WOKINGHAM Festival returns this weekend, and will feature musical mainstays and rock royalty, Caravan.
Founded in Canterbury in 1968, the band has been exploring the prog-rock, psychedelia, and even jazz influences they share in their work ever since.
Speaking ahead of the festival, Pye Hastings said: “It doesn’t feel like 50 years since we recorded the Land of Grey and Pink.
“It certainly never occurred to me that all these years later we would still be alive, let alone still performing–that’s a result, wouldn’t you say.”
He continued: “Like all young musicians at the time, we rather naively thought that we would continue having a whale of a time, last forever and make a fortune.
“And end up in a maximum security retirement home for ageing old Musos remembering the old days and complaining to each other about who played that wrong chord at some long forgotten gig in the 1970s.
“Fortunately, I look back on those days with many fond memories and thank the powers that be that I have come through it relatively unscathed– a lot of our contemporaries have fallen by the way.”
He is grateful, also: “Thanks to our fans, who have stayed loyal to us throughout the years, we are still here and enjoying playing more than ever.”
The band began following the disintegration of a previous group, he explained: “In the late 60’s I was invited to join a band called the Wilde Flowers by Brian Hopper, Hugh Hopper and Robert Wyatt and Richard Coughlan– they were an R&B band with a spattering of original songs.
“I was terrified to begin with but soon gained confidence and came to realise that this was what I wanted to do for the foreseeable future.
“Sadly Robert left to form Soft Machine with Kevin Ayers, followed soon after by Hugh Hopper, but I was determined to carry on as I had just begun writing my own songs.”
The band achieved considerable success during the years that would follow, having shared the stage with the likes of Genesis, Pink Floyd, and Yes.
After touring and producing albums until 2006, Hastings said: “Well I genuinely thought that we had had a really good run at it and the time had probably come to hang it up.
“My wife and I decided to move up to the north of Scotland and no sooner had we settled down our agent started getting enquiries about the band touring Europe all over again.
“600 miles is a long way to come for a rehearsal, but after having spent 12 years in Scotland, what with the weather and the distance to perform with the band, we decided to return to Canterbury.”
And the temporal distance between their previous era has also brought with it one or two improvements.
“In the 70’s we had to carry all our own PA and Lighting equipment which meant that you had to employ a large crew, plus all the transport required to move the stuff about.
“All these costs had to come out of the gig fees which meant that there was little or nothing left for the musicians.
“Nowadays, things are much better, the venues all have professional PA’s and experienced engineers so we are now much more contained in that we turn up with our backline equipment and instruments and just play, consequently we now earn more individually than we ever did.”
It was the band’s third album which would be the one which stood out to them as something to be especially proud of: “We knew we had something special when we recorded the ‘Land of Grey and Pink.’
“But never in a month of Sundays did we think it would still be going all these years later– when we play live, it is expected that we will play some, if not all of, the songs from that album.
“The challenging bit is trying to put a fresh slant on the performance so that it still retains the essence of the original.”
Therein lies the fun, he said: “When we have had a personnel change I always maintain that the original part should be used only a guideline and that the new member takes that purely as yardstick, and adds to it by making the part their own.
“This keeps it fresh and in my eyes… more interesting.”
He also takes umbridge with one person’s comments about the band’s age, after they called them “a heritage act.”
“Bloody cheek– it sounds like an old cheese.”
As storied as the band’s past is, Hastings doesn’t always dwell on their output: “I very rarely go back and listen to our previous recordings because I think we could always do better.
“However, at the moment I unashamedly want to plug our latest CD, (It’s None of Your Business) which is still fresh in my mind.
“It’s also been awarded by Classic Rock Magazine as number 3 in the top ten Prog Albums of the year– who would have thought it.”
The band has performed with some of the most notable giants of the genre, but a gig in the Netherlands which stays with Hastings.
“I remember playing at a festival in Rotterdam in 1972 to an alleged 250,000 people– we were due to play on the third day, after it had rained on the audience non-stop for two days.
“When we came on to play, the sun came out.”
Despite the serendipity of the timing, he says his lasting memory of the festival was still: “The unbelievable stink pervading from the site– as if someone had opened up the doors to a pigsty.
“I hadn’t realised that if you stand a large number of festival-goers in the rain for two days and then expose them to brilliant sunshine, there will undoubtedly be a reaction- public amenities were not as they are today.”
As an aside, he recalls: “Immediately after we performed, Mungo Jerry came on and played ‘In The Summertime’ and the whole crowd erupted with pure joy.”
Hastings is still a prolific and productive writer, he said: “I am currently working on 5 new numbers, and I tend not to bring a batch of songs to the band until I have 10.
“I offer them up at rehearsals for approval before we select them collectively, so a bit more to go until we start a new album, and some inevitably will get ditched along the way.”
This level of productivity is rarely seen outside of the likes of legends like David Bowie or Elton John, not least after decades of craft.
“Geoffrey Richardson is the longest-serving member of the band after me,” he explained.
“[Geoffrey] is a superb multi-instrumentalist who features viola, guitar, flute and, of course, spoons– Jan Schelhaas is the next longest member who took over from Dave Sinclair and plays keyboards.”
“Mark Walker is a relatively new boy in that he took over the drumming duties after Richard Coughlan sadly passed away.
“But being younger than the rest of us brings an unstoppable enthusiasm which we sometimes have to remind him that as we are a bunch of old t***s– he needs to slow down to let the rest of us catch up.”
The band is also joined by Lee Pomeroy: “Our wonderful new bass player, who also plays with ELO, Rick Wakeman, and tours with Take That.
“Lee and Mark work so well together that it feels to me like a completely new and rejuvenated band– I am proud to be in their company.”
As for what attendees could expect to see from Caravan at their Wokingham Festival appearance?
“At Wokingham we will play a complete selection of old favourites, plus some tracks from the new album.
“These will include Golf Girl, Winter Wine, Nine Feet Underground, Smoking Gun, If Better Days Are to Come, It’s None of Your Business, and a couple of other oldies like For Richard.
“Here’s hoping this makes for a great turn out and an evening to remember.”
Wokingham Festival takes place in Cantley Park from Saturday-Monday, August 26-28.
More information about upcoming Caravan appearances is available via their website: officialcaravan.co.uk
