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Review: 'Galtres Parklands Festival'
'Sunday 24th August 2014'   


-  Genre: 'Rock'

Our Rating:
There’s no two ways about it: a three-day festival is a BIG weekend, big on bands, beer and budget. This year, instead of attempting the marathon slog of trying to cover every band on every stage over the three days, I thought I’d instead go for a flavour of the festival. And by arriving fresh on Sunday morning, I figured I’d be more sharply equipped to take it in, instead of suffering the Band Burnout and Festival Fatigue that’s usually taken hold by day three. Because, well, with so much on offer, it would be wrong not to sample as much as humanly possible, and what music reviewer wouldn’t want to cram in as many bands as humanly possible?

Tie-dye guitar and drum duo The Royal Ocean opened up the main stage, but sadly, they were all at sea with off notes and off-kilter co-ordination. Their songs are ambitious, but perhaps a little beyond their abilities. Still, on the Oxman stage – sponsored by alternative music mag Soundsphere – Black Delta Movement were impressive. A solid sound with a dominant rhythm section – nothing fancy, but an insistent 4/4 groove – held down some quality psych-tinged rock tunes in the vein of The Black Angels, only with more force and less stoned-sounding.

The frenetic power punk of The Franceens got things buzzing on the main stage. Straddling the spaces between The Ramones, Misfits and Buzzcocks, while boasting poppy melodies akin to the B52s, the energy of trio’s sub 3-minute songs was electric. It’s rare for songs about frustration, apathy and nuclear annihilation to be this much fun.

Back at the Oxman, Bull rocked up in disposable boiler suits. Their brand of breezy, Merseybeat-influenced indie pop, with its jangling guitars and hooky harmonies went down well despite their performance being a shade ramshackle.

But it was Counting Coins who followed that pulled a much bigger crowd, many of whom went absolutely apeshit. Ramshakle they weren’t, and the fact their set was brimming with energy is clearly a large part of the Hull band’s appeal. The punters were too busy jogging on the spot and pogoing to consider the cringey rapping and cliché ska brass and the plain wrongness of a Humberside rude boy affecting a Jamaican accent. Hell, they even got permission for not one but two encores that took them over their allotted time.

Thankfully, Jonny Gill was spinning anecdotes and sharing gags so abysmal he could give Tim Vine a run for his money over on the Firkin stage. He played some songs, too: soulful, personal and sincere acoustic rock songs from the heart. And I was able to charge my glass while watching him, as the stage was located at one end of the beer tent. Tidy.

We Could be Astronauts can always be depended on for delivering some quality rock action – and to do something unexpected. Singer Rob Hughes came on resembling a Jack Sparrow tribute, and they opened with a cover of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, which marked the beginning of a lengthy medley. An odd way to start a set, perhaps, but they were firing on all cylinders as they ripped through some choice cuts from their eponymous debut album, and aired some tracks from the follow-up that’s in the pipeline, with the fiery ‘Pisscan’ and catchy ‘Wretched Corpse Pinata’ being clear standouts.

Back on the main stag, Littlemores delivered a punchy set to a substantial crowd, and deservedly so: their keen-eyed social commentaries and kitchen sink dramas packaged as savvy indie are of a superior quality. This year’s set, drawing substantially on last year’s ‘Home Sweet Home’ EP shunned their earlier ska-influenced sound to make for an assured and entertaining performance.

Sadly, Flipron failed to make the journey from Somerset, and the space between Littlemores and Public Service Broascasting was filled by Kaminan Jaiko, a York-based troupe of Japanese drum players. That is, the drums are Japanese, not the drummers. They were ok, their pieces surprisingly varied in terms of power and pace, but, y’know, after a while nothing but drums can get a bitdull.

Dull isn’t a word you could throw at RSJ. Chances are, if you did, they’d eat it, spit it out and stamp on it, and then do the same with your head. Purveyors of monumentally heavy, guttural metal, theirs is a full-frontal, all-guns blazing assault – and they know how to put on a show, too. At one point, front man Dan Cook ascended the lighting rig and delivered his throat-wrecking growls from this vantage point. Not to be outdone, the following song saw guitarist ‘Guff’ Thomas chuck a flight case over the barrier, and he proceeded to play from this elevation while in the middle of a very appreciate audience. Relentless, furious and ferocious, they were by far the most intense band of the day.

In comparison, Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six were sadly lacking. In the right hands – Tom Waits, JG Thirlwell, for example – swing-based songs can be great. The grittier, slimier and sleezier the better. And that’s why their sanitised, knees-up barrow-boy take on the style just doesn’t seem to cut it – although for all that, their jaunty, uptempo theatricality was well-suited to a late afternoon slot at a family-orientated festival, and they didn’t sound like anyone else on the bill.

Air-raid sirens, dubby bass, radio news reports, thudding drums and bleepy electronics heralded the arrival of Public Service Broadcasting to the stage. Heavily stylised, from the presentation (a large screen stands centre stage, streaming old film footage and real-time live streaming of the show, while the players sport side partings and vintage newsreader costumes) to the sound itself, it’s clear they’ve put a lot of thought into both concept and execution. Sonically, Kraftwerk with guitars and samples galore pretty much sums it up, and the live drumming really brings to life what could be otherwise be a rather uninteresting performance from guys with laptops on a large stage. A magnificent sunset crowned their slot and set the scene perfectly for the main stage’s headline act.

This afforded me the opportunity to dive back over to the Oxman stage to catch a decent chunk of The Virginmarys’ set, and it was a sound move. On record they’re good, but live they excel. they’ve got the whole power trio thing nailed. The drummer creates thunder with every fall of a stick, the bass resonates around the solar plexus and the gritty guitar sound is the perfect foil for Ally Dickaty’s strong throaty vocals. They may draw from a fairly standard, traditional rock template, but quality counts and they’ve got it in spadefuls.

I had been concerned that The Human League would be a huge disappointment, that they’d be past it and sound horribly dated, as the singles from their 90s comeback did on release. But while they will forever be a quintessential 80s band, quality pop songs hold up regardless, and so they reminded us as they cranked out an endless slew of hits. They opened with ‘Mirror Man’, and before long ‘Sound of the Crowd’ and ‘Love Action’ had been aired (‘Heart Like a Wheel’ was also dispatched early in the set) and the truth is, they sounded good. If anything, Phil Oakey sounded in better voice than on the studio recordings and he paced the stage, dressed in black and sporting shades with real charisma. ‘Empire State Human’ made a most welcome appearance alongside ‘(Keep Feeling) Fascination’ and ‘The Lebanon’ was strong; ‘Louise’, however, was every bit as flat and clunky as it ever was. Chucking in ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ – Oakey’s collaborative film song with Giorgio Moroder’ worked well (it is a great tune) and ‘Don’t You Want Me’ stands as one of THE definitive 80s single. It was therefore only right they should close off their set with it. It made the encore of ‘Being Boiled’ – which had seemed an unlikely song to get played or a festival crowd – even sweeter and more surprising.

In terms of musical quality and diversity, not to mention the magnificent scenic setting, it’s pretty hard to fault Galtres. It perhaps goes without saying that the beer – integral to Galtres’ origins and ongoing commitment to local produce and operating as a music and beer festival – was also fantastic. Same time next year, eh?
  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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Galtres Parklands Festival - Sunday 24th August 2014
The Human League
Galtres Parklands Festival - Sunday 24th August 2014
RSJ
Galtres Parklands Festival - Sunday 24th August 2014
The Virginmarys