Today we reached a milestone I have waited a long time for. Our eldest sons first gig! My husband and I have always been avid festival goers and often cooed over families dancing with their kids,and us saying one day that willl be us. Ours took a bit longer to come as the age gap between our two was not the easiest to navigate, but today we left youngest one with Nanny and went for it. I did search around, it had to be a day event and open festival vibe not in a venue, so as not to be so crowded. When I saw James and The Charlatans were playing Kenwood House, supported by Maximo Park, I knew this would be a good one as its music my son has grown up with as his mum is a 90s indie chick at heart, and we could get picnic tickets at the back so it would be more chilled and relaxed. The evening hosted by Heritage Live was better than I could have expected. The weather was glorious, there were cleverly spaced out seating spots, good food vendors and a merchandise tent. After jumping on the train and having some refreshments during Maximo Park, I promised my son his first bit of Merch from the event as a souvenir of his first gig. We went to the tent and there was the usual band t-shirts but there was some really great designed charity t-shirts. The vendor told us to go to the main charity tent to see more designs so we can see all on offer before we decide to buy something. Little did I know how great that favour was. When we got to the other tent the guitarist from James was there, but I acted totally cool and did not let on to my son until he left. So after gushing to my son about that I then gushed to the merch sellers that this was his first ever gig and last time I saw James was Reading '97 and Charlatans have been the soundtrack of my life as one of my personal all time favourites along with James so I wasn't missing this one and was so delighted to share this first moment with my son.
It transpired the charity in question was Everybody Belongs Here, founded by Saul Davies (Guitarist of James) and the T-shirts in question were designed by a top designer at Saatchi and Saatchi. My son picked one of those. The charity promotes inclusion and diversity so I couldn't be more delighted to buy one.
As it happened we ended up buying two. After said gushing to the lovely men selling the T-Shirts in transpired that one of them was the brother of Saul Davies. He could tell that I wanted my sons first gig to be a special moment so he said he would get his brother to sign our T-Shirt for us. I had to meet him back at the tent at 10pm after the gig. I bought them a drink of their choice (Water) as they were on the Job and driving afterwards to say thank you and express how wonderfully special you were going to make our night. So after dancing and singing our hearts out we met back up at the tent and not only did we get a signed T-Shirt from Saul Davies, but also the designer from Saatchi and Saatchi, so a complete one off. I couldn't thank them enough. This was the first time I've attended a gig at Kenwood House, but when the weather is great there is nothing better I could think of. We stayed at a hotel close by to make a weekend of it. The next morning we went into London to visit the British Museum to finish our Sutton Hoo adventure and had a lovely Bento Box for lunch at Fushan.
For more events this summer from Heritage Live - visit this What's on listing.
