Mariners Music Festival
11 Artists across 8 unusual venues on a strangely warm Saturday. This is the story of the best festival you didn't go to.
One of my aims when setting up this Substack was to showcase things that happen in my home part of the world. Central Scotland in some ways doesn't exist. It never features in the media unless there's a tragedy or a scandal. It doesn't exist in the consciousness either.
So many times in my life have I been told that I have an "East Coast Accent" or a "West Coast Accent". And my reply is usually "What's a Coast? I'm from the middle".
I am from the town of Denny & Dunipace. I went to school in Stirling. Then onto college in Falkirk. When I did my start-up business courses they took place in Alloa.
So I have spent a lot of time in all corners of the Forth Valley and still have connections to every single part of it.
I found life impossible here.
So I had to move to the city.
Even after 10 years in Glasgow I do not consider myself a Glaswegian. I'm an exile from Denny. Waiting until I have the resources to build the thing I wanted to in the first place.
Nothing ever happens in our part of the world.
Except that's not true. Lots of things happen they just aren't given the attention and space they deserve.
I am not the only one who feels this way. Recently I photographed and filmed a one day charity music festival in Stirling.
That took the place of a former one called the Scribbler's Picnic.
It brought together a lot of the performers who are out and about in the local scene and it was wonderful.
Following on from that is this one, the Mariners Music Festival.
Taking place in Camelon across a wide variety of venues and putting art and artists into unusual spaces.
For those of you (everyone) who don't know our Central Scotland pronunciations it's always "Came-lon" to us. Never "Camel-on".
I asked Chrissy Wilson who is behind putting this together what the concept and idea was and his reply was along the lines of "Well no-one else is going to do it. Might as well be us"
I shot his band a few times over the years and on this day I met his son's band.
Does that make us old now?
The day began in the lovely Forth Valley Sensory Centre garden. This is a charity that helps support people with sight and hearing loss. The garden is full of tactile things. Sculptures and a mini stone circle.
It was in this space the first performance of the day took place.
All improvised music from Semay Wu & Peter Russell.
They'd record loops of noises and use them as backings to play over. Peter on Clarinet and Semay on Cello.
Semay was part of the Manchester improvisation scene but is now based locally and performs all over Scotland.
Peter teaches people to sketch in and around Stirling.
I filmed this but I don’t feel like it comes over very well. I couldn't capture the feeling of being in this space. In the warmth of the morning sunlight, surrounded by friends new and old hearing these other worldly sounds appear in front of us.
Next up was a double bill at Chrissy's place. Triple O's.
I love what they're doing with this place. On one level it's just a coffee shop. On another it's a performance venue and community hub. They've had some very good performers play there too.
On this day it was the Letford brothers.
Billy performing his poetry and Patrick doing songs.
Billy Letford's poetry takes stories and characters from his previous life as a roofer, adds in voices from his ancestors and some playing with language. They're funny, witty, sad, poignant and surreal. He has one about getting porridge at breakfast time in a festival that brings me some vivid flashbacks of festivals gone by.
Patrick Letford sang lots of songs you know and even a couple that he didn't.
Aided by Souey on guitar, or James to you,
It must be a full 10 years at least since I last saw Souey. He was someone I used to see all the time. Either just being out and about in Stirling or performing at something.
Patrick is based in Essex these days and plays in a band down there. I would genuinely be interested to hear what they sound like as he has a good voice. they did well considering they had zero time to rehearse for this gig.
It was also fun watching people arrive at the door while they were playing not knowing if they should come in or not. While the entire room, and performers were waving at them to just open the door.
Our next port of call was the Roman Bar next to Falkirk Sheriff Court.
Another place that I haven't been to in years. Camelon isn't really a place that we'd spend much time in being the next town along.
This was the first band of the day and the venue worked well for them.
Slightly awkward in the layout as there's a seating booth that separated the stage area from the rest of the bar.
Kamiokande play music that is a mixture of indie rock and dance. The tunes are catchy, the choruses are anthemic and there's a lot of fun and energy. Enough to get people dancing.
I am 100% certain that I’ve seen this band before but I cannot place where.
This was also the first part of the day where we breezed into a space and disrupted the day of the locals and regulars who were out enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon drink.
But they seemed to enjoy the tunes.
My last stage of this Tour de Camelon was the Mariner Bar. Where we would see our old pal Paul McDonald play.
Again we were the storm blowing through. A game of pool just finishing as we all pitched up. The balls cued up for the next one but blocked by our presence.
We all used to hang out in the same place in Stirling and by this part of the day it felt like we were mounting a takeover in the neighbouring town.
In a room full of complete strangers Paul did something really gutsy and played a set of completely original songs. Just him on vocals with an electro/acoustic guitar.
The TV above him still showing the Saturday game show with the volume set to mute and the subtitles on.
He even threw in a couple of songs from his old band Huxley.
To the delight of a handful. OK maybe just to my delight.
The audience seemed to like it, staying quiet and paying attention.
In each venue there was a bucket for tips. Those tips going straight to the band performing in that venue. One of the locals in the Mariner took the bucket and went around the room getting everybody to put something in.
At the end I thanked her because that was a really cool thing to do.
I wish I could have stayed on for the next part of the day to see Kirsty Heggie playing in Camelon Laundry and Eddie Connor at the Union Chip shop.
There was a bit of a problem with the venue on that one (they were on holiday) and he played beside the Forth & Clyde Canal instead.
Just a man playing a Tuba beside the canal.
These two were genius bookings in my opinion.
I'd also have loved to have seen Denny band Danko and Falkirk band Hardly Working. The latter I did at least spend some time with.
Before the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow the celebrated indie record label Chemikal Underground did a similar thing in Duke Street in Dennistoun which they called the East End Social.
Putting mini gigs on in the shops and pubs along that street. I remember Kid Canaveral in a Tattoo parlour. Siobhan Wilson in the ice cream shop and Hector Bizerk in the Dennistoun BBQ.
I absolutely love this concept. It makes you explore places in a different way. They could be new rooms to you or they could be routine.
And that's what I want to achieve when showing things and telling you stories like this from my part of the world.
I want to brush aside the fake tourist vision and show things in a way that makes you reconsider them.
As they are much more interesting and there is much more going on than you think.
This is one of the coolest and most fun things I've been to in a long time.
Top marks to the performers, organisers, venues and everyone involved in putting it together.
Here's to the next one.