RANDALL ROOTZ MK3 IS ANOTHER HIT

The third annual Randall Rootz Festival, named after its inspirational namesake, Mark Randall, placed itself well and truly on the festival map this year, with a stunning line-up of music and entertainment over the weekend of August 14-16. ESP backed the festival as part of our Perfect Ten series, events we’re backing in celebration of our ten years in business and this was certainly a worthy contender.

Kicking-off proceedings at The Brewery Tap was the 90s chart-topping group The Beautiful South (now renamed New Beautiful South), who certainly didn’t miss Paul Heaton as front man.  Whether they’ll miss Heaton’s song-writing as they re-establish themselves is yet to be seen, but with a back-catalogue of hits to work with, they had the near-500 capacity crowd in the palm of their hands.  Dave Hemingway and Alison Wheeler worked their magic and had the audience singing along to a 90 minute set, including ‘Rotterdam’, ‘Perfect 10’, ‘Don’t Marry Her’, ‘A Little Time’ and ‘Good As Gold’.  The roof almost lifted off when they left the stage, but fortunately they were back minutes later for a resounding encore and a great time was had by all.

Supporting earlier in the evening were Angryman (who Mark Randall was drummer/percussionist with before his sad demise from cancer in 2007). The four-piece band wowed the audience and lay down the amazing atmosphere that carried on throughout the night.

The following day saw the event move outside to Charters on the town bridge, where eleven bands entertained from midday to well past midnight.  Local troubadours, Opaque, opened up to a modest crowd of around 200, in what was rumored to be their last home gig.  By the time their set had finished just after 1pm, the audience had trebled in number as revelers streamed into the site for more. They weren’t disappointed as Pogues tribute band, The Dead Rabbits, started to draw people onto the dance floor and had them jigging away to the Irish-punk gems of Shane MacGowen.  Mike Carr from The Dead Rabbits enjoyed some friendly banter with the football supporters from The Posh and Sheffield Wednesday as they sang football chants to each other between songs, the sun shone and the day was well and truly set up for a winner.

Next up were The Brackets, who put on a blinding performance as the football crowd melted away and the garden quickly filled up with families and familiar faces. Just after 3pm the KidZone procession was led away by the team from The Green Backyard and headed into Cathedral Square making a hell of a racket with home-made instruments and faces painted suitably for the occasion, allowing parents to kick back for an hour and listen to the jazz-guitar and vocal combo of The Guitar Man & Her.  By mid-afternoon, both outside and inside the venue were packed to the rafters and as Dr Robeatnik hit the stage to deliver the most amazing acoustic treat of the day, we heard that Peterborough had drawn with Sheffield – a very fair result considering the singing and chanting earlier in the day!  Supporters from both teams mingled outside trouble-free with the families that were there for the music and it showed, once again, that Randall Rootz has established itself as a truly family-friendly community festival.

A new dimension to this year’s festival was the performance poetry – delivered between sets by the various groups of Peterborough poets throughout the weekend and including some very amusing and cheeky observational banter. The atmosphere was perfect. Oka Vanga were next up and treated a captivated crowd to a jaw-dropping set of percussive flamenco guitar and rhythms – and the sun continued to shine!  Next up was Heather McVey, whose beautiful voice and chilled-out acoustic set was definitely the calm before the storm as The Motor City Vipers took to the stage and delivered arguably the best set of the day so far and had everyone up and dancing to Motown/Stax and soul classics such as ‘Knock On Wood’, ‘Son Of A Preacher Man’ and ‘Shake A Tail Feather’.  Finishing off outside, and just when we all thought it couldn’t get any better, Kissmet hit the stage and showed everyone why they’re regular performers at Glastonbury and other music festivals worldwide.  The sun was setting, the audience was dancing and the combination of Bhangra music, Dhol drums, rock guitar and heady Asian vocals filled the evening air!  What delight.

Heading inside the boat at Charters, The Huxleys took to the stage and kept the party alive for the next 40 minutes or so before Spanish/Irish septet, The Stolen Gnomes, had the boat rocking with Irish/Flamenco takes on classic sing-alongs such as ‘Happy Hour’, ‘Hot Hot Hot’ and ‘Like A Virgin’ – a perfect end to a perfect day.

Come Sunday lunchtime, the dust had settled and the sun came out once again, as musicians and audience alike began to arrive for day three.  First of the seven scheduled acts was Icons of the Brave, who wowed the small but growing audience with their stunning musicianship and powerful vocals. The Malingerers were the next band up and set the tone perfectly for the rest of the afternoon with their old-time country/blues set, as near-400 people listened and kicked-back for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Next up were The Hi & Lo, who kept the country twang going and bantered with the delighted audience. Sunday certainly had a more relaxed musical theme than Saturday and the crowd was totally captivated when Iryna Muha came to the stage and began singing the most beautiful Slavonic folk songs.  Folk duo, Quest, were up next and only just arrived on time, having apparently bust-a-gut to get to Randall Rootz from the Cropredy Festival in Oxfordshire. Their mad-dash certainly hadn’t worn them out as they performed an energetic set.  Then, just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, Lexie Green and her band, put on the most amazing layed-back blues set ever. The grown-ups were in heaven, the kids were running around in painted faces, the real-ale was flowing and a great time was had by all.  It would have been the perfect end to a perfect weekend, but there was still more to come.  Pulling everyone out of their seats and jigging merrily was The Claddah Band, a fun and energetic line-up of Irish musicians playing traditional tunes and bringing the 2009 Randall Rootz Festival to a close for another year.

The organization behind the festival, Randall Rootz Community Music, was originally set up in 2007 by friends and relatives of Mark Randall, to help raise awareness for Sue Ryder Care at Thorpe Hall Hospice. Their continued aim is to bring musical diversity to Peterborough and offer the wider community the opportunity to see and hear music that they would not normally be able to.  Festival spokesperson, and ESP columnist Andrew Whittaker, said – “What started out as a one-off memorial and benefit weekend for people who knew Mark Randall, has grown into an event for the whole Peterborough community and we hope to make it more diverse each year.”

For more information about this year’s festival and the work of Randall Rootz Community Music, go to www.randallrootz.org