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markiliff

Listed below are comments made by markiliff between Thursday, 7th February 2008 and Sunday, 8th March 2009.

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A new look for F1 12:09pm on 08 Mar 2009 I was hoping that you'd look at everything ITV did then improve it. This site looks like a half-hearted attempt to copy them. But that'll take more than a pot of black paint.

Why not go back to the old look, and concentrate on content rather than gewgaws?

Not good enough.

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Costa living going up? 1:57pm on 07 Dec 2008 Why didn't we hear from all these ex-pats when the pound was strong and they were raking it in?

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Send us your diary entry for Saturday 9 August! 10:30am on 11 Aug 2008
62. At 00:58am on 11 Aug 2008, Frances_O wrote:

I can't post my diary; apparently it's got invalid html ...

I had the same thing. It has to be the most frustrating error message I've seen in a long time... especially when the text previews fine.

I finally succeeded by eliminating ampersands. Before then I had nixed n-dashes, proper quote marks & 2 instances of e-acute, so maybe those also played a part.
Send us your diary entry for Saturday 9 August! 7:34pm on 10 Aug 2008 0001: The Levellers cheekily hold the last note of their last number clean through the curfew and into another day. Nobody's complaining; they lost 30 mins off the front of their set when Joe Brown and Dave Edmunds apparently overran ("I hear you knocking, but we won't come off" are just some of the words that might not have been used). I've never heard the Levellers play so well, or indeed at all.

0044: Organisers lift the road closure - introduced, I am told, to keep the number of reveller-vehicle contact events at the same level that has obtained since the first event in 1979 (to wit, zero) - and I am on my way home. My poor old bones really didn't enjoy last night in a tent, and seem cheered. After leaving the M40, I revel in the glory of rushing hedgerows as Chiltern after Chiltern rolls away under my wheels.

0930: Gently woken by the mrs. It's her wedding anniversary today. She liked the card and the earrings. But she's very cold. We set about correcting that.

1305: Arrive back at the encampment - line up on the four poplars, stop well short of the Cherwell, second-to-last on the right - and find the kids huddling from the rain. It teemed down in the night; the early sun burnt it off, but now the rain is back. Furl and stow the tent in a brisk wind. Sleepy bags ditto. Head for the field.

1420: Mrs heads off with daughter on a lap of the field. Objective: vegetable tempura plus pressies for August-born nieces. Ashley Hutchings's Larkrise to Candleford set plays on. On Thursday and Friday I'd listened hard to every act - Whapweasel, John Tams and Barry Coope, Supergrass, The Family Mahone, 3 Daft Monkeys and several more - and enjoyed most of them hugely. But the cumulative effect was a bit like eating too many puds. So I am happy to let today's acts drift past as - half-way up the field, beyond the vegan food stall and about level with killed-with-kindness organic meat - I read today's Guardian. Or try to. It's good that it comes in small sections: there's a fighting chance that each will make it along the row before the wind and rain render it to papier mache.

1450: Son buys me a belgian waffle with maple syrup and whippy cream, plus a good black coffee. He asks how often he has been to this event. I'm not sure, but he was probably aged about 3 the first time. So it can't be more than 16. I used to sneak down to the front for a number or two with him or his sister on my shoulders during their favourite acts. Now they have their own bank accounts...

1520: Legend - a Bob Marley tribute band - takes the stage and sound pretty cool. Daughter's fiance reckons they're the best act he's heard yet. They're still playing when I get back from dropping mrs at Banbury station; she has an entirely sensible view of sitting in summer rain, shared by precisely none of her nearest and, well, wettest if truth be told.

1830: Word arrives that mrs is safely home, having stopped to buy me August's Modern Railways - it is, after all, my wedding anniversary too! The killed-with-kindness pork and stilton burger is amazing. We miss one of the raffle prizes by two tickets. Julie Fowlis is great, but we must leave her and take all our impedimenta back to the car - there's serious work to come...

1910: Julie is still playing as we arrive back on the field. This time we head off right down to the front, where it's clear - even without the big screen - just how much puff a wee person needs to play the bagpipes. She leaves to rousing cheers and - after a lengthy changeover where we tantalisingly spot Simon's brown and white Strat., Peggy's blond bass, Gerry's red drumkit, Chris's matching mando and bouzooki... and Maart's laptop - Geoff Hughes, loud enough to reach all 20,000 on the field without a microphone, introduces the next act. It's darkening up nicely now, and the red lighting and stage smoke are engagingly moody. Onto the stage strides Capt. Jean-Luc Picard. (Actually it's Midge Ure, but the resemblance is uncanny.) We're not really planning to be impressed - we're just bagging our places up front for the main event - but sometimes you don't get what you plan for.

2030: Midge leaves after a solo acoustic set of some quality. We shuffle up and get 2 bellies to the bar, with the others right behind. Audients simply don't get any closer to the action than this. Indeed, daughter will later use the proximity to somehow blag a crew t-shirt.

2045: Fairport come on early and launch straight into a brisk, tight Ye Mariners All from 1978; it hasn't been in the live set for years - decades maybe - and hearing it again is just fabulous. From here on I'm not a diarist, just a fan. Babbacombe Lee set - fantastic. Woodworm Swing with dancing Exit sign on the big screen - genius. Jams O'Donnell's Jigs with the Tommy Connolly Irish Dancers - the bass *can* be a melody instrument... but the dancers moved their arms! The Fossil Hunter with visuals (this is what the seaside looks like, see the waves roll) - excruciating. Reynardine - dull, inconsequential. Eynsham Poacher - wonderful. South Dakota to Manchester - how did this dross ever get into the set? Capt. Picard back on to sing Tull's Living in the Past - wonderful. Reynard the Fox with post-fox hunting final verse - clever, crisp, fun. Hiring Fair with Simon's under-used voice and under-worshipped guitar playing - awesome. Matty Groves with Mr Potato Heads playing out the action on the big screen - surprisingly delightful.

Despite the brilliance that surrounds it, The Sandy Denny: 30 years gone segment stands out clear and pure and poignant. Vicki Clayton, Julie Fowlis, Chris While and Kelly While each sing one. Then Chris and Kelly duet on a heart-rending Who Knows Where the Time Goes?, surely the ultimate. But no. Here's Battle of Evermore, with Sandy's part sung by Kristina Donahue. Robert Plant's part is sung by none other than Robert Plant. Wow! For the next few minutes, Fairport Convention *is* Led Zeppelin.

2345: 3 flying hours are not enough even to skim a 41-year repertoire, but that's OK. The choices have been bold. The musicianship has been superb. And the warmth of belonging to a friendly family of 20,000 for a few days is beyond describing. Now it ends as it always does, this time with the surprise of seeing my shamefully unshaven face up on the big screen: "Meet on ledge, we're going to meet on the ledge. If you really mean it, it all comes round again."

2355: Simon: "Same time next year?" The Cropredy family: "Yes!"

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this diary, lucky you!
Movable Type Comments 6:25pm on 07 Feb 2008 There was one question about Brief Encounter that remained conspicuously unanswered. In this most English of tales, why was the loco whistle American?

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