Hendstock

Following on from last year we made a few changes to Hendstock.. Starting a little later, getting folks to bring a picnic and inviting some of our good friends from the village.

Like last year we had a lot of help, my sister Helen and her husband Tom, were a massive help, setting everything up and then Tom ran the acts as well as handling the mix and playing with several people. The man is a legend, he even got a Lord of the Rings Joke into the opening speech ;)

It was really good that so many people made an effort, not only turning up but taking part, helping out and just being into it. From firework Phil to Brilliant Bill and the particularly practical Pete's. We had guests from all over the place, Mr & Mrs C and Jess came up from Andover, James, Charlotte and William came down from Derbyshire, my family came down from Cumbria. It is quite humbling and I know Ian would have appreciated it.

Things stepped up a lot acts wise this year, we had the Linton Ladies choir and niece Victoria, so some proper singing talent. Stupidly we put them on early which meant the rest of us had to follow!

H sang my favourite Van Halen song 'Ice Cream Man', Tom and I accompanied, I played the very basic guitar bits, Tom played an astounding guitar solo (astoundingly good ;)).

Matt performed a Morris dance, Tom and I accompanied him with electric guitars, it was all a bit Tubular Bells, well with a few mistakes ;) In fact Tom and I played the parts in completely the wrong order, Matt is such a pro he was hardly phased.

T and J sang, Robbie played piano, children played (Alf rocked and William nailed ACDC) and then the boys and the girls had a song off. It was like 'Rock Stars the Rivals' with Girls Aloud taking on One True Voice. What the boys lacked in organisation and polish they made up for with ambition and shouting. The Girls were also splendid.

We had fireworks, a bonfire, soup and proper beer, glittery children (thanks Dr T) running riot and Molly the dog was perfect.

The evening finished at about three, most folks had left by then the remaining few of us trying to empty the beer barrel whilst singing songs led by the annoyingly talented Mr Strachan. I think Ian would have loved it.

My cousin Claire came which was excellent because I hardly took any pictures and they were all crap, luckily she took loads. It was lovely to see her and she can sing ;)

Thanks folks, you are a smashing bunch of people, we are very lucky.


For more of Claire's smashing pictures, see here