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on tour with Swamp Stomp String Band!
An actual tour
So we were off on our travels across the South West of this wonderful old country to support the Swamp Stomp Swing Band on their first ticketed tour. It was an absolute privilege to be offered it, in response to our hopeful enquiry if we could support them sometime, somewhere.
The first night was at the wonderful Smokey Joe's in Cheltenham which was a nice enough start, although the highlight was the trip to the greasy spoon in the morning which was the real deal, and an instant hangover cure.
Day 2 consisted of a trip to Dorchester for a slightly underwhelming do at the Town Hall which was just slightly too big not only in terms of the number of bodies in attendance, but also in terms of the acoustics, but on both counts every single person there stepped up and made a potentially tricky evening into a bit of a belter.
Day 3 was a case of hauling ass across into Devon to the windswept wilderness of Watcher, and more precisely the even deeper wilderness of the tiny village of Roadwater. They've got a magnificent village hall there, and a sense of community that hasn't existed anywhere else since the early 80s. Set-up and soundcheck had to be delayed while the villagers did their Christmas lights switch on with a couple of carols, mullee wine and a visit from the actual real Santa. Amazing. The evening was even more amazing with seemingly the entire village turning out to have the absolute time of their lives. All generations, all persuasions, all having a great time together, pretty special stuff.
Then after kipping in an abandoned b&b, we went to Minehead and rinsed the charity shops of all their quality items, then got rinsed by the amusement arcades. Then we headed to Bristol to conclude the tour in the basement room at the Exchange. Another belting night rounded off with post-tour ales into the very small hours of the morning.
In all a wonderful, ridiculous experience for us. Swamp stomp did a stupendous job and learned a lot about putting on ticketed events, and we just learned a lot and really enjoyed ourselves!
Cheers Swampers!!
