Tonight’s gig was at the Bloomsbury Ballroom. A small venue hidden in the basement of one of those big buildings on Bloomsbury square. It’s a weird little venue where you have to walk through what looks like a kitchen to get to the ballroom itself. Although it was an interesting little venue, the sound quality wasn’t the best I’ve heard.

Supporting BSP was John and Jehn, a French duo who also played at BSP’s Sing From The Hillside weekend, so I was aware of what to expect. At Tan Hill Inn,I managed to miss half of John and Jehn’s set. What I heard was okay but tonight, listening to their full set, I enjoyed their performance.

BSP’s set, as usual was excellent. With this being the last night of the gig, the set list was mainly crowd favourites though there were a few new songs from the forthcoming album.

The venue unfortunately had an 11pm curfew which curtailed BSPs usual 10+ minute song encores into a much shorter, though no less enjoyable 5 minute encore.

Encore

Waving Flags

Flickr Photos

British Sea Power @ Bloomsbury Ballroom

BSP had managed to put together a wide range of talent for the festival:

Friday

Goodnight Lenin, John & Jehn, Bo Ningen*, Race Horses*

Race Horses

Saturday

Sharp Tongues, My Sad Captains, Tom White, Basia Bulat*, Phantom Band, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis* and Modern Ovens

My Sad Captains

Tom White

Basia Bulat

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

Sunday

Alessi’s Ark, Matt Eaton*, Rose Dougall, Erland & the Carnival*, I Like Trains, Metronomy

Matt Eaton

Rose Dougall

Erland & the Carnival

I Like Trains

and of course British Sea Power headlining the Friday and Sunday nights.

The whole weekend was fantastic, if a little cold. With Tan Hill’s staff doing an fantastic job of keeping the food and drink flowing. BSP’s choice of bands (ably helped by Mark Riley) was absolutely spot on. Although some of the music wasn’t to my taste, none of it was bad. Some, such as Rose Dougall had previously failed to impress me, yet here with a full band, worked. Matt Eaton without his band, preformed a random set in the bar accompanied by Noble that could have been a disaster, but turned out to be a refreshing ‘down to earth’ set. Everything just seem to work.

The standout performances for me was ‘Race Horses’ with their energetic indie pop sound. Tom White’s amazing performance where the stage wasn’t big enough for him, was a performance where even if you didn’t like his music, you couldn’t help but enjoy. Basia Bulat’s amazing voice helped the Americana inspired indie sound lift the audience (she’s Canadian). Probably the biggest surprise was the amazingly talented Kitty, Daisy & Lewis who brought us a big enjoyable slice of rockabilly. All the members of the band are from the same family, including Mam on double bass and Dad on Guitar. With the kids able to move between all the instruments, I wonder what home sounds like in the evenings.

Most of the bands were so good, that since returning, I’ve bought several of their albums (indicated by * in the lists above).

Moving on to the main event. British Sea Power played two sets. The First on Friday night and a second set on Sunday. Despite Sunday’s set being affected by a power cut, both sets were more than up to par. On both nights, the highlights were the fantastic encores. Sunday’s included Yan and Noble crowd surfing and then hanging from the rafters during the energetic 20 minute performance of Lately.