As usual the music was a buffet of music styles to sample. Not all of it was to my taste. But for me, that’s not the point of these all-dayers. It’s a chance to catch new bands without the need to traipse between stages. Highlights for me the gothy Velvetine, Spanish Horses, St Clair, the last minute subs, Sounds Mint and the Adult DVD.

Before the music even starts I have already booked for Rockaway Beach 2027. Is this the perfect way to start the New Year, or is there actually something wrong with me? If this is an addiction, I am not sure it is one that I want to fix.

This is the earliest a Rockaway Beach has started. If I am honest, it is too close to the New Year for me and there were notable absences amongst friends who felt the same. A few years ago, I missed one due to COVID and I now tend to be careful in the run-up to the festival and restrict my activities a few day before it starts. Being so early, it put a slight damper on the end of my Christmas holidays. The early start, also didn’t give me any chance to work off some of the Christmas excesses and I have to admit, after nearly two weeks of sitting in front of the TV, I found the whole weekend a bit of an effort. Next year, the festival is at the end of the first week of January, which should work much better.

This year’s Rockaway Beach departed slightly from their usual template of legacy bands headlining and younger bands playing during the day. With two relatively young bangs headlining the Friday and Sunday, in the form of Soft Play and English Teacher, with PiL playing the Saturday night. I think this is a really positive move. I much prefer to see a new band, than a legacy band and it gives young bands the opportunity to move themselves up the booking lists for summer shows. It was great to see both young headliners, stepping up. But more on that later.

Arriving on site, it was clear that Butlins also found this to be an early start. They had literally just kicked out their New Year’s party guests and during the Friday, there were signs everywhere of the New Year festivities. I think everyone must have had streamers, they were everywhere, even the photo pit. (My room was clean through). However, as always, the wonderful Butlins staff managed to clear away the mess and by the evening, only the festive lights and the cold, reminded us that we were still in the Christmas holiday period.

Friday started a little bit later. Several bands had pulled out due to illness. The big risk for a January festival. I imagine the organisers dread every email and phone call their receive over the Christmas break. The later start meant the venue was probably the busiest it has been for the first act. Y, opened with an an impressive set of catchy songs that really warmed up the audience. I have seen Y a few times. But this was their best performance so far. A really excellent way to start the weekend.

This year, Rockaway continued to use the Centre Stage for the daytime music and the big warehouse-like Studio 36 for the evening headliner. The sound in both these venues is good. However, the problem remains that Studio 36 is pretty soulless. Several people I spoke to wanted to go back to Reds. But like me, they were the same people who complained about the poor sound in that venue. As much as I miss Reds, I think this is the better compromise.

The bigger stage also allows the young bands to hone their stage craft. Several of the bands said that Centre stage was the biggest crowd or stage they had played. I think Rockaway is becoming a winter training camp to ready bands for the summer’s festivals.

Stepping up at the last minute and the winner of Rockway Beach 2026 was ELLIS-D. A late replacement for one of the bands who had called in sick. ELLIS-D was new to most in the audience. Like Denmark, who in 1992 came from the beach to replace Yugoslavia in Euro 1992 and went on to win it. ELLIS-D completely owned the big stage, blasting through a tight set of his gothy post-punk psychedelia. When he said he only had one more song, there was a genuine sound of disappointment, only to be matched by the joy of him telling everyone it was 10 minutes long. I hadn’t seen ELLIS-D for about 18 months. On this evidence. The band have stepped up to another level. A really excellent performance.

Opening Studio 36, Idlewild left me bewildered. They were going down a storm with the audience. Some of whom had only come to the festival to see the band. I have to admit, I must have been missing something. They were tight. But they left me feeling disengaged.

Headlining the big stage were Soft Play, previously the Slaves. I have seen them numerous times, right from their very earliest days, when they played to an empty room at the Horn in St Albans. I love the energy these guys put into every performance. By the time I had left the pit, Laurence had split kicked several times and had already gone into the audience. I have seen them headline stages at other festivals. So this wasn’t anything new for them. However, they were playing to an audience who in the main didn’t know who they were, and they had the Rockaway crowd in the palm of their hands.

Unfortunately, I didn’t see much of their set, I headed back to Centre Stage to catch Mandrake Handshake with the intention of shooting a few songs and then returning. However, the pit closed as I got there, and heading back to Studio 36, I got waylaid by friends. But this is what is great about Rockaway. Rockaway has become the winter meeting point of so many summer festival goers. I think one year they need to play a festival version of the ‘Kevin Bacon separation game’. I’m pretty sure everyone at the festival can relate themselves to another person within two or three degrees of festival or local gig scene separation.

