Excerpt … it was well worth the wait as a couple of hundred or so lucky people who had found out about their set crammed into spaces around the campfire to see the band play a 5 song set including a cover of Neil Young’s “Dance Dance Dance”, “Roll Away Your Stone”, “Lovers Eyes”, “Nothing Is Written” and the bands biggest hit “The Cave” which was lapped up by the jubilant and excited audience.
The set was best surmised by M&S lead singer Marcus Mumford who said, during the set, describing The Strummerville Stage: “It’s a good secret spot of goodness at Glastonbury.” – continue reading →
As ever, it was in the peripheries that the magic happened. At Strummerville, an early hours performance from south London hip-hop trio Sound of Rum was as thrilling as anything all weekend.
On a rain-soaked Friday, Radiohead appeared at The Park stage, bringing half of Worthy Farm with them. Who needs the Healing Fields when you have the cracked magic of Thom Yorke’s voice?
Over on the Pyramid stage, Bono was being his usual unassuming self, describing his band’s performance at Glastonbury as “a pilgrimage” and singing a capella versions of Jerusalem … continue →
Excerpt:
“the truly special Glasto moments this time round were generally all linked by one thing: not being announced beforehand. Take Mumford & Sons’ after-dark campfire singalong at Strummerville … and as Ben Lovett told us after the band’s Strummerville surprise: ” I kind of wish every gig was like that!” – continue reading →
Earlier last week (24th June 2011), M Magazine caught up with Strummerville who were already down at Worthy Farm, knee-deep in mud…
What’s it looking like down there today?
Really bloody muddy, actually! But we got most of our setting up done on Tuesday when the sun was shining. Our stage is up, our bar has been set up, our fire pit has been dug out and our wood is here. We’re good, and now we’re trying to save the land! We started the prep on Saturday.
How do you arrange the Strummerville Glastonbury campfire sessions, is it quite ad hoc?
We’re pretty organised in the chaos really. We have five bands a night, on the hour from 10pm until 2am. Realistically, we aim to showcase the cream of our crop. We’ve got 387 bands on our DIY profile, so the cream of our crop are the best ones, simple as that.
The ones that are doing well and will attract a big crowd?
Yeh, it’s a really great showcase for them because we’ve got so many guest performers who come and share the stage with them. It’s really inspiring for them. Whoever is going to play before [the secret headliner] on Saturday will have a really great experience. It will really help their profile.
Do you have a fixed line-up? Have you announced any of the headline acts yet?
No we don’t announce anything until the morning of, and then it goes up on our chalk board. We’ve got some great headliners planned though, like The Kings Blues and Emmy the Great.
What makes Glastonbury so unique?
I’ve just walked from one end to the other, and there are just so many things that make it so amazing. It’s just not comparable to any other festival on the planet. It’s so magical and diverse. I think the whole thing has come from such an open heart. People are so nice and friendly. Human nature and human spirit have really come to the fore and people are so nice to each other.
When did the Strummerville charity sessions start up at Glastonbury?
Joe Strummer had his campfire here for years – he always hosted a huge campfire at the festival. After he passed away and the family set up the charity, Michael Eavis put an amazing memory stone in place for him. We burn the campfire by the memory stone. He died in 2002 and then in 2003 the charity began running the campfire.
Strummerville is a registered charity and you are all about helping aspiring musicians. What projects do you run that feed into the campfire sessions?
We do quite a lot. We work with FairTunes and funded them to open a recording studio in Bogota. We worked with Support After Murder and Manslaughter up in Merseyside, and we funded the making of an anti-knife crime record and video. Support After Murder and Manslaughter is a charity set up by mums who had all lost at least one child to murder in Merseyside. That was a really positive experience for those kids.
We support Jail Guitar Doors, which is Billy Bragg’s initiative to bring guitars into prisons for people who are rehabilitating. That was a nice project to work on. We’re also putting a music room into an orphanage in Malawi in August.
Your work is really far-reaching…
Yes. We’ve funded quite a few communities in Africa, where we’ve set them up with a full PA van and all of that. We are also working with some people in Detroit. The city has been completely fucked after the collapse of the motor industry. We are opening a Strummerville room there. And we’re opening a rehearsal room at the Roundhouse in London, where kids can rehearse for a pound an hour. We have two rooms at the Oh Yeah music centre in the cathedral quarter of Belfast, where people can rehearse for free. And we have a rehearsal room down at our HQ under the Westway, where bands can rehearse for free as well.
