Summer
Sundae
Friday
August 11 2006
This
is my first time in attendance at the city of Leicester’s
music-festival-come-village-fate, and it is immediately apparent
this is not your dirty, hardcore, cutting-edge musical extravaganza
but a ‘safe,’ all ages weekend out – I immediately
look for the tombolla.
Not wishing to sound derogatory I’m actually a fan of the
smaller, more laid-back gatherings where friendliness and fun
are on the agenda and there are no hyper emo-kids setting fire
to chemical toilets, but as coffee-table, soft-rocker James
Morrison opens proceedings on the main stage,
he is so dull that I actually long for some excitement –
whether it involves fire or not. Mr Morrison is ‘totally
Blunt’ I over-hear someone say (I guess that means annoying
and boring) and he has dug his own particular furrow in the middle
of the road.
I need a drink, of which there are plenty of weirdly named ales
to choose from, to keep me entertained.
Now in the Jim Beam
tent are like a watered down uninventive version of Neu! The day
has now been dubbed ‘the day of beige’ (this comes
from a new sliding scale, not unlike the terror alerts, to deduce
just how bland and dull the day’s music is – ‘beige’
is critical)
The beige-athon continues with the twatty, 80’s synth-pop
posturing of local boys Zil.
The programme claims they sound like ‘Roxy Music meets the
Clash’. This is a blatant lie! They sound more like Spandau
Ballet meets Don Henley meets Tony Hadley’s solo career
with some angular-rock tripe thrown in to make them more ‘edgy’.
Maybe if they spent as much time on their music as they do on
their hair and making sure their ties are straight then they might
get somewhere.
I need another drink!
‘Oi, Oi’ - Baxter Dury
(son of the legendary Ian) is a born performer and the spit of
his dad in every aspect of his persona and his commanding stage-presence
is welcome entertainment. The problem comes when his wonderful
psyche-pop (as heard on his two excellent albums) doesn’t
come alive in the live arena, the between song banter is far more
entertaining than the music which after losing the shimmering,
ethereal edge of the recorded production sounds disappointedly
mediocre. Baxter Dury is a much bigger and better performer than
his performance today allows.
And another drink – it looks like we may be about to be
caught up in some sort of beige apocalypse, this is getting serious
and Richard Hawley is keeping the MOR troops morale high in this
battle of dull.
Thank god (or who ever you worship) for DJ
Format! As this masterful turntabalist takes to
the stage the indoor stage erupts with joyful, frantic dancing
as Mr Format seamlessly cuts soul, funk and classic rock styles
with pounding hip-hop beats. Despite this not being his usual
hip-hop heavy set, Format’s choice of tunes is an absolute
winner track after track. This is the most fun I’ve had
all day and even though we hear none of his own brilliant tracks
in the mix it’s hard not to think the day may have been
saved.
Elbow have always
made some brilliant music, but tonight in the setting Leicester
sun they are managing to be one of the most straightforward, mesmerisingly
boring musical experiences known to man – ‘Day of
beige’ indeed!
Psapp however are
a truly wonderful one! Creating sublime poly-rhythmic tunes built
on quirky eccentricity, Psapp are a brilliantly original and wonderful
pop using an array of normal, toy and eclectic instruments and
joyfully optimistic sounds. They hand out little wooden cats which
are named on stage and have a modesty unbefitting of such boundless
musical ingenuity. Psapp make pop music as it should be –
experimental, danceable and essentially accessible. In the live
arena they perform with effortless skill and ‘Hi’
and ‘Tri-cycle’ off their recent album are absolutely
sublime.
The day ends in a Leicester basement bar watching festival goers
in wellies dancing and scaring the locals.
by
Chris Marks
Saturday
Sunday
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