A weekend of amazing music, food and fun - The East Barnet Festival 2024

 What were you doing last weekend? I can tell you what I was doing (when I wasn't watching England). I was at the East Barnet Festival. If you've never heard of it, it's the biggest community festival in the London Borough of Barnet. For the last few years, I've been involved with the festival and helped get the line up together, with Al Pascal of Al Pascal music school and local musician Dave Towler. We spent six months listening to submissions and trying to sort out three days of interesting and different music. I think we did a pretty good job. There were some amazing performances. My picks of the day were The Alan Warner Band, Brook Law, Subverse and Visions of Order. Alan is the band leader of 60's icons The Foundations, this is his other band, where he plays the covers he loves. Brook Law is a truly awesome female singer. If there is any justice in the world, she will become a massive star. Maddie from Subverse is a brilliant vocalist, The show was opened by Visions of Order who did an great selection of their self penned ballads. 

It was not just the bands. On Sunday there was an amazing classic car show, if you are a petrol head and you like nice motors. There was an amazing selection of cars, as you can see from the picture and a huge amount of interest in them. Cars have become a bit of a dirty word in political circles, every single change that has been made in the transport policy in the last 20 years, has been designed to get these sort of motors off the road.  I happen to think many classic cars are things of great beauty and long may we have such car shows!

There was also a funfair. I am sorry to say that I am past the stage in my life where I enjoy such rides, but for families having a fun fair in the park is a wonderful thing and many parents were throughly enjoying the day. 

There were also some amazing food stands. I very much enjoyed the Pastel De Nata (my fave pudding) from the Portuguese stall. I also had a Moroccan beef wrap from the Moroccan stall. The owner was a lovely bloke. He'd watched the False Dots play and gave me a free wrap as he enjoyed us so much!

I've been reluctant to put us on the bill since I got involved with the festival. I didn't get involved to promote my own music, but several people suggested it was time The False Dots made an appearance. We've been rather active recently and when we played at the Bull Arts Centre in April, many people said we should do it, so they could bring the whole family to see us for free. So at 5pm, we found ourselves onstage. The area is huge, there were probably 2,000 people watching us. It was glorious weather and everyone was in a wonderful mood. I have never really thought the False Dots were an open air band. I'd seen us as 10pm in a small, smoky club sort of band. Since Tom Hammond joined the band on Trumpet, we've really widened and broadened our sound and within the first couple of minutes of us playing, I realised that we've changed and we are very festival friendly band these days. People got up and started bopping and it seemed everyone was videoing us. Here is one of the highlights of the show, our last single, We all Love a Party!

It seemed that the whole of East Barnet loved a party. When we came off, dozens of people came up to say how much they enjoyed the set. We are playing againg this coming Saturday at the 50th Annual Jesterfest Festival in Fortune Green, West Hampstead at 5pm. It is completely free. Rather annoyingly, it clashes with England, but given that the first half of every England game has been dire so far, why not come along and then adjourn to the pub for the good bit. 

Like many local businesses, my business (Mill Hill Music Complex) sponsors the festival. It costs £55,000 to stage such an event, and a huge amount of planning. This year, due to the escalating costs of insurance, there is a small funding gap. If you came along and you enjoyed it, please help plug this. Even a £3 donation makes a difference. When the False Dots learned of the shortfall, we waived our agreed appearance fee (we are professional musicians and this is how we pay the bills). The bigger picture is that we need festivals and we need to do our bit. All I got was a couple of cans of Fosters and a lovely Moroccan Beef Wrap, but I had a glorious day and you'd pay £100 to see such great music at some festivals, so I don't feel too bad. 

A lot of people put a lot of time into making East Barnet Festival happen. These amazing volunteers don't get paid. If you enjoyed the Festival and want to see it happen next year, please help out

Friday Fun, Local music roundup and local news 28th June 2024

 As ever we start with some fun. This made me smile. I'll explain why below. 

pic.twitter.com/bIvs4tym8M

— No Context Brits (@NoContextBrits) June 10, 2024

I have a firm belief that we are all getting far to angry and het up about everything. I was nearly run over on the pavement yesterday by an impatient motorist, who mounted the pavement to try and get around a car doing a three point turn in the road. Not only that, but the silly man beeped me and my dog for having the audacity to walk on the pavement. I was quite shocked and angry, but when I reflected on it, I realised just how infectious a virus anger is. There I was, not a care in the world and in an instant I was transformed into a raging lunatic, swearing at a car, driven by someone I don't know, who I will never see again, whilst they gave me the finger. And then they were gone, just leaving me raging and boiling. And then my Dog just stopped and looked at me. She wouldn't move. At first I thought she was shaken by the car, but I realised she could tell that I was stressed and angry. So I gave her a stroke and said "Don't worry, it;s alright". I realised that getting cross at such stupidity is just reducing myself to the level of an idiot who drives on the pavement and beeps at pedestrians to get out of the way. If I was dishonest, I could claim that I was cross because it upset the dog and put us in harms way, but that wouldn't be true. My dog's reaction was far more rational. Let the idiot get on with it and don't get too riled. In the dogs mind, the twat startled them, she ruffed and the threat departed rather quickly. That was the end of it. No brooding, wishing a better response had been forthcoming, wishing they'd dragged the idiot from their motor and given him a good hiding. In the dogs mind, it was done. In some ways, the tweet above is a lesson for us. If we get riled, don't react. Just replace the anger with something that is nice. My Dad, who ran a crash repair business had a great way of dealing with idiot drivers. He'd smile and say "All my best customers drive like that". Such idiots fed me for the first eighteen years of my life so maybe I should be grateful that the motor trade is still being kept in work. 

