The Lion Inn is already part of Mostly Autumn folklore, with numerous shows played at the venue, and Mostly Autumn fans visiting for the first time will quickly recognise the fireplace which adorns the front cover of the bands second album The Spirit of Autumn Past.
Set high on the North Yorkshire Moors in an area of outstanding natural beauty the historic Lion Inn is seemingly made for Mostly Autumn. With the bands affinity for nature and landscapes such as this, it is easy to see why the band love going to the place. The Lion Inn serves an excellent choice of fine ales and an outstanding selection of meals, as well as providing a stunning venue for bands to play, so it's easy to see why the rest of us are prepared to make the difficult journey up to the Moors and The Lion Inn.
As my third trip to The Lion arrives, for the 18th December show, I decided to find out a little more about The Lion Inn and particularly the relationship that Mostly Autumn have with it.
Paul Crossland manages the Lion Inn with his brother and he is also responsible for the concerts that happen there, including the open-air festivals of the last 2 years. Paul seemed the logical person to ask about all things to do with The Lion Inn.
What can you tell us about the history of The Lion Inn?
The oldest records we are aware of date The Lion Inn back to 1553, but I am sure it's even older. The place is surrounded by Bronze Age burial mounds and like Stonehenge, it's built at the crossing of leylines. The building was originally used by monks as a resting place on their journey carrying coffins across the moors to Whitby Abbey on the coast.
That route is now known as the Lyke Wake Walk and hikers who complete the walk are awarded with a coffin shaped badge. I understand that the name "Blakey" means "the way of the dead" in early Saxon language, but I don't use this in my advertising! There have been numerous sightings of a monk-like ghost and I've been told by many "spiritual" type visitors that the psychic energy hits you as soon as you walk in the place.
Over the years the Lion was used as a farm and a coaching inn, but probably had its greatest prosperity in the late1800's when the valleys on either side of Blakey Ridge were booming with Iron ore mining. The inn now has a thriving tourist trade, busy restaurants and hotel accommodation.
What is the history of live music at the Lion Inn?
In the early 1970's the inn was owned by a jazz enthusiast called Brian Jones. The Lion became legendary for late night drinking and curry sessions, and touring bands playing around Middlesbrough and Newcastle would often travel there for after-show parties. In 1972 a cutting edge jazz/blues trio called Back Door took up a residency at the pub and their weekly gigs attracted a huge following from all over the North. The band released an album on the 'Blakey Records' label which had NME and Melody Maker journalists fighting over who could review it first, it ended up being NME's "album of the year". The pub gained cult status among Soho's Wardour Street session musicians and artists from allover became regular visitors:-Sandie Shaw, Neil Sedaka, Helen Shapiro, Slade, David Coverdale, and Chris Rea. Even the Dad's Army stage show turned up one Sunday Afternoon for an impromptu performance, with Clive Dunn sat in the corner busily sketching the scene.
There's a great story about Sting being so keen to play at The Lion that he tried to get a part-time job in the kitchens. He eventually got a gig and amazed everyone; he ended up making weekly trips from Newcastle to play with his band "Last Exit" whose music and name were heavily influenced by Back Door. I'm currently organizing a re-union Blakey gig for Back Door, but Sting seems to be ignoring all my invitations!
What is your History
at the Lion Inn?
My parents bought the pub in 1980
when I was 11. Quite a culture shock for me and my younger brother
when we moved from a cosy suburb of Leeds to a pub 1,325 feet
above sea level and 10 miles from the nearest town! The only reason
we agreed to move was because my dad promised to build us our
own skateboard park in the huge field that came with the pub. That
never happened, but we soon found lots of outdoor type hobbies
and the locals took an interest and helped wherever they could. Dave,
my brother, was a professional standard footballer and I became
a mad motorcyclist, competing in national trials and motocross
events. I would help out in the pub and my wages were used
to support my racing expenses. After leaving school I worked
in banking for 13 years, but became disillusioned with the corporate
rat-race and returned to Blakey Ridge in 1999 to run the pub with
my brother.
What is your role regarding
the music that happens at The Lion Inn?
When we first moved the pub someone
on the staff was related to Status Quo's tour manager, he later
left us to become a roadie with Quo. We kept in touch as
he progressed to a guitar tech with different bands including
Slade, Scorpions, Meatloaf and eventually Marillion. He used
to get me back stage passes for gigs and I fell in love with the
live music scene.
