Bearded Theory 2019

[rich!]

I am. I'm gonna be spending a large part of it compèring Gail's tea tent, and then at night, I shall be losing my shit in Magical Sounds

Well, that tells me where I should heckle

 

[rich!]

This will be the first Bearded in a while I don't have any spare tickets and I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing.

F'in a.

 

[sojourner]

Well, that tells me where I should heckle

 

[rich!]

So who else is camping rather than van-ing?

 

[Mogden]

I'll be camping. Got to get Hello Kitty out and see if she's serviceable but if you see the pink wonder, do pop by for a chat.

 

[mr steev]

A bit of a long shot, but does anyone have or know anyone that has a spare vehicle pass for sale?

 

[chainsawjob]

A bit of a long shot, but does anyone have or know anyone that has a spare vehicle pass for sale?

You've reminded me I need one too.

 

[mr steev]

You've reminded me I need one too.

Have a look on the bearded chat group on Facebook. Looks like i've sorted one now

 

[William of Walworth]

mr steev and all Urban Bearded-goers, we'll have to arrange a beer tent meetup ahead of the fest ...

 

[Mogden]

Ha with a very large degree of flexibility on the meet time and keeping in mind mobile signal is pretty rare there

Given it's 23dom's send off on Friday, I had in mind that might be an appropriate day. Festivals are one of the few times in a year I drink booze so I was going to raise a pint, or similar, to him then.

 

[chainsawjob]

I won't arrive til late Thursday, so Friday's good for me.

 

[William of Walworth]

mr steev and all Urban Bearded-goers, we'll have to arrange a beer tent meetup ahead of the fest ...

That looked weirdly-worded on a re-read

So let's clarify : Main Beer Tent (opposite Pallet Stage) at about 1 pm on Friday, I'd suggest!

 

[Fishmonkeyman]

Anyone of a certain age that used to go out partying In london late 90s/early 00s maybe interested in Mark Sinclair doing a retro Pendragon set at 10:30 on the outdoor pirate ship. Quite excited for this trip down memory lane!

 

[Riff]

That looked weirdly-worded on a re-read

So let's clarify : Main Beer Tent (opposite Pallet Stage) at about 1 pm on Friday, I'd suggest!

Ah I have a table booked in at Cheezy Vinyl at that time. I take it the Meet at Acko's Bar will be going on for a few hours?

 

[Mogden]

Ah I have a table booked in at Cheezy Vinyl at that time. I take it the Meet at Acko's Bar will be going on for a few hours?

I don't think I've ever been at an urban festival meet up that has started on time

 

[rich!]

I don't think I've ever been at an urban festival meet up that has started on time

I've arrived a day early for them on occasion.

 

[Stig]

Got drunk yesterday in a pub with rich! and friends, and was persuaded to buy a bearded ticket

Look forward to meeting you all and drinking beer. I assume there are some bands on and that, too, probably.

 

[William of Walworth]

Well done Stig !! You know it makes sense ....

 

[wiskey]

My ticket has arrived.

Paper tickets are so antequat

 

[William of Walworth]

We picked up our tickets (plus van pass) from our friend Andrew who we were drinking with at the weekend -- he'd ordered some early birds for us back in February, as we were away and out of internet access the time that early birds went on sale.

And I quite like paper tickets!! Old school etc.

 

[sojourner]

I can't commit to meeting up cos I don't know what times I'll be compering yet. I DO know however that I got a spot in the spoken word tent, 2.44 - 2.55 on the Saturday, if any of you fancy heckling me

 

[chainsawjob]

My kids will be at the festival school that Bearded run on the friday, they've got Ali McMordie from Stiff Little Fingers coming to talk to the kids as guest teacher about his 40 years in the music business

Also, here's the line up for Bards at Bearded, check out Saturday for political, loved up anarchy , 1-3...

Lineup for Bards of Bearded (subject to change, but it will be awesome whatever happens!) It's all happening in the Swamp Circus Big Top!

