On a Leeds weekend that would end with a Sunday roast of RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS, the Carling Stage (1) opened the official festival with a fresh cranberry blast of WINTERMUTE (2) a new discovery from the city of Leeds itself. Stuttering around the wide stage like lives depended on it, they had all the energy and precision guitarishness that had sprinted them to the top of the pile from a series Futuresound gigs to win this spot earlier in the summer. This, like that Cockpit appearance, was a bright, driving set of superbly well-rehearsed songs packed with nimble staccato riffs and power-surging bass lines. Minus the Bear can be counted in their influences. The big Carling stage was well and truly colonised and a large crowd was drawn in and cheering.
WHISKY CATS (3) from Manchester had the job of opening up the new music part of the Festival. In warm late summer sunshine, bang on the stroke of noon, their light and crisp funky sound did a fine job of setting the level to HIGH. A jazz college rhythm section, sharp trumpet and sax players and a permanently amused, slightly piss-taking Matthew Whitaker in the lead role add up to some kind of disco funk ska skiffle hybrid. Sounds improbable, even a bit Butlins, yes. But the total musical control and the cunning build through the set guaranteed that even your humble cynic is bouncing around like a fool to a big finish of CAB CALLOWAY proportions.
NEW VINYL (4), five brave citizens of Wakefield, do a swirly keyboard behind a clattering guitar band with Northern Lad banter and gritty lyrics. A cry of "Wakefield! Wakefield!" swells up from the crowd and we're reminded that local identity and fierce loyalty are just as much part of the pop and roll world as global celebrity and lip-glossed perfection. Thoughts of The Cribs or Arctic Monkeys are in the air, but that's all part of being a bright young band right here in Yorkshire right now, and the Sheffield megastars never did have a monopoly on the formula. NEW VINYL have a bit of the swagger (and guitarist Jonny has plenty of style and stage presence), but at this stage they could do with more songs to make the front more convincing.
Emotionally, KNI9GHTS (5) brought a little MANCHESTER rain to follow the sunshine and city lights we've had so far. Not quite at home with the exposure, they push out their minor key, yearning stuff with what feels like a modest lack of confidence. The crowd isn’t large but KNI9GHTS crack on with echoes of Oasis and a well-worn set of guitar chords. A crowd gradually builds and they finish in decent spirits on what is probably the best stage they've had to date. Out of their depth, maybe, but not phased, and not humbled in combat.
Leeds' secret weapon, INTERNATIONAL TRUST (6) generate a big crowd, made half of music fans and half out of train crash enthusiasts. Neither are disappointed. The notoriety and charisma of Neil Hanson is the draw, and the whole show works around him. Mr Neil, survivor (most recently) of Les Flames! and The Playmates is strutting, puffing himself up, pointing, posing, goading and cursing though a punk-splattered set of shout-along tunes with crowd chorus bits and cries of Oi!! that you can’t NOT shout back in unison. Challenging the day's biggest crowd to throw cans, Hanson pulls off the stunt of the weekend by flipping a pretty full-looking lager can into back stage off the top of his all-but shaven head. We know it hurt. It must have hurt. But Hanson stares straight back and mouths "C'mon, then" Every move gets a cheer and every song gets a roar of approval. The big soft ballad "Bastard Like Me" is actually a tune, and a wry, self deprecating statement of some power. It is very very hard not to love Mr Neil. INTERNATIONAL TRUST are no pussies either. Simon Glacken is making a bit of a mark on keyboards. Guest vocalists whiskas (of ¡Forward, Russia) and Rob Paul Chapman (Leeds impresario, band leader and composer/writer) just add to a grand occasion of great fun and much excitement.
We're at the three o' clock mark now and it’s all getting very frisky. CARLIS STAR (7) come out as the third Manchester band for today. Five rather fuzzy blokes and a bubbly, dancing female singer pushed out stage right looks a bit haphazard and maybe the light harmonies and chunky guitar attack that work so well on CD get a bit lost in a rather raucous punk-charged opening. There are songs here, but the set cries out for some stage dressing and a sense that all six band members have a clear role to play. Tuning guitars through the pa, when the pa is this big and this good seems a bit primitive.