Closing the evening on Centre Stage, Antony Szmierek was in full ‘red coat’ mood. Fully embracing his end of evening slot, to bring some fun before we headed to bed. I think somebody should have given him a red coat. He was clearly enjoying the experience.

Opening up Saturday’s activities, Bruise Control took no prisoners. Everyone was shuck awake by their powerful performance of direct punk songs.

The next two bands gave people turning up with a hangover, more of a chance of easing themselves into Saturday. Returning to Rockaway Beach, Winter Gardens sound had grown more expansive. Atmospheric, gothic, with a moments of intense wailing guitars. It was a perfect palate cleanser after the directness of Bruise Control. Whitelands, who followed, continued with an excellent set of Shoegaze.

A new discovery for me, French band, We Hate You Please Die, at times reminded me of Sonic Youth, with a touch of the angular guitars Gilla Band used so well. If I didn’t know they were French, I would have sworn they were another Irish band produced by Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox.

I have seen Gans several times. Always on a small stage. They effortlessly shifted up a gear to make their set work on a big stage. I can see them having a very strong 2026 and I expect them to be playing venues like the Kentish Town Forum by the end of the year.

Over at Studio 36, a band I have had the pleasure to see develop from their Shacklewell days. Dry Cleaning brought their weird presence to the vast warehouse space. Their big draw is Florence’s spoken word stories. While the guitars swirl in the background, Florence performs her musings with minimum movement, but maximum expression. I never expect this to transfer to big stages. Through the camera lens, her performance is engaging and fascinating, but you need to be close to appreciate her acting. How does this transfer to a big audience? I honestly don’t know. But it does. While I briefly dipped out to see TV Smith on the second stage, I headed back to catch the end of their set. One of my highlights of the weekend.

Saturday headliner, PiL, played their usual game of requiring photographers to sign away copyright. I have done this in the past and if this was their gig, fine. But it’s a festival. Given I make every photo free under a Creative Commons license. It shouldn’t really make any difference to me. However, I don’t like the person John Lydon has turned into, so out of spite, I left and headed back to the Centre Stage which gave me a chance to finally catch Walt Disco, who played an excellent set of new music. This was my first opportunity to catch them and they seem to have toned down their glam flamboyance. But it was still a fine set.

Closing the evening where two Fat White family related bands. The first, Insecure Men seemed an odd late evening booking. Arriving on the stage smoking, pissing off the Bultins team. They proceeded to play a rather bland set. Thankfully, the excellent Moonlandingz got the party going, to close the evening.

Sunday had a more laidback feeling. Baggio, who seemed to have dragged half of south London’s musicians with them, played laid back ‘clever’ musician music. You know that noodly stuff that has been leaking out of London’s music schools for the last few years. It’s not my thing. But they sounded pleasantly clever and were suitable for those nursing heavy heads from Saturday night.

Shadowtail impressed me before Christmas. Ethereal vocals over textured layers of shoegaze isn’t usually my thing. However, I’m a sucker for bands who play guitars with a violin bow. Apparently, last year they changed their lineup. This new lineup has a lot of potential and I will catch them again.

Closing Centre Stage for another year, Inspiral Carpets, did little to inspire me. I found them bland in the 90s. They were just as bland here. Thankfully, over on Studio 36, Coach Party really stepped up to the big stage. I have only ever seen them play small shows and small festival stages. They have great energy, but I honestly never expected them to be this good on a big stage. Their set was probably a bit long and maybe they need to tweak the running order. However, they had their air of a band ready for the challenge to become an arena band. It impressive to see how much they’ve developed.

Closing the festival were English Teacher. I am going to be honest, I think English Teacher are overrated. However, I was so pleased to see Rockaway give them a chance to headline. They did a great job of expanding their sound to the larger stage. Lily’s vocals were immaculate and at times stunning. While they didn’t change my opinion of them, I prefer more energy from my headliners, they are clearly ready to play the biggest stages. Maybe they need a touch more stage craft so that there is a performance to be seen at the back of a big crowd. But they appeared to be ready to step up. Rockaway is the perfect festival to offer new bands the opportunity to headline a big stage. They had sold 50% of their ticket for 2027 before the end of the weekend. Many of us return for the experience. The music is a bonus.

