Hanwell Rocks!
Fourth year for Hanwell Hootie music festival - another great success
(pic credit Paul James)
There is something very special about the Hanwell Hootie.
It goes without saying that the amount and variety of music is top notch, many of the venues just beautiful and the volunteers who helped make it happen all deserve awards. But one word sums it up for me: Atmosphere.
There is nothing quite like seeing Hanwell packed full of musicians and music lovers, all determined to have a good time.
And a good time was indeed had by all. I would have loved to have seen more of the amazing array of talent but had to narrow it down. So the incredible St Mellitus church was the starting point and what a fantastic venue that is.
We witnessed a high class performance by the singer-songwriter Emily Lee an incredibly rhythmic guitarist with an absolutely belting voice. A brilliant start to the evening.
There was plenty more on offer at the church but it was time to move on and the packed Duke Of York was the next point of call to see local favourites, The Chairs.
I am never disappointed with The Chairs. Martin and his gang give their all (and more) every time they play. A good selection of well known covers and their own material had us all dancing. Great fun, but... what? Did I hear right? Martin said they were taking a break from the music scene for a while. NOOOOOOOO! This cannot be true. Somebody please tell me I misheard?
We had to make a quick dash in the rain to the next pub, but because Hanwell is so well supplied with hostelries in such a small area it didn't take long at all.
The BibleCode Sundays are a highly established local band and the queue of people waiting outside in the rain paid testament to just how popular these lads are. It's not surprising of course, they played an absolute blinder of a set with some brilliant cover versions (I particularly loved The Clash 'Should I stay or should I go?' as well as The Jam's 'Town called Malice') and ending with their own anthemic song ' Maybe it's because I'm an Irish Londoner'.
Although there was really very limited space in The Village Inn we still managed to dance and the gig was just fantastic. There were many more bands still performing throughout W7 but I felt it was probably best to end it there - on a total high.
I think you can tell you've had a good night when you end up blasting the chorus of Jolene out on a bus. Yes that was me - apologies to the rest of the passengers (!) but thanks to the musicians from 'Wig-Wam' and a member of the Hanwell Ukulele Group for joining in and making it a highly entertaining trip home.
All in all it was a brilliant night and big congratulations to everyone involved - it was a feat of organisation and incredible hard work.
As I probably ask after every Hootie, please, please can it be held over a whole weekend next time? Then we can all enjoy even more music - live and loud as it should be.
I think Jim Marshall would have been very proud.
And more great images here from Stephan Burn
Annemarie Flanagan
4th April 2016
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