My most watched band of the year was Public Service Broadcasting, but as usual British Sea Power featured heavily along with a new band, Black Honey.

January was busier than in previous years featuring a number of new bands such as the fun Hinds, Tamun Shud, Jagarra and Saint Agnes. The highlight of the month was the postponed British Sea Power ‘Sea Of Brass’ concert at the Barbican.

February featured some excellent sets by Thurston Moore, Honeyblood, Peace and Public Service Broadcasting. I also caught new bands such as Dolomite Minor, Ex Hex and Songhoy Blues. The highlight was a visit to Leicester’s National Space Centre for Public Service Broadcasting’s album launch gig.

March proved to be a very busy month. Lots of new bands, some excellent, such as Courtney Barnett, Kid Wave, The Lovely Eggs, and a rather amazing group of Spanish teenagers, Mourn. It was also a chance to catch Bo Ningen being their usual expressive selves. The Staves also were sublime. February also featured two of the worst band of the year, Madonnatron and Giant Swan.

April featured some excellent sets from Wolf Alice, Saint Agnes, PROM, Nadine Shah, Saint Saviour and Jagarra, Laura Marling, PINS, Drenge. I also reappraised Bloody Knees who seem to have improved since I last saw them. Highlight was the Lock Tavern’s Easter freebie gigs with a whole host of excellent bands.

May looks quiet on paper. Only 12 gigs. In reality, I hardly had a free evening as two of those ‘gigs’ were The Great Escape festival and my first visit to Primavera Sound. As you can imagine, this meant I saw lots of bands, too many to run through. New band highlights were Black Honey and Torres.

As if it was possible, June was even busier than May, with 25 gigs during the month. From a gig in a Catalonia cathedral, to favourites such as British Sea Power, it was a varied month. Highlights were Blur, Coathangers, Torres, Savages, Sea of Bees, Wolf Alice. But the best gig of the month was British Sea Power at the Roundhouse celebrating the 12th anniversary and re-release of the ‘Decline of British Sea Power’.

July and August are ‘Classical’ months as the BBC Proms start. It’s also the time when bands seem to disappear off to festivals so there’s less happening around London. So both months were pretty quiet. July’s highlight was the Savages and Dead Forest Index’s Barbican ‘sound space’ and in August, Girl Band, a band who’s impressed me throughout 2015.

September was back to normal with some excellent sets by Torres, Drinks, Bo Ningen, Kid Wave, Kingsley Chapman and the Murder, Baba Naga, and Sexwitch. There was also a new mini (free) festival near Kings Cross from the Green Man Festival featuring some excellent bands. Hopefully, it will happen again next year. Highlight of September was Torres. Her Scala gig one of my highlights of the year.

In October I made my first ever visit to Butlins. They’d put together their own new indie festival , Rockaway Beach. It was pretty good. The line-up featuring lots of bands I didn’t know and some were excellent, such as the Band of Holy Joy, Membranes, John Knox Sex Club, Ghostpoet, Telescopes. Definitely something I’ll consider going to again.

November I managed to catch the Eagles of Death Metal. With the attacks in Paris a week after the London gig, it left many of us regular gig goers in reflective mood. They’re such a fun band that it somehow makes it worse. That they of all bands, were attacked. If you want any doubt of what kind of world ISIS wants to create, go to an EODM gig. The fun and joy they want to create, is the antithesis of what ISIS stands for and I for one know which world I want to live in. Other highlights were FEWS, Bully, Kingsley Chapman and Josh T Pearson.

December closed off the year in pretty good style with Christmas gigs from Josh T Pearson and British Sea Power and an excellent set from Queen Kwong. But there was also a surprise in the form of the Savages playing a relatively small venue in advance of the January launch of their new album. They are just such an impressive live band.

Best gig: Torres at Scala

I was really tempted to give the gig of the year to British Sea Power’s Roundhouse gig. It was an amazing gig for fans. But this year Torres has impressed me more than anyone else. Her album is sublime and her Scala gig with her full band was just amazing. She’s such an expressive singer so her album’s emotional numbers seemed to take an extra dimension when played live. At times you feel like putting an arm round her to comfort her, other times, almost scared that she’s about to go ‘psycho’!

Band of the year: Torres

I’ve seen her play on her own on a big stage at Primavera and also with her band at Scala and she’s equally impressive.

Best new band: Black Honey

Technically, 2015 was the first time I saw Torres. But I loved her first album and missed her 2014 tour. But as she’s won best band, I’m choosing a second band, Black Honey, as my new band of the year. I’d not heard much from them before I saw them at the Great Escape. I’ve since seem them four other tines. I think that says it all. They’re such a good live band and I’m looking forward to seeing them record and album in 2016. Definitely worth catching them live.

Best venue: Moth Club

A very late entry. I’ve only been twice and on consecutive nights at the end of November. The Moth Club is an old Services Club in Hackney and they’ve turned the function room into a gig venue. It’s a bit odd but that’s part of what I liked about it. They’ve created a great little venue. Yes it’s tacky with sparkly roof and lots of Service memorabilia on the walls. But I really liked it.

