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Wickerman, Rewind and Belladrum

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Ravi Sagoo Ravi Sagoo | 10:50 UK time, Tuesday, 9 August 2011

A hat-trick of festivals for me these past three weekends which kicked off with the superb in Dumfries and Galloway. I only managed the Saturday night but it was truly awesome - from the main headline acts including Feeder, The Coral to the Pigeon Detectives to Ö÷²¥´óÐã6 Music's Craig Charles Funk and Soul which kept me up all night long not that I was complaining!

I also camped for the first time in my life too at the Wickerman, however I was armed with an array of 'glamping' tools and amenities not just a mirror - nope I took along a double airbed and had passes for the posh loo's and showers etc...Hmmm if only I had avoided the non-posh loo's...anyways I'm sure you can imagine the kiss and tell of it all...but I did the honourable thing and allowed a young lady to press ahead of me and use a freshly cleaned port-a-loo while I had to erm 'man-up' and use one not too freshly cleaned...but I guess that's just part 'n' parcel of the festival experience!

Ravi Sagoo camping at the 2011 Wickerman Festival

Ravi camping at the 2011 Wickerman Festival

My friends were rather proud of me having survived the camping escapade as I'm very much a hotel and en-suite kind of a traveller with hot running water (!) but all in all it was a very jovial experience barring the actual sleeping side of it - when I woke up I actually uttered the following words to myself...

"I need to call my osteopath and masseuse first thing Monday morning"...

Needless to say I survived...just!

The only sad element to the whole festival was receiving a text message from Producer Nick Low informing me of the sad passing of Amy Winehouse - a true loss to the music world and more importantly to her family and friends.

It was nice to see the likes of Feeder and The Coral paying tribute to her on stage on the Saturday night just like listeners of All Night Long have done over the past few weeks on the show...

A week later it was 80's Galore with a trip to Scone Palace in Perth and Kinross for the . Once again I caught the glorious sunshine and it was like being a wee kid again back in the late 80's watching Top Of The Pops and going through my elder sibling's record collection - a who's who of 80's Pop...

Caught Bananarama on the Saturday evening with all the hits such as 'Robert De Niro's Waiting' to 'I Heard A Rumor', the girls still look great but the on stage choreography is a tad suspect of late! Other highlights included Tony Hadley of Spandu Ballet and Rick Astley who dawned a kilt for his performance.

Billy Ocean was the standout for me though - great voice and on stage performer...

And onwards to this weekend just past - .

A superb celebration of home grown talent and foreign acts to round off my musical gallivanting of these past three weekends or so...

My first time at the festival; the Belladrum Estate is a great setting and with a great atmosphere to match, a real mixed bag of people and especially nice to see families alongside their children attend in high numbers too - similar to the vibe of the Wickerman that way...

Managed to catch the fun Webb Sisters Charlie and Hattie on Saturday both of whom were bang on note and gave a brilliant rendition of the song they have performed with the legend Leonard Cohen...'If It Be Your Will'...

These sisters are definitely doing it for themselves, they have their on stage persona and act down to a T - butter wouldn't melt meets naughty school girls charm, dare I go on? Some acts could learn a lesson or two from these talented girls...

Also got to see the very talented Newton Faulkner - what a talent, not only a great voice but his guitar strings a mere side show to his tapping, hitting and pedalling alongside his use of the old trust retro cassette player!

Not only did he give the delighted crowd a mix of his own repertoire such as 'Dream Catch Me' to the likes of 'People Should Smile More'...his own take on Blackstreet's ''No Diggity' was awesome as well as his final outro of a melody of Queen tracks which had the crowd in full voice and song, a truly fantastic performance.

The personal highlight for me from Belladurm has to be Texas on the Friday night. Texas were the first band I ever went to see a few years back in my teenage years...not so many live dates these days so great to catch them live in the act once again...and there was talk of a new album too!

Texas performing at the 2011 Tartan Heart Festival.

They opened their set with the classic 'I Don't Want A Lover I Just Need A Friend' which had the crowd jumping and rocking straight away!

All the hits over the years 'Black Eyed Boy', 'Summer Sun', 'Everyday Now' and a stunning acoustic rendition of their cover of Al Green's 'I'm Tired Of Being Alone'... with a funny side show to boot, Guitarist Ally claimed to have forgotten the chords with the rather ignited and spirited Sharleen Spiteri quipping in...

"You'd think something had happened to ya"...

Great to see Ally back to full health and both rejoicing together on stage about it...

The number of the night had to be 'Say What You Want' as Sharleen had the whole crowd singing along with a battle of the sexes going down too with the Girls very much coming out on top.

I was doing my part and representing the male species against the fairer race, so much so I was picked up by the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Alba camera giving it 'laldy' (well I managed to sneak my way to the right to the front with a little help ;)...and the final outro number of the night was a vigorously energetic way to end their stunning set - The Kings 'Suspicious Mind's' simply fired up the crowd for more...and shouts of 'We Want More'...which set us all up for the Saturday line up.

Catch Ö÷²¥´óÐã Alba's excellent coverage of this year's Belladrum Tartan Heart festival with live sets from Texas, Deacon Blue, Frank Turner, Guillemots and Newton Faulkner via the Ö÷²¥´óÐã iPlayer.

With thanks to Andy, Laura, Lila, Lela, Russell and Audrey who made it a truly fun filled festival these past three weekends and not forgetting the brilliant staff and organisers of Wickerman, Rewind and Belladrum for making it a fun, welcoming and safe environment.

Ravi Sagoo presents All Night Long 0030-0530 Mon-Thurs.

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