Bill Nelson Live
5th Annual Sundaze Festival, Rushton Hall, Kettering, Northamptonshire, England - August 2, 1998


Sundaze came into existence after Roy Wild visited a Romanian orphanage and realised that by staging a much needed festival in the East Midlands, funds could also be raised to give the kids a chance. The beautiful grounds of Rushton Hall (a school run by the Royal National Institute For The Blind) provided the idyllic setting for Sundaze. In the last 4 years they have raised over £30,000 with funds going to Ionaseni orphanage (Romania) and Rushton Hall Blind School besides other local and international charities.
 

Soundcheck	Picture of the stage	Bill with guitar in motion
Stage shot	Profile shot	Bill playing

Real Video of part of Bill's performance:

This video was shot by Stewart Gray.  It was mailed to Mark Rushton in Iowa and dubbed from PAL to NTSC format and copied.  A copy was sent on to John Helewa in California where it was converted over to Real Video.  To watch, you need a Real player.

• Video of the first song - quality is a bit dodgy, sound-wise.  Images blur a little bit.
  
  
• Video of the second song
  
  
• Video of "Circle The World In A Paper Canoe", the third song
  
  
• Video of the fourth song - an Ebow piece
  
  
• Video of the fifth song - an "experimental delay piece"

 
• Slide show presentation of the first song - sound quality is considerably improved although video is not full-motion.

 
• Bird Ornaments - like a shining diamond

 
• Final song

more to come....

Malc Merrington:  Just got back from the Sundaze festival at Rushton Hall, Kettering. Bill on from c7 PM for about 40 minutes. Just himself on stage with his guitar. Most of it with tape loop backing. About 5 minutes improvising with a delay loop. Typically blistering guitar playing, noticed that several members of other bands performing today came to the front to spectate. Spoke to Bill before his set - he said it was pretty rough and ready but it did not seem so!

Jason Lane:  I also saw Bill on Sunday -- he had a few technical hitches with the tape backing, I don't think he could hear it half the time! But still wonderful guitar work, improvising over the tapes.  At one stage he stopped the tape and used some sort of machinery to loop his guitar, and built up a complex tune there and then. It was amazing to see the speed he works at -- creating a new piece of music right there on stage. One man, one guitar -- the different sounds he was able to coax out of the guitar. Amazing. For the whole set, he had the audience in front of the stage enthralled -- or mesmerised!  Before the set, I had the honour ;-) of speaking to the man himself -- and he mentioned that he will be appearing live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank in London, in September and October. It's part of an ambient music season.... He said they've renamed ambient "drifting", and it's going to be some sort of multimedia event, they've let him make use of the screen.

Credits:

Stewart Gray and Jason Lane for photos