Best Festival: The Great Escape

Primavera was enjoyable but too big for me. I’d do it again because Barcelona is a lovely place to visit. Rockaway Beach was surprisingly good and I’m definitely going to consider going again. It was far better than I expected but it has some operation issues to sort out. It wasn’t too busy (which is a good thing in many ways) but this meant that outside of festival hours the place was dead and much of the Butlins site shut. With Bognor being pretty much dead in October, there’s little to do. So this doesn’t compare well to Brighton’s The Great Escape, where there’s more than enough to do if there’s a lull in the festival line-up. So for this reason, The Great Escape wins.

Worst Venue: Lock Tavern

Oddly, they put on a decent weekend at Easter. But it’s just too crowded. The venue is actually a through-room to the roof garden. So it’s really not a conducive space for a gig as there’s always people pushing by.  

Best gig photo: Black Honey at the Garage

I’ve already written about my favourite photos of the year. My favourite photo of the year was this photo of Black Honey taken with my pocket camera.

Album of the Year: Sprinter from Torres

‘Sprinter’ by Torres narrowly edged out ‘Holding Hands with Jamie’ by Girl Band.

Overall, I thought it was pretty decent value, the weather was good and it wasn’t overcrowded. So I was pleasantly surprised by the festival. So what was the music like?

I started the day with another performance by Ex Hex. As always, it was good simple rock and roll, played well.

Next up were the Allah-las. Never seen them before. They were pleasant enough but just didn’t grab me. They were a little unfair though. They played into the setup time for Viet Cong, despite receiving the signal to wind up. So black mark against them.

The Field Day site has a number of stages. Two big stages and then a few small stages. One of the small stages was sponsored by Jaegermeister and featured Tough Love.

I like this band. They’ve got some really good songs. But they both come across as really nice people and their good stuff, is really good.

Tuff Love

Tuff Love

Another band that won me over simply because they appeared to be nice people, were Spring King. I think I saw them at the Great Escape and wasn’t impressed. They were playing quiet a big stand and the music all seemed to be pretty run of the mill – and it is. But on a small stage, they interacted with the crowd with a nice line of self-deprecating humour they put in a really frantic performance that wasn’t short changing anyone.

Spring King

Spring King

Spring King

The Field Day site is pretty compact. So it’s easy to wander around between stages so I wandered between stages on the way to catch the end of Matthew E. White. Nothing, including Matthew, particularly interested me.

??

Matthew E. White

As I was bouncing between stages, I ended up back at the Jaegermeister venue. A band called Whilk and Misky were setting up. I took one look at them and decided that I wasn’t going to like them. Too hipster for me. They also had a bunch of arseholes hanging around them. Clearly friends, all drunk and full of themselves, in the ‘we’re friends of the band’ type way you regularly see. (Friends of bands can be the worst audience. They’ve seen the band before, so think it’s fine to mess around or talk and shout through the set – this group were this type of friend). I really was going to move on. They just looked like a band I’d dislike. But then the singer started playing and singing. He’s got a pretty decent voice. It’s got a nice bluesy tone to it. They mix the guitar with the keyboards adding some interesting rhythms. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t like everything they did. I preferred the songs with which felt more bluesy. But they were watchable.

As I was only really here for the Savages. I decided it was time to get my place at the front for their gig. This ‘unfortunately’ meant watching the Hookworms. 🙂 However, the tent appeared remarkably quiet to say the Hookworms were playing. It was only now that I realised that the Hookworms had cancelled due to illness. Their replacements, the Ducktails were unfortunately one of those bands that are really bad, not because they’ve written bad music, but because they’ve written music of absolutely no interest. Music that’s just bland. Their performances, didn’t help either. They didn’t seem to be anymore interested by their own music than we were. I really couldn’t wait for the music to be over because at least the Shacklewell’s DJs had been playing decent music.

Thankfully, the Savages woke me from my slumber. As you would now expect for a band that have spent the last two years building a reputation around their live performances, they were fantastic. Coming armed with new songs, and their now formidable stage presence. They blasted their way through a great 1 hour set. The 10 minutes long Fuckers is now really becoming one of the highlights of their set. Their new material was heavier and at least on first listen, feels less textured than some of their best material. But it probably just needs some bedding down. Fuckers felt like that the first time they played it and now it’s one of their strongest songs. So it bodes well for the new album.

As always, they put in 100%. Jenny was her usual self, talking to the crowd throughout the set but in a way that only she does. Where you know if you say something wrong, you might get a well directed DM aimed at a delicate body part. The rest of the band played to their usual high standard. The rhythm section (one of the strongest around) underpinning the Gemma’s swirling guitar sound. They really are a band where every cog fits. They even use the lighting really effectively to enhance their sound with stark lighting, with very little colour, just strong white lights with the odd yellow highlighter and smoke. A great festival set.

After the Savages storming set. It was time to head off. There was only Ride still playing and after the Savages, they seemed even more bland that at Primavera. But can’t complain. Not a bad day.