So far this year, we’ve given bursaries to 46 bands to go and record.
Organisations like yours are becoming increasingly important, in light of recent cuts to arts funding…
Especially for the people we support – we don’t get any funding from the Arts Council or others because we don’t fit in with all that bureaucracy.
Do you have any tips for upcoming songwriters who are disadvantaged or who are unable to access the funding they might need?
I suppose they should just try to concentrate on making great music – that’s where it all starts. Make the best that you can. It can be quite easy now to make a good record without lots of money. We endorse a DIY approach, so build your fan base, get on top of your social media, get out on the road, play as much as you can, but ultimately, focus on making the best record that you can. It’s also about speaking to people, that’s how you can get access.
[source]
Mumford And Sons during their secret Strummerville Glastonbury campfire show. Photo: Tom Oxley/NME (2011)
On Thursday 23rd June Huw Stephens on BBC 6 Music gave Strummerville’s Glastonbury campfire sessions “sounds like a lot of fun …” and our Songs for the Summer 2011 summer compilation a shout and played Bastille.. we’ve just returned from Glastonbury and so this post is a little late but you have 2 days left to listen to the podcast.. listen here →
Joe Strummer’s backstage campfire tradition has transcended into a charitable music train marking its territory on Glastonbury go-ers this summer. Strummer’s memorial will be ablaze with emerging and established talent gracing Unfair Ground at the Strummerville campfire sessions this summer, in collaboration with everyones favourite festival cider, Brothers will be hijacking the campfire at Glasto 23rd-26th June handing out the ‘Songs For The Summer’ free compilation album from the bands keeping Strummers memory alight.
Brothers will be donating 1p of sales on cider from every can and bottle. So theres no reason not to crack open a frosty one… continue →
Massive thanks to the very generous people at Peavey (www.peavey-eu.com) who have just delivered us a brand spanking new PA and desk and full backline for Glastonbury.
How amazing is that? expect a huge improvement on our sound people ….
Strummerville has teamed up with Brothers Cider to release ‘Songs For The Summer’, a one-off free compilation – your festival soundtrack – of exceptional new music from some of the bands that Strummerville is supporting.
The download album is available from the Songs for the Summer page and will be given away free at the Strummerville campfire at Glastonbury Festival. On June 23rd, Strummerville returns to its natural home, Glastonbury, for this year’s campfire sessions – continue reading →
The Joe Strummer New Music Foundation, Strummerville, has teamed up with Brothers Cider to release ‘Songs For The Summer’, a one-off free compilation – your festival soundtrack – of exceptional new music from some of the bands that Strummerville is supporting.
On June 23rd, Strummerville returns to its natural home, Glastonbury, for this year’s campfire sessions. Located in their usual spot by the Joe Strummer memory stone in the Unfair Ground, Strummerville will be burning their campfire all weekend long. Every night the charity will be presenting some new talent and will be joined by some more established bands for some very special intimate campfire sessions – continue reading →
Joe Strummer’s music charity, Strummerville, is offering a free compilation album called ‘Songs For The summer’ for your downloading pleasure. The record features eleven unsigned bands that Strummerville is currently supporting – continue reading
The sun is shining and today we have released ‘Songs For The Summer’ a free download album – your festival soundtrack for the summer! It’s a compilation of tracks from all the artists who performed at our Spring Sessions.
Download it from here – we hope you enjoy it.
We’ve compiled this album with help of the lovely people at Brothers Cider. They are very kindly giving us 1p of the sale of each of their cans and bottles for the month of June. This amounts to a tidy donation to us so huge thanks to them for all their support.
These are the highlights i shot myself throughout our Strummerville campfire tour 2010.
Love,
Trish xx
Excerpt:
“Strummerville, Glastonbury – The spirit of legendary Clash guitarist and devoted Glastonburian, Joe Strummer, burns on at Strummerville, where organiser hope to light the weekends biggest campfire.
The spot – near Shngri-La field is where Joe used to host his own parties. Over the weekend bands including The Drums, Frank Turner and Lissie will drop by for acoustic sessions … everybody’s welcome.”
Excerpt:
“What a weekend Coco had at Glastonbury, playing three shows in one day on Saturday!
It all started in the scenic surroundings of the Park Stage, which Coco opened on the second day of the festival and provided the perfect wake up call and cure for those with hangovers.
