My first ever trip to Layer Road was with my dad and brother
to see Colchester United take on the
might of Derby County in a 4th round FA Cup tie. I stood on top of
an upturned milk crate on the Clock End terrace that afternoon as the Us battled
for a well-earned draw. I made a few more visits after that, but didn’t really get hooked until after the infamous 8 - nil drubbing in October 1988 by Leyton
Orient that saw manager Roger Brown sacked and replaced with the legendary Jock
Wallace, and coach Alan Ball. Amazingly they managed to steer the club, who were languishing at the bottom of the old 4th Division, to league safety in an epic race for points with Darlington and saved us from the dreaded drop into the GM Vauxhall
Conference. Well, for that season at least.
I was immediately hooked, and for several years rarely
missed a game. Home or away. The Barside terrace was my second home...
after a catching up with friends over a couple of pints at the nearby Drury Arms of
course. It was a place to enjoy the terrace chants, the banter, a cup of Bovril
and a meat pie at half-time, and of course cheer on the 11 players on the pitch
through thick and thin. We had laughs aplenty, and crushing disappointment in equal
measure. Such was life on the terraces.
The Barside and Layer Road End terraces as seen from the Main Stand.
The clink of the turnstiles, the terrace chants with the guys
at the back often banging along in time on the corrugated iron wall behind, the
shower of rust when the ball hit the roof, shouting at an evening game for the
lights above our heads to be turned off again after half-time so we could see
the game, the queue at the pie hut, scrambling over the wall to get onto that
hallowed turf when the referee blew the whistle at the end of the final home
game of the season and so much more are now just memories. The Us have long
since vacated the ground we all loved and moved up the road to the shiny new Weston Homes
Community Stadium to the north of the
town, but it’s only recently that the bulldozers have finally moved in. We
might all have known for many years that to survive and have any chance of
success in the modern day game Colchester United needed a stadium worthy of
their ambitions, and with facilities to boost their income, but to see Layer
Road disappearing forever was heart breaking when I made the trip over there
this morning with my camera for one last look before it is gone forever.
All that remains of the ticket office and the back of the Layer Road End terrace.
Making easy work of demolishing the Main Stand.
The steps up to the Layer Road End terrace now go nowhere.
Not a sight I ever thought I'd see.
The supporters club bar still stands. For now.
The Club Shop canopy lies abandoned in front of the exits from the turnstiles having miraculously survived intact.
All that remains of the club shop. A changing room mirror now reflects the overgrown pitch instead of a proud Us fan trying on the new season's shirt.
How many thousands of corners must have taken from this spot? In the background the trees that were once hidden from view by the Main Stand.
All that remains of my beloved Barside. A pile of rubble.
Once the bulldozers are gone Layer Road will be the site of 58new homes, with all traces of the football ground eradicated forever. Except in the memories of generations of Us fans.
This the story of my 2012 Wivenhoe May Fair. Other people's mileage may of course vary.
Since moving to Wivenhoe the town’s annual May Fair on the
King George V playing field has been one of my favourite days of the year. When
my children were younger May Fair day was a day for their mother and I to pack us
up a picnic, some cold beers and a bottle or two of wine, not forgetting of
course soft drinks for the little ones, then meeting up with friends for an
afternoon of browsing the stalls and basking in the sun. The kids, armed with a
few quid from mum and dad would excitedly come and go from our little base of
blankets on the grass armed with ice creams and other purchases such a necklaces
and bracelets that were usually broken by the next morning. I even remember one
year in those heady days a little enclosure at the top of the field where
little kids could have endless fun knocking nails into scraps of wood with
hammers and nails kindly provided by the people running the attraction. I shudder
to think of the potential injuries and what a health and safety officer would
have to say about that today!
Oh yes, there was also some music going on somewhere down
the bottom of the field, but that was never really on our radar back then.
Fast forward a few years and the kids are now teenagers,
hanging out on May Fair day with their teenage friends, and dad is now more
interested in the music than having a
picnic. This is due in part to the amazing musical talent available these days
from the Wivenhoe and Colchester areas, and that, at least in my perception,
our May Fair has in recent years evolved into more of a mini festival. It’s
certainly not the same event that we used to let the kids wander around on
their own with the words “Make sure you stay together… “ ringing in their ears.
