Phil Cool to Compere at The Pump
The Comedian, Phil Cool will be one of the comperes at this years Trowbridge Village Pump Festival.
Alan Briars leaves us The Pump
Many of you may have already heard the sad news that Alan Briars died before Christmas following 2 1/2 years of cancer. He was Alan right to the end, performing a gig the week before. He was actually receiving a transfusion to help him gig the evening he died; as Reg Meuross said 'how rock and roll is that'. At a standing room only funeral his recording of Tom Wait's 'picture in a frame' was played - he knew how to work an audience. A New Orleans funeral jazz band brought Bradford on Avon to a standstill that day.
Alan will be remembered by many for his performances in a number of bands including Mechanical Horsetrough, the Laundry Yard Scrub Band, Stone Gallows and Tinkers Cuss. Outside the music scene he was a keen bowler, believe it or not, playing at county level and reaching the national finals one year. He was also mad about horseracing.
But most of us would agree that his greatest legacy is Trowbridge Village Pump Festival. He was one of a handfull of hopefuls who started it off 35 years ago, powered by one 13 amp plug socket. Dave Newman and he quickly became its co-organisers, moving away from traditional committees that still try to run some festivals. Alan took the artistic side of the festival from strength to strength with his own unique view of quality roots music - those who dared ask him if Trowbridge was a folk festival were in for a lengthy discussion. Alan was presented with an award in November by the Association of Festival Organisers for outstanding contribution to the festival scene - he received it also on behalf of Dave. As a duo they were always respected by other festivals, not just for the quality of Trowbridge but also for the helping hand they gave to many others in the business over the years.
After Dave's death we reformed as a limited company co-owned by a team of crew managers with Alan as festival director. Some of the team are original co-founders of the festival, others have joined over the years.
Meet the team on the About the Festival page.
But Trowbridge is not us and never was; Trowbridge is the loyal and growing base of over 8000 festival goers who now come over the 4 days in July each year and the artists, traders, support agencies, sponsors, the Bryant family and volunteers who make up our annual community at Stowford. With the help of all these people we've managed to make Trowbridge one of the safest, most family friendly, fun festivals in the country.
So what does the future hold for our festival? Well, we welcome your views and ideas and read every festival website feedback form that comes in. Alan was adamant that the festival lives on, irrespective of any one individual. He took a number of people under his wing over the last two years to pass on his legacy in the best way he could. Making Show of Hands' members Phil Beer and Steve Knightley patrons of the festival was to epitomise what Trowbridge stood for, and allow them to continue encouraging and promoting new talent each year.
We all promise to try our hardest to make the festival better each year for every one of you. Let's make 2008 one to be proud of - for Alan.
Christine Briars