Thankfully, the Coathangers were on top form with their brand of fun chaotic pop punk rock. Support came from a The Virgin Kids and dutch band, St Tropez. The later putting in a great performance.

The Coathangers

The Coathangers

The Coathangers

The Coathangers

The Coathangers

St Tropez

St Tropez

St Tropez

Virgin Kids

Day 0

Arriving a day early and with my hotel room unavailable, I headed down to the main festival site. It was a 30 minute bus ride from my base for the week near the Arc de Triomf. I was expecting to see big hordes queing to get tickets. But I was straight in and out, with my new mini backpack, wristband and access card (think it’s used to get back into the festival). My VIP wristband had a NFC id chip which would be used to gain access to the festival and VIP areas.

Although there was some music on during the evening, I opted to do some sightseeing.

Day 1

The main programme of music doesn’t start until about 5pm. This was great for me as it allowed me to spend most of the day sightseeing, drop my stuff off at the hotel and then head up to catch the music programming.

The previous day, I’d spent some time gathering my bearings and I found that it was more convienent to catch the quicker tram to the festival. It was only a few blocks away from the Arc de Triomf and there’s a platform right outside the festival site.

With VIP wristbands, access to the festival was really quick. But I never saw long queues for normal access. If you’re visting for the first time, there are bag searches and on the first day they were pretty thorougher.

Just inside the main gate was a big Rough Trade store with some familiar faces. Quiet a nice perk for the (always excellent) Rough Trade staff. There was also a poster area with some amazing illustrations from talented artists and graphic designers. Luckily the logistics of getting an undamaged poster back to the UK stopped me from spending a lot of money. But there was a lot of good work.

Home away from home

Setting up shop

Next to this area was the main food hall and bars. I’d read that Primavera was expensive. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m used to London prices but I thought the prices were very good. Half a pint of Heineken cost €3, a pint €5. A bottle of water was €2. Food prices were also decent value when compared to a London venue or UK festival. I discovered later that the prices in the VIP area were even better, with a bottle of water costing €1 and half a pint €2, making a VIP ticket very cost effective. The VIP areas also had their own toilets, which let’s face it, doesn’t really mean much to blokes, as one urinal is very much the same as another. But female toliets appeared to be cleaned regularly.

I didn’t really have any plans for the festival. Although there were a few bands I wanted to see, I thought I’d take the whole thing as it comes. Regularly move around stages and take breaks in the VIP areas if there wasn’t anything that interested me.

Despite some reservations before the festival that the site wouldn’t be laid out well. (Google maps giving me a false idea of scale), the site works really well. At one end of the site are two big stages facing each other that never have music on at the same time. These are the main ‘headline’ stages. At the other end of the site, a number of smaller stages that you can walk between very quickly. The sound at most stages was ‘okay’. But I found that the Pitchfork stage had the worst sound and you really needed to be near the sounddesk for decent sound. Unfortunately, this was also one of the smaller stages without screens. So I found this stage was always a comprimise between listening to a performance and watching a performance.

As I usually do at festivals, I spent most of my time bouncing around between stages.

Occellot – Okay. Nothing earth shattering. But a decent start to the festival

Childhood – Saw these guys at ROTW2014. Like there, it was a reasonable set that kept me interested (for a few songs at least)

Hiss Golden Messenger – Not really my type of music. A bit too country rock. But they were actually pretty good. Again kept me entertained for a song or two

The Twerps

The Pitchfork stage throughout the festival had the most interesting lineup. So I’d often swing around to see who was playing. The Twerps were the first band that I want to catch. They were quiet a good band for a sunny day with a line in jangly indie pop. Although it was pleasant, there were other bands to see…

After Twerps I headed to the ATP stage where Yasmine Hamdan was playing. She sounded interesting in the guide. Mixing arabic music with indie music. It was pleasant and I wanted to enjoy it more. But it was all too delicate for one of the bigger stages.

Sketching bands – there were a number of artists producing works over the weekend. Different from seeing the multitude of photographers usually at the front of gigs.

Although the site is commercialised, with beer from only one source and stages sponsored by companies such as Ray Ban. There were a few commercial tie-ins. But not in a way that distracted from the music

Heading back to the Pitchfork stage, I caught some of the Viet Cong set. I’d heard they were really good live. They were good. But I think they’re probably a band that play off a crowd in smaller venues and the crowd at this stage were quiet flat. But I think they’re worth catching again in a smaller venue.

As with all festivals, managing clashes is difficult. You either stick with a performance, or you try to move between stages to catch bits of both performances. Up against Viet Cong was Benjamin Booker and his set then ran into Thurston Moore’s. So I decided to ‘slice’ the sets. To try and see all three. So I decided to head off to catch the middle of Benjamin’s set before Viet Cong had finished. I’ve been trying to catch him for ages. I always seem to have another gig when he plays London. But I was really impressed by him. Good old fashioned energetic blues rock and a great voice.

