Mother Town becomes Woodstoke for the day

A SPRINKLING of live music in the park struck the right note with hundreds of revellers at the weekend.

Nine home-grown bands and eight acoustic acts gave Burslem Park a Glastonbury makeover for the day as the Mother Town took another step towards becoming the Potteries music capital.

Saturday's festival – which had two stages, clowns and other attractions – was organised to launch Stoke Sounds, a website to promote local talent across the world.

But it was such a hit, organisers are already looking to make it a permanent date on the city's music calendar.

It follows a growing number of gigs which have been drawing crowds into Burslem pubs all summer – and even the production of a CD of Port Vale supporting artists due to be released free with club's Beano fanzine next week.

According to co-organiser Simon Bamford, there is currently an explosion of young bands in the city looking for a break to show off their work.

He said: “We hope the festival will help do that and last month there was also a successful line-up at the Leopard Hotel in the town which we hope to repeat at Christmas.

“We want to give these bands the opportunity to showcase their songs.”

Fellow organiser Melodie Forrester added: “It's been relentless quality from 1pm to 8pm and we definitely want to repeat it next year.”

To add to the festival fever, the highlights were even filmed by Burslem-based video production company 15 in the style of the famous coverage of Woodstock. The final footage will go under the name, Woodstoke.

Relaxing on the grass, crowd members also gave the day a big thumbs-up.

Angela Falkner, aged 47, of Gillow Heath said: “The music has been brilliant and they should really put more stuff on like this in Burslem. There's so much talent waiting to get out.”

Andy Smith, aged 28, of Burslem said: “This is a great way to put the spotlight on Burslem.”

And Michael Harrison, aged 52, of Burslem, added: “It's the loudest outdoor music in Burslem since Motorhead played at Vale Park more than 20 years ago.”

Bands including The Control, Morning Sparks, Here's To The Atom Bomb, The Title, The Fears, The Riot, Nemo, Audiomill, and The Seconds were the line-up.

And the acoustic stage was graced by M S Thomasson, Ant Mayer, Giro Junkie, William Feech, Donny Wrench, from The Lines, and Yoz, with The Trent Vale Poet introducing the acts.