A wrist full of festival armbands on the “Ride to Live” tour – Greg Parmley at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Greg Parmley is a man on a mission. A mission to visit as many music festivals as he can across Europe in one month. He began his trip on June 24th at Glastonbury in the UK, went straight on to “Hard Rock Calling” and then headed off, (on a BMW 1200R motorbike) over to the continent. His journey took him to Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy, before arriving in Switzerland on July 15th for the Moon and Stars festival in Locarno. His other mission – to make it into the Guinness Book of Records for being the person to visit the most music festivals in 30 days.
Living in Nyon caught up with him at the Montreux Jazz festival, a week before the end of his journey. He is due to arrive in Nyon for the first night of Paléo after visiting the Gurten Festival and the Live at Sunset festival in Zurich.
Like on any true band tour, he’s also got the touring T shirt with slogan – “Ride to Live 2011” – complete with black background, biker’s helmet and two crossed microphones. He’s also got stories to tell. The washing he left in a launderette in Slovakia (and only remembered when he was 200 miles away), the weather, trying to dry out both himself and his gear after days of torrential rain. The choice of food at the festivals which he says “has sometimes been a bit clichéd”: sausages in Germany, chips in Belgium etc and “there has been quite a lot of ham and cheese for breakfast” in the hotels along the route.
As to all that biking, there have been very few hiccups. “There was one “slight altercation with a truck, a hairpin bend and some tarmac that ran out, and I did moan just a bit at having to pay for a pee at a motorway service station in Germany, but on the whole, it’s been relatively problem free.”
Then of course there’s the music, the cool concerts, the festivals where he discovered new bands, the friendly folk and muisc fans ththat he has met in service stations, backstage and in the grounds at each event. There are the concerts that were more memorable for the atmosphere rather than the music, but most of all – the fun.
However, after all those miles and all those concerts, wasn’t it is a bit tiring, wasn’t he a bit jaded of it all by now?
“Not at all, I’m only just getting into my stride. It took a while to adapt to everything, the bike” (he took an advanced bike riding course before the trip), “the planning and pacing and organisational details, but now I’m really on a roll. If all goes according to plan, this trip should make it into the record books, although I reckon I could have actually added more festivals to the itinerary but this will do for now. It has been fascinating to see what all the festivals have been about, it’s not always just about the music, it’s the ambience, the people that go to them that define them”.
Greg comes with a professional interest in the whole tour. He is the editor of IQ magazine, the magazine of the International Live Music business. Note – there is an article in the magazine on how Paléo is trying to combat the black market in ticketing for this year’s festival. Greg also edited the book “My life on the Road with Coldplay”.
He is reporting on the trip for the Telegraph and commenting on Facebook about the whole experience (Ride to Live 2011). On the Telegraph site he categorises each festival from the practical; location etc, to festival genre and music policy. According to Greg; “Fatboy Slim need not apply to appear at Metalcamp in Slovenia “. At the Exit festival in Serbia, it’s the “locals, Brits and the socially aware” who attend. It’s this last festival that brings particularly good memories for Greg. “This is an extraordinary festival set around and in a fortress; it also comes with an interesting political history”. Other concerts have come as a surprise, albeit with surreal experiences. “The children’s festival (Pennenzakkenrock in Belgium) was “different “, set on a man made island with the parents of the children all looking on”.
Have there been any concerts that have really stood out along the trip?
“There have been many good ones but Swedish “Mando Diao” (who played at the Moon and Stars in Locarno), and U.S band “Queens of the Stone Age” (who played at Roch Werchter in Belgium), both gave memorable concerts. I’m open to most types of music so this in a way, is a dream trip. There have been very few downsides to it. One of them is perhaps the obvious, when you know you have to get up the following morning to drive 400 or so miles on a motorbike you obviously have to be prudent and can only have just one or two few beers the night before, but that’s OK. I’m definitely going to celebrate in style on the last night of this whole challenge (July 23rd at the High Voltage Festival in London)”.
Let’s hope that the weather stays dry for Paléo and the festival gives him a warm welcome, his last venue in Europe before heading back over the channel to the UK and all being well – into the record books.
Lucky man x m