August 4th, 5th 6th 2006: Ace’s friends at Club Bang! Bang! www.bangbang-live.com kindly tipped us off about a new festival they’re involved in this summer featuring a stellar line-up including Ike Turner & His Kings Of Rhythm.

The Rhythm Festival is a new kind of music festival. In Club Bang! Bang! main man Jim Driver’s own words, “Not that we've got anything against the likes of Glastonbury, Cambridge Folk Festival or Guilfest (we love Cropredy) – we've been known to attend them ourselves! – it's just that we want to do things differently. Differently as in smaller, friendlier and even more geared towards the audience. For a start, we've picked the sunniest weekend of the year. And just in case the weather falls a teeny bit short of our expectations, we're organising plenty of indoor areas and entertainment, plus masses of marquees.”

With a self-imposed capacity of under 5,000 the aim of the event is to offer a family festival for people who like festivals but who don't like rip-off burgers, one-minute-wonder bands and indifferent booze. The event will also include a funfair, an alternative therapy field, literary events, a wine bar, real ales and ciders, cream teas and children's entertainment.

It’s all sounds good to us, for more details, see the festival website: www.rhythmfestival.net

The Rhythm Festival
August 4th, 5th 6th 2006
Tinwood Arena
Clapham, Near Bedford

Confirmed artists (in alphabetical order):

AMY RIGBY, ARLO GUTHRIE (USA), THE BLUES BAND, BLURT, CARA DILLON, CHAS & DAVE, CULTURE CLASH (SCO/ZIM), DON MESCALL, DONOVAN, THE DYLAN PROJECT, FASTLANE ROOGALATOR, GENO WASHINGTON & THE RAM JAM BAND, HUGH CORNWELL (BAND), IKE TURNER & HIS KINGS OF RHYTHM (USA), JAH WOBBLE & THE ENGLISH ROOTS BAND, JERRY LEE LEWIS & THE KILLER BAND (USA), JOHN COOPER CLARKE, LITTLE GEORGE SUEREF & THE BLUES STARS, JOHN OTWAY, NINE BELOW ZERO, PAMA INTERNATIONAL, PAUL THE GIRL, THE ROLLIN' STONED, ROLLO MARKEE & TAILSHAKERS, ROY HARPER performs Stormcock with FRIENDS, SETH LAKEMAN, SMASHING TIME, THE STORYS, THE TROJANS, WILKO JOHNSON, WRECKLESS ERIC

Doing radio is an odd thing. Particularly in a small cupboard sized studio at an hour when i've generally passed out in front of the TV. It's fun and I get a little nervous when I think about the gibbering. I do try to process some general form before it blurts out but am painfully aware that there's a lot of "y'know's" or whatever. My excuse is that I don't do it too often. So gracias to the folks that tuned in and said they dug it. It was a late finish so I headed over to Fortress Cruickshank where we shot the shit and played records into the wee small hours. A very welcome to the day to day bullshit and backstabbing. I could happily exist inside such a bubble from here on out. To have been on the show that was first to present Annika Norlin to the UK (and beyond) was something of an honour.