VEF 50: "The castle in the distance, and just that feeling at that age, what a massive gig!"

"Everyone came rushing up to us and said: ‘you’re 15 minutes late, you should have been on stage!’" Bob Delbridge, musician, Friendly Folk

Bob Delbridge played in the afternoon of the first festival of '76 with his then duo Friendly Folk. After leaving Guernsey in ’78, he’s been living in Sheffield with his family for 20 years. He is returning to perform for the 50th anniversary with his group The Bapchilds.

Errol organised gatherings before the Vale Castle, I've got a poster about cycling to Pleinmont, then going somewhere for a swim, we’d sit on the grass at L’Erée and play, hippie stuff!

Friendly Folk was the two of us, me and Geoff Le Prevost, with a surname like that - he’s a Guernsey man. We both attended the Folk Club in Guernsey, ended up sharing a flat and started playing together. Then we both went to England because it was winter and that’s what we used to do in those days, come to Guernsey to work in summer, go away in winter.

We didn’t have a name but because we came from Guernsey, ‘the friendly isle,’ the manager of this Leeds club said; ‘Well you’re the friendly folk’

We hitched up to Leeds because someone had given us an address up there, answered an advert and got a gig that was based on a barge on the river through Leeds. We didn’t have a name but because we came from Guernsey, ‘the friendly isle,’ the manager of this Leeds club said; ‘Well you’re the friendly folk,’ it didn’t sound so bad then, it sounds very corny now!

In those days it was one stage, I just remember enjoying myself, I wouldn’t have a drink until I went on stage and then afterwards, I would let my hair down, I had a lot of hair then.

My main memory is one year Martin Spoelstra and I went out to get fish and chips and when we walked casually back in everyone came rushing up to us and said: ‘you’re 15 minutes late, you should have been on stage!’ And we thought we had two hours.  Somebody had formed an instant band, and did three or four numbers jamming. Barry Collenette mentioned it in his column; ‘And then Bob and Martin strolled up to the stage.’

everyone came rushing up to us and said: ‘you’re 15 minutes late, you should have been on stage!’

The name of my band now is The Bapchilds. We play 1950s classic country honky tonk, up temp dance music, and Western swing, which is jazz. We've got a double-bass player Helen and one of the best fiddlers in the country, Seonaid Matheson, and Mike on a bottleneck guitar. The gigs we mostly do are festivals. Totally different to Friendly Folk! I’m still the mouthpiece but there’s not one song or even probably a chord that has any similarities!

I walk around from Bordeaux to the castle every time I’m over.  I come to the fair, there's always a folk section and someone usually lets me roll up and sing. It’s brilliant. If only more places could do it. What a thing to start and for it to continue.

"We were excited playing an outdoor gig because there weren't that many opportunities in those days." Chris Dean, musician, Tempus

Chris Dean, one of Guernsey's best-known musicians, played in then rock band Tempus, the first festival's second-to-last act of the night. He is returning to the stage with his band King Rat & The Soul Cats for the 50th anniversary of Beau Sejour, the island's leisure centre, which opened the same year as the Vale Earth Fair began.

I would have been 19 then and we were playing a lot of gigs. We had a four-night a week residency at the Hermitage Hotel and then two nights at the Cellar Club so we would have been tight. We were excited playing an outdoor gig because there weren't that many opportunities in those days. Too many years and gigs have passed since then and my memory is not what it was!

"Darkness was fully upon us, the moon now hung bright and fat over the castle, as Tempus took the stage" The 1976 festival review by Errol Groves

"I had to use the guitar, a Rickenbacker bass as my guide..So a full 50 years ago!" Jim Delbridge, bass guitarist, Tempus

Jim Delbridge, Bob's brother, also played the evening of the first Earth Fair in the evening with Tempus, captured by Andy Chauvel in his trove of pictures of the first two festivals. Jim, a BBC presenter and podcaster, plays regularly on the local music scene.

I had to use the guitar, a Rickenbacker bass as my guide and consult with Chris Dean to confirm which band I was playing in and in what year. He thinks it was with Tempus in 1976. So a full 50 years ago, so no surprise that I don't remember much. 

The Castle gigs were very different then - primitive P.A. and lights, just one stage made from scaffolding. It was pioneering stuff.

This line up was Chris Dean, Geoff Le Friec, Sav Russo and myself. We were playing regularly at The Cellar Club and The Hermitage but the band split up shortly after this and we went our separate ways. I joined Snatch 22 with Geoff, Guernsey's first successful New Wave band. We had a glorious summer in Guernsey and played at the Castle the following year. The band then left Guernsey for two years in London playing on the London pub circuit. The Castle gigs were very different then - primitive P.A. and lights, just one stage made from scaffolding. It was pioneering stuff. Great fun!!

"Seeing the Vale castle in the distance and just that feeling at that age. What a massive gig!" Nick Windsor, guitarist, Zephyr's Wing

Nick Windsor, guitarist, and Errol Groves’ brother-in-law, played the 1977 festival at the age of 16, in the band Zephyr's Wing which he'd joined six months before. Nick would play guitar on the Castle Stage with four different bands over the years.