Another successful year and Rockaway has revitalised me after Christmas and wetted my appetite for what the 2026 music scene will deliver. There still remains issues with accessibility in Studio 36 that needs to be sorted out. But Butlins staff continue to be brilliant, in pretty much every other way. The festival has now pretty much nailed the January format and this has become the perfect post-Christmas break. I will be back next year.

So are their queues? Well I didn’t experience any.  Although I did hear there were occasional queues at the Prince Albert and Hope and Ruin. But that’s pretty good going. This is nowhere near The Great Escape levels of queuing. All good? Well kind of. So let’s get the negatives out of the way before I talk about the positives. 

When you look at the lineup poster, the bands at the top that have been highlighted in bold, basically play at the same time. You have to choose who you want to see. That’s how they achieve the queuing sleight of hand. If you are choosing this festival over all the other options around, be aware of this. This may seriously change how interesting you might perceive the festival. What made me attend was that lots of my favourite bands were listed – but they all played at the same time. On Friday, DITZ up against Dry Cleaning, IST IST and University. Saturday, Lambrini Girls, Big Special, Benefits and Courting up against each other. It meant some difficult decisions.

Despite these difficult choices, I managed to finally catch IST IST, who were everything I hoped they would be. Benefits and Lambrini Girls brought their own takes on the state of society. I discovered a few excellent bands. For some reason, I had never seen Aint. Their set was enough to convince me that they are to be added to my must see list. Sadly, the other band who stood out, Golomb are from Ohio, so it might be difficult to catch them again.

Overall, it was an enjoyable festival. With a late afternoon start on the Friday and with most venues finishing relatively early on Saturday, it felt short compared to the Great Escape. TGE is much better value for money. However, it was nice to not have to queue. And with the festival taking place in November, hotel prices were much cheaper. Approaching the weekend, as a short weekend break in Brighton with some music, it worked. I suspect I will be back. However, I will wait until the lineup is announced.

As somebody who loves the Velvet Underground when they head off into controlled chaos, along with discordant classical music, the New Eves sound is heaven, as they mix these genres to create their own unique sound. Most songs descend into a frenzy of cellos, violins, guitars and voices, with ritualistic bass and drums underpinning the music. It’s a heady concoction. Their music always takes me out of my body. Often their songs seem to take me on a journey to a different plane of existence. It’s like another reality is forcing its way through the band, into our reality.

They closed the show by inviting their support band, Radio Anorak, back on stage to play the Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light’. It was all a bit shambolic, but glorious fun for both them and us.

With its ‘Ceremony’ one-dayers, Bedford Esquires has proved it is possible for a venue relatively close to London to curate and sell out, cracking lineups of new up and coming artists. ‘Escape to the City’ is St Albans’s attempt at hosting one. Organised by gig goer turned promoter, James Berrecloth, he has curated a good lineup for this inaugural event at the Pioneer Club. Organising a one-dayer as your first event, is a big challenge and a very brave thing to take on.

Briefly chatting to James, he said the event needed to sell about 300 to break even. Which was a big ask, given that’s pretty much the capacity of the Pioneer Club. In the end about 100 tickets were sold. Personally, I think that’s a decent amount for a completely new festival. But I would suspect this was a disappointing number for James.

Unsurprisingly, the food truck they had organised pulled out, which left everyone in a bit of a bind, as the Club doesn’t have any amenities nearby. It’s a 15 minute walk to St Albans high street and given the Pioneer Club is a charity, they can’t afford to support James by putting on food themselves, as it could lead to them losing money too. But these are the challenges you experience when you are a new promoter.

In the run up to the event, James had said some things in the local paper that I thought were a bit unfair to the local scene. While these might have been taken out of context, tonight he repeated them on stage. It was along the lines of, ‘it was his mission to save the local scene’. While the event was helping the Pioneer Club, which as a charity, couldn’t risk putting on such an event themselves. So clearly a good thing. It was still a bit disrespectful to places like the Horn and Club 85, who have for decades offered local bands a place to play. While inspiring the local music scene by regularly enticing touring bands to their venues. Scenes happen organically. They are something you support, rather force and James idea of a scene, may not be the scene St Albans needs. He has good intentions. Hopefully he finds his place with the scene.

To throw James some shade, the two opening artists were local, with singer Leona Rue playing a solo set in the bar area and three piece indie band Kodi, kicking off the main stage.

