by Glen Screeton
A sell-out 300 revellers thoroughly enjoyed an excellent “Cheesefields” festival of music at The Cheshire Cheese Pub in Latchford for their inaugural event last Saturday.
Unlike the previous fortnight of unpredictable weather that sadly hampered a few festivals, the morning’s ominous looking clouds thankfully held off and brollies were discarded. From the gates opening at 2pm the day ran like clockwork and the blend of talented covers bands and original artists on the bill, coupled with changeover music by DJ Diddy of Lizard Records in Warrington kept the crowd entertained throughout.
Several music journalists and photographers were present and no doubt they will report on the performances in their own inimitable style, but in the early stages the author noted solid sets from local soloist Vicky Williams, who is very active on the Warrington music scene and hosts open mic nights at Austins Bar and Pashas Lounge in town. Another fine performance from soloist Paul Nixon, the soulful sound of Maya McConell and her band, Suede lookalikes ‘The Lunar Youth’, entertaining ‘What the Hell’s a Gigawatt’ with a mix of very well executed 80’s covers, tuneful original artists ‘Ben & The Believers’ who dished out EP’s in true Rock n Roll fashion, and local soloist Louis Collier with strong renditions of popular covers prior to the music break .
Unusually for a festival, comedian Adam Hughes appeared during the changeover and preyed on the unsuspecting audience with typical ‘Scouse’ banter but it was all received in good humour and he managed to escape with his life before Indie Rock Band ‘Muddy Elephant’ took to the stage delivering their own music with the polish and panache acquired since their inception in 2019. They are an extremely confident band who are clearly enjoying what they do, and they do it very well indeed – look out for a separate interview with the lads coming shortly in this column.
Next band up at 9pm was ‘Crayven’, a heavy rock covers band who delivered a loud, blistering set in total contrast to the other artists, and the festival dancers of the day- Mr Steampunk and his accomplice Pikachu were upping their game and had the girls dancing in a true festival atmosphere. There followed a quick break by the Manager of The Cheshire Cheese – Alex Wright , who graciously and sometimes emotionally thanked everybody who had contributed to this very successful event and closed with a nice touch by presenting his hard working Assistant Manager Gemma with a lovely bunch of flowers.
By 9.45 the daylight had faded, the superb fluorescent lights bounced around the stage in a myriad of colour and the smoke machine billowed out across the garden as local headliners ‘The Ambersons’ swaggered on with supreme confidence and, looking very relaxed launched into their own set of folky- rock numbers with a hint of The Levellers mixed with fun and on stage laughter, an excellent closing act who were very well received.
Sadly the author had to leave shortly before the end but did so to the sound of rapturous applause for ‘The Ambersons’ in the distance and a good feeling for the future of Live music in Latchford – be sure to follow The Cheshire Cheese on Facebook as their August programme is already published with the some promising new acts.
Final congratulations must go to all the hard working bar staff, local sponsors, builders, electricians, and of course the sound engineers, courtesy of Priestley College for keeping it crystal clear and running smoothly, live music would struggle without them!
