Rock Regeneration

Aug21

Day 2 – Wonky Donk

on August 21st, 2021 at 09:35

Wonky Donk Festival, Pike Farm, Organford, Poole

20th-22nd August 2021

Saturday Morning started with rising local singer “Fleur Lindsay” showing off her wonderful vocal capabilities, before senior duo “Chimneyfish” charmed us all with their unique brand of Americana with Mark and Ray’s wonderful chemistry and stagecraft impressing all the early risers. Returning Wonky favourite Little Earl (Elliott Paterson) acoustically performs tracks from his excellent album Black Wave including “Brighten My Day” and a brilliant unexpected System Of A Down cover “Toxicity”, which was much slower. The set included two invited friends – Ashley & Frankie who compliment Elliott perfectly.

Little Earl

Mike West

Mike West puts in one hell of a shift over on the Razz Stage and lives up to Jill Masterman’s description of having a voice like gravel coated chocolate. Despite a couple of power cuts he continues on regardless with a thoroughly memorable set full of highlights, including the incredible “Mothman” and tracks from his latest album The Next Life.

Chimney Fish

Mark “Pork Chop” Nolan’s Rooster Tooth duo shows some intense song-writing, tackling many political and social matters along with some distinctive musical skills. ‘Old Baby Mackerel’ battle some power outages and make the most of the situation and leave the stage to perform amongst us in the audience. With not mics or amps the 5-piece band of foot-stomping Bluegrass busk their way through the fine set full of many highlights including 2Pay Me No Mind” along with various snatches of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”.

Rooster Tooth

The ever-popular Johnny Boxercars return as a two-piece and once again we are treated to a great set where guitarist John McCurry shows us his Blues skills on his six-string along with his super smooth vocal. There is even time for a surprise nicely reworked cover of the Barry White classic “My First My Last My Everything”.

Johnny Boxcars

Sixteen String Jack are a band I have always expected more from, frontman Andy is a supremely talented individual and I really love watching him play. However; the string of covers that they present do get the crowd up and moving, I just wish some of their energies were put into making their own original music and I know that this line-up could create something really special.

Sixteen String Jack 1

One of many pleasant surprises of the weekend was my discovery of Das Fenster & The Alibis, frontman Das has my attention from the start with his brash Northern Irish accent sounding just like Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers. The have some really unique influences including 40’s Film Noir, Weimar Republic Movies/Art, Marlon Brando, 50’s Surf and most notably Voodoo. The four-piece really impressed during a set that was refreshingly different with tracks like the creepy “Jeopardy” and the newer “This could be Heartburn”.

Das Fenster 1

Following were Mudlow a three-piece who I feel were just perfect to play here at this time of the evening. Their sublime Swamp Blues drifts through the cool night with an air of melancholy with some excellent string work, combined with perfectly match rhythms.

Mudlow

Now I’m not one to slope off early from a festival, but Mudlow were my last band of the weekend. I could make up a load of excuses about having various family commitments…however to be honest my sister (who I have not seen in 2 Years) joined me on the Friday night and we got involved in a drinking session, those of you who know me know that I am a complete drinking lightweight. The hangover finally got hold of me and all I needed were a few pills and some well-earned sleep to make it go away. My usual sidekick Tim Heywood come along on Sunday and told me I missed a fantastic day and he provided a bit of digital content for you to view below.

Wonky Donk is still one of my favourite local festivals and I look forward to returning once again next year to sample all of the wonderful things it has to offer.

Videos
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