29/08/2025
Grumpy Clown Thank You Speech!
I canāt believe a week has gone by already, since myself and the Mrs headed to Newark to catch up with the King Kraken crew ahead of their appearance at Stonedead Festival.
The highlight of last Friday, was standing at the side of the stage watching Tyketto while we were waiting for them to finish, so that we could set up Richās new Green Natal Drum kit that I ordered from Natal for him.
Got back to my digs just after 1am Saturday morning. Only to be woken by the police at 5.30am. Some Clown left his rucksack at the side of his van. I must have looked a right sight, luckily I had boxers on.
We had to be back at Stonedead at 8am to get set up. Thanks to Louise for sorting out all the crew with bacon rolls to start off our day, they were lovely. Due to the surprise Ozzy Tribute, we went on 20 minutes earlier than originally planned. So I was a bit worried that everyone would be still in their beds.
But I neednāt have worried, as the crowd was already starting to fill up the field as soon as the gate opened, and heading for the front.
11.10am arrived and bang, we were up and running, and 9 mts of planning seemed to be going as we wanted. We were playing the biggest event any of us had been involved with before. So we went for as big a production as possible. With the help of Gary Sharpe and his team, I think we pulled it off.
With appearances from a couple of our friends that helped us out with the Berserker & Chainsaw Saviour videos making an appearance as well.
The lads seemed to make a great impression on the crowd, as the Planet Rock signing queues were a lot bigger than we expected. We had a full day scheduled, with interviews etc until we headed for our new home at Stonedead Festival, the Mercia Bar for our annual meet & greet.
Thanks to Jez and the team for the usual hospitality.
Itās taken us all week to take in the experience we had at Stonedead Festival last Saturday. It will be a day I will never forget.
All the Stonedead Crew have been there supporting us for a number of years now, and we couldnāt have achieved this without their help. We canāt thank them enough for taking us under their wing and treating us like one of the family. We love every single one of you.
Iād like to take this opportunity to thank the King Kraken Crew for their hard work on Saturday, there is usually only seven of us sorting things out.
But on Saturday there were 18 of us. Along with myself and the band, I would like to thank our crew, Lyndon Ham, Alex Voisey, Matthew Griffiths. Drum Tech - Craig Edge, Sound Engineer - Joshua Shakespeare, Video Crew - Jay Hillyer, Photographer - Paul Hutchings, Perfomers - Stormin Norm Goodman, Dewi Evans, Steve Evs & Peter Mayer.
Thanks to Andy Pilkington at Very Metal Art for designing the artwork for our small backdrop. š
Andy has been a massive help to me over the years.
Lastly I would like to thank Mrs Grumpy Clown for working so hard on the day selling merch and every other day that she works sending out merch orders for KK.
Iāve been officially working as the King Kraken Manager/Booking Agent since the beginning of 2023, but I helped them book their Sold Out debut album launch at the Redhouse prior to that. Iāve been promoting events for well over a decade, but never managed a band before.
So to get them to the stage of playing at Stonedead Festival, is a big achievement for me personally. Iāve done many great things over the years, but this was my proudest moment to date. Watch this space!!
Anyway enough of the rambling, itās Friday and time to celebrate in The Grumpy Clown with some beer. š±š¤”š±
