“Any festivals you want to cover, particularly in the first few months of the year, then let me know?” Those were words from Reg that led me to Planet Rocks Winters End Festival, a little all in one rock festival, held in Porthcawl, Wales.

Where? Well that was my first reaction when I heard Trecco Bay mentioned. It’s the Holiday Park in Porthcawl where the festival takes place, came the reply from my seasoned rock festival going friends Dave & Vicky, (names have not been changed to protect the innocent), as I discussed it with them. Ok, I thought, lets do this, “……please can I cover Winters End in February Reg, it’s in Trecco Bay”, a slight pause followed by “I’ll speak to Jon, see if I can sort it” came the reply……no hint of WTF is that, Reg obviously knew of Trecco Bay, and of Winters End, and of Plant Rock!

And so it came to pass that an early Friday afternoon trip along the M4 past Cardiff was in order, oh the anticipation; the middle lane drivers that obviously lack the capacity to appreciate the world around them, unable to able to move over, those who cannot appreciate stopping distances and invade the space left for safety reasons as if it were a weakness in my driving style, those who fail to grasp the fact that mind reading isn’t a common human trait, and therefore the invention of indicators was welcomed into the world, and those who have never heard of, let alone tried, ‘the zipper system’ (top tip, it works just fine in Germany, why not here?)…..all in all, the fear of joining what is normally the rest of the world travelling along that piece of road at the same time as I am!

Anyway, enough of the life sapping journey to the venue. Let me tell you about my experiences there, the who, the how, the what, the where, and the when. With the first band due on stage at 1730hrs, I arrived about 1430hrs, settle in, sorted the camera kit, wondered what I’d volunteered for, and at about 1700hrs ambled from the caravan to the venue, all of 7 mins, fabulous!

First band on, and not something I’d relish even if I could get a note out of anything musical, was Beth Blade & The Beautiful Disasters. For those that don’t know, Beth (Beth McDonald) is a survivor, and she has courage. Last year she spoke to Sky News telling of the physical & mental abuse she suffered at the hands of an ex-partner. She’s confronted it, and she’s written about it, and now she’s stood in front of me on stage, with the rest of her band! The set is fabulous, it’s full on, it’s loud, and as a starter it’s unquestionably what you would want. You’re not eased in gently, Beth is in your face, she’s in your ears, and you can see she (and the lads) are enjoying every single second of it.

Next up are my pals The Gypsy Pistoleros. I’ve taken images of them previously, including one shoot involving 4 lovely dancers for their version of the Livin’ La Vida Loca track released in 2021, I can also say I was there when they filmed the video for ‘The Ballard of Tommy Shelby’ (in the Paul Pry pub in Worcester); we’ve explored the Worcestershire countryside looking for shoot locations together, and we plan to do more shoots in the not-too-distant. The Gypsy Pistoleros – the Greatest Flamenco Punk Glam Rock band ever, as they advertise themselves, are indeed that. They are unique in looks, and also in sound. Gypsy Lee (the frontman) is soon on the barrier engaging with the packed hall, with his whitened face and painted smile, he gets back what he gives, the audience have taken to him, and if you’ve never seen the Pistoleros before then you can soon see why they do. It’s an engaging set, with the voice of Cillian Murphy providing the intro to ‘Tommy’, my favourite track from Worcesters own beautiful freaks. Keep an eye and an ear out for “Whats it like to be a Girl”, the next single & video which will be released in May. Go and see the Pistoleros, you will not be disappointed.

I wasn’t familiar with Connor Selby when I read the running order, I wondered what I was about to see and hear. What I heard was full on Mississippi Blues, from a young man. Mississippi Blues isn’t something that I’d actively seek out to listen to, just yet. That said, to my agricultural ear Connor played without a flaw, but he wasn’t in the room with us, he was in Mississippi. You could tell he felt and lived every single moment of the set. He was well received by the audience, whether through politeness, or through love I’m not sure, but if it’s your thing then I’m sure it was fabulous?

Next up is Kira Mac. It appears that there are a few Kira Mac fans in the hall already, judging by the hustle and bustle to get ‘on the barrier’. I stand in the ‘pit’, (clearly designed for skinny midgets, and not for the likes of me) watching this play out, I note faces, some of which I’ll see there again over the next few days, and I engage some in brief conversation, it seems that I am in for a treat having not seen Kira ‘in the flesh’ before. Suddenly Kira Mac are there, on the stage and in your ears, and they don’t appear to be taking prisoners this evening. A fantastic set follows.

Behind the constant and blinding flashing lighting (of various random colours) that fails to do its prime job of lighting the on stage performance, and that stretches a good 2 metres into the audience at times blinding one and all at indiscriminate points, forcing them to look away, along with the world’s supply of dry ice all being used in a one-time effort the band, from what I can ‘see’, are enjoying themselves, perhaps it’s because ‘we’ are only seeing occasional glimpses of them? It’s been like this all evening so far, but now it’s not only making it virtually impossible to be creative with a camera, it’s also very annoying for the punters in the first few rows, I’m sure they didn’t plan on such a poor light show!!!! At one point the lighting steadies, and I see that the bassist has a huge smile on his face, along with a pair of red lacy knickers, (probably a woman’s, but I won’t specify that, just in case) on the neck of his bass! These are removed, and they carefully placed on the mic stand, perhaps as a trophy, perhaps awaiting a pair of Y fronts to join them?

I hear “this is the last one for this evening”, and then as soon as they had appeared Kira Mac were gone. Not gone for good I hope for I really enjoyed their sound.

The Friday night headliner is the lovely Elles Bailey. An exceptionally talented lady, with a voice with a hint of gravel and a lot of soul, Elles hails from Brizzel, and I understand every word that she utters! Elles, like Lee (Pistoleros) is soon chattering away with the audience, and at one point she is stood just in front of me, she leans forward and looks straight into the lens and smiles, reality check over, I shout silently at myself to press the damned shutter release……!!!! The music is fabulous, it would’ve been very easy to have become preoccupied with that, forgetting all about documenting the evening in images, which was what I am supposed to be doing!

Still chattering about anything and everything Elles dedicates the track Cheats and Liars to how the Arts were ‘sold down the river’ as she puts it, during the pandemic. There are ways and means of putting a point across, and if you’ve read any of my previous articles then you will know that I find singers spouting politics on stage about as interesting and as relevant as, well politics! That said Elles would have had the attention of a stone statue whilst she put that point across, if there was one in the venue! We were treated to 15 tracks, 15 tracks of pure self-indulgence and then that was that!

The band were off to play Manchester the next evening at the start of a UK tour, and judging by what I’d just seen and heard there wouldn’t be many spare tickets anywhere for the touts to do business with! And with that my kit was safely stashed away and I was on my way to a pre-planned meeting, the one with Mr Jack Daniels Fire and some Cherry Coke, yes yes, try it before you slate me!!!!

Words & images: Haydn Wiltshire (Taff Rimages)

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