EVERYONE who flocked to this year’s Uffculme Music & Real Ale Festival enjoyed a real party atmosphere.

Some 21 ales and 13 ciders were on offer, including quirky names such as Blonde Ambition, Proper Ansome, Real Smiler, Speakeasy, Pixie Juice and Bullwalloper. Champion Ale, voted by the paying public, was Beat Ales’ Funk, while Farmer Jim’s Rhubarb Bob was voted best cider.

Kicking off the music on Friday were Named and Shamed, an energetic three-piece who had the festival swinging from the start. They played covers across several decades, including some unique versions.

The Alex Hart Band followed, playing mainly original songs from her album and EP. Alex is a big favourite in Uffculme and proved to be a winning headline act with her quality band playing her own brand of West Country.

Culm Valley Music & Performance Club organised all the music from 3–7pm on Saturday, showing the sort of quality that’s open to all and being enjoyed by many every last Wednesday of each month at Uffculme’s village hall.

Dave Clegg was the first on the bill here and the many years of experience showed as he played instrumentals on his guitar. His quality shone through and it’s little wonder he’s an experienced guitar teacher in the area.

Foxwillow Trio were a real treat. They write all their own material, combining vocal harmonies with crisp rhythm guitar, melodic flute and clarinet, and ethereal Celtic harp. It sounded absolutely beautiful.

Marram Grass played an eclectic mix of their own tunes and songs and imaginative covers – blues, comic, acoustic dance, haunting ballads, Latin. “No genre is out of bounds,” say the band. “But we haven’t tried punk yet!”

Felt Bottom Blues Band are a soul and blues duo featuring vocals by Verity Greenaway and Phil Bowler on guitar. Phil is an accomplished guitarist and provides the perfect accompaniment to Verity’s distinctive and fabulous voice.

The quality five-piece folk-rock-country band Cross Border took to the stage and showed just why they’ve been appreciated at the burgeoning number of folk and acoustic music clubs in the West Country.

The Sundogs, first on the bill on Saturday evening, are an up-tempo, rockin’ rhythm and country roots trio who mix classic rock ‘n’ roll with rhythm and blues. They showed a relaxed, easy going and energetic style reminiscent of the skiffle bands of the 1950s and had people up and dancing.

Drop In The Ocean (DITO) take heavy influence from indie, reggae, ska and rock music. A very young band, who formed while at Uffculme School, their energetic set was well appreciated.

Rock The Night headlined on Saturday. They are a superb rock covers band paying tribute to a wide range of classics from across the decades. In Plamen Nikolov, who originates from Bulgaria, they possess an outstanding lead guitarist.

They played to a packed dance floor performing many popular classics, including Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird. This track would be a challenge for most bands but for RTN it seemingly flowed with consummate ease.

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