Astonbury 2002

The expression on Neil Chesher's face was a picture. His mouth dropped open and his jaw hit the ground with a resounding thud.

Its 9.30 am on Saturday July 13th A motley collection of slightly hungover Astoni.... - sorry, I mean a well disciplined and eager local road crew - had gathered at Norduck to set up the equipment for this year’s Astonbury event. Seriously, a good number of willing helpers gave up their Saturday morning to set up the equipment and it was a good thing that they did! We all knew that it would be different this year, but we had no idea just how different. Andy Stefanczyk had generously volunteered to lend audio visual equipment from his company EventsStuff for the night. When three huge vans packed to the roof with equipment arrived, Astonbury musical director Neil Chesher just could not believe his eyes.

However, the volunteers set to with enthusiasm and by lunchtime a sizeable stage had been erected and levelled, a proper lighting gantry set up and large speaker stacks on either side of the stage were wired back to a professional mixing desk sited remotely behind the audience area. The heavy work done the helpers departed, leaving EventsStuff’s guys and our performers to carry out rehearsals and sound checks.

Fortunately this year the Weather God smiled upon us. From 7 o’clock onwards the sunny garden at Norduck started to fill up with garden chairs, gazebos, rugs, picnic baskets and excited partygoers. At 8 o’clock the two comperes, Andi Swain (the event’s organiser) and Andy Bystra, leapt forward to introduce the first act. Wiplash, featuring Nick and Jackie Talbot from Talbots Farm got the event off to a grand start with several numbers, despite having to recruit a temporary guitarist at the last moment. Hayley and Donna then gave us three songs, each taking a turn on the lead before finishing with a superb version of All Saints’ Never Ever. Next it was the turn of the youngsters studying for a career in music, with a self-composed jazz drum solo from Anthony Palmer and two superbly sung numbers from Christina Tomlin (with Gordon Hughes on piano). Lynn Manning and Louise McManus gave us Proud Mary before, to the surprise and delight of the crowd, their daughters Rosie and Amber took the stage to do their own version of the song. The first half came to an end as Astonbury newcomer Simon Greswell made an impressive and well-received debut, followed by the powerful voice of Rachel Sutton who closed the first half with River Deep Mountain High.

There is usually an auction in the interval and this year we had two! The first item, a signed shirt belonging to former England cricket captain Alec Stewart was sold to Richard Clark for £60. The second, a Jamiroquai gold disc generously donated by Toby Graffity-Smith was bought, after much excited and spirited bidding, for £420 by Mrs Elizabeth McManus who later generously announced that it was to be hung in the Bull and Butcher so that the whole village might enjoy it.

Gerry and the 'Atricks (the vocal talents of Neil Chesher, John Brancker, John Whyte and Nigel Palmer) opened the second half, finishing their set with Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight featuring John Whyte on vocals and Jon Chesher on lead guitar.

Bridget Brandon made a very welcome return to Astonbury with the first of her two numbers and then the ever-popular gravel-voiced Tony Reese, having flown in especially from Spain, gave us Desperado. Nigel Palmer and Neil Chesher reprised their version of Nights In A White Satin, first performed at last year’s cabaret and featuring Neil on saxophone. Again Tony Reese, then Nigel and Anthony Palmer led a couple of numbers from Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds (with manic keyboards from Nigel) before Neil and John Chesher joined them to perform a rising Final Countdown complete with pyrotechnics. Bridget, Tony, Rachel, and Simon returned for further numbers and then all the girls came up on stage to perform Dusty Springfield’s I Only Wanna Be With You. Finally Gerry and the ‘Atricks returned to close the show with a with a Beatles medley.

After the show had closed Lol Hinds and Dave Lewis started the disco and those partygoers who had retained both sufficient energy and also the ability to stand up continued dancing into the wee hours.

The following morning a somewhat subdued and distinctly hung over group of helpers arrived to dismantle the equipment and clean up the site.

Huge thanks to everybody, not just the performers but those who helped, Andi Swain for organising the event, and especially all those of you who came, partied, and made it such a great evening . I am sure I have missed some names in this article and I apologise if I have done so. There are far too many other names to mention with so many helpers and contributors. However, a most important thank you must go to our sponsors and especially to Andy Stefanczyk and EventsStuff whose generous support of equipment, time and personnel made this year’s event so special.

The evening raised £2,213.10. The money will be used to finance village causes, but most of the money probably will be donated to the Village Hall fund at the appropriate time.