End Of The Road Festival is 10!

I have to say that this last weekend was only my seventh EOTR (2009 - 2015) and I met at least two with a complete record. I have my ticket for EOTR 2016, however. I think that this goes bare-bones statistics to show just how people that have experienced it once tend to become attached to it in some way. It is intense because there is so much there and so it is tiring, but in the best possible sense.

By Sunday afternoon even the resident Larmer Tree Gardens peacocks were chilled.

The limited music on offer on Thursday evening was delayed by an hour by the sudden unavailability of the band scheduled to open the proceedings. That was not to matter one little bit when, at 7:30pm, the now-festival-openers took to the Tipi stage. 

Mammút

When a band comes from Iceland and is also signed to Bella Union then all worries just melt away.

About seventy-two hours later, on the Tipi stage early on Sunday evening, the wonder that is EOTR was effectively book-ended by what was for me a total chance discovery. It is why festivals matter so very much.

Irish artist Lisa O'Neill playing, at this point, baritone ukulele.

Now I just have to get to grips with all the rest of it. 

EOTR 2013 - acts to see live again.

For all that I say that festivals are largely about seeing acts that I haven't seen live before there is always the pleasure of seeing one's favourites for a second, third or.... *whistles* ...time.

One of those was The Staves, three sisters from Watford who specialize in close harmony vocals, that I first saw at Deer Shed Festival in North Yorkshire in July 2012. In the meantime they have recorded an album 'Dead & Born & Grown', released by Universal - so at least the major labels are finally sensing the way the wind is blowing. Here are Camilla, Emily and Jessica on the Garden Stage at EOTR on Sunday afternoon.

This next I had only seen as recently as Truck Festival 2013 but I was happy to see their quite esoterically British show all over again. As a matter of fact, as often such things are, it was better the second time around because I noticed so many things that had passed me by on the first listen. I was right at the back of the Big Top stage and so I couldn't take pictures, which allowed me to give my full attention to the performance. This picture is therefore one taken at Truck Festival 2013 and then I found it difficult to capture what makes Public Service Broadcasting worthwhile watching (and listening too; I had the EP before seeing them live).

Public Service Broadcasting, Market stage, Truck Festival 2013.

    

I am interested to see in what direction J. Willgoose Esq. and Wrigglesworth go next but I am quite sure that, given their awareness of history and its context, they have long ago considered this issue. The Yorkshire Post wondered, somewhat less charitably, about this too following a gig at Leeds' Brudenell Social Club.

  

I have to admit that the first time I saw The Leisure Society play live I was slightly underwhelmed but, perhaps sensing this was odd, I bought their first album anyhow. I saw them again last year and, as timings worked out that way, for a third time at EOTR 2013. At last I get it!
To be honest 17:15 - 18:15 on the main stage Saturday is not prime time; well in one way it is... after 36 hours many people are suffering from mid-festival lassitude, thinking more of food than music.  The food, and the choice thereof, at EOTR is pretty good too.

The Leisure Society - Woods Stage - End of The Road Festival 2013.

  

 [post in progress - to be continued soon but I am getting hungry]
  

There will be now be an intermission. There is nothing wrong with your TV set.

Please do not adjust your eyes or ears.

That was only supposed to be temporary but the

 cauliflower cheese was good, even if I say so myself. 

I shall finish with the artist who, as far as I am aware, I have seen more times playing live than any other. For readers of this blog she probably needs no further introduction. She played twice at EOTR 2013 and I saw all of both sets. The first was on the Woods Stage as part of her on-going UK tour. That is admirably summed up, though her apparent ennui is likely affected rather than genuine, by this review from the London Guardian of her subsequent show at Shepherds Bush Empire. It is no secret that she is not a fan of large venues and early stage times (17:45 start on the Woods Stage). Similarly you can have all the recorded music she has made, and I pretty much do, but it just isn't the same.

She reappeared about 1:15am Monday morning at an unannounced (at least in the printed programme) set on the small, tented Tipi Stage...

... and this truly was Caitlin Rose live: The real deal.

    

If I still had the slightest doubt that I would buy a ticket for End Of The Road Festival 2014, without any knowledge of the line up, it had well and truly vanished by this point. I have one and 'early-bird' tickets had all sold out less than 48 hours after their release on the Tuesday. It is fair to say that that is a public vote of confidence on quite some scale. See you at EOTR 2014?

End of The Road Festival 2013

I'm back from the forgoing festival and anyone that has paid more than passing attention to this little site will likely have noticed that it is in fact anything but the end of a musical year for me. It is indeed the start of a new one and for more than one reason.
For a start I have already bought my ticket for End of The Road 2014, and that harks back to the issue of trust that I mentioned in my last post, but also because it has now become so important to the writing of this blog that I associate one with the other. I simply can't list the music that I have heard, the people I have met because of it, and all because on a whim back in early September 2006 I decided to comment on someone else's blog post (about Bat For Lashes' début album Fur and Gold) and to do that (at the time) I had to create a blog account of my own. I didn't then imagine for a moment that today I would be writing a piece about the seventh anniversary of that wilful post. It is one of the happier accidents of fâte.
This year I made a particular effort to arrive in time to see all the "warm-up programme" on Thursday evening. King Charles in that rôle last year made me determined to do this this time and it was well worthwhile - five acts, with a predominance of electric guitar taking to the Tipi Stage from 17:30.
I have mentioned before my policy of watching opening acts on any stage as well as those those on 'lesser-stages' generally as a matter of priority. It may not be Simon Cowell's idea of entertainment but, on the other hand, it does have its own merit I believe.
I don't always do this but I think in this case it makes sense. I will list the five acts from Thursday evening and then add some pictures and comments about each:

