FIRST ZAPPATEERS
What a magical weekend. As soon as we got off the
train, me and HRH spotted an ‘ARF’ number plate – a genuine
one, not like the ones irregular folks get knocked-up and display at Zappanale
– so it was kinda Kismet from the get-go. Arrived at
the George and said “Hi” to all these folk I only knew by their on-line
pseudonyms. And so I’m better known as The Idiot Bastard, which suits me fine:
one out of two ain’t bad. We helped decorate the pub
and sank a few Budvars (none of this proper beer for
me). My good friend Uncle Ian arrived with some splendid FZ quote signs for to
hang, and he took me back to our B&B. Now I was down as handler for first
band, Monty & The
Butchers, who I’d introduced to the Zappateers
and who’d told me they’d arrive around 1800. Thinking this was the earliest
they’d be there, I was amazed when I got a text to say they’d arrived ahead of
schedule – so straight back to the George double-quick, no time to grab cameras
(Doh! Yep, we both forgot to take them for first
night snaps. Still, God bless mobile phones. But then, damn liquid chemical
amusement aids). Met the boys and took them to their digs. Have known Matthew
for a few years now, but they’re all real nice boys. I acted as Monty’s beer
bitch (meaning I carried their crate of ‘Green Room’ Fosters up the hill back
to the George, where I was met by the just-arrived J-Roc sarcastically enquiring
“what’s that white juice on yo’ beard, Andee?”. He think ‘handler’ mean more than it say on the
label, naughty boy). Montys all sorted, soon it’s
time to re-join the fray and await their set. They soundcheck with Any
Downers, which gets a few of the old geezers quite excited. And
rightly so, as their set-proper goes down a storm: as well as stuff like Dirty Love, Green Hotel, Bamboozled, San Ber’dino, Apostrophe (yes, Apostrophe), and the afore-mentioned Downers, they also played a few of their own tunes, And indeed it
was during one of these that the prime UK movers of this event – Darling Ben
and Paul StatusBaby – came over and kissed me. After
their first couple of encores, Paul (who acted as MC for the weekend) told the
assembled freaks that he was ready to be impressed but that the band had
exceeded his expectations. They finished off with Camarillo Brillo and handed out chocolate
Next day we watched local mod/60s cover band,
On the Sabbath, we return to see a fine acoustic
sing-along set by three FoolZ before OTL acts as
quizmaster for a wild and wacky, er, FZ quiz. Now
this had a bit of an Anglo vibe, and I had HRH by my side to steer me home and
dry. Yes, I won the bloody thing – and, having donated one of my Peter Mackay piccies
as the top prize, I thus got my own back. Talk about pissing in the wind. We
did that too. Ben Dubya also handed out some apt spot
prizes (I won a bag of Demerara sugar for correctly identifying the organist on
Chunga’s Revenge). All of the questions will be
posted on the Zappateers site in due course, and Ben
& Esther hope to do something similar under the big top at Zappanale this
year. What happened next? Oh, we played Twister and Jenga
and had even more of a laugh. I really wanna thank
everyone - Zappateers, travelling companions, staff
of The George, etc - for making it a great time. Here’s to the next one.