Instead of heading to the front of the ATP stage to see Thurston, one of the VIP areas faced onto the ATP stage and the sound quality wasn’t too bad in there. So I decided to avail myself of the beer tent and sit and watch Thurston’s set. With the sun setting behind the stage, Thurston’s set was fantastic.

Thurston Moore Band

The sun setting on the festival

The evening for me was now winding down. Little on the bill interested me. So I headed to see Antony and the Johnstons. He really didn’t work for me. Maybe in a venue like the Barbican he might work. But a big stage at a festival. He seemed like an odd choice. Too quiet for a big venue and too arty to a big stage. His theatrics looking rather pathetic when all you’re watching is a tiny person on a stage.

I swung past a number of stages but nothing seemed to interest me so I settled with back into the VIP area and watched Spirtualized for 20 minutes or so. It was pleasant enough.

There was only really one more band on the bill who I thought worth catching, the Black Keys. But I’d seen them before at the O2 and although enjoyed them, they aren’t a band I was in a hurry to see again. So after about half an of their set, I decided it was time to head back into Barcelona.

One thing that concerned me before Primavera was the travel and Barcelona’s well-earned poor reputation for muggings (I saw one on my last night). So I was a bit wary about the late evening travel, especially as I was at this festival on my own. After midnight on the Thursday, the only options to get back into town are night buses, taxis or to walk back. However, I shouldn’t have been too concerned about catching a night bus. There was a queue of them outside the venue ready to take us back into town. I think both buses drop you off at Plaça de Catalunya. One follows the beach into town (N6) and then up past La Rambla and the other (N7) takes a more direct route. Opting for N7 to avoid walking through the La Ramblas area, it dropped me about a 15 minute walk away from my hotel. The streets in this part of the town were quieter than I would have liked, but I’d walked them the previous night heading back from La Sagrada Familia. It seemed safe enough.

Day 2

Day 2 was much the same as Day 1. In the morning I headed off into town doing some sightseeing. Heading back to my hotel for a rest before heading down to around 5pm. Like the previous day, there weren’t any real queues to get in.

I have to admit that I wasn’t overly impressed by this year’s lineup. Previous years seemed to have had more decent up and coming bands on the bill. This year seemed to be lots of old bands that I wasn’t fussed about. But I chose the festival as much for the location as anything else. Yesterday was probably the strongest bill. Today, little interested me. But that’s not necessarily a negative. It gives you more opportunity to be surprised. So like the previous day, I decided to bounce around stages to catch whoever was playing.

One of the first bands on, was the KVB. I’ve seen them play a small club in London and quiet liked their gothy sound. But I’m not sure their sound suits a warm sunny day at 6pm.

As I sung past the Ray Ban unplugged stage, Opatov sounded fun. But the stage is so small, that it’s impossible to see the band. So after a song or two, I headed down to the Primavera stage to catch Ex Hex, a band I’ve seen before and one that play simple rock and roll.

Like the previous time I saw them, their set was uncomplicated but good. So I stuck around for all their set.

Patti Smith, somebody I’ve not really listened to, was playing the main stage. Unsure of what to expect from her, I thought I’d head over and was really glad I did.

I’m ashamed to say I don’t own any Patti Smith material. In fact I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to Horses, the album she was singing in full. But although this lady may now have a few extra years behind her, she’s clearly lost none of her attitude. I think everyone of us unbelievers was converted to her church today. I think it’s time I investigated her back catalogue.

Next up was White Hill on the Adidas stage but on the way I called in a few other stages. Playing on the Ray Ban stage was The Julie Ruin. They sounded really good so I listened to a few songs before heading off to see White Hills.

There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with the White Hills and I would have been happy to listened to them, if I hadn’t just seen the Julie Ruin. But decided I preferred The Julie Ruin, so headed back.

The Julie Ruin as the sun goes down

Taking a time out, I headed back to the ATP VIP area and watched some of the Belle and Sebastian set. I’ve never really bought into them. They’ve written some catchy tunes but they always seem twee. Nothing tonight changed my opinion of them. It was ‘nice’. So after I felt sufficiently watered, it was off again to see Sleater-Kinney.

One the way to Sleater-Kinney, I dropped by Japan and I. I really wasn’t impressed.

Sleater-Kinney can’t do anything wrong at the moment. I’m not sure I can see why. They rock. But it all seems a bit old fashioned and one dimensional. They didn’t win me over.

Another old reformed band I don’t get is Ride. The first time round, they had zero impact on me. I really don’t understand why they’re meant to be a big draw. But I gave them a chance. But it was all so bland. Really? Are there no new up and coming bands better than these guys (answer is, yes loads). Were they ever ‘headline’ material? Although the crowd seemed to be enjoying their performance, I decided to head off but failed to find anything interesting, only Ariel Pink and Death from Above 1979 were remotely interesting. So I decided to head back into town to grab some beers before the tram stopped at 2am.

Ariel Pink

Death From Above 1979

Day 3

And so the final day. Like the previous days, there wasn’t really anyone I definitely wanted to see. So I continued bouncing around stages. For the first hours or so, nobody really stood out.

