The 10th anniversary of Joe Strummers death was marked this weekend at the Strummer Of Love Festival held at Blackdown Hills, Somerset, not too far from where Joe had lived. With no Glastonbury this year the rain merely postponed the June soaking for the August 17th weekend of Strummer Of Love and has once again turned a UK festival into another mud bath with tiresome predictability.
The sun did show once the mudbath was complete and the stoical fans got Seasick Steve and Joe Strummers occasional band mates The Pogues headlining.
But here's the oddest thing. Rather than a hundred handheld videos of the festival acts that usually follow any of the summer gigs, YouTube reveals a series of completely half-assed 'audio reviews' of each artist after their show.
So what's happening here? Has someone got some sort of ownership over video rights which would be very un-Strummer like given it's considered the least commercial of any of the festivals. For example all profits from the festival go towards the ongoing support and development of The Joe Strummer Music Foundation.
Or is it simply the mud stuck fans have not arrived home yet and posted their experiences and the bands sets.
In the meantime here's Seasick Steve entertaining a Glastonbury 2010 crowd and yes he would have played this at Strummer Of Love.
