Louder Than The Music

We love it when great bands do special blogs for LTTM and that is exactly what Bosh have done. The band have been playing up and down the country this summer, including a performance at the brilliant Creation Fest. Read on for their amazing festival adventure:

Our adventure with Creation Fest began with a couple of performances at the Surf Cafe as part of last years festival in Woolacombe. We had a ball and were really chuffed when Phil, the boss-man of the festival, asked us to be part of the Creation Fest Roadshow around Devon and Cornwall this year. We started in lovely, picturesque Iflracombe on the North Devon coast.

If you aren't familiar with us (BOSH), we are a rock band that get really excitable when performing. Ilfracombe was memorable for two things for us, one was the perfect moment when doing our blissed out number 'Grow Dark', watching as the sun was setting over the ocean. Another was when I ran out into the audience with a cordless mic doing our big tune 'There Is' and ran up on a rock overlooking the town yelling 'Freedom!' over and over at the top of my lungs. After the set I was told the rock I was on was called 'Preachers Rock' and that many preachers had orated from that spot overlooking the seafront square to reach the people of the town. Ha! Fancy!

The next Roadshow was at the Tubestation Church in Polzeath. Oh, the wonder of a church where Cool, relevance to culture and authentic kingdom living slam together in harmony. We enjoyed hanging with all the surfers and skaters and Mike (drums) got quite good at skating the half-pipe, and then was later amusingly accosted by a well-meaning but very hands-on drunk. We had a troubled set, strings breaking, pedals failing, voice cracking. The crowd there were kind to us and we enjoyed seeing new friends like E-Tizz (who we met in Ilfracombe) and meeting Narrowpath for the first time. We settled in to the church hall for the night after cooking ourselves some burgers. I slept on some bean-bags, and surprisingly well; such is life 'on the road'.

The next day we awoke to blazing sun bathing Polzeath in gold. The roar of the surf was impressive. Later in the day we met Tom, a dude who broke his arm some years ago and has had jip from it since. Mike felt moved to pray for him, so we laid hands on and prayed for healing. Kris, one of the leaders of the church and singer in Narrowpath came and joined us and after we prayed for his back, Tom reported that his fingers had sensation again for the first time in years, as did his upper-arm. Where he visibly couldn't straighten his arm five minutes earlier, he now could! He was well excited and so were we!

The evenings event was held at Wadebridge town-hall. We had a marginally better performance, but the real emphasis was on the relationships we were forging with the guys from Narrowpath, the Scott Cunningham band and many of the volunteers from the US.

The roadshows were over. We went back home for a few days and then grinded down through thick Saturday traffic to the Royal Cornwall Showground in Wadebridge for the main festival. We were on on the mainstage and had to speed through soundcheck, but the engineers were really pro. The set was a great one. We absolutely nailed it. We started with 'Windscreen' and I thought it'd be fun to begin singing in the crowd to confuse and then connect with the audience. I am so desperate to connect these days. I can't stand just doing shows, going through the motions. It has to be fresh. I know I risk sounding pompous and vein, but that's where I'm at. Please forgive me if I come across this way!

We stayed in a very, very nice converted barn and had a lot of laughs. Our very good friend, Tom Whitman came up with us and stayed with us. He's wonderful, check out his music!

The next day we did a full on rock set in the Surf Cafe, hung out with the lovely chaps from [crave] and Narrowpath, and ate loads of food. Tony and Maxine Cummings from Cross Rhythms came down from Stoke and it was ace to catch up with them. The evening held the most wonderful pub action in a stunning location, a country church, an ancient inn, and amazing food in the company of my band-mates, Tom Whit, and Kris and Ness Lannen (you know, Narrowpath/Tubestation).

Monday was mainly grey and drizzly. We tried, mainly in vein, to find other artists to hang out with. We mainly amused ourselves and hung with the delightful young people who were attending or tending to the festival. The evening show on the mainstage blew us away. We were so chaotic due to rocking as hard as we could, but the audience went wild and we left the stage to them chanting 'We want BOSH! We want BOSH!'. We felt very blessed by that, and the hour long merchandise session that followed.

Creation Fest is an amazing festival, partly because of the people that run it. We want to thank Phil, Jane, and all the colourful American teens that steward the shin-dig. We have been mighty blessed by the experience and look forward to next year!

With thanks to BOSH.