My missus, Christmas shopping in 2013, went to the Mill Road fair in Cambridge and heard a familiar guitar sound…turned out it was being played by the guitarist with a band we’d sort of heard a little of at the Lodestar Festival that year, Fred’s House. She took a photo and the familiarity was down to the fact that the guitarist, Griff Jameson, was playing a Taylor, a guitar I’d just that autumn added to my musical arsenal having stuck with an old Ovation and an Ibanez acoustic for years and years.
Anyway, it was an interesting find, and she liked the sound of the band. We both heard them again at Strawberry Fair in 2014, again in Cambridge, and I took a few photos of the band, Facebooked them and asked if they’d be at Lodestar again in 2014, they would! In the meantime we bought their debut album Bonnie and Clyde and I Facebooked lead singer Vikki to congratulate the band on the release. As I was signed up as a press photographer for Lodestar, I hoped to have a chat with them face to face, which I did, and to get a few up-close shots as they played their set, I did. They are playing better than ever, tighter, stronger. The album songs now sound so rich live…
All of which musings got me thinking about the psychology of being a fan of a particular band, as their songs become more and more familiar and as you see their faces more often, the whole feeling of being part of something that is growing becomes stronger as a fan. I think my wife would agree. The band reposted some of my snaps from Lodestar and flagged me as a “House Mate”, which is great. I certainly mention them to friends as a highlight of the festival and hope they get shuffled up higher in the billing next year, they deserve it, they’re a quite unique band. If I were pushed to describe them, I’d say think calmer and brighter Mumford & Sons with Stevie Nicks on vocals and Gerry Rafferty on acoustic guitar, but that may be doing them an injustice as they have great originality too, that is often rare in popular music.