I’ve made it an annual tradition since my first year of university: A visit to the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in May – and the Cheltenham Literature Festival in October.
Having said that, I missed both last year – I was interviewing Conservative politicians during the jazz festival, and working at Radio 2 during the literature festival.
So this year I went back and treated myself to TWO concerts.
On Wednesday night, Mum and I both saw Van Morrison at the Big Top. He’s a great singer, and quite entertaining. He’s got a rather peculiar stage personality; turning his back to the audience regularly, the way he signals to his band. It made it quite an entertaining evening.
I also had the chance to see Clare Teal at the town hall on Saturday night. She was brilliant – she has a very strong singing voice. She is a bit of a character as well: she’s been a Radio 2 presenter for a few years now, so she can properly present her shows! The anecdotes and stories between the songs were rather amusing.
I bought a copy of her latest album and got it signed as well. She says that “Fred is a great name”.
Looking forward to next year’s festival.
