As I write this, I'm currently sitting in a car with my mum, dad and wonderful girlfriend Kayleigh. We are on our way to the beach, but don't panic, I'm not about to write an entire blog post about our little stay-cation in Devon. But it will be about one day of it. A day like no other, and one that will probably be one of the most surreal of my life. Unless I encounter Somali pirates on the surface on the moon.
Friday started like any other day, waking up early resenting the alarm clock that shook me out of my glorious slumber. That's where the similarity ended, for today didn't involve work, me and Kayleigh were going to Devon, now neither of us drive, so our options were thus coach or train. Personally, I hate trains and I usually prefer the luxury of a coach, plus we had booked our tickets weeks I advanced (£9 per person each way). So we left our home to go to Heathrow airport bus and coach station. We found the bus stand and put our bags down, I then went to the nearest over-priced coffee shop to grab a latte for Kayleigh and a vanilla frappe milkshake for me. When I returned to my beautiful girlfriend she was having a conversation with a Mr Hussein. When he saw me he quickly left ( understandable seeing as I can look quite intimidating ;) ).
Not long after this we boarded the coach, noticing that our new friend Mr Hussein, kept walking away from his bag, every time he returned we felt a little less on edge. Finally our coach departed for Exeter for a hellish journey.
I don't know how many people reading this have travelled anywhere by coach, but sometimes it can be quite a harrowing experience. Essentially, they take the worst parts of being on an airplane such as the cramped conditions, lack of leg room and the horrible fart smell ( to be fair the last one could have been me, Wicksie travel tip 1 never eat curry the day before a coach journey) and then they take away the best part (alcohol). So having to deal with four cramped and sober hours of coach travel is definitely not the best way to start any day, let alone a holiday. When we finally arrived at Exeter bus station, we were greeted by my cousin and up and coming rapper Zuby. My cousin drove us to the small Devon town of Hatherleigh, where we would be spending the next week with my family. We dropped Zuby's bags off at the place he would be staying and went to my parents, so me and Kayleigh could settle in. We unpacked a little and freshened up a tad and came downstairs to enjoy a barbecue with my mum, dad, my cousin Becky, my Aunt Sue and Uncle Phil and Zuby. This is where the day started to get surreal, here we are myself, my beautiful girlfriend, my family and up and coming hip hop artist Zuby, sitting in my parents garden chatting. We discussed many things but we were mainly interested to find out more about our guest Zuby. We learnt all about his up bringing and most of his life story and his influences. It was strange to see my family connecting with someone completely different from the people they are used to in their rural bubble. However this wasn't to be the strangest part of the day, no that would come a little bit later in the evening.
After the barbecue and a few drinks we headed down to the main square where the marquee had been set up for Hatherleigh festival. There were three acts on that night and Zuby was opening. Now I don't know if anyone reading this has been to Hatherleigh ( or in fact if anyone reads this ) but Hatherleigh reminds me of Sandford the small little village in 'Hot fuzz'. That's not to say that it is anything like the fictitious village in which Simon Pegg and Nick Frost had gun fights with vicars and pensioners.
Being a Londoner, you have all these pre-concoctions about rural folk, especially ones who live in quaint little villages. In all honesty I felt sorry for Zuby, he was young black male in a village full of "honkeys" (my words not his) and he was about to perform for these people. When we arrived to the marquee, we had technical difficulties something to do with cables or something (although I'm a geek, I have no idea when it comes to outside electrical plugs, p.a's and sound systems). Once that was sorted out Zuby needed to do a sound check, however another problem struck when his cd full of instrumental tracks for him to rap over wasn't working. Luckily, he had a back up plan in the form of his iPhone, which had copies of all his instrumentals so that was connected to the sound system for him to rap to. The hour of judgement soon approached and a new problem arose when my uncle said that there was no one to introduce the acts, Becky, who along with her mum (my aunt Sue) worked incredibly hard to put on this show didn't feel up to doing it. Fortunately for them my girlfriend Kayleigh volunteered [me] to do it. So I went in front of a crowd of absolute strangers, in a place I've only visited once, to introduce a man I had only met that afternoon. So Zuby rolls on to the stage in front of a crowd filled with octogenarians, kids and farmers and gets the atmosphere going. It was surreal to see a group so disconnected from hip hop and urban culture enjoying Zuby's performance and if I'm completely honest I don't think Jay-Z himself would have been able to put on a better performance and I don't think he would have had the same charisma to get the crowd moving. It was a surreal sight to see people that are probably more used to hip- ops than hip hop dancing and enjoying Zuby's sound. Zuby should definitely have taken something from this, if he can make that much of an impact on a small village community, you can only imagine what it would be like to perform for those more receptive to his sound.
I know I said this day was surreal, and in my opinion it was. I mean it wasn't Salvador Dali melting clocks surreal but probably about as surreal as a Devon holiday can get. For those interested in Zuby, follow him on twitter he's @zubymusic, my cousin has her own blog which is pretty awesome for music fans her twitter is @therealdealbex and Hatherleigh festival which I hope to be official compering next year is also on twitter @Hatherleighfest. all of which I suggest you follow.
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