NEARFEST 06
I arrived at Nearfest 06 in Bethlehem PA on the Friday night (23rd June) and met Robert Pareso and Jeanell (see pic 1) who helped me all over the weekend...big thanks to them. Sharing an exhibition room with Roger Dean (see pic 2) through the festival was an honour and we had some interesting chats between bands about our different projects past and present. I met a lot of fans there, some new to me who wanted items signed (see pic 3) and some of whom had bought prints from me in the past. It was great to put some faces to names. Marty Saletta came along (see pic 4) and his friend TR Masino...it was Marty I designed an image airbrushed on to an ice hockey helmet for some years ago. A big thank you to Jane Moyer who helped me so much in the weeks leading up to the festival (see pic 5) with her friend Karin. I'd also like to thank Chad, Rob and Mike for inviting me and making the whole weekend such a well organised event to be a part of. Highlight of the weekend musically for me and Joolz was a band from Poland called Riverside who we thought were brilliant and I bought their album afterwards. The other great band to see were Ozric Tentacles who our son Sean and I thought were fantastic...a real mix of spacerock and trippy dance style anthems...the visuals too were spectacular. Keith Emerson closed the festival on the Sunday and it was a real thrill to see him again as The Nice were the first band I ever saw in '68 at The Marquee Club and became an early fan of. They played Rondo and America from The Nice days and a whole bunch of ELP standards, he turned out to be quite a raconteur too between songs, telling us all about his life on the road. After the excitement of Nearfest...the Wilkinson family set off for a two week holiday in NYC and Vermont
Nearfest Photos