Tag: TR5’s

Up bright and early for sadly the last day of this fabulous festival.

The Tuneless Choir was the first act we saw quite intrigued on the name. It is to bring people together, confident or not and give community singing a go. First initiated in Nottingham 10 years ago, the idea has spread and Hampshire’s Locks Heath and Solent branches are now a regular feature within the festival. Their enthusiasm was infectious! I met one of them while waiting for Belinda O’Hooley and her eyes lit up as she was telling me about her journey with the choir.

I did manage to squeeze in a little while with The TR5’s in the Little Top, who had a good size audience listening to their foot stopping rock and roll together with a bit of jive and skiffle thrown in. A five piece with attitude.

Belinda O’Hooley was excellent as you would expect – she was given a superb Steinway grand piano to play on, and her voice perfectly complimented her playing. Belinda writes beautiful lyrics and a couple of her songs made us all watery eyed. Her Yorkshire humour and chat were just lovely. A nice touch at the end of her set saw her partner – singer/songwriter Heidi Tidow close the set accompanying Belinda and their little boy Flynn joined in.

An Audience with Russell Hastings from The Jam courtesy of Alex Dyke was an interesting interview of life in The Jam, I didn’t see all of it as it clashed with the TR5’s but caught both.

Award winning folk duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman followed and they were as brilliant as ever. They sang my favourite song ‘52 Hrtz’ which was a bonus and the audience gave them the respect they deserve as they listened fervently to their set. Fabulous as always. After which we went for a bite to eat from the many stalls to choose from and a pint of something!

Penguin Café in the Big Top were new to me I’m afraid, but I learned that this band were born out of the death of the previous Penguin Café Orchestra founder Simon Jeffes. His son Arthur – himself a gifted multi-instrumentalist – revived the concept and what a sound! Arthur talked lovingly and respectfully about what his father had achieved and those around me couldn’t help but wonder how very proud his father Simon would be of his son. Awesome.

I really wanted to see Jack Broadbent, but he clashed with singer/songwriter Curtis Stigers who I had wanted to see as well. I have seen him before but this new image of Curtis instantly made me think of Kenny Rogers! Longer hair for a start! I’m not a huge fan of jazz, but Curtis Stigers wins me over every time! He did the very large audience too!

Headliners The Proclaimers came on to a very welcoming crowd, both inside the Big Top and outside in the field. The energy was electric. Twins Charlie and Craig were straight in and their band backed them admirably. Ending a little short of the time allowed they sang 500 miles to say goodbye. They certainly let Wickham know they were back!

We saw the sun going down over the Big and Little Tops at the end of the Festival, but already looking forward to next year!

Well done Pete Chegwyn and all his team plus volunteers and stewards who pulled off a storming Wickham 2026 ensuring health and safety, enjoyment and and perfect music choices for our delectation.

Very hard work on their part and thank you for letting us at Folking dot com be part of it.

Jean Camp

Festival website: https://www.wickhamfestival.co.uk/