14 year-old sets record on bike-powered generator

Teenager Chris battles against clock in successful bid to set to record

A teenager added his name to the top of the "wall of shame" chart today when he set a brand new record of continued cycling. The current record now stands at an hour and a half.

Chris, from Devon, arrived literally minutes after a 32-year-old local man named Gordon had set a seemingly unbeatable top score of one hour and one minute.

The tall adolescent stepped from the bicycle device with confidence after completing the record and simply sipped a cup of tea having established a record for the 14-17 year-old category while also smashing the overall record for the entire festival-generation road show so far.

Earlier 9 year-old Rhiannan from Bexhill in West Sussex had established a record for the 5-10 year-old age range with a record of 4 minutes. 13 year-old Kwami from Ladbroke Grove in west London mirrored her score by setting the 11-13 year-old category at 4 minutes as well.

At the upper end of the time record chart 51-year-old Grahama from Canterbury set the 45-55-year-old record at 25 minutes.

By Saturday the competition to establish new records was intensifying.

Jools Holland lands in peacock paradise

The mighty Jools Holland setting the tone for fun at Larmer Tree

Buried in the middle of lush Wiltshire farmland a 2,000 strong crowd boogied to the sound of Jools Holland and his Big Band throughout Thursday night and into the wee hours of Friday morning.

Wearing henna tatoos and weekend hippy garb the largely local crowd were well up for whatever came their way.

A friendly atmosphere and strong local ale combined to produce something quite unique in this corner of southern England. If any advice is to be given then it has to be: get your arse down here.

The smooth-talking TV frontman and his big band left their mark on an appreciative crowd who happily stomped away two hours. The piano-playing Londoner belted out some classic crowd-pleasers including Let the Good Times Roll, Lady Maddonna and, later on, Tempted by the Fruit of Another sung alongside his 26-year-old brother Chris Holland.

After two encores the band departed and left everybody still wanting more and dancing to the sounds of James Brown, the Rolling Stones and the Clash.

Jools Holland's 13-piece band, which included a guest appearance by vocalist Sam Browne, maintained their reputation for being consumate professionals with an understanding of what really makes the crowd tick. All round a blindin' evening.

Earlier on, stallholders and musicians mingled as peacocks (local residents of the 12-acre landscaped gardens) stole peoples' food and generally added more colour to the proceedings.

At ten past eleven on a Thursday evening it is still hard to believe that this is all taking place in a field buried in Wiltshire.

Celtic Superstar promise to shine

Larmer Tree have recently announced that the new all-Celtic superstar band have been secured for the 1999 festival line-up. Festival organiser James Shepard is claiming a musical coup "We are delighted to secure this superb band as we've have been trying to get the great Ron Kavana to the Larmer Tree for the last 4 years!".

They will be headlining the Main Stage on Sunday night and then leading the ‘End O’ Festival Bash’ which is reputed to be a bit of a belter.

Weather

Fun, good vibes, tents can all be guaranteed - this is England so the weather can’t.

However, check out the fine British Meteorological site for the ‘West Country’ for latest information.

West country update

"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot; others transform a yellow spot into the sun."
Pablo Picasso