Sadly, there were some sound issues on the main stage. Down at the front, the vocals were often missing in the mix for the first few songs. Somebody suggested it might have been due to the fact that the speakers are high up and the sound desk was on a mezzanine at the same level. I guess the sound engineer wasn’t hearing what we were hearing. Something to tweak for future festivals. Maybe it’s simply a case of adding a pit, so that the audience is a little behind the hanging speakers?

In the bar, Kitty Fitz, who played three sets today played a nice set of songs. Back on the main stage, Dear Tash, with her alt-rock sound, felt a bit incongruous to the lineup. But her high energy performance kept me entertained.

On the bar stage, Lilith Ai was a revelation. She twice played Daylight Music at the Union Chapel, once rocking up at the last minute with an acoustic guitar, wearing a parker and simply plugged in and played some fantastic songs. But this was a very different Lilith. Rocking a fantastic shock of blond hair, along with an electric guitar, she’s gone all rock, climbing on tables, bringing an infectious energy to the day. It felt like the party had started.

Over on the main stage were Y, the band with the ungoogleable name, featuring the mandatory member of the Fat White family required of all south London bands. They are part of the movement to break out of the darkness of post-punk, throwing in danceable beats and blazing saxophones.

On the bar stage, another missed beat for me. Alt-rock act Bridget, managing to get a small mosh going, after asking old people to crouch down. I wish bands would stop trying to force us to be boisterous. Let us decide if your music is worthy of a mosh. It’s one of the few benefits of getting old. You have less energy to mosh to everything, so we become more discerning. Bridget was enjoyable enough. But again, felt like she was on the wrong bill.

Irish singer Kynsy, keeps impressing me. This is the third time I’ve seen her and the various incarnations of her band. I really rate her. Emotional, but at times breezy indie. It seems effortless. I’m sure it’s not that easy to make it look that effortless.

Back in the bar, Retropxssy, who I saw at the Great Escape, continued to bamboozle me. Rapping into a wireless mic and playing amongst the audience is entertaining from a photography point of view. But I don’t connect to her music.

The Itch are interesting. I loved Regressive Left. They seemed to find the post-punk structure too restrictive and with The Itch broke out the mould with a more keyboard driven and at time danceable sound. They are worth catching.

Sadly, the band suffered from sound issues. On the main stage, this was a common occurrence throughout the day. During setup, some tosser rudely told them to hurry up, when it was obviously beyond their control. Simon suggested that if the guy could do better, maybe he could show them. Georgia, then gutsily headed out into the crowd to have a quiet word with him. We didn’t see him again. All regular gig goers rue the missed months of our lives we’ve wasted standing around waiting for acts. But we also recognise genuine technical issues.

Closing the bar stage was Lilo. I have seen them before, playing as a duo. This was the first I had seen them play as a band. Their breezy alt-folk was a good way to close the stage.

Closing the main stage and the day were Picture Parlour. As James said when he introduced them, there is such a buzz around them and with their debut album coming in November, they are destined for bigger stages. In singer, Katherine Parlour, they have a magnetic front woman. Her impressive rock vocals taking centre stage. An impressive first headline booking for the event.

For a first attempt at a one-dayer, they did a good job. While there were sound issues that need to be sorted out if this takes place again, the day broadly ran on time. Using the bar as a second stage worked and the sound was good. Maybe it was a bit chatty at times. But the two stages and the venue worked. The challenge will be to cover future costs.

Personally, I think 300 is unrealistic for a relatively expensive one day event. While you can argue £25 for a one-dayer isn’t that expensive. There were numerous cheaper or even free all-dayers in London. For example, next week is a free two-day event at the Green Door Store in Brighton, a place that’s easier to drag people from London to. Add in the difficulty of encouraging Londoners to travel out to the sticks, along with the Pioneer Club not being in the most convenient location. Without an existing local audience, it’s a difficult ask to attract 300 people. Given this year had a strong lineup. I feel this leaves future events in bit of a pickle. Ideally, they need to reduce the ticket price. But if they did that, it wouldn’t leave much budget to entice bands and to hire in the sound for the bar stage. Without a cracking lineup, who’s going to travel to St Albans?

It will be interesting to see where this goes. If they want my advice, they need to become more involved with the local scene. Pick young talented local bands who will bring their friends. Given that the Pioneer Club is primarily known as a skate park. Maybe offer discount tickets for under 18s, to attract some of the skating crowd. Maybe focus on skating culture and attract sponsorship from extreme sports related brands. Make it more of an event and a natural extension of the club. This would mean switching the focus from the ‘6 Music’ audience to a younger audience. The Pioneer Club is a cool venue for such an event. I suspect the festival needs to find a sound that suits the club and music that better fits local tastes. Which probably won’t be to mine, or James taste.

