The new artist arena for this year's Leeds Festival had expanded, changed its name to the BBC Introducing Stage and doubled up to include Reading as well as the Bramham Park site outside Leeds (1). What was a local occasion had become national. In the process the Leeds domination has been eased a little, with only one in three acts coming from Leeds itself. Northern artists still hold a third of the other remaining slots and only token numbers show from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the South of England. At Leeds the stage itself moved to a new location, in visual and sonic range of a main route into the top of the field where the main stage sits. Weather and passing trade were both kind and numbers were very much higher than in previous years. Standards too were given a push upwards, with some of the weaker Northern artists of previous years being pushed aside (in most cases) by stronger artists.
Leeds' brand new EUREKA MACHINES (2) set the pace for the next three days with a fine bravura performance. They wear great shoes, and mix whiplash choreography with razor sharp playing. They blister out guitar riffs that make the pulse race and the heart sing. They surf the adrenaline waves of a massive-sounding pa and give us relentless harmony vocals in big tunes like "Scream Eureka", "The Story of My Life" and "Being Good". They are that rare thing - a quality set of musicians who can do the show with no hint of irony or cynicism. Band leader Chris Catalyst teases the crowd like the pro he is. There's momentum behind EUREKA MACHINES and the crowd get a good fat whiff. It’s hard to imagine a better opening act. It's rock and roll in the fullest sense, the original recipe with a kick in every bottle.
Matt Bigland, guitar and vocals, Tom Dornford-May, bass guitar, and Steve Wilson drums are the recently formed DINOSAUR PILE-UP (3). They do grunge with intelligence, they do indie with balls and they combine the two in something that leaps forward as different and full of potential. They do their best song "I Get My Direction" and they do it bigger and better than the record. They are maybe a bit shy of such a big audience, but their music is starting to do it for them.
THE HUMOUR (4) do not know the meaning of the word shy. They rush out to a mighty classical fanfares and take over the big stage with confidence. Their teen American style and content and James's US accent are spot on. The front man swagger is totally convincing. The band's emo-lite songs aim straight at the soft regions of their young fan's flutter buttons and the rock guitar noise fills the gaps. They have tunes that convince, even if they don’t necessarily stand up and take charge all by themselves. Is there is space in the wider world for another band doing this kind of stuff? I guess not, but the good news for THE HUMOUR is that my guesses are nearly always wrong.
Chester's OUT FROM ANIMALS (5) have to break into the solid phalanx of Leeds bands that dominate this first day's billing. The only other non-Leeds band for today are the French-originated UNDERGROUND RAILROAD who don’t come on till much later. But no matter. OUT FROM ANIMALS' Nu Rave dancey guitar music would have been right at home in Leeds when SUNSHINE UNDERGROUND and chums were giving the cowbell so much welly back in 2006. Bright-eyed, clear voiced vocalist/guitarist , Action Andy enthuses all around him and he powers-up the indie dance vibe with his own snare drum. The crowd is good - about 500 seriously attentive souls are soaking it up - an encouraging turn out that grew as the weekend went on. Bass player Paul, and Andy the drummer are precise and strong.
THAT FUCKING TANK (6) are in a different league. To be fair they aren’t actually in any league at all and competing for praise is not part of their agenda. The Introducing Stage is an odd place to find this instrumental-only guitar/drums duo but odd places are precisely those best suited to the kind of exploratory, semi-improvised onslaughts that James Islip (drums) and Andy Abbott (guitar and pedals) do so well. Shapes and riffs are familiar from the albums, but the thrill of watching the tank is not knowing quite what is going to happen next. Abbott seems to be feeling around, going blindside for a new attack on a riff, while Islip goads, encourages or just plain ignores him. And then all of a sudden, from nowhere at all the two of them become a single instrument, tipping the whole stage onto its side with sheer volume and speed, effects fizzing from one noise to another. And best of all - the crowd to se them is huge and delighted.
SOLUS LOCUS (7) are pretty new to the Leeds scene, but it does sound as though they have been paying some attention to the venues and personnel connected with THAT FUCKING TANK and Friends. They are more orchestrated, more driven by heart than muscle, but their outlook is adventurous and their sound explores post-everything possibilities, thrashing about and coaxing guitar and keyboards by turn. Lewis Cahill plays Guitar; Tom Bedford is the bass player; Ned Jolley drums; and Mike Jones plays all the other bits - laptop, keyboards and so on. These are early days, but there is promise.
|
The story of FF'ers (8) being mistaken for Foo Fighters because of the two Fs in their name (it actually stands for Flirty Fishing) is becoming well known. Here at Leeds it generated a very big crowd, some badly aimed paper beer cups, some boos and laughter, and a few red faces. The FF'ers rose to the occasion and played a blinder. Smiles, a pretty red dress, pouts and a pointy finger all help to draw attention round to their punk spangled chanting, riffing and general tearing it upness. The few disheartened grunge fans make their way back to wherever they came from and a big crowd stays behind to twitch about to some pretty, edgy tunes. Who'd have thought it, eh?
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (9) are from Paris but are settled in London. Like FF'ers there are bits of POLLY HARVEY in the female lead - the slurrier rock and roll bits for the most part. The band - Marion Andrau, Raphael Mura, and J.B. Ganivet have a Velvet Underground looseness that works pretty well. There are some pretty strands, with vocal harmonies too in a song that seems to be called "I Don’t Want To Play". The sky is little overcast and the bass is sounding unpleasantly harsh, and we are into the quieter time of the late afternoon. So the band don’t really get much chance to have an audience on their side. A little introverted and a little dark perhaps, they are a band who need an audience that knows their best material.
Local heroes of 2008, THESE MONSTERS (10) start with the big advantage of some considerable support around the stage. They continue with the massive advantage of an extraordinarily bold performance, Just three tunes, no singing, no introductions and a wall of noise while instruments are swapped or retuned in what would have been the gaps. Saxophone, guitar, bass and drums follow the riffs up hill and down dale (it is Yorkshire, after all) in a deeply satisfying steroidal symphony where all the parts are audible and worth following. The band jumps around vigorously and the crowd are inspired to have a go themselves. The great lurching riff of "Fleets of Black Helicopters" is a wanton party of behemoth proportions. The air is well and truly cleared.
THE BACCHAE (11) are all dressed up and showtime, hitting out at the crowd with a punky glam thing from a rehearsal garage in the New York end of Leeds. They do it with loads of energy and some stinging old-school Jack Whitish guitar solos. The sound is a bit Blondie and a bit bluesy grunge and a lot of other things besides. I'm thinking that escape velocity would require better definition in the song department.
LOQUI (12) are tonight's headline act. As the evening darkens their theatrical presentation looks good under the lights. Rob Paul Chapman swirls his silver-headed cane, conducting the band, the audience and the stars in turn. His songs, "Average White Boy" in particular, are torrents of words, firmly glued to well balanced lines and supported with a wonderfully ornate (and surprisingly punkish) set of arrangements. The good wide stage and the nicely tuned pa do LOQUI's sound full justice. I wonder if it has recorded well? THE tracks would be worth seeking out for the vocal harmonies alone, It is extraordinary that such ambitious lines should be so clearly presented and even more extraordinary that they should have been written in the first place. I don’t think anyone else is doing anything like this at this level.
|
