Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
As this was Beautiful Days Main Stage I wanted to do something a bit different, and hopefully memorable.
The last time we played the mainstage was in 2019. Eight months later we had to stay in our homes for a while and of course all gigs had to stop too.
We all had to find other ways of being creative and I organised a few online collaborations. Most of them involved just a few musicians, but the first of two huge episodes was a cover of James’ Sometimes (Lester Piggott) which involved loads of artists from our little grass roots music scene. Realising that all the artists who sang the main verses were also on the bill at the festival I thought it would be fun to try to recreate it during the gig.
So, as the song progressed, we were joined by Sound of the Sirens (Hannah and Abbe), Samantics, Scott Doonican, Aubrey Blakeledge, Flo Parker Bombosch, Small Town Jones (Jim), and half of Heron Island (Chaz Thorogood).
We never got the chance to properly rehearse it, but we hoped that, if nothing else, it would be an uplifting, beautifully colourful shambles. I think it was.
I felt a bit bad because there were quite a few in the crowd who had been involved in the online version, but it would have been a logistical nightmare to get them all up on stage. I found most of them afterwards to apologise in person, but sorry if I missed anyone.
Many thanks to all those who sent in some footage. The stuff on stage was from John Bownas, and the crowd footage was from Carsten Plänker, Mark Batson, Vanessa Williams, Gemma Knight, Kirsty Brown, Ginny Gould, Ruthie Fenwick, Nigel Harper, Matt Jarvis.
Thank you to Tom Granville for putting it all together, and to you lot for coming along and making it all worthwhile.
You can see the 'original' here youtube.com/watch?v=HhQBA4dR4l0
As this was Beautiful Days Main Stage I wanted to do something a bit different, and hopefully memorable.
The last time we played the mainstage was in 2019. Eight months later we had to stay in our homes for a while and of course all gigs had to stop too.
We all had to find other ways of being creative and I organised a few online collaborations. Most of them involved just a few musicians, but the first of two huge episodes was a cover of James’ Sometimes (Lester Piggott) which involved loads of artists from our little grass roots music scene. Realising that all the artists who sang the main verses were also on the bill at the festival I thought it would be fun to try to recreate it during the gig.
So, as the song progressed, we were joined by Sound of the Sirens (Hannah and Abbe), Samantics, Scott Doonican, Aubrey Blakeledge, Flo Parker Bombosch, Small Town Jones (Jim), and half of Heron Island (Chaz Thorogood).
We never got the chance to properly rehearse it, but we hoped that, if nothing else, it would be an uplifting, beautifully colourful shambles. I think it was.
I felt a bit bad because there were quite a few in the crowd who had been involved in the online version, but it would have been a logistical nightmare to get them all up on stage. I found most of them afterwards to apologise in person, but sorry if I missed anyone.
Many thanks to all those who sent in some footage. The stuff on stage was from John Bownas, and the crowd footage was from Carsten Plänker, Mark Batson, Vanessa Williams, Gemma Knight, Kirsty Brown, Ginny Gould, Ruthie Fenwick, Nigel Harper, Matt Jarvis.
Thank you to Tom Granville for putting it all together, and to you lot for coming along and making it all worthwhile.
You can see the 'original' here youtube.com/watch?v=HhQBA4dR4l0