Kevin Morby

Holy Paul

DIIV – really disappointed by DIIV. Really couldn’t see why they have a good rep.

We Used To Pray

Bohicas raised the game slightly. With a set that concentrated on their more accessible and high energy material, perfect for the festival crowds

American Football – yet another reformed band. This year’s Primavera’s programme featured far too many reformed bands

Things picked up with Tori Amos. I have to admit, like most, I’d not kept up to date with Tori’s career after her amazing debut. So I was looking forward to seeing what she was like live. Guess what, she’s exactly like you would expect her to be. Good and ever so slightly mad. Playing two pianos (because one just isn’t enough). She kept me entertained for a few songs. It was good. But to be honest, as with a large portion of the programme, should she be featured on a 2015 festival programme? I’m also not sure she’s suited to this type of festival. People round me were talking (I know, it is a festival). But it detracted from the listening experience. So in the end I moved on.

The musical highlight of the festival was undoubtably Torres. I adored her first album and her latest is also an extremely strong album. Here, without her band and only a guitar, she played an fantastic set of mainly new material. I really looks like she feels every emotion she’s singing about. She says she’s not a guitarist, but she manages to wring sounds out of the guitar that are unique that more experienced guitarists would probably never ever think about. I really loved this performance.

Interpol were up next. I’ve never seen them. They’ve never really appealed to me. They were exactly what I thought they’d be. Okay. Nothing to dislike. Some interesting music and enough to keep me interested for a time. But I didn’t see a bright light and convert to the church of Interpol.

Heading over to see Mourn, I stumbled upon Flying Colours, a band who I thought were pretty good at the Great Escape. Again, they impressed. They’re definitely a band I need to see more of.

A few months ago I was persuaded to see Mourn. A group of Spanish teenagers who put in one of the surprising performances of this year. They play like a much older band. They’re surprisingly ‘well rounded’ for such a new and young band. So I was interested to see how well they performed on the big stage. Unfortunately they were up against the Strokes and Babes in Toyland so the crowd thinned out. I thought they made a reasonable stab at playing a festival set. But I’m not sure they’re quiet ready to be so high up the bill. But they’re still young and it’s all experience. They have so much potential and a few years of ‘stage craft’ should make them a fantastic band.

Another surprising band – and again, yet another reformed band, were Babes In Toyland. They put in a great set. It had so much more ‘punch’ than Sleater-Kinney. This is where I made a mistake. I should have stuck to this stage. But instead decided to head off to see one of the big headliners, The Strokes.

I’ve never been a big fan of the Strokes. But I’ve got a ticket to see them in Hyde Park in June. Mainly because there was a special offer and also the rest of the line-up’s pretty good, but I was also curious as to what they’re like live. Why are they so big? I’m not sure I learnt anything tonight that helps me answer that question.

Their music isn’t particularly interesting. But more concerning for the Hyde Park gigs was that I felt they phoned-in tonight’s performance. Looking at Facebook and twitter after the festival, I wasn’t the only person thinking who felt short changed by their performance. They just appeared to be playing by numbers. There was no real interaction between band members. So I’m still at a loss to why there were so many Strokes t-shirts at this festival. Their fans must be seeing something that I can’t. In the end, even the draw of the cheap beer in the nearby VIP area couldn’t keep me at this stage, so I headed off to see if there was anything else.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything that interested me other than the Hookworms at 2am. Alt-J are fine over a few songs, but not a 1 hour set so I din’t fancy sticking around until 2am to watch a band I could catch back in the UK in a decent venue. I watched the tUnE-yArDs for a brief period, but in the end I decided to catch the metro back into town before it closed and to see if there were any celebrations after Barcelona had won the cup earlier in the evening (there didn’t appear to be – only lots of pissed off Athletic Bilbao fans).

So that was my Primavera over with. I did enjoy the festival as a break. Musically I was disappointed by this year’s lineup. Sadly, there were too many old bands, many of whom I didn’t like the first time round and arguably weren’t ‘as big’ as the promoters seemed to believe they were (Ride). I’d expected there to be lots of 4am hikes back into town. But the headline acts really didn’t appeal to me and the late night programming just kind of faded into electronica. Next year they need to get more new bands on to the bill. It all sounds negative, but it wasn’t. I’d chose this festival because I wanted to visit Barcelona. The festival was simply something to keep me occupied in the evening and I enjoyed the whole experience. The weather was great, there was music playing in the background. Food and drink was pretty cheap and the VIP areas were nice areas to flop into. So would I go again? As a holiday, no. Barcelona’s done. But if the lineup’s right, I’d definitely consider it. But I’m not rushing out to get another ticket. In many ways, this just confirms what in all honest I already know. I know the which festival best suits me, SXSW. Time to start saving.

Day 0

Last year I travelled down to the TGE on the Thursday and by the time I’d checked into the hotel, much of the Thursday afternoon action had finished. So this year, I thought I’d head down a day early and see if anything was happening pre-festival.