As a first stab at a one-dayer, they did a great job. Those who attended, enjoyed themselves and there were no major issues. Hopefully, they will find a way to make the event sustainable and it will come back bigger and better next year and prove that St Albans is a place to hear new indie music.

A mature festival like SXSW, running for the first time in London, has some serious expectations to meet. SXSW is unparalleled in size, using Austin’s big convention centre, numerous hotels, cinemas, and music venues, but with a remarkably compact footprint. You can overdose on music, films and interesting talks, without straying too far from the convention centre or hotel. Austin seems to have a density of music venues, probably unparalleled outside of Nashville.

London’s iteration announced that it was going to be based in Shoreditch. There are obvious synergies. The ‘New Media’ industries that based themselves in Shoreditch over the last 20 years, are always in attendance and Austin has clearly influenced Shoreditch over the last 20 years.

However, there are fundamental problems SXSW London needed to address and sadly, they go beyond there being no breakfast tacos. My first concern was simply that I’m not sure Shoreditch is capable of hosting a festival of SXSW Austin’s size. London as a whole is. It has the conference centres. It has more music venues than Austin. It has more cinema screens. But it is also a massive city compared to tiny Austin. Its conference centres are spread across the city. Its music venues sprout up in little creative hubs across the city and while say Leicester Square could handle the film festival, they would be too expensive and big for the festival to use and the smaller arthouse cinemas are spread across the city.

Another problem, unlike Austin, where it takes place over 10 days and Interactive finishes and music takes over, this festival was going take place over 6 days. The overlap between ‘interactive’ attendees and music has always been remarkably small, with the interactive attendees seemingly on company expenses, leaving at the start of music, so there’s no competition over venues. Clearly squashing everything into six days, across an unknown number of venues – with no conference centre in Shoreditch meant that the perceived value of conference badges was far less. You might therefore expect the badges to be cheaper. But they weren’t. The Platinum badge for London was more expensive than the last badge I bought in 2019. They even tried to pull a US trick that us in the UK aren’t used to. Quoting ticket prices excluding VAT.

Given all these unknowns. You would assume that SXSW London would try to cover them off to encourage ticket sales. With regular news about speakers, the venues they were using, featured films and artists playing the music festival, etc. Instead, it seemed their main approach was simply to offer discounts to previous SXSW attendees and to stay quiet about what we should expect for our money. There was no way I was purchasing a full badge for what was clearly going to be a second-class experience.

When they finally announced the list of artists. The lineup wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting it to be full of the best new indie talent from around the UK and Europe. Instead, there were slim pickings. I guess in an effort to reflect the more diverse music of London, there was much more R&B and rap. In fairness, this was the right thing to do, this diverse mix of music reflects London’s music scene. But to sell tickets, you need to provide something to entice the usual gig attendees. The lineup was so unappealing that none of my gig buddies bought tickets. These are the very people you would expect to jump at buying wristbands, people who gig across London most nights and attend festivals like the Great Escape. Their argument were that there was more than enough good stuff happening in London and with no clear draw, it was easier to do a normal gigging week.

I’m of the belief that London is crying out for a multi-day, multi-venue festival. Other UK cities have them. Many, like The Great Escape, seem to have modelled themselves on SXSW and I expected SXSW London to be in prime position to become the London multi-venue festival. However, after this first festival, they have a lot of work to do to make this happen.

A few weeks before the festival started, they finally announced venues and music wristbands. The wristbands were very reasonably priced. £100 for the six day music pass. The venues, were pretty much what I expected. XOYO, Village Underground, Old Blue Last, Rich Mix, Strong Room Bar, Jaguar Shoes, Colours. There were some surprises, such as Shoreditch Town Hall.

On the surface it didn’t look too bad. Not brilliant. But not bad. There seemed to be no late licenses. So venues would finish at 11pm meaning I could travel in each day and go home to my own bed.

However, in reality, there was a lot of walking for very slim pickings. At SXSW I can see 35 bands in a day jumping between venues on Reds and 6th Street. At SXSW London, I was seeing less than 10 bands a day. I see more at The Great Escape and I’ve spent years moaning about the venue density.