Stage management is being run by students from Leeds Metropolitan University, whose Creative Music and Sound Technology courses are a big part of the massive scene that Leeds has become. Making sure that I see every band on time (and still getting out to some of the main stage events) is made easy by their smooth changeovers. After CARLIS STAR I got to see a big chunk of SUNSHINE UNDERGROUND dominating a packed-beyond-the-fringes Radio One/NME Stage. The same SUNSHINE UNDERGROUND we saw whipping up the Topman crowd in 2005.
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So another Leeds band RED GO GREEN STOP (8) are in exactly the right place and time as they bundle onto the Topman Stage for three o'clock sunshine and a roaring set of jazzy, funky dance aggression. At the heart of this supersmart band is Anna Hetherington. She looks great, sings like a blues queen and plays sax like a wild animal. The sax parts have a fabulously menacing punchiness that spice up the go mental parts of each song. If there has been any hesitancy on this stage so far - we're back in serious pro musciland again with a set to dance to that serves up treble helpings of quality playing. RED GO GREEN STOP also use the cowbell card at just the right moment and the crowd are jumping. The Sun blazes encouragement and we know, if we had forgotten, that this is what we came for.
REDEYE (9) have travelled further than most to be here. Draping the Ulster Banner of pre-power-sharing Unionist days across the monitors, their Belfast origins are worn proudly. Locality is a strong theme this year, and the evidence of how important shared place can be to making vibrant music is never clearer than with this band. REDEYE's punk format is shot from the hip in a confident rasping blast of energy. It isn’t new, it isn’t clever, but it has heart and soul right there on the chin, with ugly-bastard bass lines to keep the thing on course. Last song "Out of My Head" is as crisply and rapidly despatched as the others and by my clock they've covered the ground ahead of time.
LIGHTS, ACTION! (10) forswear the locality thing by sounding a little American and adopting a familiar rock/emo template. Their London base could be making them feel a little out of place. Their music is fine young laddish stuff, and they would certainly get gigs in Leeds and Hull and Wakefield if they were residents. But as visitors, they have a bit more to do to convince anyone that they are worth importing. Their promotional material has a bland look to it and I did struggle to find anything distinctive enough in their sound to merit wider exposure. There's video and film making going on around the stage, but leader Karl Bareham sets the visual ambience by spending a fair bit of time with his back turned against them (and the audience).
Never mind, the crowd is here for genuine regional megastars and we're already getting a bit excited about what’s to follow. Sheffield's WORKING FOR A NUCLEAR FREE CITY (11) are a modestly geekish bunch. Their music is gentle and sunn, with a groove that builds towards something approaching new rave danceabilty. There's a laptop that does what laptops do (glitch) and a couple of unplanned pauses slow the arrival of party time. Generic, it isn’t. But for monster stage show and the Full Musical Monty we know the best is yet to come. WORKING FOR A NUCLEAR FREE CITY are working their way round to the discovery of something unique and crowd-spearing and they're likeable enough to make us happy to hang around while they get there.
THE SCARAMANGA SIX (12) have been here before. Last year, in fact. Their regular five are augmented with a four piece horn section (including two trombones and the magnificent Pat Fulgoni of KAVA KAVA) and a cymbal wielding extra percussionist. The horn section has parts written specially for the occasion by aforementioned Rob Paul Chapman, and the whole set is lifted to something that must have some of the day's earlier acts gibbering with jealous awe. The terrifying/hilarious melodrama of the band's stage act works so well because the music is truly fabulous all by itself. They have, after all these years, got a sackful of great songs (The Coward stands out as never before) and they are given the dramatic space and fine accompaniments to let them stand right up and attack the crowd. The crowd, of course, go berserk with joy. The band's Huddersfield/Leeds credentials are intact but I hear that serious Northern Europe tours are threatening West Yorkshire audiences with their absence. For all those who were here, this will be a landmark gig in the continuing story of …
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