• Evans the Death
• Annie Eve
• Catfish and the Bottlemen
• Tigercats
• Deap Vally

Evans the Death had two problems here and neither were of their own making. The first is the real and well documented one of being the opening act at a festival. The other is that I always take a few hours to get into the mood to take half-decent pictures. Only a fraction as gloomy as the band name might suggest they were an admirable choice. They are currently working on finishing their second album, they are signed to independent label FortunaPOP!, and I rather lean to the idea of buying their self-titled first.

Next up was Annie Eve, already mentioned, but that to me seems no reason not to do it again not least for the reason of her recent eponymous EP in a year that at least for me has been remarkable for their number and quality.

One thing you can say about East London's Tigercats is that they favour playing, if not all bare-footed, at least shoeless. I have no photographic evidence of their drummer in this regard.

I know that some will find their kind of indie-pop irksome in the extreme. I am not one of them and should I be feeling slightly down I might well add their 2012 album Isle of Dogs to my playlist, along with those by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and others including Los Campesinos.
Catfish and the Bottlemen are much in favour over at Amazing Radio at the moment. This is probably how I first became aware of them and it was gratifying to see them live. I know my fellow blogger Geoff Spence enjoyed this band and is looking forward to their forthcoming show at the Westgarth Social Club in Middlesborough. This is, it seems to me, exactly the kind of venue that up and down the country we need to be supporting.

The same cannot be said of the next band, the evening's head-line act and it is rare in my experience for one to warn its potential audience of factors concerning loudness. Welcome to the garage rock world of Californian duo Deap Vally. Often, seemingly for want of any other touchstone, likened to The White Stripes I rather favour the opinion that they exist in their own space and time.

I any case I would find the idea of Jack White dressed in the attire of Lindsey Troy more than a little disturbing. They are actually signed to Universal - and you may be aware of my thoughts about major labels but that is a story for another time. Sistrionix, as well as having a rather inspired title, is actually a good LP but live they are quite something else.

EOTR 2012 - Thoughts on new music...

One thing that really appeals to me about End of The Road Festival is the chances it offers to see new music. I mean that - new - in a variety of senses; some of it simply entirely new to me, some new to me live and some about which I am aware (or was aware of) but have subsequently forgotten to follow up.
I really haven't any preconceptions about how this post will unfold, hence this preamble!  I'm not even sure how or where to start. Indeed I have only written this in order to commit myself to actually writing it...
I'm going to have my dinner first and then, somehow or other, get going on this. One thing that is quite certain is that it simply won't work in any festival time-line way.
This is what I decided to start with and for a rather strange reason - listening to a 2010 UK modern-folk album 'One Light Is Gone' by Josienne Clarke.  The reason being that when I heard Hurray For The Riff Raff (live, it so happened) for the first time it had the same impact that hearing the aforementioned album did: that is the admonition-to-self  - "WTF?  Why didn't I already know about this?"

  

Hurray For The Riff Raff, Woods Stage, EOTR 2012 at 12:00, Sunday.

Suffice to say it was 'one of those moments' and that this is another band that I saw twice at EOTR 2012. I promptly purchased the 2012 album 'Look Out Mama', to which I am listening while writing. On reflection there are not many times that I have consciously found myself trying to work out lyrics to songs that I'm listening to live and hearing for the first time. When it happens three times, pertaining to totally different acts in the space of three days, it is becoming something of an addiction! It is likely to define the rest of this post.
It became no secret that Alynda Lee Segarra and her band much prefer playing small venues in the early hours but the pictures above were both taken on the outdoor main stage just after mid-day...

OK folks. Fourteen hours later, on the Tipi Stage, 2am Monday!

  

If you think the story of the evolution of Hurray For The Riff Raff is convoluted than it is easily exceeded by that of the next...

Kai Welch and Abigail Washburn opening The Garden Stage on Saturday.

Bluegrass tunes, but sometimes ones with Mandarin Chinese lyrics.

  

This one was a case in point.

Whilst she explained the bones of how this apparently odd but actually extremely likeable combination, at least to my ears, came about there is a fuller history to be found here.

The article finishes like this...

" [She played] a recently written murder ballad, her delicate frame dwarfed by the surreal dimensions of the cello banjo.

"It's a cut that didn't make the album [City of Refuge] because the producer thought it was too morbid," she explains. "But all the old-time tunes have a female victim. I thought 'How about writing a song which gives the girl a gun for a change?' "

  

She did not have the 'cello banjo at EOTR but she played the song nevertheless, with Kai Welch on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, and the whole set was a highlight of the weekend - if only one amongst many. That only goes to show just how strong and yet diverse End Of The Road Festival actually is.