Luckily there was a pretty decent gig with Queen Kwong playing playing at Sticky Mike’s. First up was Yonaka. I liked the singer’s voice. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to catch them again. Next up were Gloo who did nothing for me. Finally Queen Kwong who put in a pretty enthusiastic performance with sone pretty decent music. After Queen Kwong. I decided to call it a day to save my energies for the rest of the weekend

Day 1

I used to be lucky enough for the Coffeehouse Sessions to play my Students’ Union at lunchtimes. They put on acoustic sessions with a good mix of bands and singer songwriters. Unfortunately, the students at my University don’t seem to like live music (more interested in going to ‘gigs’ by people who sing over backing tracks). So the turnout was abysmal. Basically only me and whatever work colleagues I could pursuade to come along. So this year they had dropped my Uni from the circuit. But they were providing programming for the Fishpool as part of the alternative escape. As they appeared to be the first venue out of the blocks, I dropped by to see what they were up to.

The first band they had on were a 60s style retro band (if a music style is still good, why stop playing it?). I think they were called the Waletones. I thought they were pleasant enough. I stayed for a few songs then decided to ‘browse’.

Next up was Flying Colours at Komedia. I’d heard they were good. By the time I got there the place was already rammed and they were well into their set. They sounded good. Again I stayed for a few songs before heading off again.

Next up was Model Aeroplanes. They didn’t really work for me.

Heading down to the the Hope and Ruin, a venue that’s usually too busy in the evenings to even bother with, I caught Liberto Wolf. I quiet liked them. I stayed for all of their set.

But the afternoon was really about seeing Aldous Harding again. I’d been intrigued by her earlier in the week (and concerned about her wellbeing). So I was pleased to see her looking well and seemingly less stressed than earlier in the week when she was clearly suffering from terrible jet lag. This afternoon’s session was again, simply wondrous. She has a very distinctive and haunting voice. There’s something about her voice that keeps me enthralled.

With the afternoon’s official programme winding down, I once again dropped by the Fishpool to catch some Coffeehouse Sessions. A London band called the Carnabys. They seemed like a pretty fun and energetic rock and roll band. They weren’t necessarily somebody I’d want to listen to. But they put on a good show.

One thing I like about the Great Escape is the mixture of venues. (Although I don’t like how spread out they are!). One of the venues I like because of it’s oddness is the (currently) called the Hub. It’s one of the small venues in the arches of the sea wall. It’s a tiny tunnel with a stage at the end. If you’re at the back you simply can’t see anything. But if you catch the right band, it has a great atmosphere. I started the evening by bouncing around the sea wall venues watching random bands.

K.I.D were first up who were pleasant enough.

But the next band, Jpnsgrls, surprised me. Despite it only being 6 in the evening, they were ‘full on’. The lead singer was jumping around and bouncing off the walls and there was even crowd surfing! Not bad for 6pm. Their performance was good enough to warrant a purchase of the album.

As the Arch was the nearest venue, I dropped by. A band called STAL were playing. I left after one song. They really didn’t appeal to me.

STAL

I’d already decided that most of the evening was going to be about the Green Door Store, where Black Honey and PINS were playing, two of my ‘must see’ bands. So I decided to head up early so that I’d be guaranteed entry. With the Prince Albert opposite I dropped by for their first band of the evening, Ward Thomas. I should have read up on them. Country. Need I say more. Next band…

For most of the rest of the evening, I stayed at the Green Door Store. Once you’re in the stage area, it’s a nice little venue. But it’s layout is poor with a tiny door leading from the bar area into the venue making it really difficult getting in and out.

Two bands played before Black Honey. Dark Moon were up first. I wasn’t taken by them. They had a big gong, yet didn’t really use it. All Tvvins were proficient, but despite all their kit, managed to produce some rather bland music.

At last year’s Great Escape, I’d stumbled upon a local Brighton band, Kill Moon, who stepped into fill a vacant slot in the Alternative Great Escape. They were playing a tiny little venue with a small audience but I thought they were excellent, in part due to the performance by their lead singer. Unfortunately, they split soon afterwards. However, some of the band went on to form a new band called Black Honey. So I was interested in catching one of their performances.

Being a local Brighton band, both the band and the audience were up for the gig. So there was a great atmosphere. It helps that the lead singer puts in a full-on gutsy swaggering performance. Singing and squealing her way through indie with a popularist sound. In some ways there’s some similarity between them and Wolf Alice. Both put on excellent live shows. Definitely worth watching.

The final band at this venue were PINS. I’ve seen them before. As before, this was a solid performance. The material from the new album sounding great. The boys from Drendge were also there supporting their friends.

The Drendge boys

With the programme starting to wind down. On my way back into the centre of town to grab some late night drinks, I dropped by Komedia to see who was still playing. I think it was a band called Mt. Wolf. I stayed for a few songs, but there wasn’t enough in their performance to keep me from grabbing a few pints.

