Carnaby Army at the Goodwood Revival Weekend 2021

[Studio GC]

Two weeks before the event I had a call from a Goodwood event manager (although she didn't say who she was representing). She just asked if our band could play for three days on the weekend of September 17, 18, 19. I said, sounds interesting, but it's very short notice, we will see.

 

Some of the boys were already engaged on some of the days, but then I got an email from the organizer and that's when I saw that she represented the Goodwood Motor Circuit. Holy camolly, we had to make this work as it is not only a super fun event with retro clothing and really cool fast retro cars, it is also a great way to showcase our band.

We worked on pricing as well as getting the drummers other band to cover for us Saturday as most of us from Carnaby Army were already engaged that day.

The bummer was we had to load in by 0830....which meant the alarm went off at 0430 for most of us!

We arrived in already building traffic to fight our way into the car parks. Everyone was scattered about, but it was a beautiful morning and to entertain the folks who were parking they had a morning flyover of Spitfires, Hurricanes and even a P-51 mustang to this Yank happy.

 

 

 

Dawn at the parking area near the airstrip:

 

We eventually were gathered up by a group of "American" army folks in retro WW2 outfits and complete with a WW2 era GMC truck. We shared the ride with some jazzers who were playing another stage at the event.
 

 

Pedro (lead guitar) got his own lift into the venue in a Willys....nice!

 

 

Kev and Dave etc. doing the set up thing.

 

 

It was a pretty small stage. But we made it work. The fantastic crowd made up for the tight quarters. We happened to be in the vintage cycling section which meant I was in heaven, as I'm a cycling fanatic. We got to mingle with 6 time Olympic gold medalist Chris Hoy and the journalist Ned Boulting.

 

 

Your's truly with the Great Ned Boulting! (who's that you ask? then you're probably not a cyclist)

 

 

Off to to the races (so to speak): I took over Pedro's BV parts as he had a sore throat. Not ideal, but don't think it sounded too bad.
 

 

 

We shared a hospitality trailer for the weekend with a rather dour brass band and these Cat's from Trinidad and Tobago who were great fun. I used to live and work in Trinidad, so we hit it off.

 

 

Obligatory band shot:

 

Back at it for Sunday's Sets:

 

 

 

Some of the sightseeing was amazing. What a crowd!

 

 

And the racing! My goodness. I'm not a petrol head, but my father was and it brought a tear to me eye to see and here the action on the track.

 

 

They even shipped in a dozen or so American Street rods, complete with 50s band. Fantastic!

 

 

 

Considering this was pretty last minute and we had to juggle dep musicians and some crazy schedules, I'm glad we pulled it off. Really hoping we can do it again next year as it's really an epic weekend.