Beforehand, MK and some of his family were seen in the public food area, partaking of fish 'n' chips. We didn’t see this as we were at a presentation on King Alfred, the monarch who saved this country from a complete takeover by the Vikings. However, you may recall that I said, beforehand, it was not unusual to see presenters around the site during the course of the day.
In his presentation, MK was quite loose and, he suggested, improvising quite a bit. Doubtless, the recording mentioned will show this. What an audio recording will not show is the succession of book covers shown large on the screen above and behind MK, indicating, if not the inspiration of particular songs, some degree of influence – in tone and context, if not lyrical content.
As I have said before, I really only know MK through his live performances, so could not recall “Occupation Blues”. This was illustrated by a book entitled “Naples ’44 - An intelligence officer in the Italian Labyrinth” by Norman Lewis. At one point, MK read an extract from a book; I think it was “Rifleman - A Front-Line Life From Alamein and Dresden to the Fall of the Berlin Wall” by Victor Gregg (with Rick Stroud). Rick Stroud was the linkman talking with MK between songs.
When we got inside the tent but before the presentation, MK was bending down to talk to a much older man in the front row, whom I could only see from the rear but, to me, he looked like a veteran and I wondered if it might be Victor Gregg himself. Does anybody know?
After his presentation, MK sat at the front and signed a few things.
The tent was large, holding about 800 people and was more or less full.
The mud at the festival was bad, not spectacularly deep but very squelchy, like a layer of dirty blancmange across virtually the whole site. It was thick enough that, even wearing wellies and walking carefully in order not to slip, splats of mud splashed up on trousers well above knee height. Many cars had problems getting out of the car park, sitting there with wheels spinning. Some of the tents used by exhibitors and retailers offered no respite from the mud even inside and supposedly under cover; a few were under water in parts. The large tents where the presentations took place didn't have these problems.
Finally, yes, there were two queues to get in: the "Friends of the festival" queue and the queue for regular festival goers. However, the “Friends” were not the people in the first nine or ten rows, which were reserved by the sponsors for themselves, their clients, their families etc. So, even "Friends" were in the tenth or eleventh rows, at best, but there were quite a few fans in those rows. Incidentally, anyone could become a "Friend", as clearly stated on the website, and they were allowed in ahead of the rest. Those in the reserved row in front of us were reasonably quiet and some seemed to enjoy it as well, standing up quickly at the end to clap MK, who got a standing ovation.
[Back there tomorrow, mud permitting, for a presentation on the first monarch to be declared King of England, Athelstan, grandson of Alfred, sadly little-known by most English people and someone who has long intrigued me]
