Greetings from a sunny Larmer Gardens on Cranborne Chase where I’ve reached the end of the End of the Road and the tent is packed.
Back to life, back to the reality of ticking again.
I told you yesterday I’d managed to avoid the homebrew, and almost made it through to close sober, but for the evil influence of Ullage editor and good guy Tim Thomas from That Newbury.
Tim had proved elusive at the Festival as he carried out the vital function of Chief Executive, Programme Cabin (Sunday), and it wasn’t till we were both in the Garden watching Richard Dawson bring the place down with songs about 17th century tunic makers that we caught up after a minor disagreement about left and right. It depends where you’re standing, Tim. Or is that East and West.
I was then bullied into having a warm cider and seeing Monday in watching a “secret set”.
Warm Burrow Hill cider and secret sets by Darren Hayman are the basis of 98% of the End of the Road experience, the other 2% being a lack of toilet paper.
Inevitably, ale from up the road followed cider, as all long nights inevitably do.
And it was 2am before I finally said goodbye to the Pale and the peacocks and the perfect sound of chunky guitars.
Crucially, I avoided the chunky chips at 2am though.
Cheers Tim.
retiredmartin 
I was hoping you were going to live stream the Stereolab set. I had the Lathe Cutting machine set up with a Tie-Dye coloured vinyl blank ready for the bootleg and everything. Internet problems I imagine…
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You didn’t miss much. 50 year old shouldn’t be singing 30 year old classics. And I really loved Stereolab.
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Yes, I applaud their current lavish reissues and collections of rare early stuff, because it’s not substandard new stuff.
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We were spared the Pixies at least. People my age should NOT be singing “Debaser”, at least on stage.
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I’ve never had Tim down as evil, though there is a slightly manic look in his eyes, surely It’s more a case of you being easily led?
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You haven’t seen him after dark. Does it ever get dark in Berks ?
Yes to being easily led. I’d have regretted not having the warm cider, the way you regret not having the 11% imperial stout I guess.
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I always try to get out of Berkshire before sundown.
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Sounds like you had a great time/
The only imperial stout I’ve ever regretted having was the one with lactose in it on my very first visit to Heist.
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Are you allergic or does it just taste bad ?
Do you think Citra will try them all ?
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I read that as “evil flatulence”, which is understandable when local homebrew is involved.
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The problem with homebrew being sold at big music festivals is it just encourages them to make more of it.
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I suppose if the big brewers are struggling to supply proper pubs, they aren’t likely to prioritise one off annual events.
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End of the Road festival is hard to improve on. However, meeting up with Martin there in 2021 and 2022 did improve it. Here’s a tweet from 2021 that includes a photo of Darren Hayman and the double cup of warm cider which sadly I managed to knock over before drinking all of the contents. https://twitter.com/timofnewbury/status/1434960780399611913
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