My first big experience of live music at Blakey was when Chris Rea contacted our chef who organized a few small gigs at the time. He wanted to do a rehearsal gig with his new backing band prior to a UK tour. We had a band booked for the next gig, but they agreed to let Chris have their slot as they were actually supporting him on the upcoming tour. We were all sworn to secrecy, but word got out and the phone soon started ringing... It was absolute mayhem, I've never seen so much gear in a small venue and there were people climbing up the walls to get a look in. I was only about 12 at the time and didn't realise how famous he was, but it's quite a memory.
Following a series of motocross injuries in 1999 I had to retire from racing and plough my spare time and energy into something else. I decided try live music promotion and put on my first gig in December '99. In those early days I enlisted the help of a local musician, Pete Bell, who had arranged Blakey jam sessions a few years earlier. Pete taught me a great deal about promotion and organization, but the most important thing we did was treat the bands well. We "fed and watered" the bands and always made sure they were well looked after. This was something that came naturally to me, because of the level of hospitality The Lion Inn had always provided, but quite often bands would be amazed at how well they were treated. Over the last few years the venue has rebuilt its legendary reputation and we are regularly congratulated on the friendliness of the place. We have always tried to keep the ticket prices to a minimum, but still pay the bands well. I don't mind admitting that 90% of my gigs are run at a loss, but the way I look at it is I don't get the time to go out to gigs, so I bring the bands to me, if other people want to come and join us, then that's a bonus. I never bother about the financial shortfall of a poorly attended gig; I'm just gutted for the people who have missed a fantastic night. I think when you try and promote gigs with a business head on, the passion gets lost somewhere down the line.
How did Mostly Autumn's relationship with The Lion Inn come about?
The first time I heard Mostly Autumn was when I attended a small pub gig in nearby Rosedale, just before the release of "Spirit of Autumn Past". They only played half a song and then the power blew, I never even saw the band, just heard them from the next room, but in that short introduction I knew they were something special. The atmosphere their music created gave me goose bumps and I decided to look out for them returning to the area. A few months later Bryan and Heather called at The Lion and handed me a copy of their new CD featuring the photo of our piano room on the cover, which was a total surprise, I got chatting to them and was amazed at Bryan's long connection with the pub, he knew more about the place than I did and we became good friends. He told me how his dad had recommended that he and Liam visit us as teenagers, and how they would come up on camping trips to party on the Moors.
Mostly Autumn were booked to play at the second gig I organized and when they turned up with the massive PA and light show I had flashbacks to the Chris Rea encounter! That gig was over whelming, and the first I'd seen them do a full gig. I've got a photo somewhere of me sitting cross-legged on the floor in the front row of the audience surrounded by a large stack of Budweiser and a massive smile on my face beats working in a bank any day!
I remember we took Mostly Autumn to our annual staff party the following month as a replacement for the usual disco. We hired a large room at a hotel and had a fantastic private gig, although the power blew 3 times and the fire alarm kept going off!
I've shared some great experiences with the band including their first trip down to London's Mean Fiddler where they had a support slot with "Jadis". Bryan drove us all down in a Tranny van, stacked to the roof with instruments and gear, the journey took forever. We were stuck in traffic caused by a rail crash and got lost several times. I'll never forget the girls hurriedly changing into their stage gear and applying their make-up in the dark while Bryan was screeching round roundabouts and making a never ending series of u-turns. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. When we finally made it we were too late to set up the full band so Bryan, Heather, Angie and Iain had to do a stripped-down show. We couldn't park the van so Andy spent the night driving it around London. It seems a distant memory now, when you see them travelling in the big tour bus, but I'm very relieved that BJ doesn't drive it!
During the gig Bryan made the set list up as they went along and included several songs they'd never played live, let alone as a four-piece. The band were pretty devastated that they hadn't been able to do their full show, especially when people came up to them afterwards, saying how far they'd travelled to see them. But in my eyes, that was the night Mostly Autumn came of age. Most other bands would have thrown the towel in and not even turned up at the venue, they showed great character and spirit at that gig, they earned a lot of respect.
Whenever Mostly Autumn play Blakey something special seems to happen, the dates always seem to clash with full moons, lunar eclipses, meteor showers or the "Northern Lights". At one Christmas gig Bryan felt an overpowering presence of his late dad watching him whilst playing "Heroes" and during the guitar solo his plectrum totally disintegrated into dust something that had never happened before.
