Hop Farm Festival

I was near the front of the Dylan set last Saturday with my friend. We met a woman called mary who told us about this site, and was wondering if there is a way of getting a copy of the bootleg for the gig? Thanks Mike

Check this forum for when the torrent shows up:
[www.allalongthewatchtower.dk]

Welcome to the WatchTower.

Tapers don't like shows distributed as mp3s, but for some people, it's the only way they can hear a show. I believe Expecting rain also puts up shows for download, you might check there. Also check NEP. [www.theneverendingpool.com]
If you hang around long enough, you can ask to get a show. It's just that people don't like it when a new member comes in and the first thing they do is ask for something for nothing and then leave and never come back. The communities exist because people participate, and parasites by their nature only consume, so are very unwelcome.

You'll find what you are looking for eventually. Good luck.

__________________________________________________

My art site: Marcia's Art Pages

Hi Mike :)

This is David, we met on Saturday near the rail for Bob :)

I'm the guy in the hat, Mary is TUID (Tangled up in Dylan), I'm sure she'll be here soon if you need anything :)

Glad to see you found the site, I hope we get some boots too - I'm sure we'll be able to hear you shouting.

Cheers

David

All right, I'll take a chance, I will fall in love with you
If I'm a fool you can have the night, you can have the morning too.
Can you cook and sew, make flowers grow,
Do you understand my pain?
Are you willing to risk it all
Or is your love in vain?

Hey, Mike!

Good to see you on here, it was great meeting you and Dylan on Saturday - and working our way together towards the rail!

No sign of any boots just yet, but there are loads of vids on youtube for now - think most of the setlist is covered. I'll be sure to send you a PM (or an email to Dylan) if I find the show anywhere, but I think weirdmonkey (possibly the coolest person on the interwebz) has given you all the links that I was planning on sending your way! It's a bit quiet here sometimes, but welcome to the Watchtower from me too, there are some really nice people here

a great video of highwater. this is taken from my viewpoint.

that may even be my hand (with the camera) that keeps popping into the shot.

[www.youtube.com]

How very lively!

Except Charlie reminded me of a duck in a shooting gallery, all that back and forth.
I do wish I'd caught his solo show at the Largo a few months back, though.

__________________________________________________

My art site: Marcia's Art Pages

this was quite amusing

[www.nicolacoleman.blogspot.com]

Quote:

jackobob
this was quite amusing

[www.nicolacoleman.blogspot.com]

I hate it when people go somewhere ill prepared, then whinge about how miserable they were.
It was hot during a heat wave? Traffic was heavy on the way to a huge music festival, Pete Do(c)herty was awful, other people needed to pee too (couldn't they hold it until they got home?)? I am shocked.
Can't believe I missed Ray Davis though. The Skinks are my favorite band.

__________________________________________________

My art site: Marcia's Art Pages

I have to say I went ill prepared, so also bought a couple of chairs (£16 for two - buy of the year in my humble opinion) ! had to visit the portaloos a couple of times, not necessarily pleasant but I survived. Took high sun tan lotion and lucky enough to have an umbrella in the car which I sat under most of the time, so that saved the day (I'm very fair skinned !)

All in all I really enjoyed the day, would definitely go again (would be far more prepared though, fold away table this time and some chilled wine !!!) I'd also not worry about "getting the right'" spot, people move about so much there's always a spot somewhere, I was so far from the stage that any where you could see a screen was acceptable for me.

I'd love to have been on the rails but I would not have survived the heat and sun so I conceded to be happy further back and I enjoyed all the artists that performed.

There was a huge party next to us who'd obviously arrived on the day to meet up with "younger" members and their friends who'd been there overnight camping, they had a couple of tables, loads of chairs and food by the bucketful, they had cartons and cartons of wine and drink of all descriptions ! there must have been about 20 or more tucking in and have a whale of a time.

here's one from a big fan

[advicetothelovelorn.blogspot.com]

Quote:

jackobob
here's one from a big fan

[advicetothelovelorn.blogspot.com]

Thanks for that link Jacobob - I really enjoyed reading that.

Yes I did too.

from the uncut magazine website. something is happening here and he does know what it is



Bob Dylan: The Hop Farm Festival, July 3 2010

Just back from the frontline, Allan Jones has fought in the bloodiest rock'n'roll campaigns of the last 40 years. Now, safely positioned in the Uncut Watchtower, he takes time off editing Uncut to file these compelling dispatches. Allan has eight million stories to tell, and plenty of new scraps to start, too. Join him...


Bob Dylan: The Hop Farm Festival, July 3 2010

This sounds familiar. It’s a blast of Aaron Copeland’s “Hoedown”, a loud orchestral stirring the faithful many here tonight recognise immediately as the taped introduction to his shows he’s been using now for at least the last 10 years that still never fails to thrill and make you also laugh out loud. The voice of his long-time tour manager, Al Santos, follows, mock-serious.