Andy caught my first big gig, that’s me with Pete Norman on bass. The week before I’d been in a car crash on the coast road to Vazon, we were going too fast, my mate was driving, we rolled the car, a VW Beetle. I remember the glass falling away upside down. We were both a little bit worse for wear. We ran home. I think I told my mum I ran into a lamp post. Anyway, I managed to do the gig with a slightly bruised arm.

Errol had taught me my first three chords at the Friquet farmhouse. All their mates used to come round, they always had a guitar out, always playing and listening to music. When mum and dad got me my first guitar, Errol taught me E, A and D. Eventually he’d start jamming on the jawsharp, probably in the wrong key, but it was fun.  

My audition for that band was nerve-wrecking. They’d put an advert in the paper, “Rhythm Guitarist wanted.” I knew they were the happening band, so I thought ‘I’ve just got to try.’ So I went down for an audition, and they were all there with their girlfriends and boyfriends and other friends, loads of people! I was so nervous. But they were a really nice bunch of lads, Pete Norman, Paul De Garis, Shaun Lacey and Jeremy Martel. I went through a few Thin Lizzy numbers and then Paul said, ‘Yeah, you’re great.”

It was my first big gig, the Vale Castle as I'd joined the band about six months before. I remember driving down there with Errol and Carolyn, in the car down the Braye Road, then the Vale Castle in the distance and just that feeling at that age, what a massive gig! Amazing. Obviously, nepotism featured heavily there, to be fair they would have got the gig because they were a really good band.

I'm wearing the Zephy’s Wing t-shirt in that photo. The story of that T-shirt is the band was called Zephyr's Wing long before I joined. Someone had seen, I think on holiday in America, a Zephyr and it was dented and they said 'Look at that Zephyr's Wing!' So that was the name. My godmother, Yvonne came over from the UK, bless her, and mum and dad were there, and she comes up: “Look I’ve got you this t-shirt, we're really proud of your band, it’s great you’re playing this Vale Castle gig.' She gives me it, and the T-shirt says: 'Zephy’s Wing,' it’s missing the ‘r’. But I had to wear it. How the rest of the band let me get up stage with it; ‘Zephy’s Wing.’ It was funny.

My mum and her best friend and her husband there watching their son play 'Free Bird,' (Lynyrd Skynyrd) probably really badly, but we had a go. I think we played it pretty well actually. Mum and dad said; "That was smashing, my love."

'Free Bird' was our last song. It’s an epic song. I’d love to have heard a recording, to have heard how it sounded, when I was 16, with a really naff guitar, though it looked good. It cost 50 quid from Disk, a shop in the Bordage.

‘I’d love to have heard a recording, to have heard how it sounded, when I was 16, with a really naff guitar, though it looked good.

I did a gig with Fiction, in '78 a year later, with Laurie Queripel, Russ Fossey, Gareth Colman and Tim Chauvel. Then with Drop in the Ocean, with The Royal Scam. I played with Alias - I got that gig 'cos Laurie broke his wrist so he asked if I’d step in, that was in 1990.

Like today, it was always such a broad mix of music, although just the one stage then. In some ways I liked that, but obviously you’re catering for more people nowadays so you need more stages, like all festivals. In those days it was folk one minute, rock the next, all sorts. You’d have covers bands doing the chart stuff, then really good folk artists, Bob Delbridge, Scots John, Paul Perrio, he was the stalwart, he was fantastic. They were brilliant. Colette of course, she was great.

There were so many characters. Count Brass with his wizard hat and his cloak, you had to see it to believe it!

I was the token nipper, I was spoilt rotten by them all. There were so many characters, great fun to be around. Count Brass with his wizard hat and his cloak, you had to see it to believe it!

Back in those days, what would you have had? The Viaer Marchi, the West Show, it was quite different coming up with the Vale Castle, what even was it before the Earth Fair?

Being a bit young, I’m not gonna lie, I was just happy to be playing, the ethos went over my head. But I got the vibe later. It was Feed the Hungry, Help the Poor. Errol was Robin Hood eh. There was a vibe about Errol, and Carolyn to be fair, a vibe about the whole thing.

Errol was already on a mission and that was an outlet, a positive outlet and everybody was onboard really quickly. He was the catalyst and that’s stayed with it.

Errol was Robin Hood eh... There was a vibe about the whole thing. He was the catalyst and that’s stayed with it. It’s great to see how it’s grown. What other festival does what it does?

Back in those days, what would you have had? The Viaer Marchi, the West Show, it was quite different coming up with the Vale Castle, what even was it before the Earth Fair? It’s great to see how it’s grown. What other festival does what it does? The Vale Earth Fair, the people that run it, all the Earth Fair fundraisers, all the organisation for that, has done far more than it’s credited for in supporting local music.

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