That was followed by an acoustic show at the chill and charge tent before Coco followed The Drums with an intimate set at Strummerville round a campfire just after midnight – the perfect end to the perfect day.
Look out for a blog from Coco about the festival coming soon…”
Excerpt:
“So you mudda skuddums going to Glastonbury this year, be sure to make your presence felt at the Strummerville campsite this year. Strummerville will be lighting the campfire (the biggest campfire at Glastonbury scuse me!) Thursday night and keep it burning all around the clock.
Located in Unfair Ground field in the exact same spot where Joe Strummer used to have his fire, the strummerville campfire sessions will start at midnight every night and will run until 3am.”
http://flyingwithanna.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/glastonbury-2010-a-few-things-you-should-do/
We will be kicking off this years festival tour at our natural home, Glastonbury festival. We will be lighting the fire Thursday night and keep it burning till Monday morning.
Situated just by the entrance to to the Shangri-La field, the exact same spot where Joe used to have his fire. The campfire sessions will start at midnight and will run ’till 3am, with acoustic performances from bands such as: Handshake, Sound of Rum, Lissie, Fionn Regan, Frank Turner, The Drums, Beans on Toast, I Blame Coco, Depot and many many more. Swing by and say hi during the day to find out who’s playing that night, rest your feet on our many sofas, grab a tea from our cafe or take part in our drumming workshops.
For Joe Strummer, the idea of a “campfire” – any loose assembly of people bonded by the rising flames and the advancing dawn – became an art form in itself.
We’re here to provide warmth, encourage conversation, listen to amazing music and generally spread the love. Everybody’s welcome.
Loads of love,
Strummerville xxx
ps. if you’re on FaceBook join our Glastonbury event page
pps. click here for a larger map view
This is our summer 2010 festival tour. We’ll be setting up our campfire at:
23rd – 27th June @ Glastonbury
9th – 11th July @ Lounge on the Farm
22nd – 23rd July @ Secret Garden
6th – 8th Aug @ Endorse it in Dorset
Live acoustic campfire sessions with comfort, warmth, peace and general good vibes. Be sure to stop by and say hello.
One love,
Strummerville x
We are very pleased to announce Zoe Robertson will be doing a bike ride to Glastonbury Festival to raise funds for Strummerville. We asked Zoe why she decided to do this, “I like Strummerville and think it serves an important service that not enough people know about.”
The sponsored bike ride will last 3 days and a total of 150 miles, to assist with accommodation Zoe will be couch surfing (via couch surfing.com), the mileage has been calculated using Google Maps and will be taking cycle routes from Greenwich all the way to Glastonbury Festival camp site.
Zoe said, “I’m just testing out my limits for distances in a day and may decide to try to do it in two days. For now, though, the plan is to take 3 days, see some lovely folk, and enjoy the scenery.”
The planned route is:
- Greenwich to Reading on Sunday, June 20 (49 miles)
- Reading to Corsham on Monday June 21 (60 miles)
- Corsham to Glastonbury on Tues June 22 (39 miles)
- Arrive at Glastonbury site on Wednesday June 23 late morning early afternoon.
We have set up a sponsor button (via PayPal) where you can sponsor Zoe.
We would like to thank Zoe and wish her the best of luck!
Loads of love,
Strummerville x
About Zoe Robertson
Zoe plays violin and is a graduate of Trinity Music College with a Bachelor of Music and came across Strummerville via the band, Handshake. Zoe said, “I have to admit, I didn’t really know much about Joe Strummer before joining Handshake and finding out about their connection with Strummerville. Since then, though, I’ve developed a real soft spot for all things Joe.”
Pic: Andy Willsher
The star’s headlining show on the Pyramid Stage, his first ever festival appearance in the UK, was one of the most eagerly-awaited sets of the weekend.
Springsteen, a huge Clash and Strummer fan, chose to open the set with a solo rendition of Strummer’s track ‘Coma Girl’.
Originally recorded with The Mescaleros, the song’s lyrics were inspired by the festival, with Strummer a regular visitor up until his death in 2002.
A visibly moved Springsteen told the packed crowd: “We’re so pleased to be here at the rain-free Glastonbury! I’ve heard about it. I’ve heard about it! And now I can see it. The E Street Band are here to honour the solemn vow to rock the house tonight!”
