EOTR 2013 - acts to see live for the first time.

As ever EOTR for me was a mixture of acts and artists that were known to me and that I wished to see live for the first time, ones that I wanted to see again (and again in one of two cases) and the usual sprinkling of ones about which I was previously unaware. This last category is one on which I rate festivals very highly and EOTR has over the years been exemplary in this regard.

Taking the first category first as the subject of this post I shall start with London-based Daughter. On the basis of their 2013 début album 'If You Leave' and a couple of preceding EPs I had them in my sight and watching footage of their live performances at Glastonbury earlier in the summer only made the London three-piece an absolute must-see. They played the gloriously situated Garden Stage on Saturday evening and certainly didn't disappoint.

Daughter, Garden Stage, EOTR 2013, 31 August.

I was very fortunate to get as close to the front of this set to get such pictures as this. I had to hotfoot it from the main Woods Stage as soon as another of my must-see acts has finished their set. This is one of the great advantage of the compact but not cramped EOTR festival site.

This was one act where I struggled to take photos that captured the moment.

Emily Kokal of Los Angeles four-piece Warpaint on the Woods Stage.

The band performed a number of new songs strongly hinting that a follow up to 2010 LP The Fool and 2008 EP Exquisite Corpse is soon to be unleashed on a waiting world.

Surprise opener on the Big Top Stage on Friday, in place of the unavailable Four Mile House, was Widowspeak from Brooklyn. I'm really not sure how I became aware of them but I bought their 2011 début album very soon after it has appeared - in fact I think I had to import the vinyl version from the US so I had obviously convinced myself of its worth and, as it happens, I was right. Now a duo rather than a four-piece they have recently released their second album Almanac, which I do not have yet. On hearing them live that will very soon be remedied!

Robert Earl Thomas and Molly Hamilton, Big Top Stage, 30 September.

How I might choose to classify their music is open to debate, but then they don't seem to consider pigeon-holing it themselves a priority either. Indie guitar certainly but some of the flowing guitar parts and melodies are beguiling in the extreme and sound as if they come from an earlier time.