“Ladies and gentleman, please welcome the poet laureate of rock 'n' roll, the voice of the promise of the '60s counterculture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock, who donned makeup in the '70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse, who emerged to 'find Jesus,' who was written off as a has-been by the end of the '80s, and who suddenly shifted gears and released some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late '90s. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan."

The cheer from the crowd that greets his name virtually drowns out what happens next, which is the sound of Dylan and his band kicking into “Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35”, almost before the introductory tape has finished, in a hurry clearly to get this show underway. It’s rambunctious, loose, full of funky mischief and rollicking good humour. Dylan’s stage right for the moment, impeccably cool in white Cordobes hat and natty black gambler’s suit, a riverboat charmer.

And even though what’s being shown on the video screens flanking the stage is a static wide-angle shot of the stage and the people on it, with no close-ups, from what you can see, but perhaps more importantly hear, you’re inclined to believe Dylan tonight is in notably good humour.

And no wonder. The band is already playing up a storm, a wholly jubilant racket. “Everybody must get stoned,” the audience sings along in ragged harmony and there’s a feeling already that this could be one of those special shows, the kind that for those of us who are inclined to think that The Never Ending Tour – which we have latterly been discouraged to call it, but do anyway - is the most compelling of all rock narratives makes our attendance almost mandatory whenever Dylan plays somewhere we can get to without having to sell the house and everything in it, a field in Kent, for instance.

Much of this anticipation and early rapture is in great part due to the return to the ranks of Dylan’s formidable touring band of guitarist Charlie Sexton as a replacement for the departed Denny Freeman. Sexton’s more emphatic personality as much as his singularly exciting playing turns out as the evening unfolds to have had a galvanising effect on everyone we’re listening to, including Dylan.

Whatever staleness Dylan might have felt a need to address by Sexton’s welcome re-enlistment is nowhere in evidence, a sense of reinvigoration and freshness of purpose coursing like an electric current through everything that now follows, starting with a version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” cast in the bluesy light of Together Through Life and a bruisingly good “Stick Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” – with Dylan on guitar, standing shoulder to shoulder with Sexton, grinning beneath the wide brim of his hat.

There’s a lot going on around him at this point, most of it exclamatory, the peerless rhythm section of George Recile and stalwart bassist Tony Garnier giving the thing a demonstrably funky foundation for Sexton’s guitar excursions and Dylan’s own trebly guitar flourishes. What seems to be at first a long coda to what would therefore be an abbreviated version of the song now turns out to be an unusually long instrumental break, a build up to a storming finale, Dylan coming back into the mix with an emphatic vocal, his voice tonight especially strong, despite the obvious degradations of age and a fair amount of hard living.

Bob’s back at the keyboards for one of the best versions in years of “Just Like A Woman”, which in parts sounds like a Tex-Mex waltz, Dylan acknowledging the crowd’s full-throated participation with a little pause before every chorus. Evidently, he can’t keep away from the guitar tonight, and is next back alongside Sexton for a particularly raucous “Honest With Me”, from Love And Theft.

“I’m not sorry for nothin’ I done,” he sings. “I’m glad I fought, I just wish we’d won.” The song’s momentum is such that at one point things, hilariously, seem to get out of hand, excitably shapeless, a rare loss of recognisable form. But Sexton and Donnie Herron on pedal steel bring it back into ferocious focus.

Dylan’s on guitar again for a sublimely done “Simple Twist Of Fate”, pretty faithful to its Blood On The Tracks incarnation, his voice curling like smoke above the measured beauty of the band’s accompaniment. It’s a hugely poignant preface to the thundering thing that follows, which is the most powerful reading many of us have yet heard of “High Water (For Charley Patton)”, dramatically punctuated by Recile’s concussive drum fills and Herron’s hammering banjo lines. Dylan delivers the song standing in front of the drum-riser, shoulders hunched, singing into a hand held microphone, adding harmonica blasts that further add to the song’s anticipation of calamities to come.

“See them big plantations burning, hear the cracking of the whips/Smell that sweet magnolia blooming, see the ghosts of slavery’s ships,” Dylan’s now singing and while you may have recognised the words, it’s unlikely you would have heard a version of “Blind Willie McTell” quite like this sulphurous overhaul of one of his greatest songs, the band’s smouldering heat something you can feel as keenly as you could this afternoon’s sun.

“Highway 61” is just wild, a venerable warhorse, which by now you might think had been ridden to death, suddenly revitalised, played with a raw abandon that contrasts beautifully with the sombre elegance of “Workingman’s Blues # 2”, which follows. It cues up in turn a feverish “Thunder On The Mountain” and an awesome “Ballad Of A Thin Man”, the urgency of Dylan’s vocal matched by Sexton’s guitar, Dylan moving from piano to centre stage again, where he blows mean and savage harmonica breaks.

Thanks to Ray Davies’ earlier stubborn petulance, and the over-running of his set, Dylan’s own performance is now consequently abbreviated, with time for only two encores: “Like A Rolling Stone” and “Forever Young”, both glorious.