After the problems of last year, which have been well
documented and don’t need rehashing here, the organisers, in their collective
wisdom, decided to turn back the clock and try to take the fair back towards its
original peace festival roots. So, for its 30th Anniversary, the May
Fair was taken from its usual bank holiday Monday slot and moved to Saturday,
on a different weekend, in an attempt to keep the numbers more manageable. To
help turn back the clock a ‘70s vibe’ fancy
dress theme was announced, and the musical talent was drawn primarily from
Wivenhoe rather than, as happened last year, using big names from Colchester to
swell the crowd.
Arriving around 12.30 my first port of call was to catch up
with old friend Dave Beard who I heard would be setting up his stall on the
King George V. Sure enough Beardy was there and it was good to see him back
behind his stall doing what he loves.
Beardy on his stall
After browsing the other stalls, and stopping for a chat
with friends Patrick Auer and Jo Weatherall on their stall selling jewellery and
watches, a hearty lunch of Jamaican food followed, curried goat with rice and a
fish patty, which was consumed before heading down to the Tree Stage in time to
catch local favourites Hobo Chang, a band that never fails to deliver, and yep,
you guessed it, to the delight of their home crowd they delivered with their
usual earthy mix of blues, jazz, reggae and ska.
Now, there’s three Colchester bands that I love to see
whenever I get the opportunity… Surfquake, Animal Noise and Dingus Khan, and
wouldn’t you just know it but the May Fair’s lovely organisers had seen fit put
two of them on. So first up were the Animal Noise boys, Jack (Drums), Birdy
(Bass and vocals) and Josh (Guitar and vocals) who served us up a blinding set of
their distinctive bruised battered and beaten acoustic dance tunes which had a
large crowd at the front dancing in the baking sun like their lives depended on
it. Thankfully local legend Martin Newell was on hand to compere between the
acts and made a point of reminding them to drink plenty of water and stay
hydrated. Wise words Martin.
If you would like to find out more about Animal Noise you can
read my interview with them from the November 2011 issue of Colchester 101
magazine. Read it here.
Next up, and all the way from Kentucky in the good ole US of
A, was Buddy Lee Dickens. Animal Noise are a tough act to follow and that stage
must have seemed like a big, empty space after Martin had introduced him and
left him alone on it, but Buddy made it his own, delighting the crowd with his
take on the theme to Spiderman, the self-penned Root Beer, and even had people running
to the stage to dance when he launched into the theme to the hit TV show The
Big Bang Theory. Totally awesome dude.
A trip to the bar followed to refill my thermal insulated
mug that was the envy of many who spotted me sipping my ice cold beer from it.
This baby mug holds two bottles’ worth of beer… next year I’m bringing its
brother, the mighty Big Red Mug that can hold the contents of four cans of Carlsberg
and keep it the same temperature it came out of the fridge for the afternoon.
Goodtimes.
We returned in time to catch the last song of Lou Terry’s
set, then it wasn’t long before Martin was introducing Surfquake to the eager
crowd who were then treated to a mix of surf guitar rock including classic TV themes
and their own songs. Surfquake, comprising Swell (Go-go Guitar), The Dune (Surf
Drums), and Wivenhoe locals Hannah Lulu (Quayboards) and Noserider (Hotrod
Bass) are a popular festival band, and as expected proved a huge hit with this
crowd.
If you would like to read my interview with Swell, aka
New Model Army’s Nelson, from January’s Colchester 101 magazine click here.
A trip up to the Sunrise Stage followed to catch the amazing Rhonda Merrick, a prolific blues and soul singer / songwriter hailing from New
Orleans, Louisiana. Rhonda’s presence was a real coup for the May Fair and
those lucky enough to be in the packed tent knew they were listening to someone
with a very special talent as she delighted all assembled.
As they get set to take to the main stage at this Saturday's Wivenhoe May Fair here is my exclusive interview with Animal Noise. First published in the November 2011 issue of Colchester
101 magazine.
Cover photography by jdoyle.com
Arriving back at my local after spending the early part of
the evening at the St Denys Fayre at the newly opened Firstsite building, I’m
recognised by someone else who had been there who asks me “You were at the Animal Noise gig
weren’t you? They’re one of the best bands in Colchester right now.” I can’t help
but tell him how much I agree with him.
Rewind a couple of days and I’m sitting out the back of the King’s Arms
(formerly the Hogs Head) on Crouch Street ahead of that Firstsite gig with
Joel, Jack and Birdy from the band that is currently receiving bucket loads of well-deserved
attention around the town. They had been booked to play a set at the visual
arts facility on top of the Berryfield Mosaic, the Roman mosaic which has been
lovingly restored and returned to almost the very spot where it was discovered
in 1930 after spending several decades hanging upright in the castle. I ask
them what it’s like to soon to be playing a gig in what was basically some
Roman guy’s dining room, and the last person to play anything there was
probably a slave playing a lute 2000 years ago. They admit it’s going to be a
strange gig!
