'I discovered Patti through the song “Because The Night”,’ remembers Tim Burgess, frontman with veteran baggy indie-rockers The Charlatans, solo artist extraordinaire and lockdown soul-saver with his Tim’s Twitter Listening Party social media get-togethers. After Smith’s set on the Jabberwocky main stage at Doune The Rabbit Hole, Burgess will be DJing until late in the Whistleblower tent. As he recalls, it was a pair of influential Manchester music elder statesmen who first turned him on to this legend of the 1970s New York punk-rock scene when he was just a teenager, and he’s been hooked ever since.

‘I read that Peter Saville and Tony Wilson were big fans,’ says Burgess, ‘and the kids that were a little bit older than me kept dropping her name in conversations. So, I bought Easter from a record shop in Northwich and became a lifelong fan.’

He’s bought most of her albums, collaborations and books over the years. Particular personal favourites include Smith’s various link-ups with REM, as well as The Coral Sea, a live recording of two performances by Patti Smith and My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields from 2005 and 2006 (this was Smith’s homage to her former lover, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who was also the subject of her bestselling 2010 memoir Just Kids). So if Burgess is a little late showing up for his DJ set, then at least you’ll know where he’s been. ‘I definitely look forward to her performance at Doune.’  

For Holly Hole, bassist with south London post-punk band Goat Girl, to play on the Jabberwocky stage at Doune right before one of her all-time favourite artists will be a dream come true. Her starting point with the canon was the same as Burgess’: Smith’s first and biggest hit, released back in 1978, co-written with Bruce Springsteen.

‘I think I’d probably come across “Because The Night” first on the radio or something when I was a kid,’ Hole reflects. ‘I also remember Warpaint used to slip a snippet of it into their live rendition of “Baby”. For a while I was pretty obsessed with “Dancing Barefoot” and I learned it on guitar; it’s such an incredible song and I love the spoken-word part at the end, it’s so emotive. It makes me well up nearly every time.’

How does the Goat Girl bassist sum up the brilliance of such an artistic polymath? ‘I rate her highly for being brave enough to do something different in a male-dominated sphere. And for being fearless enough to show her armpit hair on the Easter album cover back in 1978.’

Doune The Rabbit Hole, Cardross Estate, Stirlingshire, Thursday 14–Sunday 17 July; Patti Smith plays on Thursday 14 July.