And on to the local gigs. The False Dots are delighted to be playing at The East Barnet Festival this week. We'll be onstage at 5pm tomorrow.

Here is the full music programme. There really is something for everyone and the fun starts at 6pm this evening.  Full details CLICK HERE FOR THE FESTIVAL WEBSITE - There's also a funfair, food and drink stalls and a classic car show. What is not to love!

If you fancy some post festival fun, here's a few to check out!

Fri

Jun

28

Ripple Effect (Pop / Rock, 4 piece) at Three Hammers, Mill Hill 

9pm - 11.45pm

Harripaul (Pop / Rock / Jazz / Blues) at Butchers Arms, Barnet

9pm

.

Sat

Jun

29

Tim Leffman (Original Acoustic + Covers, Solo Artist) at The Builders Arms, New Barnet 

8pm - 11pm

Scratch (Rock Covers, 4 piece) at The Three Wishes, Edgware

9pm - midnight

Road Trip (Rock & Roll) at Ye Olde Monken Holt, High Barnet 

7pm - 9pm

AND Finally, 

I don't normally do this on a Friday as Friday is a fun day, but there are a few items of local news to report.

Firstly an event of note. After two years, Mrs Angry, one of the fabulous five Barnet bloggers, and the second of our wonderful female bloggers to start a blog after the much missed Citizen Barnet, has awoken from her slumbers and given us a rather witty account of the election hustings at St John's church in Barnet. It is well worth a read - wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.com/2024/06/learning-how-not-to-drown-or-another.html sadly nothing from the other Barnet Bloggers recently. A real shame because the election is important and it looks like our MP's will switch from Blue to Red, a first in my lifetime.

On Wednesday night, I took my wife our for dinner for her birthday at the rather wonderful Wet Fish Cafe in West Hampstead. We were watching the rather marvellous Acantha Lang, a soul singer from Missisipi. She is really good. If you get the chance, go and see her. She's a regular at Mill Hill Music Complex Studios. It's great to put something back and support her.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Roger Tichborne (@rogtex)

What was quite amusing was to bump into one of our very top Tory Councillors having dinner there. We had a pleasant chat, he's one of the group that I get on pretty well with and he clearly has good taste in food and music. As he was munching dinner whilst his party leader was doing a debate on telly, it was clear that he was none too interested in the whole thing (proof in my mind that he's a very sensible soul). We had a quick chat and when the subject of the election came up, it was clear that he was not exactly exited by the whole thing. In May, the Tories elected a new leader and co leader to run the group. I asked how that was working out. He pointed out that two days after this tweet, Rishi Sunak called a general election and the group was thrown into chaos. As he noted "Life does bowl curveballs"

Congratulations to Cllr Peter Zinkin @pzinkin and Barnet YCs Chair Cllr Lucy Wakeley @lucy_wakeley on being elected Leader and Deputy Leader of @BarnetTories pic.twitter.com/8WCWxo8fLT

— Barnet Young Conservatives (@Barnet_YC) May 26, 2024

I had a look at the Twitter feeds of the new leadership teams twitter feeds, neither seem too bothered about posting. Odd really, or maybe not. I think we're all sick of it, it seems to have been going on for ages!

And finally, do you want to own a little bit of music history and help a very good cause.

Mill Hill Music Complex is delighted to be donating a fantastic @ibanezofficial acoustic guitar personally signed by our great friend & @poguesofficial legend @spiderstacy for the charity auction - you can own a bit of proper music history! See Spider sign it https://t.co/xMzTt8H9KM pic.twitter.com/ZHMl2qHvgT

— #MillHillMusicComplex (@MillHillMusicCo) June 28, 2024

Have a great weekend! Lets finish with an invocation to England!

The Friday Joke and some things to do in our locality

Once again I am endebted to the rather wonderful Robert Wilkinson for this weeks joke. Once again, I nearly spat my tea out in laughter when I read it. 

I married my wife for her looks.

Just not the ones she’s been giving me lately.

— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) June 30, 2022

We will be out and about this weekend. Here's just a couple of the amazing local events I'll be at. If you've nothing lined up, why not stroll along. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by East Barnet Festival (@eastbarnetfestival)

pic.twitter.com/LWg1JOri2B

— Fortune Green NW6 (@NW6FOFG) July 1, 2022

Have a great weekend!

Make sure you get down to the East Barnet Festival this weekend at Oakhill Park

For me, this Summer is turning into a classic for the Borough of Barnet. We had an absolutely amazing week of the Mill Hill Music Festival and this weekend we've got another stellar line up for the East Barnet Festival and the even better news is that it's all free! The weather forecast is for good weather locally and there are some cracking bands on. The headliners on the Saturday are my old mates, The Foundations, who will be playing all of their hits such as Build me up Buttercup and Baby, Now that I found you. They are a wonderful band. On  the Sunday we have Lee Thompson of Madnesses other band, The Silencerz, who are also a very good evenings entertainment. The rest of the programme is also pretty good, with a few of my personal local favourite such as Dubvocalisa, Lydia Maddix and Talk in Code. The full music programme is here.  There's also a car show, a fun fair, food stalls etc and it should be a weekend of top class fun. 

Organised by the community, for the community, East Barnet Festival remains North London’s largest FREE summer festival. The event is entirely self-funded, with money being raised from our generous sponsors, advertisers and traders. All of our funds are used to ensure that we can continue to provide this fantastic event for the whole community. The only council funding comes from a grant that we must apply for each year. A percentage of any surplus funds is donated to Friends in Need, a support group based in East Barnet village to provide community activities and services. 

 Let’s celebrate the East Barnet community in style !