So... hands up who wants to play on the main stage?

In my quieter moments, I've always considered myself to be a fairly moderate, modest kind of fella. In louder, more honest times, I realise that that's probably a load of old tripe. In fact, it definitely is. I'd like to out myself to those who don't already know me as a raging show-off.

So when I was out for dinner the other night with my good mate (and member of the Bestival boiler room) Duncan, and the subject of getting the Bike to Bestival gang up on stage to belt out a couple of songs came up, I felt the old rock-star tendencies stirring. I've always fancied one of those Freddie Mercury Live Aid moments, getting a bit of a "daaaaayyy-oo" call-and-response thing going with fifty thousand compliant people...

A first meeting with some likely bikers in Camden the other week got the juices flowing, too; among the 20 or so folks who've signed on the dotted line at this point (with quite a few more to come, we hope), there's clearly some talented (and very keen) musicians.

So this is me putting my cards on the table: over the coming months we'll organise a couple of socials (at least) where we can settle in to a decent pub, get the instruments out and etch a (short) set-list to delight the Bestival massive. We've had a fair amount of correspondence from those of you outside of London asking that these be at the weekend so that you can make it down - so that's what we'll be doing... And if you can't make it, but still want to be part of the greatest travelling band ever to go on tour from London to the Isle of Wight on bicycles, never fear: we'll make sure that the songs we pick are easily relatable via chord sheets and the odd instructional video...

Any ideas for big, group numbers, by the way? Let us know, let us know! Leave a comment here, head over to our Facebook page or drop us an email.

In other news, happy to say that we're booked into a campsite for the evening of Tuesday 4 September. It's a really wonderful place, set deep in the rolling Surrey countryside... Just triple-checking that we've got the distances right and that we're not setting too heavy a task for the first day's ride; but I'll post details of our rural haven very shortly.

Happy biking for now... and if you haven't signed up for this corking adventure yet: why the flip not?