Sunday
August 12
Bluesy
American folk-rockers Vetiver
allow some welcome Sunday morning lazing, which is nice as all my energy
is needed for the quasi-religious experience of The
Strange Death Of Liberal England.
There is a certain undeniable pretension in everything this band does
– case in point, their name and the fact they converse with the
crowd with a series of placards, which to begin with works as a novelty
but gets massively annoying by the end. Aside from this TSDOLE’s
theatrical nature makes them a beguiling live prospect, the bands commitment
on stage is astonishing, they obviously see this as ‘art’
not just a ‘gig’. The music, though obviously overshadowed
by that of Arcade Fire, is colossal and like their Montreal cousins
is almost spiritual in nature. The fact one magazine called them ‘God’s
own orchestra’ may be a gross exaggeration, but they are certainly
powerful as they switch instruments and chant choruses with divine fervour.
Cherry
Ghost are distinctly boring, but draw a large crowd
cos of them there adverts on t’ telly.
Summer Sundae 2007 is Seasick
Steve’s weekend – he owns it!! His stripped-down
blues strikes a cord with everyone and his infectious personality makes
him an instant star. An ex-hobo armed with his ‘Three-Stringed
Trance Wonder' and 'The Mississipi Drum Machine' (look it up) Steve
sings about his life and experiences with such honesty he wins over
the hearts and minds of the crowd rammed into the Musician Tent in seconds
– his music is rock stripped of everything but its primal power.
‘Hobo Low’ is amazing and his life philosophy is laid out
during ‘It’s All Good’ – during a Seasick gig
it certainly is.
I have tuned into Surreal TV. Welsh twisted-pop maverick Gruff
Rhys is performing a song of looped vocals and beats
from inside a giant television. Rhys takes twee C86 indie pushing pops
boundaries with an array of gadgetry producing a cornucopia of mesmerising
sounds. The whole thing is sonically and visually compelling. The set
ends with the final-track from his amazing Candylion album, ‘Skylog’
a 20-minute aero-narrative. From a plane-seat Rhys conducts the tune
which builds from simple beats and guitar into a multi-layered, multi-faceted
wonder. Pop experimentation doesn’t get any better than this.
The
Pigeon Detectives are big names on the indie-circuit
right now, and they sound exactly like all the other ‘big’
indie names. They are energetic, young and have some catchy tunes. They
discriminate against people with no hands as front-man Matt Bowman demands,
‘If you’ve got hands, I want to see them in the air’
– maybe I’m being harsh but this 'predudice' keeps me focused
in a way their music simply isn’t capable of.
Echo
and the Bunnymen are an undisputed heavy-weight
in rock music, having influenced so many bands with their swirling atmospherics.
Tonight they bang though a crowd-pleasing hour of hits: who can argue
with ‘The Cutter’, ‘A Promise’, ‘Nothing
Ever Last Forever’ or ‘Seven Seas’. The most pertinent
piece of recognition all weekend comes as a young-girl exclaims ‘Ere,
that songs off Donnie Darko’ during the blinding ‘The Killing
Moon’.
The concept for Spiritualized’s
Acoustic Mainline’s set is jaw-droppingly awesome – Jason
Pierce, Doggen, a string quartet and gospel singers playing stripped
down versions of tracks from Spaceman 3 and Spiritualized’s back
catalogue. This, however, is not made for the main-stage ending a festival
– the whole thing is just too niche. The large crowd assembled
halves within the first 4 songs and more disperse as they play on, it
is just too relentlessly downbeat to keep people’s interest. The
music is none-the-less totally sublime, but the repetition and constant
religious referencing (which seemed more faith-filled than Pierce’s
usual ironic use of such imagery) make lasting the distance a real endurance
test. Patience is rewarded with the big Spiritualized tunes ‘Come
On Baby Stop Your Crying’ is enough to reduce me to tears and
‘I Think I’m In Love’ is a mesmerising, wonder. ‘Come
Together’ is noticeable by its absence and a sad omission. Both
beautiful and frustrating in equal measure this is far too mediocre
to do justice to one of Britain’s most neuron-smashing bands.
Leaving the weekend on this note would not do it justice and catching
the last song of Seasick
Steve’s second set of the day is the perfect
end to a near perfect weekend. In the world of festival organisation
Summer Sundae is leading by example – interesting acts, a friendly
and safe atmosphere with minute-perfect, time-planning and execution.
Summer Sundae is commendable in so many ways and is an undisputable
five-star shindig – bring on 2008.
by Chris
Marks
Friday
Saturday
