Orkney Blues Festival
Orkney 15th/16th/17th/18th September 2005
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Rockin' in the Isles ( sorry, couldn't resist )

So away we went.

Wednesday  was spent driving, and I don't mean part of it, I mean all of it
( Orkney looked a lot closer on the map ).
Many roads were traveled , some even on purpose, before eventually we reached the end of the world, we stopped just before the edge, ( honest )

Thursday  we took a day to go do some heads down, no nonsense, tourism.
Orkney is a beautiful Island with a lot of great places to visit. The Isles got mugged by the Vikings the same as we did so standing stones, cairns and Viking archeology are abundant.

By far though the most fun is actually getting to the sites. Orkney has a main road that runs round it, ok, no problem with that, until you factor in the wind!
You can travel 'with the wind' and circumnavigate the Island in about an hour, or you can go 'against it' and spend a week doing the same distance. Believe me It's windy.
I parked the van by the B+B for shelter and it just swayed in time with building!
It was great, mad, but great.

On Thursday night we drove over to Kirkwall which is on the other side of the Island from where we were staying in Stromness. There was a Blues club having a jam night at The Reel so I did a couple of tunes that seemed to go down well with everyone.
The people on the Island are so friendly, it was wonderful, nothing was too much trouble, help getting to the bar to buy them a round? girlfriend need walking home?
no problem. ( only kidding )

Friday   was the first day of the festival proper, so the children held an umbrella parade!
I had to laugh. Considering that all the mothers on Orkney carry a length of rope with them, to tether their offspring to sturdy landmarks whilst shopping, the idea
of issuing all the schoolchildren with umbrellas struck me as funny. Apparently some of the children were eventually found on nearby Islands.

Mr Riff played his first full gig in The Ferry Inn in the evening.
They say there are about twenty thousand people on Orkney, well the streets must have been deserted because most of them seemed to be in The Ferry Inn.
I have never seen so many people in such a small space, ever.
But everyone enjoyed themselves and we had a ball.

When I'd done and was having a beer, after everyone had gone except us and the bar staff, the barman asked me who I was.
I thought he was taking the mick, or had come in after I'd finished. But he was serious, he'd been at the bottom end of the long bar all night and had not seen me once.
I had to show him a video of me I've got on my phone, playing a song he'd just heard, just so he could see who he had been listening to all night. Mad !!

Saturday .When we got up mid-day I opened the curtains   and it got darker!
Talk about wind and rain. I should have spotted it really, I mean the paving slabs and roof tiles are the same size and thickness!
When we went for a walk in the afternoon I had to fill Jool's pockets with rocks to keep her on the ground.
They have a saying on the Island, If your hat blows off, go look for it in Norway!!

On Saturday afternoon I went Over to Stromness Academy to have a look at a Blues day that the organisers of the festival had, Well, organised. It was to let the youngsters see and jam with some of the bands that they would normally be too young to get in to see. I sat and jammed for a couple of hours with some of the teenagers. The musical quality of the youngsters was brilliant, as always I learnt more than I taught.

The gig on Saturday was another good one ( with slightly more room )
at The Royal Hotel. I'd expected this gig to be empty as Peter Green and the Blues allstars were on in Kirkwall at the same time, but a lot of people turned up and a good boogie was had by all.

Sunday  For sheer Mad fun though, the last gig has to get an award.
I was told that no one had ever played in The Flattie ( after the fish ) bar of The Stromness Hotel before.
When I saw the size of it I realised why.
( Find a packed tube train, put a pa system in it and then do a gig, you'll get the idea!! )
But it was brilliant.
At one stage there was three hands playing my guitar, and I'm pretty sure I've only got two.  It was like doing a gig in your own front room, with windswept and interesting people, Pure class.

The People?  We met a lot of great people, the other bands were good, Gerry Jablonski, The Ready Eddies, The Jimi hendrix re-expeienced and Jim Murray. 
Hello to Ian and the gang, all mad. And Mike the barman in the Ferry Inn, who also worked in all the other shops in Orkney.

The Festival?  Well run, well attended, and a credit to the organisers ( go on Colin, do another one, you know you want to ).

Orkney?  A wonderful place, great characters, go there You'll love it.