Quinze Filk Festival (15th UK filkcon)
Feb 7-9, 2003
Holiday Inn, Ipswich, Essex
UK GoH: Simon Fairbourn
US GoH: Teri Wachowiak

This is likely to be a bit confused, as a wonderful whirlwind of a trip 
swirls around in my head. So, join me, if you would, on American Airlines 
flight AA 132, JFK to LHR on the 6th of February, 2003...

My flight to England was quiet.  The swag you get on American Airlines is 
nowhere near as good as you get on Virgin Atlantic (and the tea on VA is 
miles and miles better than AA's is), but there's ever so much more room 
in coach and I got a good 4 hours of sleep.  I was looking forward to 
getting to Heathrow, where I was due to meet Katy Droege, one of the 
German filkers whose flight from Hamburg was landing at the same time as 
mine from New York.  It was wonderful to see her again; it's been far too 
long since we last saw each other at OVFF. She found me somewhat 
frustrated, as my mobile phone, which was supposed to work in the UK, 
didn't.  We gave a call to Chris "Magician" O'Shea, who was picking us up 
at Heathrow and was going to drive us up to the con.  Good seeing him 
after a year, and I know he was glad to see me as I was carrying a guitar 
for him and he was lending me another one (the original plan was that I'd 
travel without a guitar to make my life easy and borrow one from him when 
I got there -- and then he had to go and buy a guitar from some guy in 
New York!).  After a few rounds on his mobile with T-Mobile to see if 
they could solve my problem (and for the record, T-Mobile's customer 
service in the UK was wonderful and their support person really did a 
sterling job at making sure that my phone was working as it was supposed 
to), Katy and I went into London to see the science museum and have lunch 
at a delightful Italian place she remembered from HarmUni a year and a 
half prior (of course, we didn't take a card, but we could get 
there...Circle or District lines to High Street Kensington, go left once 
you're on the street, walk about 5 minutes, and it's a little teeny place 
on the left with a sign that says "Café, Pizza, Pasta." The veggie 
lasagna is to die for! 

Back to the Picadilly Line and Chris, we found him waiting with the car 
packed up and ready to go. I'd hoped to sleep on the trip, but Chris 
handed me the maps and stuck me riding shotgun and asked me to naviguess 
for alternate routes in case of nasty tailbacks on the M25.  I know I 
drifted off at one point after we got onto the A12 but before Colchester, 
but mostly we were up, listening to music and chatting.  He has some very 
cool albums in the car, mostly stuff I didn't know at all.  I can't speak 
for my coherence level, since I probably wasn't.

We got to the con a bit after opening ceremonies.  Mich Sampson was 
already a few songs into her set, and I really wanted to hear her so I 
went there straightaway, before even bringing my bag up to the room or 
checking in (just as well, because I had copies of the Pegasus 
brainstorming poll and FilkOntario flyers to drop off at the registration 
desk).  I swear, she keeps getting better and better; it's no wonder that 
she'll be the Guest of Honor at GaFilk 2004..  One particular highlight 
of it was a piece she did with Kate Soley-Barton (who I last saw at 
Worldcon in San Jose) and Rike Koerte.  While standing by the door and 
listening, I got some wonderful greeting hugs from Brenda Sutton, Jessica 
Prett (nice to see her again!) and Anna and Emily Raftery.  

I admit that I missed the rest of the Friday night's program for talking
with people in the bar; it was wonderful seeing people again after all 
this time (and what is a con but a chance to see people), and some who 
I've only known online.  Shaya was there, along with her husband-to-be 
Pug (who is, by the by, a phenomenal pianist and a nice guy).  Seanan 
McGuire, Alan Thiesen, Terence Chua (my roomie for the con), Juliane 
Honisch (Katy's musical partner). A friend of Rika's named Anja (she's a 
dancer and, as it turns out, a fiddler and quite a nice singer as well) 
who was there to surprise Rika (Katy had told me she was going to be 
there during lunch, after making me promise not to tell Rika.  I mean, how 
was I going to do that?  TXT her secretly while Katy wasn't looking?).  
Rob Wynne, who is STILL one of the best huggers in fandom, and his 
sweetie Larissa March.  David Peek (all around nice guy!), Andy and 
Martin GK (sound techs for the con), Rika, Chris "Minstrel" Malme -- hey, 
we had the whole band there.  See, I had the conceit that since 3 filkers 
(Martin GK, Minstrel and Rika) were part of Orion Consulting Ltd, it 
would be great to get a band called "Orion's Belt" together with them for 
my set.  So I pulled together some MP3s of songs that I thought would 
work well with a band, and let them run with it.  