Day 2

Unlike a rather decent Day 1, Day 2 proved to be a less successful day. Boro were in the play-off semi finals and football takes priority over music. So I knew I’d be dropping out of the music for a few hours in the evening. Unfortunately, this was when some of the bands I wanted to watch were playing. I also made an ill-fated decision to traipse up to the Green Door Store to catch a band who’d who was no longer playing.

I managed to grab some music though. In the afternoon, Forever Pavot, Spring King and Loris didn’t really do much for me. But I was rather bewitched by the performance of the lead singer of Fable. The Xcerts also sounded pretty good. But I only caught the tail end of their last song. So should reserve judgement.

Forever Pavot

Spring King

Loris

Fable

Fable

The evening was about football. But I wanted to try and catch at least some of Bully’s set who’d been recommended to me. They sound pretty good as did The Garden who played before them. After the football, everywhere seemed to be busy. So I bounced around the a few of the quieter venues before finished the evening with a ‘banker’, Shopping, who played a great bouncy set to finish off my evening.

The Garden

Bully

Lion Babe – Amazing hair!

Saskwatch – their set grew on me. Wasn’t sure I’d like them, but enjoyed every song.

Shopping – great, fun, bouncy set.

Day 3

I had quiet a lot of bands I’d like to see on Day 3. Some though were playing the more popular venues and I don’t think it’s worth queuing. Top of my ‘probably won’t see list’ was the Slaves who I’ve seen before but wanted to catch again. But they were playing the Corn Exchange which always seems to have long queues outside. So I planned a day that would leave me near the venue around the time they were playing.

Starting the day early, I managed to catch a set from Pinkshinyultrablast. It was kind of spoilt by technical issues. But from what I saw, they’re worth catching in a better surrounding. I also caught the Crows play an energetic early afternoon set to a fairly empty room. But you’ve got to hand it to bands who try and put on a show, no matter how big the audience is. I also managed to catch Tuff Love, a band I seem to keep missing. Although the venue wasn’t ideal. Again, there was enough in their performance to merit further investigations.

Pinkshinyultrablast

The Crows

The Crows

Lawson

Zun Zun Egui – caught the tail end of what sounded like a fun filled set

Tuff Love

One band that I’d been looking forward to catching after being enthralled by their excellent album, was Virginia wing. Unfortunately, this band pissed me off. The venue was running late because they kept faffing around setting up. When will bands learn that if you’re carrying around a big box of cables, you’ve got too much stuff on stage.

However, I can take late running sound checks. What I can’t abide is the band when asked if they were ready to go on (20 minutes late), they said no, they needed a five minute ‘break’ to get a drink. FFS, you’re playing a multi-venue festival. There’s other bands to see. So in the end, all I heard from Virginia Wing was their sound check. My original plan was to catch 15 minutes of their on-time set and then head off to try and catch the Slaves. So with the Slaves starting in 10 minutes, I decided Virginia Wing had been given enough opportunity to play to me and headed off. If this is the band’s attitude, in future, I’m not going out of my way to pay to see any of their performances.

Unfortunately, the delays meant that the Corn Exchange was at capacity. So I headed down to the sea wall venues catching set from an okay Menace Beach, a thunderous an enjoyable set from Picturebooks at the Hub and Spector who played a lot of new material rather meant their set was a bit more subdued than I expected. To round off the festival, I kept it safe and headed to see Saint Agnes play probably the best set I’ve seen from them. They’re really starting to impress me. They just seem to be getting stronger and strong with every gig.

The Dunwells playing an acoustic show in the museum

Menace Beach

The Picturebooks

Theo Verney

Spector

Saint Agnes

So that was it. Three days of music. Some good, some bad, some brilliant. But all in all, for £45, it’s a pretty decent little festival

The Abjects were meant to be on at 3pm. But for whatever reason, they didn’t turn up on time and it was well after 4 when they finally turned up.

The great / bad thing about bands playing in a record shop is that (other than Rough Trade East), it’s a record shop. They’re not really setup for a band to play in, so the sound can be poor. But it does mean that you feel like you’re inside the performance. In Flashback’s case, there really is no place for a band, but somehow they managed to fit in.

The Abjects are a great little band. They’ve got a simple garage rock sound but it’s done well. I think most of the gathered crowd didn’t know the band, but they seemed to enjoy their performance.

After the Abjects finished, it was far too late to get to the next gig on my list, Prom at Flashback’s sister store in Islington. But I decided to head down anyway to see if Fake Laugh were playing and was surprised to find that they were still playing. I say they, but this was a solo performance. I actually prefer their solo performances. The lead singer’s actually got a really distinctive voice which I think stands out better when playing solo.

I had been interested in getting hold of the Robert Plant live EP. Neither Flashback store had a copy. So I decided I might as well walk down to Rough Trade. It turned out they had copies but they were £24 – too expensive for an EP. Luckily it also turned out that there last band, the Riddles, were still playing. They seemed an odd choice for Record Store Day. The Riddles aren’t the normal indie fodder that you’d expect to see on a mixed bill. They’re firmly \m/ rock!

