The Trip Out, Euston Park, Suffolk, England
A Trip Out of the Ordinary
Anna and Andy, if you don’t know them, have the uncanny talent to attract great people, great bikes and great bands into a remote corner of the world. Hidden amid the green rolling parkland of East Anglia, every year they achieve the impossible and put up a three day feast of gentle folk, old style choppers (their mellow explosions directed skyward through crazy upsweep pipes) and oddball music to while the nights away. So, as every year for the past 14 or so years, the Old Shovel got rolling in the early dawn for a very long day on Europe’s and the UK’s motorways, to wind up at, you guessed it: The Trip Out!
The bikes: the usual well ridden assortment
of country choppers, some recklessly cobbled together, some hand curated till the cows came home, all emanating that sweet english chop vibe with a dose of respect for the Milwaukee heritage thrown in. Marvellous. All of them. Well, most of them :)
The people: some long distance riders from the far ends of the Continent, some dudes from just around the corner, prepared for the worst of weather (but getting a nice set of Italian style climes this time around). Great camping, loads of space. Showers breaking down, so what? The beer was always flowing, so no worries :)
The bands: Anna’s talent for digging up nuggets
of great bands showed with this one: "The Halophones", an up and coming Helsinki based band doing nicely distorted garage rock to please your ears until they bleed :) Or what about "The Caezars": Anna wasn’t far off when she picked them, after all, TimeOut magazine had written: "Vintage styled Rock'n'Roll that Tarantino would be proud of" :)
She hit the sweet spot with "Daddy Long Legs" from NYC: "All the way from New York City’s sewers!" (their words, not mine!). Rolling Stone wrote about them: ”…like Chicago blues fired at the moon, played by the demented children of the Pretty Things.”
The Old Shovel liked "The Bonnevilles" from Northern Ireland best though: a no-frills duo, playing easy, simple melodies with a rough-hewn punk-blues sound.
So, great weekend, great Anna, great Andy! Keep shovelling for gold! See you next year then!