Over the past year Animal Noise have taken the local music
scene by storm, filling venues around the town as well as delighting their growing
army of fans at various local festivals throughout the summer with their
exciting and energetic sound which they describe as “bruised, battered and
beaten folk.”
jdoyle.com
So how did the Animal Noise story begin? It’s simple, they all studied music at
the Colchester Institute, albeit that Jack and Birdy were students there six
years before Josh. “We call ourselves musos” Birdy jokes. As a result they were
all mixing in music circles, “it was only a matter of time before we clashed” says
Jack, who then goes on to explain how Josh had been looking for a rhythm
section whilst he and Birdy, who at the time were playing in a punk band, had been
on the lookout for a frontman for their own project. They had been playing
together in one band or another for 15 years. Then, one night at a house party,
fellow guest Josh played the guitar and they knew they had found their man. “He
mesmerised everyone,” recalls Jack. “That was it really. Six weeks later we had
a gig. Josh had been booked for a solo gig and he asked us if we would play the
drums and bass just to warm the songs up a bit. It was all really quick. We
only had six weeks to learn his songs, and it went from there.”
Josh continues, “Our first gig was billed as The Josh Sandifer Band or
something and we did quite a mellow set. Then we started writing new stuff, and
jamming and stumbling across things we all liked”. Jack explains how their
sound came about more by accident than by design “We were playing hard rhythms
and Josh just put something beautiful over the top.” The resulting distinctive
Animal Noise sound is hard to describe, and folk certainly doesn’t cover it.
Flamenco punk comes closer.
Their next gig came a couple of months later, by which time
they had their own material and had decided on the name Animal Noise. That was
back in April 2009 at The Twist on North Hill. Being an acoustic night, the new
band were worried how they would be received with a loud drummer and bass
player. They needn’t have worried, they went down a storm and were immediately
booked for a gig at The Minories. The rest, as they say, is history.
They love playing local gigs, especially back room at the
Bull aka the Soundhouse “You can make a great atmosphere in there and you don’t
need a lot of people to do it,” says Birdy. Other favourites have included The
Arts Centre, where the other week they supported New Town Kings, and of course
The Twist where it all began. It’s
obvious from their enthusiasm that they love what they are doing. “It’s great
when you gel together,” says Jack. “You can’t really force it. You get bands
that trawl round looking for the perfect drummer or bass player, but it
shouldn’t really be like that. It should be accidental”.
Josh agrees, “But
it’s really hard though, to meet people you do gel with.”
Birdy adds, “Us three
are all sort of on the same wavelength, we’re the same kind of people.”
“We haven’t got any
set style which makes it even easier,” continues Jack. “You can audition other
musicians and sometimes they want to play a certain style, and that can make it
difficult to work with them.”
They have so much adrenalin that whilst only a three piece
they don’t need any more band members, though Josh admits to occasionally
fantasising about having a brass section and maybe some soul backing singers.
“Not for every song,” he jokes “maybe just one day when we are playing stadiums
we could have some backing singers.
Joking aside, I ask them where they want to go with Animal
Noise, “We’ve been gigging all over the summer,” says Josh “ just relentlessly
gigging and gigging and we haven’t really had time to write music, and jam and
just really enjoy ourselves with it. It’s made me realise that I don’t really care
if it doesn’t go anywhere, so long as we can always have fun writing and
connecting with the other two because that is the best part of it.”
Jack adds, “It’s never a chore, but it gets more business-like
when you’re constantly gigging as you’re just rehearsing for the next gig all
the time.” But they have observed that at each gig there are more people dancing
“That’s what I like to do, to get more people dancing each time we play.”
They recently supported German band LaBrassBanda in Germany after playing on
the same bill at the Dublin Castle in Camden, London. Over a few drinks after
the gig LaBrassBanda frontman Sepp rather told them he would get them over to
Germany one day” Josh tells the story, “We were like yeah, yeah because a lot
of people say things like that, but then we actually got an email inviting us
over.” Come the end of July and they
were on the main stage at a festival in front of over 7000 LaBrassBanda
fans in their home town. “We had the time of our lives. It was great to feel
like a proper rock band. To wake up every day and just play music would be the
best thing ever.”
