Rocking the Moor with Guest Editor, Doody Blake (and the lovely Carol Kirkwood)
You may recall that we needed someone to cover Rock The Moor - it is after all the biggest thing to happen in Cookham every year and I am too tight and too miserable to go. Fortunate then that I found a volunteer in the very
glamourous shape of Doody Blake – the only
woman I know who can manage to rock a blue wig, an orange kagool, and a pair of wellies and still look fabulous. So please give a
warm welcome to Cookham Matters very first “Guest
Editor” and her experience of this
year’s Rock The Moor. Let us know how it compares to your own!
Being born in the 60’s I
feel very fortunate having an 80’s 'Rock the Moor' concert on my
doorstep. Great memorable 80’s bands playing locally on
stage, bringing back sentimental memories of my youth.
This was the ninth ‘Rock
the Moor’ in Cookham and attending each year has become a family
affair with my brother, my sister, the kids and friends from around the area
and sometimes from afar. The tradition of dressing up is
still ongoing and this year the blue and pink wigs came out. My
sister-in-law managed to find some great red tartan trousers, which would have
been an easy find in Carnaby Street back in the 80’s. Once we were dressed up
in our 80’s gear along with wellies, waterproofs and a brolly we
were ready to go. Due to rain showers, we didn’t
arrive until the afternoon and bobbed in through security to ‘The
Beat’. Fortunately,
the field hadn’t turned into a mud bath and we didn’t sink
without trace. The rumour flying around was
that ‘A Flock
of Seagulls’ were a no show due to missing their plane, being 'a flock
of seagulls’, it was sad to hear they couldn’t fly! Nevertheless,
the show carried on with Matt Bianco, Howard Jones (I had found the original
singles in the garage the day before), Kid Creole & The Coconuts and Sister
Sledge, to name but a few. Due to spotting some very dark
clouds ahead we felt it was timely to head over to the bumper cars, where
bumping into my brother and sister and the kids at full throttle felt really
good! Sustenance
was provided via a chippy that was selling chips with various sauces and the
usual lager and wine on offer, not forgetting to take our bottle of wine back
so we could reclaim our £5 back. There were some unforgettable outfits on show, great hairstyles, fabulous colours and when we finally came to watch the last act (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark), as we have every year before, we ended up with everyone at the front of the stage singing and dancing together as the sun went down. I recall bumping into Carol Kirkwood the BBC weather presenter at the end and asking her if there was any chance of a prediction for the weather next year, sadly not, but who cares, raining or shining Rock the Moor never disappoints.
Rock The Moor returns on the 19th May 2018 and you can register here for information as it becomes available. Special thanks to Doody for staying sober enough to be able to remember what happened and share it with us!
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