Friday night in the bar was our first and only practice.  I was using the 
guitar I'd borrowed from Magician for the weekend and it was basically 
the first time I'd played it.  Rika had her djembe because she thought it 
would sound good on one song (she was right), GK had his acoustic bass 
and Minstrel his 12-string and practice drumsticks (very cool; rubber 
tips so you can practice just about anywhere).  We found an empty table 
with 4 chairs around it and let fly, one song after the other.

And it worked there; we had people gathered around us listening, and I 
felt really good and confident about the set.  A circle grew up around
that practice session.  Anja pulled out a fiddle and started playing (and 
thinking that she wasn't good enough to play!  Somebody sit that girl 
down and 'splain it to her!).  Talis was there, and I got to remind her 
of the lyrics to Uffington Hill (which song I love).  I never did get out 
of the bar to the filkrooms, but we had a good circle going, best kind of 
circle, friends all 'round.  Rachel the Fiddler showed up at some point 
as well, but I don't recall when. I was just lost in the joy of it all.  
And long about two, I went off to bed.

Breakfast was included in the room price, which meant that getting up in 
the morning was a good idea (and it meant that I could go down and see 
people).  It's one of the nice parts of the UK con, because you'll end up 
having breakfast with whoever's down there at the time, and you have a 
nice leisurely sit-around-and-relax chat, with no real constraints on 
having to be somewhere at some specific time.  Well, other than to get to 
the rest of the con and to practice and to talk to people.

I managed, in the talking to people and running through things, to miss 
all the Saturday AM programming, which is a shame.  I caught about half 
of FanTom's set, which was right before mine in the main room.  He'd some 
trouble with his guitar tuning (something many of us had in that room!), 
but I liked what I heard of it -- I'm looking forward to hearing more 
from him in the future.

My set was Saturday afternoon at 12:20, just after the double-streaming 
had ended. It started out with just me and the guitar I'd borrowed from 
Magician.  On the whole, it went well, decent sounds and lots of fun in 
the first half, with people singing along, with only one bad song in the 
bunch. But the second half was when I asked up GK, Minstrel and Rika and 
let people in on why it was "Orion's Belt" that I was playing with.  It 
was our only second time playing together, and the first time playing 
together with full kit.

OK, there were a few flubs, some duff chords, missed beats and the odd 
offnote, but damn, it was fun!  We were together, as a band, and it 
clicked.  In two of the four pieces ("The River" and The "Wild Hunt"), it 
clicked *well* (having now seen the video and listened to my recordings, 
not just relying on my memory for this).

My solo set list was "Demonstorm," "Just a Boy Named Harry," "A SMOF Too 
Blue" and "Closer to Fan."  Then, as Orion's Belt, we did "Neverwhere," 
"The River," "Deceiver/The Wild Hunt."  3 of those songs showed up on the 
Sams ballot at the con ("A SMOF Too Blue," "The River," "The Wild Hunt"), 
so I know that they worked.  (I'm less happy about "Closer to Fan," 
because I always, ALWAYS speed up playing that.)  And people were singing 
along, with at least one tin-whistle from the audience.  I just love when 
that happens, when people get into the music and join in.

And I want to publicly and repeatedly thank my fellow band-mates, GK, 
Minstrel and Rika.  Each of them did a sparkling job and I hope it's not 
too long before we get to to do it again.  (Rika, GK and I will be at 
Concertino -- we just need to get Minstrel there now!)

One-shots followed lunchtime and more talking with people.  I tend to 
like long sets of one-shots or twofers, you get to hear a variety of 
people and songs and styles.  Some were realy standouts; Talis's "Paper 
Worlds" and Annie Walkier's "Seeing Red" were stunning, especially the 
latter.  It's a Buffy the Vampire Slayer song, and it had me crying -- and 
I don't even watch the show.  (Thankfully, Wolf von Witting made us laugh 
with a singalong number right after that!).  Terence did a Columbia 
tribute song, and Pug and Shaya did a lovely duet together, with harmony 
and piano and harp.  I'd certainly like to hear more of them singing 
together.

The two GoH slots were fabulous.  First was UK GoH Simon Fairbourn.  His 
slot was...well...Simon.  He's got a range of serious and silly that is, 
at times, bizarre.  Two serious standouts were his renditions of Mich’s 
"The Hunter" and a Dan Bennett's "Every 12 Seconds."  In the silly 
category, the two best (in my opinion, were "I'm Tone Deaf" (with Mich 
Sampson) where he changed key at the end of every verse (with attendant 
furious looks from Mich).  However, his absolute BEST song was a boyband 
setup for "Getalife" (with the help of Paul Bristow, Tim Walker and 
Franklin Gunkelman, all four of them lipsynching) doing "Meaningful Look 
to the Camera."  (Franklin managed to strip off his sock and throw it to 
the screaming female audience, where it was caught by Annie Walker).

