Conglomeration

 07/08/2026

A conglomeration of bands and artists gathered in Congleton tonight having agreed to give up their fees in aid of rasing funds for Saint Luke's Cheshire Hospice.

A totally unrehearsed highlight for me, probably for all of us performing, was - with all musical hands on deck - jamming out a raucous version of Mustang Sally honoured to much missed local musician Dave Speakman who died recently. 

It was a great way to end a little run of gigs that have mainly been to really 'listening' typical gig-going audiences, which are great to play to of course. 

This audience however had much more a vibe of friends going out, raising money for an important charity to them & catching up with each other, perhaps for the first time for some while. So it was quite a noisy, chatty crowd - and why shouldn't they be? They enjoyed all the acts and sang and danced to us and all the others. So while they have been a loud, chatty crowd they were up for lots of fun, friendly & a good challenge to win over. 

If you were among them, and now reading this - thanks for your kindness in coming out for a good cause, and bringing the good times!

Organiser & host Louise playing her
maracas alongside Em. 

GlastonLee Festival - Made of Love.

I know it takes a dedicated team of people to work on a festival as a full-on commitment for the best part of (if not a full) year to make it this sort of success. Well this, Glastonlee Festival one was put lovingly put together by family members of Lee Belsham (of Dr Phibes fame), in his memory and honour, and to raise money for St Luke's Hospice which did so much to care for Lee, as with so many others. A festival indeed, made of love.

The ongoing heatwave, which has been making life so uncomfortable in many ways, was of course a further blessing for an event like this, and although tickets sold well online, plenty more paid on the gate as the day went on. A great day, and night!
A pleasure, an honour,  to be a part of this.

Evert act I head sounded great! This was Brave New World, kicking the whole day off.

Mark Barnett with relaxed audience.

Not needed thankfully.

Our salubrious back-stage area.

Making it Up in CW6

A pre soundcheck shot

  Sat, April 22nd, 2017

The CW6 Festival was the first Tarporley gig (well, nearly) for this Tarplee, here!

With The Blue Yellows, we were playing this picturesque and incredibly bijou festival, complete with pristine weather and plenty to do for all, especially if you love getting your sparkle on (most of the band did!), as it was all run by the lovely people at The Make Up Project and for a wonderful cause, St Luke's Hospice.

Thanks for having us!

A big thank you to Rik too, from event planners Speeches and Cream,  who did a superb job with stage management and sound engineering on the PA with top-notch equipment. Check the facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/speechesandcream

It was nice that my sister Suey, and music-mad niece Indigo (who was in a Merry Hell video shoot today!) could make this one, too.

Chilling with the band

A rough stage-plot