I like bands that don’t take themselves too seriously and just enjoy playing live music. I’d say the Riddles fall into this category. The lead singer looks like he’s escaped from the set of Spinal Tap. In fact he even joked about playing ‘Stonehenge’. They are an unapologetic unreformed ‘Black Sabbath influenced’ rock band. They themselves describe their sound as ‘space rock’. They’re look the kind of band that could turn any three minute rock song into a 20 minute long psych experience. By the time they’d finished, they’d managed to climb the riggings, played over their allotted time so that Rough Trade switched on the lights but they’d also managed to entertain quite a diverse crowd. I’m not sure I’d listen to any of their recordings. But they’re definitely a fun band to watch.

It’s also the first time I’ve seen crowd surfing at a Rough Trade gig.

I’m not trying to pretending to be ‘feminist friendly’. I’m as sexist as most males. Ellie, the lead singer of Wolf Alice is extremely attractive and it’s part of what makes the band so interesting. But as the Savages have been pointing out over the last year when they’ve written about how they are not an ‘all female’ band, they’re simply a bloody good band. Wolf Alice are the same, a bloody good band and you can only be that if you’re all talented.

You can see from the photos, Ellie’s happy to use her sexuality as part of the band’s image. It’s easy to see this in a cynical way. But the young queue outside the venue before the gig was probably 70% female. Teenage girls aren’t seeing Ellie in a cynical way. They’re seeing a young women with a fantastic voice, strong stage presence, fronting a great indie band and seeing her as somebody to aspire to. The twitter feed the next day was full of girls saying how great the gig was.

I guess what I’m trying to say, is that it’s a great pity if people get distracted from seeing a talented band who seem to be getting better and better as each month passes. Simply because they’re fronted by a female.

Tonight, Wolf Alice were a band bigger than the venue. I mentioned in my last review, that they have everything needed to become a big band. They have a very accessible sound and they’re fantastic live. Ellie’s vocals tonight were even better than I’d heard previously with some interesting little ‘screams’ being added to tail off certain phrases and it’s this constant development of their lie act that’s helped them over the last 18 months expand their audience with every festival performance. It’s pretty amazing that they’ve just sold out the O2 Shepherd’s Bush and tonight managed to fill the Junction in Cambridge, despite the fact that they’ve yet to release an album.

Everything about tonight’s performance was great and the young crowd clearly loved the gig, moshing and crowd surfing throughout the gig. As I left the venue, I heard many expressing that it was ‘the best gig ever’. While I wouldn’t go as far as that. It was a really good gig.

Support tonight was also good. Cambridge’s own Bloody Knees opened the night with a very energetic, direct performance and the Magic Gang were also good.

The Magic Gang

The Magic Gang

Bloody Knees

Bloody Knees

At the end of the gig, both support bands came on the stage. It was fantastic to see three bands on stage enjoying the last evening of a tour where they all appear to have bonded. It was lovely to see these three young bands, who’ve all got a decent future clearly, enjoying themselves. To me, this is what music’s about.

Bloody Knees diving into the crowd at the end of the gig

There were some old favourites such as Bo Ningen and The Staves. Some bands I’d been looking forward to seeing for quite some time, such as the Lovely Eggs and also The Cult of Dom Keller and also some truly awful bands, such as Giant Swans and one of the worst bands I’ve seen this year, Madonnatron.

New bands are in italics

Bands I liked:
Abjects, Mozes and the First Born, The Kindling, Mickey 9s, Simon Love and A Little Orchestra, Royal Limp, Wands, Radar Men From The Moon, Kid Wave, Voyeurs, Toy, Mourn, Hannah Lou Clark, Courtney Barnett,  Tomorrow We Sail, James Canty, The Staves, Vaulted Skies, The Lovely Eggs, Bo Ningen

Bands I didn’t dislike:
Our Girl, Daniel Knox, Mainère des Bohémiens,Laish and We Come Alice Chorus, Snide Rhythms, Darren Hayman,  Pete Astor, Pit Ponies, Meatraffle, Hotton Tennis Club, Sleaford Mods, I have a Tribe, M!R!M, The Cult of Dom Keller, Martin Carr, Dogs Legs, Fafanu and Grim Grim

Bands I won’t be going out of my way to see again:
Giant Swan, Kids in Bridges, Evans the Death, Madonnatron, Lower Slaughter, Fishwife’s Broadside, Madam, Lutine, Charla Fantasm

Best gig:
Difficult to chose a favourite gig this month. The Staves were excellent. Bo Ningen put in their usual excellent shift. But probably the most surprising was Mourn. Some teenagers from Spain who really impressed. Support was from PROM who are getting better and better every time  I see them.

Best new band:
Mourn

Best photo:
Struggled to decide which was this month’s best photo. I had a proper camera with me at a number of gigs and I also photographed another Daylight Music. So I had the opportunity to take some good photos. So I’ve got a good selection to choose from. But the photos I’m most pleased with were the photos taken at the Spectres gig. They played in near darkness and I only had a pocket camera with me. So I had to get creative using long exposures to create images that played on their name. Some turned out okay. So I’m pleased with the results.