What surprised me most, was how little impact SXSW had on Shoreditch. On the first day, walking down from St Pancras, through Angel, down to Old Street, I didn’t see a single poster or sign. Even in Shoreditch, it wasn’t prominent. Most bars, shops, cafes and restaurants seemed oblivious to SXSW with no signs encouraging SXSW attendees into their establishments.

The second day, I got off at London Bridge as I wanted to visit WEX on Commercial Road. Walking up Brick Lane to the main conference hub at the Truman Brewery, you wouldn’t know anything was happening. Basically the first SXSW sign I saw was at the Brewery. This isn’t a SXSW I’m used to. You can’t move in Austin for SXSW branding. Austin breathes SXSW.

Despite some backing from Sadiq Khan, the festival was almost invisible. This isn’t unusual for London. Even big football matches can have little impact on the city. But you expect the local area to embrace the event. Shoreditch seemed oblivious the event was happening. This has to change for the festival to be successful. London needs to do better. Sadly, with some venues seeing really low footfall, they might have a problem convincing existing venues to participate next year.

During the week, the lack of venues proved problematic. Some had dual use. During the day they were conference venues, in the evening music venues. At times there were only half a dozen venues in use and given the diversity of music, it meant at times there wasn’t much to listen to. That isn’t to say I didn’t try other music genres, but none of it really excited me. At one point on Friday afternoon, there were only three venues with music on. That’s just not good enough.

One advantage of the low key first year was that despite there being few venues, most of the time it was easy to get into venues. This was a real positive. If I’m dragging myself 20 minutes across Shoreditch, I need to know I’m getting in. Other than one event, even the Village Underground was easy to get into – and with none of their usual security search shenanigans.

Hopefully, they can grow the venue density over the next year by enticing some of the pubs to host gigs while increasing the audience. If they just increase the audience, then there simply isn’t enough venues and everyone will be queuing.

One massive positive was that the British Music Embassy put in a short but welcome appearance. The BME is sponsored by industry and the DTI to promote the British music industry in the USA. So you wouldn’t expect them to be hosting a venue in the UK. I think there was a realisation that maybe SXSW London needed a bit of a helping hand and they spun this up at the last minute. Anyone who’s been to Austin knows that the British Embassy team are one of the best. Taking over Devonshire Square for two days, featuring some of the hottest bands who played their Austin venue, such as Gurriers, they provided a real showcase venue. Hopefully, they will be more involved next year.

Sadly, SXSW London hadn’t enticed any of the national groups who put on SXSW events in Austin. The Aussies are still taking their music to The Great Escape. SXSW London seemed to have missed a great opportunity to encourage the European music industry to bring their country’s artists over.

Not everything was within the control of SXSW. Unfortunately, like Austin last year, SXSW London experienced some controversy. Several artists signed up to SXSW without researching what SXSW is. Pulling out when they realised that the main conference featured talks from politicians and companies with connection to activities they didn’t agree with. Then the usual peer pressure caused artists to drop out at the last minute when they decided Tony Blair speaking at the conference, didn’t fit with their morals.

I don’t have an issue with artists pulling out of events when they are caught off guard or protesting when they don’t agree with something. Many argued SXSW Music told them that there wouldn’t be anyone controversial giving keynotes. There seemed to be a feeling that the different SXSW stands were keeping each other in the dark and that SXSW Music were unaware Blair was speaking. Personally, I don’t buy this. I don’t think SXSW perceived Blair as an issue and they are hardly going to tell bands that their big surprise was that they had arranged for ex-Prime Ministers to talk. It’s also hardly surprising that there might be individuals on panels who might have connections to things artists don’t like. I always feel artists should play and make it known that they disagree. But they shouldn’t don’t pull out due to peer pressure. In this case, many just look like idiots who had not bothered to research what SXSW does.

Rant over.

But it was annoying.

Some lineups were devastated, with massive gaps in the running order. When many of the stages had hand curated their lineups, trying to encourage representation. Artists pulling out denied opportunities to other who may have benefitted from the exposure. From my perspective, at times it meant very little music. Given most stages tried to be diverse, alongside numerous lineups that defaulted to diversity, such as two stages of South Asian music and several LGBTQ+ stages. There were points in each day when there were zero indie artists. Best way to illustrate the issue was Scottish music brought no indie artists. Probably fulfilling their arts funding, they brought a diverse selection of artists. But when everyone else was doing the same, it meant the lineup didn’t appeal to the average ‘6 Music’ gig goer.