Saturday 25th May 1-3pm
Graham Parker - performance poet of renown
Julie Bernstein - relatable and funny poems
Paul Somers and Rob Pippington Smythe - acoustic songs and comedy
Wanda Parker - storyteller
Denzil 'Denzileo' Ede Denzil De Cristo - standup and stories
Darren Howes - philosophical poetry
Alex Tyler - a rising star of performance poetry
Garry Marsh - eccentric characters
Laura Taylor - political, loved-up, anarchic and funny
Cath Connolly - festival lover and poet

Sunday 26th May 1-3pm
Rhymical Mike - family, love, social and political - something to raise a smile
Bob the Bandit - the worst poet in Christendom - tales of badgers, farts and planks of wood, as someone has already written a poem about a daffodil
Colin Daffern - excellent poetry by an expert quizzer
Sam Tucker - up and coming songwriter
Theo - 'The Truth is a Whole' extract from a political thriller about Brexit, Trump, Facebook, the media, the alt-right, the Valley unicorns, libertarians, neo-marxists and the russians.
Martin Ashford - poems about festival culture and some musical surprises
Jimtom Jimtom Keith Thomas James - Wylde words of vision, and shard observations of life - words and music
Chris Martin - poetry, biased towards humour
Rachel Mckeown - Miss Lexic - tongue in cheek poetry
Sue Scargill - the Vagenda

What a fantastic line-up! Please spread the word!

 

[sojourner]

I won't be doing political, OR loved up - not enough time to fit everything in, so I'm going for mammograms, shouty ranty, a lovely person, and then more shouty

 

[William of Walworth]

chainsawjob : Martin Ashford's our very good pal! His knowledge of festivals goes back decades!

I've just been packing, not much left
I have a short six hour day tomorrow , festivaldeb finishes work early too, and we'll be off to Hereford for the evening -- we'll be staying over there tomorrow night (Weds) to break the journey.
Obstacles permitting we should be onsite, set up and wandering about by mid to late afternoon.

The obligatory BBC weather link (I've used Lichfield) -- and for now, it looks pretty positive!

See various of you round and about site, and at the main beer tent 1 pm-ish on Friday.
Stig -- we've not forgotten your other beer needs either!
We hope to sort that out in our shop for general supplies in Hereford on Thursday morning

 

[William of Walworth]

We've just got back. I'll attempt to imagine the faint possibility of some sort of feedback later this week

In other words we had a fucking good time

 

[sojourner]

Urgh, back in work, not quite right yet!

Lovely to meet everyone, and thanks for coming to see me I had a fab time performing in both the tea tent and the swamp circus tent, and sold bloody loads of books!

Despite being ropey with the gum infection and having to take the brutal antibiotics which meant I couldn't drink any booze, I still managed to have a top weekend. Transglobal Underground were fab, if a little muted compared to the Beatherder set, and I had a good old dance. Met old friends and made new ones, and spent almost all my time in the tea tent tbh. Lovely!

 

[chainsawjob]

Good to meet you sojourner, and to see folk at the meet. That was a good Bearded, weather was top, didn't see a great deal of music (never do), loads of people to chat to, site looking improved... I liked the changes, kids had a good time. Nice start to the season

 

[sojourner]

God yeh, the weather was glorious eh? Way hotter than I thought it was gonna be!

Tell you what, I haven't seen such a tidy site in a long time. Beatherder used to be that clean before all the fucking idiots turned up and littered it to buggery.

 

[mr steev]

Well that was brilliant and nearly broke me I'm very impressed with those that went to work yesterday! I fell asleep/passed out soon after I got home on Monday at about 3pm and finally woke up (almost) properly this morning at 8:30am. My backs aching, not sure if that's due to days spent lying on my sofa or my kidneys... but it was worth it.
Sorry I didn't make the meet - not that anyone would have got any sense out of me if I did

 

[rich!]

I managed to get up, get three people off site and to a train at eleven, go home, change, go to Geneva, and do two days hard work there. So technically I've just got back from the festival.

It was ace.