Cornish Underground’s 13th Birthday

Wooo! What a spooky time to have a birthday…but Cornish Underground was born on October 31st 2009 (Samhain), and is celebrating its 13th Birthday. Spookily enough, memories of our crew bus travelling over Bodmin Moor during the witching hour, with stories of the ‘Hairy Hand’ spring to mind! 13 years later and the company has reached particularly stable times, with a reliable income coming in monthly / yearly and a meaningful array of named bands frequenting my mixing desk and venues!

This year saw the return to full scale festivals and joyfully, fueled by much hope, most if not all of my festivals came back, making the best of a lovely summertime. Scilly Folk Festival with bands Teyr and Flats & Sharps frequenting, brung much needed joy to the islands and the hearts of the participants. I must say, 3 years ago I didn’t expect my Mother to be dancing a ceilidh with members of Teyr, she admitted herself to be a little star-struck! Fire in the Mountain had an extra day due to the Jubilee and more great music was had there, alongside Tropical Pressure with an excellent choice of world music to fill our ears.

One of my engagements just after last year’s birthday was Heartlands Fireworks Display, with some 10K (some would say 15K shhhh!) people in attendance. Definitely my biggest gig to date and a confidence boost for future larger scale gigs.

By November, the Old Bakery Studios were stacking in the gigs, rolling out sold out after sold out shows which seemed to go on until April or May time. The stability of 2 – 3 gigs a weekend was fantastic and we had some mega hot and sweaty gigs over the winter, just what was needed after our enforced absence! The Old Bakery continues to bring home the goods with a great line-up of bands already in the gig calendar this year. I love the guts of this venue, picking some amazing bigger names to play, bands who had an amazing laugh playing to us 250 people instead of their usual 5K and upwards shows. Bands like ‘Oh my God, it’s the Church’, ‘Nubiyan Twist’ and the amazing ‘Kosheen’, who had the crowd singing to their 90’s / 00’s hits!

In the studio we’ve had an awesome time too, with ‘The Bricks’ recording their album from a remote location in Dorset (See abandoned theme park and a load of butterflies!), then mixdown back in Cornwall for a week or so, spending quality time with their band leader, also my younger brother! An audiobook recording came in early part of this year and fun times with Abhi and Tessa on this project. One of the biggest studio projects this year was a joint studio project between Neil McMahon and myself. ‘Fools Rock’ has been a project we’ve worked on for some time. 2009 is when the duo started, the same year as Cornish Underground was born, so celebrations all round! Previously we’d released 2 EP’s, but this year we put together our first full album ‘Hitching Ships’. This album courageously entertained the best bits of our previous EP’s and confidently, stepped up to our full Fools Rock album sound, which we are both happy with. New studio gear and plush microphones have helped us realise this higher level of production.

Old favourites Dalla (now Skillywidden) have founded a wonderful show including 7 band members, which separate between themselves to make another 5 bands, celebrating some 20 or so years of Cornish Music & Dance. I’ve worked on this project twice now, once in Penlee Park and more recently as part of the Lowender Peran Festival and I hope to see this format done again real soon! I’m now also working in the capacity of white glove engineer for Skillywidden for their gigs and tours.

Overall this last year of Cornish Underground has been abundant with well attended and enthusiastic audiences. Hot and sweaty gigs, into-it festival crowds and fun creative studio times. I hope you can get a chance to listen to the Fools Rock album and encourage fellow musicians to come and work with me in the studio & live. Big thanks to the Old Bakery for their continued support for the music scene here in Cornwall and to all of you lovely gig go-ers and music listeners who encourage us to do what we do!

Special thanks go to the Cornish Underground crew, CJ Gadget, Rash, Blake, Flip & Josh who do a sterling job! Nice one fellas!

See you all out there for more bouncy fun!

Brendan McGreal (Cornish Underground)
1st Nov 2022