History of Frogstock
WHAT IS IT?
Above
: A booty shakin' Ass Inferno at Frogstock
2003
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Frogstock is a little festival organised by myself and
my family and friends and held in a field out the back of my
parents house. It is a free festival, we open our field and
spend whatever we can afford on some beer and a music system
and put up some tents and the rest is provided by your generosity.
Friends and neighbors bring generators, musical equipment, tents,
beer and food and whatever they want to offer. We provide a
stage and we do a turn to get the whole thing going, then we
we invite musician and performers and whoever feel inclined
to unleash the rock. We all pitch in and have a good time, not
for money but for old fashioned misguided ideas like fun and
love. It’s like Christmas but better and in the sunshine.
"It is inspired by hazy memories of the Norfolk &
Suffolk Fayres of the 70’s and early 80s when hippeis
would recreate medieval village fayres by smoking dope in tents
and eating wholefood and performing folk dances. It is inspired
by the myths of a young David Bowie playing a few tunes in his
mate Michael Eavis’s field and inventing something that
would someday become The Glastonbury Festival. It’s inspired
by some young boys drinking in field listening to a Nirvana
songs played on a crackly battery operated tape recorder and
wishing real rock bands would play on a big stage in their field
and all their friends would come... and one day they did".
Frog Morris Festival Organiser
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The Legend...
The true origins of Frogstock are lost in the mists of time
and the fog of drunkness. Folklore has it that Frogstock was
invented in the spring of 1995 when Frog Morris and 3 school
friends set up two tents and campfire in a field at Three Wells
Farm, Blo Norton. According to legend“they drank the
beer of the poor man and smoked the Magical Pipe of Ed and thus
Frog performed a mythical fire dance and unleashed the spirit
of Frogstock”. This maybe myth, but something happened
and that summer more and more people came to Frogstock. Between
1995 and 1996 there are estimated to have been 5 Frogstocks
(including one rare indoor Frogstock at Christmas from which
structural damage to the farm house can still be seen).
“And the children of Frogstock did take the youngest
among them known as Theodore, son of Morris, and they did bind
him to the old apple scrumping tree and smite him with sticks
of fire. Theo did cry but not bleed and the Frogstock spirits
were not appeased and did bring fourth fits of vomiting and
strike to the ground the children of Frogstock”
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Ed's Dance
Tent in 2004
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However by the summer 1996 the carnage and
vomit created by underage drinking became too much. After the
Frogstock of July 1996 more than a dozen bodies were found pass-out
in their own vomit and further events were stopped.. but the legend
could not be stopped so easily. The stories of those nights were
passed on and the dream of a real rock festival in the fields
of Three Wells Farm, Blo Norton stayed in the back of everyone’s
mind... |
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The years passed and Frog Morris grew up and went to art college
in the big city where he met city folk who he was surprised to learn
had never got drunk in a field. Frog felt sorry for these deprived
city people and got to thinking that maybe if he brought back Frogstock
he could do some good. He also realised that he would spend £100
on tickets to a big corporate festival to listen American corporate
rock bands and only be allowed to drink overpriced pints of horrible
lager OR he could spend the money on a big tent and some cheap horrible
larger and get loads of people drunk and get some cool bands to
play... and so Frogstock was reborn for the new millennium. |
At first no rock bands came and nobody really believed it would
happen. But Frog did not loose hope. He entertained audiences
himself with a puppet show and everyone enjoyed the party. And
everyone who came told their friends that there was really a
little festival in Blo Norton and people did turn up and have
fun.
The next year still no bands turned up.
“And so to the Frogstock did journey the men named
Quinn and Topple. Topple did drink of the darkest of Rums and
perform the dance of the drunken master and demand us to witness
that he was shot to fuck and Mark Quinn did down a bottle of
vodka and a bottle of red wine in one mouth full and and Frog
did laugh so much he choked near to death on his own vomit.
And the noise of celebration did ring out across the fields
and men did come from over the hills and far away and they did
bring guitars and men did beat their drums like monkeys on the
blessed Frogstock field”.
And so music was played in the garden and people heard it and
told their friends that there really was a little festival in
a field in Blo Norton and people came and had fun and there
was music...
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Frog, Badger-on-a-stick,
Theo & Bob at Frogstock 2000
Quinn and Topple
at Frogstock 2001
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The Blo Boys take
to the stage at Frogstock 2002 |
... and the next year the farmers
brought their trailers and generators and we built a stage and
a festival toilet and the pubs gave us kegs of ale... and this
time rock bands came. There was music from The Blo Boys
and James Parker and Alys in Wonderland and
The White Trash and Miss Black America and The
Rain Dogs and many more and it was good. People told their
friends that there really was a little festival in a field in
Blo Norton and people came and had fun and there was music and
it rocked... |
In 2003 even more people came,
some say there were 500 people. Rock bands journeyed to the Frogstock
field and there was also a dance tent, camp site, refreshments,
parking, toilets, catering, promotional t-shirts and a website.
10 bands played including The Moon Office,
The Exiles, The Blo Boys, Opposite The Hotel,
Skrewworm and Vote Bob. |
Vote Bob choke
on the smoke from their pyrotechnics at Frogstock 2003
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IN 2004 even more
people came people and more rock bands performed on professional
sound stage ...including:
The Fashion
Um
Skrewworm
The Gimps
N/A
Pimento
The Blo Boys
The Moon Office
Alys in Wonderland
There was also a dance tent, a reggae chill out
area, crafts market, promotional merchandise, a range of catering
and refreshments, parking, camp site, toilets, a website and much
more...
2005 saw the biggest Frogstock
ever with 6 stages and all kinds of entertainment from folk music
to Drum n Bass running from Saturday afternoon to Sunday breakfast
time. Ther was also market stall, food and a full bar with a fine
selection of local ales!
Stars includes:
SludgeFeast
Fuxus
The Tom-O-Phone
The Blo Boys
The Gimps
Skrew Worm
Dave Jago
The Khe Sahn Approach
The Fashion
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Then in 2006 Frogstock took a break
so as we could to reflect on the last 10 years of hard work.
As the festival got bigger and more money and worked
inevitably got involved we began to wonder why we did it?
Above
: Preparing for another festival - digging another trench for the traditional
festival toilet, racking up another barrel of ale.
We held a smaller event called DITCHLICKER
in an attempt to rediscover to the roots of the festival . There
was music from our friends Victor Mount, Skrew worm, Opposite
the Hotel, The Blo' Boys, One Foot Skank and the Ophopaedic Cheese
Surgeons as well as Poetry by Frog Morris. Everyone had fun even
though it wasn't as big. |
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Did we want Frogstock to be the
next Glastonbury?
Not really. Frogstock was a response to the big
money festivals where you pay loads of money for tickets and once
you can get in you can only buy the promoter’s brand of
dirty larger and only listen to the bands that sell loads of records
and pull big crowds. We wanted to create our own space where we
could put on our own kind of entertainment and drink nice beer.
Out in the Norfolk countryside there was nobody about to tell
us what we shouldn't be doing so we made our own rules.
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In 2007 Frogstock project continues
as a space for performers that doesn’t quite fit into the conventional
spaces of art galleries, comedy clubs, music venues or burlesque cabaret
yet still have something to offer. Some moments will be profound, some
moments will be funny and some moments will just be rubbish.
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