Cowdray Park, Friday 21st June 2002 Part 2

On a rainy Friday night in June 2002, I attended a concert in Cowdray Park in Sussex with a group of friends. It was a black tie, bring a picnic affair, with tickets priced at £90 each. As a big Beatles fan, I was happy to pay that, knowing that Ringo would be there, performing with his son Zak, as well many other top names doing Beatles songs.

I was certainly not disappointed! It was a great night, I got some great video and some excellent 'this is me and' photos. I chatted to Cilla Black for about half an hour about my uncle, Pete McGurk, who played bass on many of her songs in the 60's (when he was a top session man, and one third of the Dudley Moore Trio); and to Bill Wyman, who is always a lovely man to chat to. Geldof and Gilmour were both friendly, and Sarah Ferguson was both lovely to talk to, albeit briefly, and to look at! I wondered where to put my hands as I stood next to her: she put her arm round me, so that answered that one!

Sadly, I discovered that I had only one video tape and an empty box with me (where I thought the second one was), and was forced to use the video very carefully, losing the start of some songs and most notably, switching to LP from SP after a couple of Geldof/Gilmour numbers. This, I have now discovered, 7 years on, led to the tape becoming erratic in playback on the LP stuff. That LP stuff includes Ringo's set! Doh! I may upload it later if it is watchable, as there does not appear to be any other video of the event on the net; but if it is not easily watchable I will not bother. At the end of the concert a woman asked me to send her a copy as she had no battery power, but she did have tapes!! If only.....

For now, there are 3 parts, and this is the second, with Donovan (a teenage favourite of mine I still listen to his albums A Gift From A Flower To A Garden and Donovan In Concert) almost starting Rain (in recognition of the disappointing weather that night) before heading into Love Me Do and George Harrisons Give Me Love, backed by Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike & The Mechanics) and Robbie McIntosh (Pretenders, Average White Band, and one of Paul McCartneys bands). Other parts feature Bill Wyman with Mike Sanchez, Lulu, Bob Geldof, and Dave Gilmour, again with Rutherford and McIntosh.

I hope you enjoy it, it was a great evening!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Cowdray Park 2002
• Bill Wyman
• Mike Sanchez
• Dave Gilmour
• Lulu
• Ringo Starr
• Damon Hill
• Cilla Black
• Donovan
• Gary Brooker
• Kenney Jones
• Paul Carrack
• Robbie McIntosh
• Mike Rutherford
• Roger Taylor
• Sarah Ferguson