BONFIRE REPORT 2007

This is where we have collected some of the Rocket team's impressions of Bonfire Night 2007. First, Rocket anchor-man Rupert Lloyd Thomas gives his impressions:

Jetlag or exhaustion?  Definitely both as I try to recover from the 2007 Bonfire season.  Maybe the bubbly and the outsize Bloody Mary on the aircraft from Gatwick has something to do with it.  Anyway time to reflect on another celebration in Lewes which saw the night click off smoothly with a minimum of incident.  According to the police 16 people were arrested for minor offences and nine needed hospital treatment.  Not bad in a crowd of 60,000.  It tried to rain but held off after a light shower.

From my vantage point above Fox & Sons I could see the various Bonfire Societies conducting their Services of Remembrance.  The show kicked off at six o'clock, although the various processions were assembling from five o'clock, when I spotted the first lit torch.  This year we highlighted the ninetieth anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele in 1917, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres.

The bonfire show proceeded from sombre remembrance to a knockabout turn as the bands played and the bangers exploded.  I was getting so carried away that the radio show began to interact with the crowd through the open windows.  I particularly enjoyed seeing the drum corps Geering's Privateers, led by Sean Dewar, on their first outing in Lewes.  South Street Bonfire Society let off their fireworks before nine o'clock, which were clearly visible from our commentary position.  There was some crushing in the crowds in my sight calling the use of barriers into question.

The tableaux seen at the war memorial were Superintendent Parrot, a policeman who got nowhere with his attempt to ban fireworks at bonfire, [Commercial Square Bonfire Society]; The Beatles celebrating forty years of Sergeant Pepper, no relation to Marina Pepper, [South Street Bonfire Society]; the Borough Bonfire Society with a gesticulating Guy Fawkes and Waterloo with the Lewes Martyrs, a splendid effort and a welcome return to the tab ranks.

We missed the problems at the bottom of School Hill, including the arrest of Martin Winter, 50, President of Borough Bonfire Society.  Placing him face down in the gutter adjacent to burning debris reflects badly on the police, many of whom do not know the town or its traditions, and care little for its law-abiding citizens.  There was much indignation as the police impeded residents from reaching neighbouring house parties which are very much part of the bonfire scene.

We were receiving emails from around the world during the show.  A message from Colorado prompted me to ask if anyone was listening in Arizona, a successful gag from previous years.   Steve Guthrie, an Arizona resident, promptly got in touch from  a cruise ship in the Pacific ocean.

Soon it was time to say goodbye from Fox & Sons as I hurried up the town on foot to the studio at Christie Road to cover the reports from the firesites.  Great to hear from Andy McBean, June Eade, Eugene Sully, Stephen Pilfold, Dino Bishop, Andy Thomas and anybody I've forgotten.  Phil Flowers phoned in from the Cliffe but by that time we had gone off the air!  We wish Kalvinder Gahir, hurt at the Cliffe Bonfire, a full recovery.

My thanks to Andy Reeve, Kevin Cramer, June Flanagan, Andy McBean and Peter Flanagan - my counterparts on the Bonfire Show team.  My thanks also to Pagination Associates for the supply of Garibaldi biscuits, and Peter Richards, of Richards The Butchers, for delivering my Fyers teabags to the front bar of the Brewers Arms, where I was enjoying a pint of Harvey's bitter.  Here's to Bonfire 2008!

Now, the memoirs of Director-General Andy Thomas:

The Bonfire Special broadcast on Rocket FM is both the same and different each year, a bit like shaking a kaleidoscope.

This year, owing to a muddle over timings where I was probably to blame, I found myself at the forward studio above the war memorial as the unlikely but only assistant to our Engineer Andy Reeve, while we set up and tested the broadcast-quality link to our main studio up at St Mary's. At least I learnt a bit more about the whole process.

As seems to happen every year, Andy decided that one of the innumerable leads in the forward studio was needed at the main studio, so I set off on foot, through the increasing chaos which is Lewes on the late afternoon of the 5th. The weather was at that time fine and clear, although there was to be a sprinkling of rain during the evening.

I called at my house for the Bonfire literature which I had been collecting for some weeks and arrived at the main studio about 5.00 pm. The usual anxious time followed while the link with the war memorial was established but, happily, by about 5.30 pm we were chatting off-air to my brother Rupert and ready to roll.

The Bonfire Special kicked off in fine style, with Rupert on good form after his afternoon lie-down and occasional contributions from June Flanagan, Andy McBean, Andy Reeve and Peter Flanagan (who says men can't multi-task!).

Kevin Cramer ran the main studio, with occasional support from me...mostly the coffee.

After a while, it seemed safe to nip back down to my house to adjust the settings to night-time on the webcam overlooking the CSBS marching-off point and then back to the main studio.

We then entered that lull in the proceeding while the Societies leave the town centre for their firesites. The Rocket email inbox and guestbook had by then lit up and I did readings of some of the messages, many from abroad but also from elsewhere in Sussex and the UK. One stands out in my mind, from listeners near Hailsham somewhere, who told us they could not get to Lewes this year because of health problems, thanked us warmly for the coverage and said they could see the glow and even hear the louder firewirks! We also looked at some of the items in the Bonfire programmes...the 'DFL Bonfire Society' article in Cliffe's programme caught my eye, as did the piece about the Waterloo Drum Corps.

When Rupert and chums arrived back from the war memorial, I walked back to my house, to see if any pea and ham soup or bangers were left.

I listened on the way down to our reporters calling in from the firesites and did a phone-in, as at that point I could see the displays from three bonfire societies, thought to be Commercial Square, Waterloo and Southover.

After stoking up on food (and just a little drink) I went out to Bonfire Prayers a few doors up in Commercial Square to (try and) hear the thoughts of Archbishop Paul Wheeler...this is the high point of 5th November for me. I rang in one last time to the studio amid the din. They asked me what Paul was saying and i had to confess the only word I could make out with any certainty was..."Arrsse!" Lewes on the 5th Nov...where else would you be!

And don't miss Rocket presenter Vic Smith's photos of Bonfire Night 2007 in our Photo Gallery!

Our Bonfire Reports for 2006, 2005 and 2004 are still available.