Please log in or sign up to leave a comment.

1. DOGBOY (4 months ago)

   Its okay, though mainly for kids. The queues for the ice cream were a bit too long, while the queues for the bars were quite short so there were compensations. I thought the Human League did a professional set, though when I used to hear these songs on the radio 30 years ago I never figured I would be standing one day in the pissing rain in Clapham listening to them live.

   Reply

2. greedoe (4 months ago)

   This festival has always been two distinct parts - the ice cream and the music. This year, the ice cream was a shambles as the line ups were longer than ever! The music, however didn't disappoint.

   I was there to see Camera Obscura and Human League and both put on excellent performances, regardless of the drizzly downpour that Sunday provided.

   The League, in particular, stocked their setlist heavy on the hits, wading their way through songs like "The Lebanon", "Sound of the Crowd" and "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" before ending on "Don't You Want Me." They triumphantly returned for the audience sing song "Together in Electric Dreams" as an encore.

   Reply

3. Shoebox1976uk (4 months ago)

   Once again, Ben & Jerry's put on a wonderful festival at a low, low price. The Saturday line-up was a dream come true for me. SFAs and Teenage Fanclub for a mere ten quid, plus throwing in King Creosote, I Am Kloot and loads of free ice-cream, it always going to be a winner.

   Proceedings started slowly (well, apart from the ice-cream intake), with The Telegraphs peddling their Kerrang-lite shouty rock. Utter bilge that made Lost Prophets sound good. Then along came Tommy Reilly, who the kids seemed to love, but was lost on the older generation and Marina & The Diamonds. ANOTHER Kate Bush aping songstress, singing in a faux-Eastern European accent when she was clearly from Shoreditch or somewhere similar. Not great. Her "kookiness" may have been appealing if she actually some tunes to back her up.

   Finally King Creosote took to the stage and were every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped. Armed with a fairly extensive back-catalogue and facing a crowd unlikely to be familiar with his material, it was an odd set that didn't feature as many of the crowd-pleasers that I thought it would. But that didn't make it any less enjoyable. A mixture of folkiness and rocking out (albeit in a folky way), was pretty much perfect. High-lights being "You've No Clue Do You?" and a strange traditional song about some guy's "dum dee da".

   I Am Kloot soon took to the stage, with a new guitarist in tow due to the lead singer's broken (I assume) hand. They were OK, nothing great, but perfectly listenable. Much like they are on record I guess. "Over My Shoulder" was as lovely as ever and, for me, there was a disappointing lack of "Cuckoo".

   New pop-wannabes, Teenage Fanclub, were then with us. Smothering the suddenly middle-aged crowd with their infectious jangle-pop. All these years together have made them such an incredibly tight outfit and they know how to please a crowd. The "hits" plus three newies that sound like vintage TF was a winning combination, but still nothing from Thirteen. I think that's the fifth time I've seen them now and I still don't think I've heard anything from that album. Not even "Radio". Still, a blistering "Everything Flows" to close their set was one of the high-lights of the day.

   However, the real high-light of the day was to appear during the Super Furry Animals set. Sadly marred by technical problems throughout their hour and a quarter on stage, you probably would have excused them from storming off stage and just giving up. But they worked through the problems to provide us punters with a full-on greatest hits set, finally closing in typical style with "The Man Don't Give A F**k". Always a winner, and quite funny to see distressed parents trying to prevent their small children from singing along. The perfect way to end a pretty much perfect day.

   Roll on 2010!

   Reply