Saturday 11th July 2009 dawned dry but overcast, as the final preparations were made for two days of musical entertainment for the local community. Lots of people came early to secure a prime spot, and colourful gazebos began to spring up around the periphery of the site.
Photographs by SKM Photographic Studio
By the time Kings Langley band Touchwood kicked off proceedings at 12 noon, several hundred people were already thronging the area in front of the festival-style orbit stage. Momentum built through the course of the day, as band after band rocked out across the moor. A variety of different styles of rock and pop were represented: funk from the likes of Paramanza, My Pet Shadow and the Hemel Hempstead School Funk band, punk from The Daves, folk rock from Strange Folk, some classic ska from Too Late Lucy and a slightly heavier rock sound from The Raid and DeLorean. Local covers band Dorian Graze went down a storm with the crowd, playing a medley of old favourites and getting everyone up dancing and singing along. Many bands were playing at Music on the Moor for the first time, including The Autumnkind, Wired, Gravity, The Legendary Hearts, Colvex and acoustic pop duo Echo. Other bands, such as The Elderly Brothers, Scratch, The Arabada Collective, The Expensive Habits and VivaSantana are popular veterans of the event.
Our compère for the weekend was Richard Pinner, who seamlessly linked the performances with his informative commentary. An added dimension this year was a big screen, with continuous live feed from the main stages and the crowd. The camera crew worked tirelessly over the weekend to ensure that there were no breaks in coverage.
On the far side of the river, the Ecology & Community Village provided a forum for a wide variety of organisations, charities and small businesses to promote their services to the community. The children’s activity tent had plenty of takers, and Education Manager Jo Shelton proudly announced that around 1,000 puppets had been made during the course of the weekend!
There was music on that side of the river too – the marquee stage offered a showcase to another sixteen excellent local bands, with particularly standout performances from Assembly Point 3 and Scholars.
As the evening wore on, the weather worsened. But no-one was going to let that spoil their enjoyment, and the crowds stayed in their thousands. Our headline act was Queen tribute band Mercury and as the rain began to sheet down, Bulbourne Meadow reverberated to the sound of thousands singing along to old favourites We Will Rock You, Radio Ga Ga, It’s A Kind Of Magic and, of course, Bohemian Rhapsody.
As we contemplated the sea of litter stretching as far as the eye could see across the ground at 10.30pm on Saturday evening, we knew that hours of hard work lay ahead to ensure that the site would be clear before the crowds assembled again on Sunday afternoon. Despite pleas from the compère for people to make use of the numerous bins scattered around or to take their rubbish home with them, his words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Thanks to our staff and some wonderful volunteers, including some members of the public who felt compelled to get involved in the clean up, the site was miraculously returned to almost pristine condition in good time for the opening act on Sunday, the Primary School choir.
In stark contrast to the previous day’s high energy, Sunday proved to be a far more relaxed and mellow occasion. The sun shone as the crowds gradually assembled, setting up their chairs and spreading picnic blankets out around the arena to enjoy a mixed programme of choral (Primary School Choir, Aeolian Singers, Ace of Herts and Kings Langley Community Choir), jazz (The Jolly Jazzers, Acoustic Jazz Implosion and MT Hedz), blues (Rob Pickett & The Lost Weekend, Derik and the Moon Dogs, Joe Wood and the Lubes) and classical (Dacorum Youth Orchestra with members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Dacorum Symphony Orchestra). This was interspersed with the visually spectacular Park High Dhol drumming group, talented young local pianist Charlie Stacey, a Djembe and Fife group drawn from local primary schools, piano vocalist Anthony Strong and the exciting electric string/sax ensemble Sahara.
The percussion workshops were well attended, and very noisy!! Children of all ages (and a few adults) were shown how to tap out a rhythm on the Dhol drums, or joined in with the Brazilian carnival feel of the Samba workshop.
On the marquee stage, a new element was introduced in the form of live poetry and acoustic music courtesy of ‘Rhythmical Ravings and Rants’. This proved to be well received and we look forward to welcoming Paul, Ian, Donna and friends from the poetry collective back in 2011.
As the Dacorum Symphony Orchestra brought proceedings to a close on Sunday evening with a rousing performance of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March, we reflected on a fabulous weekend that had once again brought our community together.
Our thanks go out to everyone who helped with the massive task of organising the event. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2011!
