Rabbit Foot: Dispatches: Festival diary of a rock & roll jazz band

This summer the dapper seven-piece are on the road, playing music festivals the length and breadth of the country. This is their festival diary....

This first instalment finds frontman Stuart Macbeth and the rest of our heroes among the swanky Georgian terraces of genteel Cheltenham....

MAY 3rd - CHELTENHAM JAZZ FESTIVAL

"Look mate, I'm going to have to cut this conversation short because I'm in the middle of a live radio broadcast!"

Yes - I've only been at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival for five minutes and I'm already backstage, harrassing Jamie Cullum. I'm desperate to get my band a session on his Radio 2 Jazz programme and he's being thoroughly nice - despite the fact that he's clearly not interested. Elsewhere in the VIP area I spy Cornbury Festival director Hugh Phillmore milling about with the likes of Curtis Stigers and British jazz legend Django Bates who's here with his band Loose Tubes. I really should have dug out my autograph book.

There's a terrific buzz on site because Cheltenham Jazz Festival is rather special. This is a multi-venue event, spread around the green expanse of the town's Montpelier Gardens. Even if you can't afford a ticket for a show - and the line for 2014 includes Robert Cray, Tinariwen, Jools Holland, Laura Mvula and Jamie himself - there's an excellent free stage and festival bar at your disposal. The lawn is packed with bright young things, swigging Prosecco and eager to brush up on their jazz.

Our own show is at The Speakeasy, a 1920s theme night housed at The Daffodil, former art deco picture palace with its original fittings intact. Tickets are £35 a head and we sold out in a under a week. I soundcheck at 5pm - six and a half hours ahead of our performance which lasts from 11.30pm-2am.

This year I've decided to write down my festival experiences and this is a great place to start because, from a performer's perspective, Cheltenham Jazz Festival really is exemplary.

It's well organised by a team who know what they're doing and have even provided a Yamaha baby Grand Piano for me to play. I get a hotel so I don't have to struggle with my comedy tent. And best of all I get to see some of the other performers in action. First I head over to the "Beyond The Band" marquee to hear composer and saxophonist Denys Baptiste talking about Now Is The Time, a new work inspired by Martin Luther King and commissioned by the festival.

Professional outfit: The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band

Baptiste is a passionate and entertaining speaker, although I also enjoy watching someone I assume to be his teenage daughter, slumped in the third row with a posture that says "Dad - you are SO embarrassing".

After a Q&A session I wander down to the Town Hall to see a performance by the Kurt Elling Quintet. Elling is billed as "one of the greatest jazz singers in the world" so it makes sense to study him and see if he's got anything I can steal. Kicking off with his interpretation of "Come Fly With Me" he's very good - but squashed back on Row X I can barely see anything. The hall's acoustics don't help. I sneak off to my hotel for a cup of Earl Grey Tea. Yes, really, I'm at a festival - drinking posh tea.

It took me a couple of years to realise that, while festival punters are knocking back scrumpy by the gallon, there's a reason why we're performing and they're not. Naturally the band have a professional responsibilty to perform at the highest level at these events - and push our artistry to its limits. We definitely don't have a professional responsibility to get smashed on lethal amounts of cider, play substandard solos and annoy our bandmates on stage by knocking over their microphone stands. But believe it or not this sort of thing behaviour was de rigueur back in 2010.

Since then we've been limited to a maximum of two beers or small glasses of wine each, per day. Shocking isn't it? And it's all my fault because after a couple of shandies I turn into the Whore of Babylon.

Not drinking at festivals can be tough. At this September's Bestival, for instance, we'll be on site for five days in a cramped tent with no running water - that's about 120 sleepless hours. The band are playing two sets across the weekend which leaves 118 hours to fill.

What is a man supposed to do with all that free time? Just us and about 60,000 other people in a field on the Isle of Wight. After a day most of them will be stinking of sweat, meths and suntan lotion - and having the time of their lives. And we will drink a LOT of coffee but we will do an awesome gig - even if it kills us. Because, let's not forget, we're there to do an awesome gig - not to get terminally wasted and dance to Busta Rhymes like a bunch of clowns.

So, back in Cheltenham we kick off our set at 11.30pm precisely with a full force "Cornish Riviera Express".

Festival buddy: Jamie Cullum

The effect of the Rabbit Foot Spasm Band in full force is just brutal - it's the kind of performance to make support bands weep and DJs hang their heads in shame. I'm very proud to be onstage with these guys tonight with their immaculate pin-striped suits and high octane solos. Our saxophonists Red and Chuck reach dizzy heights as does our trumpet player Martin - effortlessly smashing a skyhigh E flat on a volcanic rendition of "Nancy Mitford Disco". We complete our set in authentic 1920s fashion by playing "God Save The Queen" - and take a bow.

I crawl back to the hotel just after 3am - mission most definitely accomplished. And just in time to claim a cheeky glass of Pinot Noir from the Concierge. The next stops for us on this year's circuit are in two weeks' time as we take on The Norwich and Norfolk Festival on May 16th and Wood Festival on May 18th.

The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band's album Party Seven is available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotofy - and on CD from Truck Store, Cowley Road, Oxford; Rapture in Witney; and nationwide.