Next year they need to tweak the formula. Increase the number of venues to get more of the normal traditional indie fare on the bill. They shouldn’t reduce the ratio of artists from the diverse musical and social backgrounds by increasing the indie representation by adding new venues. They need to keep the number of venues with none indie music as I think this could be SXSW’s key unique selling point compared to all the UK indie festivals. Maybe they need to encourage some of the notable indie venues around London and the UK to bring local lineups, so the traditional indie audience will buy tickets. Personally, I think it would also be good to get London-based Loud Women involved who seem to strike a good balance pushing inclusivity.

Musically, it could have been stronger. If this is the standard next year, The Great Escape will feel relieved. Many of the artists I saw, I had seen before. New artists that stood out were Bethia Beadman, August Charles, Cosmonaut, Uncle Junior, Karma Sheen, HMS Morris. But there were slim pickings. A weekender at the Windmill would have a stronger lineup.

There are some things the festival can’t fix, the main one being the weather. It wasn’t fun trekking between venues in the pouring rain. Maybe next year there needs to be SXSW branded umbrellas? It was most definitely not the Austin experience.

What was most disappointing, by the time Saturday came round I think the corporates were heading home. With heavy rain that day, I think people headed home and footfall was atrocious and by the end, Benefits, the last band of the day had maybe a dozen people watching them in an empty 93 East. With such poor turnout at these venues, SXSW may have a job convincing them to take part next year.

SXSW is definitely a ‘work in progress’. It felt like it was a pencil sketch of a potentially good idea. Apparently SXSW London operates as a franchise and has a multi-year contract. The talk at the festival was that there is a Berlin addition planned. If that’s the case, London needs to quickly turn its pencil sketch into a more realised version. Berlin sounds more attractive to me. My feeling after this year is that it has a long way to go to convince the UK that this is the default place to find new music. It may end up having to drop live music from the festival and accept it is simply an ideas festival.

Artists seen

Amelia Coburn, Anaiis, August Charles, Ava Joe, Baby Said, Benefits, Catrin Finch and Aoife Ni Bhrian, Beauty Sleep, Bethia Beadman, Charlie Austin, Christopher Clarke, Clara Serra Lopez, Cosmonaut, Cucamaras, Eden J Howells, Ella Jinks, Ellor, Enjoyable Listens, Florence Road, Gia Ford, GIFT, Girlband!, Gurriers, HMS Morris, Hollows, Hornet, Jay Chakravorty, Joviale, Kaoti, Karma Sheen, Kay Greyson, Korda Korder, Levitation Orchestra, L’Objectif, Lucky Iris, Orchards, MONO, Mystery Time, Nikitar, PRITT, Robinson’s Village, Samuel Sharp, Salvana, Sm*sher, Sol Paradise, Stay In Nothing, SUDS, Sunflower Thieves, Taliable, Tatyana, The White Gates Band, Thistle, Trisha Tan, Uncle Junior, Vegas Water Taxi, Vulva Voce, Wave Machine, Wildes, Yasmin Umay

TARMAC started the day off with a bang.

The Battery Farm

Kez

Shortstraw

Sounds Mint my new band highlight from the day

GANS

Alien Chicks dealt with guitar issues, but still delivered a great set

The Pill

I’d forgot how good Grandma’s House are. I won’t forget again.

Familiar face

Big Special being special

The critical success of the first album seems to have given them the time to develop the second album and explore different sounds. The first album also brought many famous admires, including Pete Doherty, who features on one of the tracks. I think the realisation that they cannot keep changing drummers, has forced them to strip back their sound even further to just Robbie and Kingsley. Instead of adding guitars, Robbie has taken the bold step of adding layers of violin feedback to some of the songs and to add layers of synth textures. I think the rotation of drummers may have helped them too. Each drummer brought different styles of drumming to their songs. Each drummer brought their own personality to the music. I felt the excellent Kat Myers especially, added an element of dance to some of their tracks and I wonder if these drummers have influenced Robbie and Kingsley when they wrote this album, encouraging them add more dancy drum patterns to many of the songs.

Billed by some, as Benefits dance album. I was unsure it would be my thing. While I am more open to dance music than I used to be. I was worried they had written an album that I would not go back to. Despite some of the early reviews suggesting this was a more dance-orientated album, ‘Constant Noise’ is not that. There are elements of ambiance, trance and dance. There are also some tracks that repeat their shock noise too. The surprise for me is that the album at times delicate and beautiful. It is full of shifting textures that site behind and compliment Kingsley’s poetry. Some of the pieces I have touches of post-classical. Imagine Phillip Glass wrote a Koyaanisqatsi-like piece about war from the perspective of a post-Brexit Teesside estate, that’s ‘Missiles’. ‘Everything is Going To Be Alright’ is a laid-back ‘New York Counterpoints being hummed by a slightly drunk contemplative Teessider’. This isn’t the album I expected. In fact on first list, I was blown aware by it. It is a strong contender for my album of the year. After my first listen, I was so impressed, I bought a second ticket for the album release show at Resident Records in Brighton.

