open. The first establishment we reached proved to be our saviour and we got a food order in right before the kitchen closed. It was a very nice wind-down to a day that had held more than a few stressful moments.