They take a philosophical view over their future. Gone are
the days when you could put a band together, go into the studio and make a
first single, send it off to John Peel who would call you one evening a few
days later to tell you he was about to play it on his show, then maybe, just
maybe, find yourself on Top of the Pops the following Thursday. In this X
Factor day and age a band’s chances of getting noticed are much, much slimmer “It’s
a shambles really. And that’s why we’ve cut down on the number of gigs we play
in London, because people there only really want to go and see you if you are
the next coolest thing in Shoreditch or wherever, says Jack. “The venues don’t
pay you and all the people that come to the gig are there to see their mates
play, so they go outside for a fag when you’re on. There’s been no atmosphere
at all in the last few venues we’ve played there.”
The only way to make it work in London seems to be to get a
support slot with a decent up and coming band, as Birdy enthuses “Those are the
ones to aim for! But don’t get us wrong, we’ve had some crackers in London too,
like at Dublin Castle.”
However, we all agree though that ultimately if a band wants
to make it they need to be getting out of their own areas and play in London
because, as is often said, you never know who is going to be in the audience. “It’s
best to build something in your home town first though because if you’ve got
nothing in London and nothing at home nobody is going to come and watch you
anyway” concludes Jack. Well, there’s no denying that Animal Noise are building
something in Colchester as lovers of the local music scene can see them going
from strength to strength and picking up more and more fans along the way. They
are soon to go into the studio to record their first album, due for release in
December, and you can catch them on February 4th 2012 when they
grace the stage at our Colchester 101 Presents event at the Judge and Jury.
You can purchase the album Run Loose on iTunes I run Media48, a Colchester based graphic and website design and marketing agency where we know a thing or two about how to market a business. If you would like to find out more about what we can do for your business then give us a call on 0800 756 1470 (we even pay for the call) or email me simon@media48.co.uk
It was a cold evening at the end of last year when I made my
way to the town’s newest music venue, The Judge and Jury in St Botolph’s Circus,
to catch up with local reggae ska band the New Town Kings as they filmed the video
for their new single News Stand. It seemed kind of appropriate that having been
at the launch of their second album MOJO, from which the single comes, I should
see the job through and see the video being filmed too. However, if the truth
be told, I was just going along for the final couple of hours of filming as the
band and crew had actually been hard at it for most of the day shooting various
scenes in the venue and around the town centre. The name of the game tonight,
however, was to get shots of the band performing in front of a live audience
made up of around 150 lucky New Town Kings fans who had been specially invited
along for the event. And, not only were they going to appear in the band’s new
video, once filming was over they were to be treated to a free gig as a thank
you to finish off the night.
During a break in filming I catch up with Colchester
filmmaker Will Wright who is producing the News Stand video. He is clearly
enjoying himself and is pleased at the way filming has been going. Will tells
me that the story behind the video is about the press publishing untrue stories
about the band, and it also has a go at the whole tabloid culture of spreading
lies about celebrities and artists. I ask him how he got involved with this project
: ”I generally make music videos in London. But I know some of the members of
the band from DJing in Colchester, and they have seen some of my work, so they approached
me to shot the video.” And what is the crowd here for tonight? “The crowd’s
role is to help with the transition of the video from a soundcheck, and
rehearsal for the gig, to becoming more of a concert and music video.”
This should be good!
Spying Stu McClung and Tommy Merchant from the band I wander
over and ask them how they are enjoying making their first ever video. “Very
nervous!” Tommy jokingly tells me. “It’s very full-on and intense, but we’ve
got a great director helping us along the way.” I ask Stu when we can expect to
see the results of today’s work : “It’s out in January and will be on YouTube
and all over our Facebook and MySpace, and our website.”
Numerous
run throughs of News Stand later, to an audience that never seems to tire of
hearing the song no matter how many times the band perform it for them, filming
finally ends and the crowd get their reward. After a short break the band
return to the stage and put on that much anticipated gig. They must be
shattered by now after filming all day and evening, but as ever the New Town Kings
do what they do best, they put on one heck of a show, giving it their usual 110
percent as they treat us to energetic performances of favourites including La
La World and Dynamite. And the thing that strikes me the most, as it always
does when I see them, is that the band always seem to be having have much fun
as the crowd are. If not more so.
And here it is :
As if that is not enough there is also a 'making of...' video by East6Media which features an interview with yours truly :
I run Media48, a Colchester based graphic and website design and marketing agency where we know a thing or two about how to market a business. If you would like to find out more about what we can do for your business then give us a call on 0800 756 1470 (we even pay for the call) or email me simon@media48.co.uk
