View Day 1 HERE & Day 2 HERE
Words & Pics By Brenda M Parker
Another layer of dirt, suncream and sweat, and off we go for Day 3.
It’s hard work trying to get a bunch of hungover and filthy people to get jumping up and down on a Sunday morning, but Megane Quashie of Black Cherry is sure as hell going to give it a try. She wants to end up on the Pyramid Stage one day, and their combination of soulful-rock-electro is hopefully going to take them there. Normally bands that try and fuse too many influences together fail to sound convincing, but as a frontwoman she has the capacity to make it work. “We all love bitches”, she quips. Indeed we do.
I leave after two songs of Everything Everything: sounds a bit like Vampire Weekend caught in a blender, and opt instead for We Have Band. Their setup is quirky – the three of them in a line, all on vocals. This is pure trademark Kitsune electro-pop at it’s best. Interestingly often with darker undertones, thanks to Darren Bancroft’s input on tracks such as “Centrefold”. I happen to think they sound a lot better on stage than in their recordings, with songs like “Oh!” working really well with a live audience.
Back to John Peel again, this time for These New Puritans. Rather tellingly, the only between-song banter comes in the form of a statement “We’re still called These New Puritans”. I can only presume this is a reference to their incredibly dark new material, and the deliberate avoidance of anything as poppy as “Elvis”. The music builds a sense of foreboding, with bassoon and clarinet players replacing band member Sophie who is on a leave of absence. We’ve already established that serious does not equal crowd pleasing (see “Gorillaz”), and once again people drift off. TNP’s material is brave, perhaps even political, on tracks like “Attack Music”. Not easy listening – it took me more than a few attempts to get the entire way through the album – but challenging and important. Especially when delivered by Jack Barnett wearing a chainmail vest.
If there is any band I would describe as consummate professionals, it must be Holy Fuck. They arrive with more wires and cords than you’d find in CTU, replete with every kind of toy keyboard, computers, things you pull tape through, whatever… Songs such as Lovely Allen and Safari are uplifting, even euphoric. They even ask what the score is in the football, thankful not everyone at the festival cares about that enough to miss their truly sublime set.
Sunday afternoon is notorious for the coffin-dodger slot on the Pyramid stage, and why not raise a glass to Mr Ray Davies. Peppering his set with new tracks and Kinks classics (a really annoying man behind me kept bellowing “sing the song about the tranny!”) he was supported by the Crouch End Festival Choir which gave tracks such as “Victoria” a real vitality. “Sunny Afternoon” goes down a treat, rather fittingly.
Gang of Four are still as angry as they ever were, and Jon King is straining at the leash to get a reaction from the crowd. When I saw them last, the front half of the audience was a no-go zone unless you wished for a permanent imprint of a Doctor Marten on your person, but this is an altogether more timid affair. “Ether” and “Damaged Goods” are delivered with a snarl and ferocity, and never lose their edge despite the passage of time.
Taking the baton of agitation and running hard are Crystal Castles. You couldn’t get any more bodies in the Dance East tent, although there are about a hundred teenagers who make a break for the stage every time Alice Glass jumps in the crowd. She screeches from the moshpit, screams from the riggings and destroys the drumkit, fighting the stage crew for the cymbals. It’s a performance that is exciting, and cuts through the hazy fug like a big glitchy knife made out of lightning. Huge
cheers go up for Crimewave, Airwar and Celestica. Kids are crowdsurfing over our heads and are being ejected by security as fast as they can get back in again. Crystal Castles are the soundtrack to hedonism, albeit with a big burly man to rein band Alice back every time she threatens to be swallowed by the grabbing hands.My friend says to me, “they were my headliners, anything else now is just a bonus” and she is totally right. The lineup had CC clashing with LCD Soundsystem on the Other stage which was unfortunate. However, with Jack Johnson was boring the pants off everyone on the other side of the site with his insipid strum-a-long Dawson’s Creek soundtrack, it’s a perfect snapshot of the diversity at any festival moment. Crystal Castles delivered (imho) the performance of the festival – frenzied, wild, and totally rock’n’roll.
I read somewhere that if you hate Stevie Wonder then your heart is made of coal, and you probably have roadkill for Christmas dinner. I must have some horrid friends, since they preferred to see the Levellers instead. Maybe they are nostalgic for the smell of crusty. I last about three songs into SW’s set. It is too saccharine after the experience we’ve just had with CC, and although he’s charming, it’s a bit Las Vegas-style slick. Instead, I head up to Arcadia for some drum’n’bass performed inside a Maman-like giant spider. No, I haven’t lost it, it shoots fire from the legs and the head! I swear I have pictures! It really happened!
Over to Shangri-La, where folks in search of one last place to kick out the chairs find themselves at Club Dada. Can I offer you a selection of Brass Roots, Orchestra Del Sol and Birdy Nam Nam under the umbrella of Gypsy Soundclash? We’re all dancing, we can’t get used to the idea tomorrow we have to live in a place with walls and a ceiling and flushing toilets. DMC World Champions (now there’s a competition you’d like to win) Birdy Nam Nam finish the night off for me, with four turntablists. They use the decks almost as instruments. How they do it, don’t ask me, it sounds amazing.
Time for a last bacon sandwich and cup of tea as the sun begins to rise over the misty campsite. It’s 5am and we can hear people still clinging on the last vestiges of the festival. Didn’t even need my wellies once.
The very first show of the new series, broadcast on Saturday, featured a kissogram, a naked Physician along with a
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LikeInteresting stuff! I went to the UK this summer and had some afternoon tea and scones, and it was so delicious I decided to try and make my own last week. I might have deviated from the norm maybe - I found a load of random scone recipes here and made 4 different kinds! My friends were so happy when I invited them round for tea and scones, complete with real whipped cream. Terrific fun!
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