When we arrange a gig, Bryan and I don't think about how many tickets we can sell, but rather what the heavens will throw to us, we've just planned a snow storm to start during "The Night Sky" for this year's Christmas gig! I'm always concerned about the weather for the outdoor gigs, as we're pretty exposed up here, but Bryan will say "don't worry, I've got the weather sorted" and, you know, you just can't help but believe him!
How did the idea to play an open air festival develop?
When Mostly Autumn played their first Blakey gig, I remember Bryan and Dave Nutbrown (the sound engineer) loading the gear in through the beer garden and saying "Wow, this would be a great setting for an outdoor gig". Apparently it had always been Bryan's dream to play on Blakey Ridge, with the sound of his guitar drifting over the Moors on a clear night you can see for over 80 miles. We got talking about it seriously whilst drinking champagne at the end of their launch gig for "The Last Bright Light" album in November 2000. We thought about Midsummer's Night 2001 and that conveniently fell on a Thursday, which is the night I do the gigs. We started with a smallish event in the beer garden with MA and 2 other bands. We sold about 300 tickets with another 200+ climbing over the wall! The atmosphere was mind-blowing, the final set finished around 2am with the first ever live performance of "Mother Nature".
In 2002 I decided to increase the scale of the festival and moved it to our large car park. I hired a huge curtain-sided lorry trailer in for the stage and made sure we had a big PA and great light show. Again I just stuck to a 3 band line-up, but the response from the crowd was very positive.
Is it hoped that, after 2 successful years, the Blakey music festival will become an annual event?
The Blakey Festival is definitely now an annual event until I stop enjoying it that is. I learn such a lot from staging these events that they'll continue to get better each time. Hopefully Mostly Autumn will continue to be involved, but I'm a realist. They're signed to a big label now and they decide where the band plays. Blakey is hardly Donington or Glastonbury, but I hope the spiritual connection the band have with the place ensures the involvement continues. Another great thing is that the whole band share my excitement about the event. I remember last year about 2am on the night before the festival, Bryan and I couldn't resist getting up on the stage with our "air guitars", looking into the starry night and pretending we were at tomorrow's gig. We were like little kids on Christmas Eve what a fantastic memory.
What plans do you have
for the 3rd festival
and can you tell us about your hopes for future festivals?
Well I'm looking at having a lot
more bands and probably starting around 2pm. I'm thinking
about alternating between full bands and acoustic acts, to help
with the setting up of the stage for each band and also give a
nice variety for the audience's ears. I haven't got a line-up
sorted yet, there will certainly be a good mixture of styles,
not just rock. I'm using my indoor gig programme as a way of sub-consciously
auditioning bands for the festival, but I haven't found one that
wouldn't go down well yet, so I'm going to have to get a bit more
ruthless - or make it a 2-day festival!
As usual the festival will probably take place on a Thursday. A lot of people tell me how I'd get more people on a weekend, but I would rather have 500 enthusiastic people who are prepared to take a couple of days off work and attend for the right reasons, than 1,000 people turning up for a drinking session. I also can't afford to disrupt our busy weekend restaurant and hotel trade, the income from which obviously subsidizes our music events - it's a fine balance to please everyone.
The festival is provisionally planned for 24th July 2003, a little later in the year than Midsummer Night, but my wife is expecting our second child on that date - looks like we messed up the family planning a bit there, I knew I should have read those instruction manuals a bit more!
Is the festival work to you or a labour of love?
Well, last year I spent 6 months planning the festival, it took us 3 days to set up and 2 days to clear up afterwards, with very little sleep in between. Apparently I'd collapsed around 5:30am after the gig, only to get woken up at 6:30am to start preparing for 200 campers wanting to watch the England v Brazil World Cup match. I can remember rushing around later that afternoon, taking down the fencing when I got a shout from the bar staff "Trading Standards are here for a surprise inspection!", God only knows what the inspectors thought of me, it was like a scene from Fawlty Towers! I hadn't washed or changed for 2 days and nearly fell asleep while they were talking to me, but thankfully there were no problems.
To answer your question I have never worked so hard in my life, but I would have done it all again the following week without a second thought. The feedback I got from people on the night and all the messages that followed made me feel like I was the one doing the business up on stage I was very flattered and got a real buzz hearing how much people had enjoyed the event.
I'm pretty sure the festival will go from
strength to strength, it will take on a life of it's own and grow
beyond any single person or band. But the actual size of the event
isn't important to me, I don't ever want things to get so big
that I need to hire in people who I don't know and have the festival
lose the personal touch.
PREVIOUS PAGE REVIEWS INDEX NEXT PAGE
