Mumbles Musical Mile scores a hit

Festival fever hits Mumbles, as the village echoes to the sound of live music. This article by Dai Blatchford is published with kind permission from Swansea Life Magazine.

The hottest April on record provided the backdrop as the weather gods smiled on the first ever Mumbles Musical Mile over one of the recent four-day weekends. It may have been the one with a wedding in it, but in Mumbles it was all a bit of a whirl as people sang, danced, laughed and possibly even pogoed to an eclective diet of music and storming entertainment.

An innovation for this year, the festival was organised by a partnership of Mumbles Mostly Jazz & Blues Festival, Swansea Jazzland & Dave Cottle, Mumbles Development Trust and Swansea Music Arts and Dance (M.A.D). The innovation was that the entire festival was focused in the bars, pubs and cafés that are so central to the ethos of Mumbles. If you like, it was wall-to-wall musical entertainment, and believe it or not it was almost entirely free. The range of music on offer was similarly elastic, with jazz and blues complementing rock, flamenco and swing as the community came together to show what collective effort can achieve. From Newton Village through to the Pier and all other points of the compass, Mumbles became a festival village.

And that, of course, was the intention. There are precedents for the approach that have prospered in other areas. Laugharne springs to mind. Mumbles is bigger, with a wealth of cafés, café bars and pubs giving the ideal template for this approach. As in all festivals, though, it is difficult if not impossible to sample as many of the earthly delights as are on offer—there are simply so many. But the test of the Mumbles Musical Mile probably lies in what was added to the holiday weekend.

Mumbles Musical Mile appeared in this particular incarnation as a result of circumstances. A combination of increasing costs, overheads and the absence of sponsorship (Admiral had sponsored the festival for the previous six years) dictated a change of format. And, with the great British strength of making a virtue of necessity, the festival returned to its community roots. For the past six years organisers Terry Scales and David Townsend Jones have organised and run the Mumbles Mostly Jazz & Blues Festival. Economic pressures meant that this year for the festival to happen at all a lot of volunteers were required.

“The Jazz & Blues Festival established a reputation for presenting a programme of internationally acclaimed musicians as well as local artists,” explained co-director Terry Scales. “The festival regularly attracted over 2,000 people to the village but was never able to break even. This year we decided to see whether the support was there for a change of tack, with interested venues participating in a voluntary community event. It is worth pointing out that the fact that the festival happened at all was down to the enthusiastic commitment of local volunteers who distributed publicity and put up bunting throughout the village. Mumbles Community Council was able to help out with a small grant to help provide the bunting and marketing materials, but sadly despite a concerted effort it was not possible to attract a new sponsor.”

And the proof of the pudding? Well, Newton Road’s Café Valance hosted two acts offering something very different. On Friday they presented classically trained musician and well-known local pianist Rob Marshall supporting the vocal stylings of Jonathan Lycett. It was a performance roundly welcomed by a packed audience who thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Saturday saw the appearance of Jemma Krysa, a young singer/songwriter who has had a number one in Germany and appeared in Los Angeles supporting the Cranberries. “We had a full house on both nights,” said Andy Crouch of Café Valance, “so the festival was good for us. We’ve been doing our bit in helping to promote it for some weeks. That meant that we got quite a few people in from outside the village in addition to our regulars. When we have artists we like to have a range so that we can appeal to a wide range of customers. In fact Jemma went down so well that we have invited her back on 29 May to help the village celebrate Navy Days.”

Across the road at Jones Bar & Kitchen, Adam Jones was delighted with the response to Tom Duggan of the Gents. “Tom played a range of jazz and blues on saxophone to a full bar,” said Adam. “He was accompanied on piano and the music was so impressive we are looking to book them on a weekly basis. I noticed too that, apart from our regulars, a lot of the customers in the bar were new to us.”

Adam and Anna Robertson at the Kitchen Table had bands booked on three nights across the weekend. From Elyssa V Evans, playing as Wilson Evans, to The Gents to the Sunday night appearance of the Syncopated Sisters, the Kitchen Table was jammed to the rafters. “It was all good. Some great music across the weekend,” enthused Adam. “The Gents were phenomenal. Good fun and great guys. And on Sunday the Syncopated Sisters were a real find. They sang some great 40s doo-wop songs and acapella blues and jazz. The festival certainly seemed to bring people into the village. I was working most of the time but I was aware of life in the village that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. It was an entertaining weekend that certainly helped business.”

Sarah Crabbe at The Pilot featured Robyn Griffiths on guitar and on a separate night Kelly Angel, the little girl with the big voice. “There was an excellent turnout on both nights,” said Sarah. “It was interesting as there were a lot of people in on the music nights who came from outside the village. Saturday night was phenomenal and there were a lot of positive comments from customers about the new format and the range of venues. One of the best things for us was on Saturday night when a customer walked in off the street. He just happened to have his harp with him (blues-speak for ‘harmonica’). He started playing then ended up jamming with Robyn. It was tremendous and the whole place was jumping.”

Local Robin Bonham enjoyed a similar experience at Mumbles Rugby Club listening to Ted Crook and the Blues Highway. “There were some people from outside the village enjoying the band,” said Robin “but mostly it was our members. The band played two sets though and created a tremendous atmosphere in the club.”

Other successes were at local pubs the Park Inn with The Ladykillers, the Victoria with the Philanderers Swing & Blues Band, and the Salt with Felix Subway, described as “Syd Barrett meets Jethro Tull in bona fide psychedelia and pastoral whimsy”. There’s one for any 60s survivors still intent on walking the walk... And the spirit of Jazz and Blues was alive and doing very nicely, thank you, with stalwarts of the festival the Brian Breeze Rhythm & Blues Band and the Ray ‘Taff’ Williams Band. Playing at the Conservative Club, two giants of the blues and jazz guitar played storming sets to bring the house down before joining forces in a third set to blow everybody’s socks off.

General responses to the first Mumbles Musical Mile Festival were very positive. Customers whether local or from other parts of Swansea had obviously turned out to support the festival and clearly a good time was had by most. Landlords of bars and owners of cafés were obviously delighted with the turnout.

Performers too were impressed with the inaugural festival. “We played a mixture of swing, ballads and standards, with some musical theatre thrown in,” said pianist Rob Marshall. “Jonathan [Lycett] and I enjoy doing shows together. This one played to a full house and we both enjoyed ourselves. The general atmosphere was great and it was interesting to see the numbers of people wandering from place to place. It was obviously good for local trade and the movement of people through the village made the place come alive. I’d certainly be happy to play again next year at a similar event.”

One of the committed volunteers in the person of Karen Miller, who regularly does sterling work on behalf of Mumbles Development Trust and the village in general, found time to announce the winner of the ‘Design a T-Shirt Competition’ as Joe Broad of Oystermouth School. She then joined up with another tireless worker for the good of the local community, in the person of MDT chair Sylvia Beale, to enjoy the vocal versatility of the Syncopated Sisters. It turned out to be that sort of festival. Everybody joined in, in what was a triumph of community involvement.

How will the festival develop? Who knows? But even the longest journey begins with the first step, and that step was certainly taken over a long sunny bank holiday in Mumbles.