We have had quite the weekend(s) of musical shenanigans - and it all started at The Heights of Abraham in Matlock. That’s what this blog is about. The Heights. We weren’t mentioning it for no reason. We like to keep you on your toes, but sometimes we just tell you it as it is. This is one of them times. Buckle up, it was a long weekend.
If you picture that scene in The Sound of Music where Julie Andrews frolics around the hills, singing, you wouldn’t be far off what happened at The Heights. Only replace the hills with A FRIGGIN’ MOUNTAIN and frolicking with heavy sweating and breathlessness as we lugged: a banjo, fiddle, cajon, drum pedal, mandolin, 12 string, 6 string (x2), guitar stands, microphones, cables, picnics, bug repellent, costume changes, hair spray, the kitchen sink and a pair or venetian blinds (because without venetian blinds, it would be curtains for all of us!) - up a mountain. A literal mountain. Did we tell you we were playing on a mountain?
Photo by Steve Braithwaite
We know what you’re thinking - ‘drama llama’s, we know there’s cable cars’. Well, you are correct. There are, indeed, cable cars. Much like being Rick rolled however, these cable cars never give up, never let you down - never stop. Genuinely - they are on a rotation and they do not stop or slow down. With the aforementioned banjo, fiddle, cajon, drum pedal, mandolin, 12 string, 6 string (x2), guitar stands, microphones, cables, limited edition signed lyric sheet of Billie Ray Cyrus’ ‘Achy Breaky Heart’, a faberge egg, and a handful of pretty stones we found in a river - getting on the cars was an experience. We would liken it to having all the bones in your body removed and then trying to exit a waltzer ride while it’s still moving, all while simultaneously trying not to spill an open container of runny custard.
By the end of the three days we had devised a rugby-esque plan, in which Dean dipped out first, and then the rest of the band threw thousands of pounds of equipment at him at speed. Touchdown! 50 points to Gryffindor. We’re not very sporty, the rugby metaphor was never going to make it very far…
We were met at the top of the hill (mountain) by the wonderful Abigail Brassington (her husband’s a doctor). Straight out of the Victorian era - she looked amazing for 140! Also, very quickly became Katy’s best friend. We lost Katy a lot over the weekend and often found her talking corsets and all things whale-bone with Abigail. BFFL’s.
We had probably worked off our daily calories by this point and Abigail mentioned that they were selling this new fangled thing in the cafe - some gentleman in London had just started to cut up potatoes and fry them in oil! She reckoned it wouldn’t catch on, but we were all hungry and loaded fries with homemade coleslaw proper hit the spot.
Photo by Steve Braithwaite
The hills were alive with the sound of rainfall. We popped down to the amphitheatre stage and found our soundman, Graham Marriott, huddled under some tarpaulin and several hundred layers of fleece. Everything was bagged up, trying to save his electrical equipment from the soft rain.
Graham Marriott with his band The Longmen
We have to say at this point that Graham was excellent - it really doesn’t matter how much you practise, how tight you are as a band, your fate is always in the hands of the man (or woman, or non-binary person) that handles your sound, and man did he do us good!
Despite the soft rain we had such a lovely audience! So a huge thanks at this point to everyone that braved it and stuck around. We got some great pictures of kids dancing and stamping their feet. However, this was Derbyshire, and we were at the top of a mountain (have we mentioned we were at THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN?!), and the soft rain didn’t stay that way for long…
Suddenly, after our third or fourth song, we found ourselves in the middle of a truly, earth shattering, downpour. We weren’t sure if there was thunder or if Graham’s system was shorting. We felt we were reasonably close to having a pyrotechnic show - Eddie Van Halen, eat your heart out.
Luckily for us, Graham was not just your average sound engineer - he was also your average just engineer! We had a canopy protecting us - but the rain had started to pool in the middle rather than running down the sides. Graham managed to fashion a life saving (and instrument saving) device out of a keyboard stand, microphone stand, duct tape, PVA glue, a pringles packet, and some glitter (Blue Peter badge is in the post, Graham). This pushed the middle of the canopy up so the water would flow down the back and down the mountain (probably should mention, we were playing at the top of a mountain).
Photo by Steve Braithwaite
It was certainly hard work, but we had such a laugh. We got to meet some really lovely musicians (and victorians). The Hanging Tree gave Graham an earworm - which means the band can now officially disband, as we have peaked, we’ve made it, done what we set out to do - be as annoying as possible. Tick. Done. Over. However, we have to do this all over again on June 3rd, and my goodness are we looking forward to it!
So, we chucked a banjo, fiddle, cajon, drum pedal, mandolin, 12 string, 6 string (x2), guitar stands, microphones, cables, a piece of the Berlin wall, Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’, a blue video cassette of Disney’s ‘Monsters Inc’ and a weird looking twig we found in the forest - into the cable cars and headed back down.
On the second day the weather was much nicer and managed to sneak into a secret location to take some new band pictures and record a video in what we believe to be the most aesthetically and acoustically pleasing place we have ever found. We seem to have something about graffiti that we like.
This is already the longest blog in the world (Guinness Book of Records better be taking notes) so we won’t go into anymore days or details - if you have managed to get this far, well done! Come see us at a gig and we will give you a sticker. What we will say is The Heights is LUSH. They put on some amazing bands over the weekend and they have more weekends of music to come - all the music is included with the cable car ticket and there is loads to do - from seeing how quickly you can jump in and out of cable cars, to touring caves and wandering around the woods. Come see us in June and say hi!
Love, harmonies, cwtch,
Kootch x
Gallery photo’s by Steve Braithwaite.