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The Wickerman Festival 2005

Friday 22nd to Saturday 23rd July 2005
Kirkcarswell Farm nr. Kirkcudbright, Galloway, Scotland, Scotland MAP
£40 (early bird price) w/e incl camping; Saturday only £30. Children 13yrs and under admitted free

Saturday dawned, and the winner of the South West Battle of the Bands, Slot Car open the day on the Woodward Stage. If Slot Car were nervous about the size of the event they were playing, it certainly didn't show as they delivered a tight and confident indie sound performance.

Next up came Elaine Palmer, the only solo act playing the main stages. Posessed of a very powerful voice, Elaine treated the audience to a very chilled set of beautifully written songs.

Shortly after came Mr Greenfinger, a kind of Caledonian Barron Knights, only with less comedy. Still, they were soon playing to an enthusiastic crowd that seemed to love them, so perhaps my view of them owed more to an English sense of humour failure than anything else.

The next band of real note on the SummerIsle stage was the Dangleberries, a (to me at least) unique combo of drums, bagpipes and classic hard rock. I've never listened to a bagpipe rendition of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", but strangely, it just seemed to work somehow.

Following a break of an hour, what for many it would seem came the main event of the weekend, the outrageously marvellous Alabama 3. A3 opended their set with a great version of "Caged Bird", then ploughed straight into new single, "Hello I'm Johhny Cash, Messrs Love, and D.Wayne Love were joined by Paddy Hill on stage to promote his "Mojo" Campaign. There followed the strongest set I've seen from Alabama 3 in a very long time, with many of the songs you'd expect, "You don't dance 2 techno", "Mao Tse Tung", and "Ain't goin' to Goa", as well as a number of tracks from Outlaw, including "Honey in the Rock", and "Have you seen Bruce Richard Reynolds". "Exactly what part of London are we in now?" asks Larry Love during the set "I'm not right sure" replies D Wayne, "But I think it's the Spacious part". Well, it certainly seemed to agree with them.

Alabama 3 were followed onto stage by Arthur Brown, he of flaming hat fame. I've always viewed Arthur Brown as almost certainly bonkers - as any man that willingly jumps around while wearing a bonfire on his head strikes me as being worth worrying about. Despite this fact, I couldn't help but enjoy his set. And yes, of course he played "Fire", and yes the blazing hat was worn, though only briefly owing to worries of it setting light to the timber built stage.

As might be expected, Mr Brown preceded the burning of the Wicker Man that's become very much a trademark of this event. The burning itself followed an impressive fire show, which ultimately ended in a torchlit procession. Whilst this was very impressive, the delay did produce crys of "burn him!" from the crowd, which did make you feel like a visitor at the Spanish Inquisition, though the cry of "Burn him or we kill the Policeman!" brought us laughing back to the 20th Century.