US Guest Teri Wachowiak, someone I'd not known of before, was dressed in 
leather trousers and a headband (she said it was to honour Leslie Fish, 
who got her started in filk) -- I decided NOT to say  that it was her 
"Fish shtick."  Teri's quite good, with lots of Tolkien and Pern 
material.  I can't believe that I've not heard of her before this; my 
filk family down in Atlanta has some serious explaining to do as to why 
they kept her from me! Yes, Rob, this means YOU!).  Rika was quite taken 
with Teri's material; she kept saying, "Want to learn that one..yep, that 
one too...oooh..and that one!"  I can't say I blame her in that, since I 
wanted to learn about half of them myself.

The UK Filk Fund auction took place afterwards in the alternate room. I 
was at this con on a shoestring, so I didn't bid on anything (the one 
thing I'd have bid on was a CD set of Teri's lyrics and learning MP3s; 
but that went to Rika). My donation (a CD recorded mostly in my basement, 
with an accompanying songbook), was apparently the second-highest item in 
the auction at £42 (!) to Janet Maughan.  And then dinnerbreak (since I 
had a sandwich during the auction, it was a good time to hang out and do 
not much but talk with people and hug people).

Cosmic Trifle (aka "The Band Formerly Knows as the Band Formerly Known as 
Just Plain Folk") did a fine set indeed.  The quartet of Zander Nyrond, 
Valerie Housden, Rachel the Fiddler and Magician) work well together; 
their rendition of Zander & Magician's "Arden" is especially memorable 
(must learn to do a decent version of that).  The four of them work well 
together (and I do believe that Magician was playing the guitar that I'd 
lugged with me from New York).

Chris Conway did a packed set in the alternate room as they were setting 
up for Phoenix.  When I say packed, I mean "bloody jammed, no standing 
room, people piled up on the floor and under seats."  Christo was, as 
always, delightfully entertaining, and singing along with "Alien Salad 
Abduction" was fun.  (I still can't do the last verse as fast as he 
does!)

The Phoenix set on Saturday night kicked ass (no surprise there, but I 
should say it properly!).  They started out with Julia Ecklar's The 
Phoenix, an appropriate song given the recent tradgedy of Shuttle 
Columbia, and started the whole room singing with them. People normally 
dress up for Phoenix gigs, and this time, the bar was raised by Phoenix 
offering prizes for the best rock-chick and rock-guy.  I'd not made any 
specific plans to dress up, just to enjoy the gig.  But just before 
Christo's set on Saturday afternoon, Seanan draped a gold lamé scarf 
around my neck. Bill Sutton looked at me and said, "You need black 
jeans." And, it turns out, he and I wear similar sized jeans.  So, black 
jeans, Powerpuff Goths tee shirt, gold scarf.  Except...it was hot.  
Really hot.  And Anja suggested I just take off the shirt.  3 minutes 
singing along was enough to know this was a good idea, so I did.  And 
yes, there are pictures of me looking incredibly camp in jeans and scarf, 
dancing up a storm.  It was WONDERFUL.  Best rock-chick was taken jointly 
by Rika, Jessica and Wee Talis, best rock-guy was Albert, looking 
resplendently gothy in the back of the room -- he didn't HAVE to dance.

After a cool down and shower (which I DESPERATELY needed), the open filk 
began.  Rather than going to circle, I hung out in the bar, where I had 
another of my high points for the con.  Rika, Seanan and Shaya sat around 
me as I played stuff and did impromptu harmonies.  Later on, the circle 
grew around us.  Jette Goldie and Omega joined us, Terence joined us,
Shaya started playing her harp (bounce bounce bounce), Katy and Yooh 
sang, Kathy Mar sang, Bill Sutton played along with Magician, Anja was 
there but I don't recall if she sang or not -- there certainly wasn't 
room to dance in the bar!

Sunday's first set (after another delightful breakfast) was Teri, again, 
this time dressed up as herself. She was just as good the second time 
'round (she insisted that she wan't, but she wasn't out there, listening 
with us).  Following Teri was the n'Early Music Consort, being amusing 
and musical (as usual).  I'd say the two top songs for me in the nMC set 
were "Halfway There" and "How Can I Keep From Filking?"

After nMC, more one-shots.  THE highlight of the Sunday one-shots for me 
was Katy & Yooh singing "Sweet Poison" with dance by Anja -- and I got to 
be poisoned :). Other highlights were Brian Biddle's "EOA II," Seanan and 
Rika singing Batya Wittenberg;s "Mornington Crescent," Franklin's "A 
Thousand Chips" (thank you so much for writing that, Franklin, because it 
means that I didn't have to), Rob Wynne's "Hold You Closer" and a 
stunning song that Brenda Sutton wrote at the con, with whistling by 
Christo and drums by Tim Walker.

