History

Although the first party of the present kind was held in 2007 (on the gratifyingly symmetrical 07/07/07), the event has much deeper roots which derive from the legendary Spiral Light parties held by Deadheads In Europe in Chesham for many years. The last of these was in August 2002, and when, for a variety of reasons, it was decided not to hold any more Spiral Light parties, a couple of us (Chris Jones and John Cholmondeley) who had attended them thought that 2007 would be a fitting time for a new Deadhead party. Chris has a friend called Kent with a house near Hawkhurst and attached to the house is a field large enough to cater for camping and parking for up to 200 people - and still leave room for a stage and dancing/chilling area.

The first Summer of Love (aka SoL) party was intended as a one-off to celebrate forty years since the original Summer of Love in 1967. It was dedicated to the memory of Richard Eustace Todd, a much-loved Deadhead who had died in 2005. We were very fortunate in persuading Barry Melton - the "Fish" from Country Joe and the Fish, and who was in San Francisco in those happy, hippy days, to fly over especially for the party. Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze were in the audience and didn't take much persuasion to play an impromptu acoustic set of their hits. Also on the bill were The Green Ray (with former members of Man and Help Yourself) who backed Barry, as well as doing their own set; the Cosmic Charlies (a fine Grateful Dead cover band); Silverwood - a terrific folk-rock band from the Birmingham area; and the jamband and prog rock influenced Urban Spacemen. Betweeen acts, The Strange Remains DJs played music to rock our souls. We were fortunate to get the one beautiful weekend in a miserable summer - the sun shone on us both literally and metaphorically. It was so good that we decided there and then to hold another party the following year.

SoL 2008 was better organised (we learnt loads from the first one) and we were again very fortunate with the weather - it was brilliant sunshine on the Friday and Saturday and only started raining on the Sunday morning after most people had left. The line up this time comprised The Workingman's Deed - an amazing Grateful Dead cover band who trucked down from Scotland to play for us; Buick 6 - an excellent local blues band, whose drummer is also a member of Steeleye Span; Aurora - a psychedelic space rock band (with the heavenly Sian Edwards-Davies dancing as accompaniment); Neil Weaver - a very young and very talented singer songwriter from the Midlands (who describes his music as acoustic/pop punk/swing); Tyrannosaurus Alan - a Medway-based punk/rap/ska band; and Nigel Mazlyn-Jones (with a little help from his friend Guy Evans of Van der Graaf Generator).