Running the Tide - Ken Patterson

In the 1st Stockton Riverside Festival in August 1988, I was playing trombone with Pineapple Agogo Streetband. We boarded a fishing trawler decorated with a giant lantern Sun, and headed up the Tees river with the tide astern. The boat turned through 180 degrees and sailed on the spot against the tide. We waited on the spot with bated breath for the tide to turn. Around 10pm the moment came and we drifted past the audience on the quayside playing my tune 'Blaydon Spaces'. It was orgasmic. We played our hearts out for the few short minutes it took to drift along the length of the crowd. I remember it to this day.