I’m revisiting these old reviews of Bishopstock 2000 and 2001 as a reminder of what a great event this used to be and to reflect on the sad way it ended. As far as I recall, this was the first festival (as opposed to gigs) that we had been to together and holds a special place in our memory. Most of what you see in the reviews themselves are extant from the write ups that I delivered to the very first incarnation of what was then called ‘Shades Of Blue’. The site then underwent a series of changes over the years and is now nothing more than a footnote in the memory, with the R&B Primer subsection of the Redandwhite Rag currently its less bloated replacement. But read on nonetheless and relive my memories as written twenty five years ago – almost verbatim.
It was never very rock and roll, all very civilised and, some would say, overly sedate. But it was a fine way to see and hear a lot of great blues, soul and R&B in lovely surroundings – perfect for lovers of the blues of a certain age! As first time visitors to the Bishopstock festival, we were unsure what to expect. The event was staged in what you might, in a classic moment of English understatement, describe as the “front garden” of Bishops Palace, the home of Helen Myers, the festival organiser. Even the inclement weather on the Sunday of the 2000 event couldn’t detract from the surroundings. Limited to 6,000 ticket holders (and it promised to stay that way) the festival retained a genuine family atmosphere and there was a permanent good time feeling throughout the two days we were there. Good facilities, plenty of decent food (and drink!!) and good company all added to the enjoyment of the event.
Then, in 2001, I’m afraid it all went wrong for Helen Myers, the organiser of Bishopstock 2001. The original and by now traditional May Bank holiday dates were killed off by the nationwide foot and mouth crisis; the rearranged festival for the August Bank Holiday weekend was clearly never going to maintain the original line-up but it still looked a wonderful three days when we all bought (or retained) our tickets. But we knew very quickly that the companies associated with the festival had gone in to liquidation, proceedings apparently starting only hours after the festival ended (and the web site also disappeared!!). The rest is history and was reasonably well documented at the time but that didn’t make its demise any less sad.
Unusually for music entries originally posted on the old Shades Of Blue site, on this occasion I’m placing the reviews of both the 2000 and 2001 festivals on the main blog rather than just within the R&B Primer sub section, as is usually the case (they will still appear in the Primer, in the new R&B Reviews section). There are two reasons for the choice to show them in the main blog. Firstly, as stated, these entries are a celebration of our first festival together twenty five years ago. Secondly, it was as much about our travels and vacations as it was about the music itself. If I’d had a blog about the ‘meanderings of the aged and grumpy‘ in 1997, it would have been included at the time. Such is the contradiction of time passing, but it was always thus.
Check out the original reviews by clicking on the links below – a lot of talent on display one weekend or two. Maybe the quality of the stars booked to play was testament to the organiser’s aspirations and the tendency amongst such individuals to occasionally over-reach.