Tonight, was the album release show at Rough Trade, ‘down in that London’. Kingsley and Robbie , sans drummer and Robbie’s brother, now a two piece, brought with them, Shakk, the Teesside rapper featured on ‘Divide’, who added a new dimension to their sound. The textures of the album worked beautifully live. Driving beats, shock noise, then textures. The shift between light and shade, works. While the album isn’t as visceral as Nails, the politics is still there. While Nails was the teacher shouting at you. This new set of songs, is the contemplative moment when you are standing on the naughty step, thinking about what you did wrong. Sometimes you have to stop shouting, to make people listen. I know from experience, the constant noise of the first album often alienated Benefits from unsuspecting audiences at festivals. I hope adding these news textures into the live set will bring in new audiences.

God knows what they will do for their third album. Maybe it will be a country album? I hate country music. Knowing them, this is exactly what they will do.

Arriving just after six, there were already half a dozen people in the queue. By 6.30, there was a significant queue full of young people, many of whom were expressing their love for the game by cosplaying the main character. After seeing the audience age with me, seeing an influx of young faces is frankly brilliant to see. Many showing their nervous excitement.

Opening the evening were White Magic for Lovers, Tom White’s band with his husband Alfie, who has never been in a band before and playing some of his first ever gigs. Tom is such a talented musician and the new music is full of texture. A fine way to start the evening.

Whitelands, were warmly received at Sea Power’s Krankenhaus festival. Their shoegaze, a perfect accompaniment to tonight’s Sea Power set.

Sea Power had advertised this tour as a soundtrack tour. With several soundtracks under their belt, often using music inspired by songs on their albums, this was going to be a very different set list. I was concerned that some of the new audience might not be familiar with their albums and be disappointed when album versions of incidental music from Disco Elysium was played. But listening to their discussions in the queue, many knew the albums and even the words of the songs.

The set list was devoid of most of my favourites. All the loud moshy tracks were missing. I had assumed the set list would feature some of the fan favourites, even if they were just as an encore. However, Sea Power continue to surprise me. The set list was all texture, no noise. It was a beautiful and at times a mesmerising set. Each time a Disco related track was played, the significant numbers of youngsters in the audience cheered, I think to the bemusement of long time fans. There felt a genuine warmth between the two audiences. I found it very heartwarming.

Surprising, I was knocked out by tonight. The set list was both a surprise and a triumph. Stripped of the bombast, it showed what great song writers they are. So many beautiful textures. So many beautiful moments. It was so great to see a new audience find Sea Power and this giving Sea Power the freedom to chuck away the fan faves and play a such a beautiful show.

Set List

• True Adventures
• Smallest Church
• The Land Beyond
• Come Wander Want To Be Free
• Praise for Whatever
• Fire Escape
• Childhood Memories
• Fear Eats The Soul
• Lakeland Echo
• Bear
• North Hanging Rock
• St Spirit of St Louis / No Lucifer
• Once More Now  
• Cleaning Out The Rooms
• The Great Skua

Tonight’s instore at Rough Trade’s Denmark Street store was a stripped-back acoustic gig with no amplification. This worked brilliantly. I am really pleased I took a punt to fit this into a busy day with two other gigs.

Lucy, the lead singer’s vocals were stripped of that alt-rock production that I don’t really like. Her vocal performance was outstanding. Clear warm vocals with an impressive range. It is not easy singing in a big room without amplification and keeping your tone. I had seen an artist play the same space a few weeks earlier who I couldn’t hear. That wasn’t the case with Lucy. At one point she hit a high note that could have become screechy or shouty, but I heard myself saying ‘wow’. She has brilliant control over her vocals. It seems a shame that this is hidden behind so much production in the album.

It was also helped by how personable the band were in front of many people who were shopping for music. These can be difficult gigs. Although there were friends and relatives in the audience and there were so many genuine smiling faces. This was a really warm gig and I am really pleased I decided to add it squeeze it in. They need to do an acoustic tour.