On Tooting Broadway

Remember festivals? They were free and they used to be about music, peace and love, right? Well, only for about five minutes or so in the 1960s. After that they became businesses just like every other business. The ticket prices got higher. And so did the fences.

Tootstock is a (very small) festival which has just been staged in Tooting, south London, for the seventh time. There was free entry, free parking and free food. The only thing you had to pay for was your drinks. And there were nine bands, all playing for free.

I've been involved in this event from the beginning, and despite the fact that it can drain the last bit of energy from you, it can also give you the highest highs, especially when people of all ages from all walks of music get together and sincerely enjoy each other's playing and each other's company.

We had a capacity audience this year and a truly warm atmosphere that was definitely something to do with peace and love.

Tootstock doesn't make money. But it makes magic.

No Sleep Till Tooting

For six years, with the help of many people, I've organised a modest little music festival in Tooting, south London. Its original name was SummerFest but it soon became known to regular attenders as Tootstock.

Last year's event was the best ever, thanks to some great musical performances, and thanks to my teenage daughter's friends who provided a new, younger, bigger audience. Despite the success, it had been so stressful to organise that I put a note at the end of my diary for 2011 saying: "Do NOT organise Tootstock 2012... "

But so many people asked when it was going to be and said they wanted to take part that, well, it's more or less set for Saturday June 30, 2012. And I also noticed that just after that diary entry was a PS that I had written to myself. It read: "But if you do, here's a suggested line-up... "