The band then line up with Dylan at the front of the stage, take their bows and are off then to wherever it is they are appearing next, where they will doubtless again illuminate the lives of whoever comes to see them play.
Allan Jones

Thanks Jack. Are Tony and Charlie still ignoring each other?

__________________________________________________

My art site: Marcia's Art Pages

Thanks for that link Jackobob good, accurate read

Are you ignoring me, Jack?

__________________________________________________

My art site: Marcia's Art Pages

Allan Jones is from the old school of music journos ... always a good read and if you don't visit Uncut's website to enjoy his monthly bulletins on various things more's the pity ... Now, isn't it a pity that those of us who couldn't make it to Kent have not yet had the opportunity to enjoy the sounds and atmosphere? And the same applies to the Limerick. C'mon friends, don't keep us waiting .... cheers.

Go with the flow ... enjoy the moment. Cheers!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2010 05:36AM by Canute.

Go to youtube and see fine videos of both shows. I don't link to any, because this seems to get them taken down quicker. Simple Twist of Fate from Kent sounds particularly good.

to answer your questions w_m - yes and no respectively.

or was it no and yes?

Quote:

weirdmonkey
Thanks Jack. Are Tony and Charlie still ignoring each other?

There certainly wasn't too much interaction between them! I did spot a moment in which they shared a smile on one of the youtubes... not sure which one, or whether it's been subsequently taken down, though

Quote:

jackobob
to answer your questions w_m - yes and no respectively.

or was it no and yes?

__________________________________________________

My art site: Marcia's Art Pages

for those who can torrent the show is up.

there are a few mp3s here

The crowd are killing these recordings with constant chat.You have to be fucking mad to go to these events nowadays.

When i heard you was cold
I bought you a coat and hat
I think that you
Must've forgotten about that

Thanks Jack.

it was the show i wanted but not the best recording....... there must be a recording without so much audience somewhere out there?

Quote:

ramon88
not the best recording.......

Nothing wrong with the recording and a bit of appreciation for the taper wouldn't go amiss.

The problem is the morons who go to these things for a day out and have a chat and scream, just to be able to say they were there.

Have to agree with Jack ... I think spot did well and no doubt someone down the line may well take it and work magic on it and produce something even better ... I shall wait and see ... just like I am waiting to see if any of my Irish friends are going to put up Limerick ... we live in hope and why not!? Anyway, thanks again to the man who went to Hop and shared what he heard ....cheers.

Go with the flow ... enjoy the moment. Cheers!

Quote:

ramon88
it was the show i wanted but not the best recording....... there must be a recording without so much audience somewhere out there?

There's no bloody pleasing some people.

Quote:

ragged_clown
There's no bloody pleasing some people.

Indeed. I second that.

I've just received a copy via snail mail and I love it. It's a definite improvement on being right at the back at this particular gig and at least the "noise" is people having a good time, singing along, not the constant nattering we have to put up with on many of the US recordings.

So thank you to the taper, and everyone else, including whoever sent it to me!

Very grateful indeed.

I haven't heard the full show from the Hop Farm (listened to many on youtube and elsewhere etc) and he was just great what I heard

I still want the full set list, warts and all, after all he was at a "festival" not in an intimate venue, mostly of Bob folk, who may have been a bit less noisy.

I'll remember the day no matter what, it was very enjoyable and Bob was fabulous, no one around me interferred with what I was listening to !

forever

I'll bring the discs for you on Friday.

I enjoy the Newport Folk Festival 1965, but isn't there a recording out there without all these people making such a horrible noise? It actually sounds like booing in parts. Isn't there a recording of the same event that was made somewhere completely different without anybody present to ruin it?

the recordings i have heard (three or four mp3s posted at the other place)

sound fine to me. it's an audience recording, what is the shock that the

audience can be heard in parts?

it really isn't as bad as some folks are making out. in fact, the singalong

bits add to my enjoyment. especially, say, like a rolling stone and forever young.

karen, if it's possible can you please do me a copy. cheers.

It's not the best recording in the world, but it certainly isn't a bad one, specially for an open air gig. The higher frequencies could be a little clearer, but I'm not complaining, I'm just glad to be hearing the show again and I think the crowd noise (apart from a couple of moments) actually adds something to it, it definitely did on the day, I've never heard a crowd sing along to Bob like it...

Quote:

ragged_clown
I enjoy the Newport Folk Festival 1965, but isn't there a recording out there without all these people making such a horrible noise? It actually sounds like booing in parts. Isn't there a recording of the same event that was made somewhere completely different without anybody present to ruin it?

hit the nail on the head there.

judas!

Quote:

jackobob
judas!

LOL !

The "Spot" recording of the Hop Farm Festival show is available on dimeadozen.org.

[www.dimeadozen.org]

Sorry if someone already posted this.
I can't be arsed to check the entire thread.

It's lovely, by the way, to see Mr. & Mrs. Gooner both posting in the same thread.

I think you'll find he's Mr TUID