Steampunk Summer 2012 (more please)

Me with cabaret performing friend at Summer Steam 2012 (photo : Jayne Blewett)

Well, I didn't do a reading at Summer Steam but who cares? There was so much do and I had a great time despite leaving early (well, nearly midnight) to visit elderly relatives the following day. The party went on far into the night and ended with an extemporization with that doyen of chap hop Professor Elemental. Now, I don't rap but I do rock and his metal version of Fighting Trousers is highly amusing. Shame I missed it.

With Pirate Copy and their followers we had everything - piartes, zombies and steampunks

The playlist was running a bit late and there were about 3 more bands to go on when I left including the good Professor.

Never was being bitten so much fun

But best of all were the people - all walks of life, young and old, being creative, having a silly but very good time and with the most open of open minds.

The Newsreaders gave us punk covers and some original material

Steampunk music usually doesn't usually rock enough for me but with The Newsreaders and Pirate Copy there was no fear of that! Ho! Ho! Let's go! Now that works for me.

I wasn't sure how well The Invisible Men would photograph but here they are

I also managed to see The Invisble Men (and liked what I heard). Honey were the last band I watched and they were also in especially good form.

Honey - we couldn't get enough

Meanwhile, away from the main stage there was a zombie apocalypse gameplay (next time I want to get spattered in blood) and tea duelling, which is a form of competitive bisquit dunking - note the spelling.

Dunk says the tiffin master and malted milk cow bisquits hit the brew martial

The rules are quite simple and I thought I'd be quite good at this but reckoned without the pro-celebrity element who were obviously no good at pool or Space Invaders but still managed to mis-spend their youth.

If anyone can put the fun into funeral, Miss von Trapp can

Miss von Trapp also entertained us with her dark cabaret and cello. Her musical instrument doubles as a crossbow so the zombies held no fear for her.

If Slinky Minsky had a show car it would be a Hillman Super Minx covertible

And Slinky Minsky - well, what can I say - they do the most artfully presented burlesque and obvious love what they do - sing, dance, pout, pose and suggest things to music. The gentlemen loved them and the ladies wanted to be like them.

But best of all were the people - all walks of life, young and old, always interesting and friendly, being creative, having a silly but very good time and with the most open of open minds.

In the end I couldn't see me living up to the expectations of a festival crowd but have some ideas (I'm always having ideas) about how I can make my work more entertaining. Both The Horsepower Whisperer and The Wormton Lamb have a musical playlist and seeing Slinky Minsky do their thing to just an iphone I feel quite inspired (although - obviously - it wouldn't be anything like their performance!). The playlists were on Imeem a while ago but got shut down due to licensing wrangles when Myspace took over the site.

Meanwhile, I've twigged that YouTube offer something similar but as some of the tracks that inspired me are a little obscure I might have to upload some music videos myself.

So I was inspired by Summer Steam 2012 and congratulate Lady Seraphina Sprocket Twitcher and her band of helpers for such a wonderful event. It was truly splendid and I seriously don't know how it could be improved apart from me staying longer.