Bikes, panniers trailers, trains…Mag Rev headed off up north. We like the north. It’s friendly, it’s cheap and they like our electrical bicycle magic. Dan from I BIKE MCR has even got some parts to build his own genie and you bet we’ll help him out. Maybe the seedling for northern wing of Mag Rev has sprouted.

The first part of our trip actually started in Stockport at the “Stockport Loves Bikes” event, encouraging the family to get on their bikes and get involved in some bicycle related fun.  The kids that usually hang out in the square with bugger all to do were impressed with pedal power as they pedaled for their Dubstep for the whole duration. They said they wish to build their own and took the details of our website. Not sure the vicar from the neighboring church is going to be happy about the youth and their off-grid tunes on mass!

The second leg of our northern adventure was at the Eurocultured festival. On Monday afternoon, we’ve set up a small stage under the railway arch, and powered some bands again and again. Some of the lovely acts pedal powered included the sweet Mel Uye-Parker, and  Box Kid

It was great to see our small PA that we brought up north on the trailer used in unison with the natural acoustic of the arch to actually create a pretty good sound that only ever required a peak of 120 watts. This was quit the contrast to what happened in the same location the day before. Gigantic sound system that made your stomach convulse every time the bass kicked in. Obviously that set up was designed by the rule the bigger the better, which Mag Rev just finds to be lacking any creativity and sadly defeating any common sense.

We have to admit that Mag Rev had a slight technical difficulty and just before the last band our converter overheated and stopped working. This was another great example of how important it is to have a good communication between Mag Rev and the event’s music promoters. Bands with 3 vocals and 3 electric guitars aren’t planning to do an acoustic set. We managed though and ended up connecting the capacitor straight to the inverter and let the audience regulating the voltage. I think they were honoured to be human voltage regulators!