The final set of the con was Rika's.  She was still tweaking it on Sunday 
at lunchtime, and she was doing one song with me, so I got a bit of a 
preview of what she was doing with me ("Windwalker"), Seanan ("Lorien"), 
Anja (don't ask me what the titles were, they're in German -- one's "Die 
Welle").  It was quite thoroughly enjoyable, and I'm really looking 
forward to her Interfilk spot at Concertino in July!  She's got a nice 
range of material, a good strong presentation style and a lovely voice.

The Sams Awards were presented after Rika's set.  There are 4 awards.  
Best Serious Song, Best Silly Song, Best At-Con and Filk Gold.  3 of my 
songs were in the running, but I didn't, I'm afraid, vote for them, 
instead voting for the ones I wanted to see win.  And, the winners of the 
Sams in 2003 were: 

Best Serious - The Hunter by Mich Sampson
Best Silly - I'm Tone Deaf by Simon Fairbourn
Filk Gold - Arden by Zander Nyrond/Chris "The Magician" O'Shea
At Con - Meaningful Look at the Camera - lyrics by Talis Kimberley, music 
by Simon Fairbourn

These songs, plus Brian Biddle's "EOA II" (the winner of the Filklore 
Award for the most memorable lyric posted to the FILK_UK mailing list) 
were performed, and we went on to closing ceremonies, at which the concom 
thanked all the people who helped out.  And then, en masse, 2 dozen of us 
walked off through the rain to Pizza Hut.  It wasn't much different than 
a Pizza Hut here in the US would be (for all that I rarely GO to Pizza 
Hut here).  I snagged a table with Pug, Shaya, Franklin, Joe Raftery, 
Rob, Larissa, Jessica and I think Minstrel down at the OTHER end of the 
table.  At some point after that, while we were being served more people 
walked in (the Whitakers, the GKs...I forget who else was up over at that 
table).

After a cool and rainy walk back to the hotel, it was time to relax just 
a little, and then set up for an evening's circle. Yes, the con was 
officially over, but it was the first time I'd actually been in a 
filkroom to circle.  Shaya played harp for me singing "Destiny's Shore" 
and also led the room in a Breton dance while Pug played (they're really 
very good; I hope we can entice the two of them to a US con some day).  
Talis did some great stuff, there were lots of fun German things from 
Alexa and  Christine (not songs I can recognize, although I knew ALMOST 
enough German to understand the one song that Emily sang in German).  I 
got to play along while Mich did one of my favourite songs of hers that I 
don't know the title to).  Minstrel played Concrete Blonde's 
"Bloodletting" while Talis and I joined in on the chorus.  Rika, Katy and 
Yooh did an utterly hysterical song about never kissing a frog (they're 
disgusting). Anja danced another dance in the circle (yay!) as well.

Monday morning was breakfast and starting the long and painful process of 
saying goodbye to the people who were still there (most of us.  Magician 
had to cut out the night before, as did Anja and Christo).  The Whitakers 
had left the night before, too, but there were people a-plenty to still 
hug and hold onto.  David took the train with Katy off the Heathrow, so 
Rika, Rob, Larissa and I piled into the car with all the luggage (other 
than Rika's djembe, which went home with Rick Hewitt) and we began the 
drive off to too-few days in Gravesend at David and Rika's place.

There were a few complaints about the con; mainly involving the air 
system in the main function room.  The room was too hot, WAY too hot.  
During those times when it was full (which was a good chunk of the time), 
it was hard to breath, and during the Phoenix set, when we were dancing 
around, it was just brutal; I was sweating about as much as I do when 
running.  I've heard that some people complained about the sound setup (I 
didn't hear any such complaints directly, although I did see Andy's face 
during closing ceremonies -- mad enough to spit nails), but I can't 
figure that one at all.  Things sounded good to me, both as a performer 
and as a listener.  Sure, it wasn't a concert hall; hotel function space 
isn't designed to be.  It's there for a presentation or a dinner or a 
disco, not for people to get up and sing.

So, good con, quite enjoyable, and WELL worth the trip from New York to 
get to.  I'm looking forward to going back next year to Sixteen Tones.


Useful links:

General UK Filk Info:  http://www.filk.co.uk/
FilkNet (#filkhaven and FILK_UK):  http://www.filknet.org/
Pegasus Awards: http://www.ovff.org/pegasus.html
Interfilk:  http://www.interfilk.org/
Concertino:  http://www.concertino.net/
FilkOntario:  http://www.filkontario.ca/
GaFilk:  http://www.gafilk.org/