Truck 2011 - Blessing Force

Truck 2011 saw the Last Fm stage coming under an Oxford invasion on the Saturday, when Andrew Mears (aka Pet Moon) and the rest of Blessing Force curated the stage. It was a day of music that truly highlighted the depth of talent offered by the bands hailing from the city, and showcased perfectly why the city's music scene must now be considered among the best in the county.



The Last FM stage had undergone a fairly dramatic remodelling from the previous day, leaving the space with a fresher energy, creating an unusual atmosphere between the bands sets, with spaced out vocals and trippy visuals playing on loops. Catching the tail end of what sounded like a good set from Solid Gold Dragons, the first band we caught properly were long time friends of the blog Wild Swim, who where making their first festival appearance. They shot through a brilliant set that included some unheard tracks, and personal highlight of 'Another Night', we managed to grab a couple of words with Carlos, Jamie and Sam from the band the following night when they (Jamie and Carlos) where playing a DJ set as side project a Cubiq at the Boxford stage. They said they were suffering from a small dose of festival fatigue having been all over Europe at festivals. Truck was the first time that had managed to play as Wild Swim in the last 4 or 5 months, and as such they were fairly critical of some of the minor technical issues they had run into during the set, but overall they seemed pleased with the way the performance went, and rightly so.



Following Wild Swim, Jonquil took to the stage to a near capacity crowd, and delivering a set composed of tracks from both One Hundred Suns and their forthcoming album. Hugo, who fronts the band (as well as being the force behind Chad Valley) ran us through some his thoughts on a set which he described as being a touch ropey in which they had 'struck a couple of bum notes' due to the band being locked away writing and recording for the last couple of months, and not having any opportunities to play out. The album which will being going through the final stages of mixing as you read this has a planned release date of this November. However he went on to enthuse about the energy of the set, and it would have been hard to find a member of the crowd who picked on the technical deficiencies of the performance.



Originality is a quality the oxford music scene has always thrived off, and nowhere is this more obvious then with Gruff Trade favorites Trophy Wife. They followed on from Jonquil performing a highly energetic set, showing where their live reputation is fasting growing from. With fan favorite 'Microlite' fast on its way to becoming an underground track of the summer, there was always guaranteed to be a powerful crowd atmosphere present. Jody and Ben from the band where once again kind enough to spare us a couple of words about how they have found the new look Truck so far. As long time Truck veterans they were unsure if they preferred it to the festival set up they had grown up with, but were however, happy to see the festival, and argued that the festival would need 'to grow into itself again' following its overhaul. They where however delighted with the Blessing Force curated Last Fm stage, and described it as being a great addition to the weekend, and that it was nice to see a stage 'thats a bit different, displaying more then just music'.



The final act we caught on the Last Fm stage, was Pet Moon himself. It was fantasticto finally catch a act we have been such big supporters of live, and he didn't disappoint. Playing a incredibly varied set, including a great version of 'Ganger'. It was a performance unique from almost anything else at the festival, it seemed half like an incredibly high energy jamming session, which is meant very much as compliment, it was nice to see an act who where so clearly enjoying themselves on stage. Andrew gave us a couple of words just as he left the stage saying that whilst his set had started of well, they did run into a couple of technical issues. He argued that Oxford had always had a good music scene, its just now it seemed that people outside of the city where really sitting up and taking notice, but those in Blessing Force where not deluded, they knew the industry is a fickle one. He also said that the current quality of of music coming from Oxford 'breeds a healthy scene'.

It was great to see a stage that showcased to such a full extent just how many talented artists are coming out of Oxford at the moment, and it was without a doubt in my mind the highlight of the weekend seeing them all playing back to back.
Thanks to the official Truck 2011 website for all the photos.

Bringing It Home: Truck 2011 Review

Sunday night at quarter to 11, a sweaty Robin Bennett, festival organiser, heading on stage to close the festival with a triumphant run through of 'Rumours' with the Truck All Star Band, shouts a few words to us. Through the noise of the crowd we can only catch one line: 'best Truck so far'.
The 14th Truck marked a big year for the festival, an ambitious inclusion of an extra day of music whilst expanding the festival site with several new tents and an overhaul of the Main Stage. The first new stage that really stood out was the Last FM, hosting by BBC Introducing on the friday, largely due to the fact that it was situated metres from the edge of the campsite. This drew immediate crowds to see bands such as The Neon Violets who got the weekend off to a great start, their bluesy rock definitely carried bags of potential but the melodies were too often suffocated by a sudden descent into an unnecessary bass jam or walls of feedback.


Another new addition was the Clash Stage which effectively replaced the popular Barn Stage and hosted some of the biggest acts of the weekend. Johnny Flynn was the first artist to really draw the crowds in and played a set evenly split between his two albums. Despite his sombre onstage presence the raw quality of the songs really shone through and certainly left the crowd satisfied, as was noisily noted by his seemingly fanatical (and very young, judging by the 'I love you Johnny' screams) female fans. When we caught up with him afterwards he noted the reason for his tiredness as continual rehearsals for a play 'Jerusalem' being put on at the Apollo Theatre in London next year but also noted how good the crowd had been been and the 'beauty' of the site of the festival. Following on from Johnny was Graham Coxon who seemed to draw significantly less punters to the stage, perhaps representing that the folk roots of Truck still run deep. Coxon played a set that, despite being hugely energetic lacked the quality songs that a stage headliner should possibly have at their disposal and cries of 'Coffee and TV' seemed to sum up the general feeling of the crowd. Despite the indifferent audience reaction Coxon still described the festival as a 'noisy delight' to us (through a mediator obviously after his manager clearly thought he was far too important for us...). The first artist to really leave his mark on the stage was perhaps Edwyn Collins when 'A Girl Like You' left the crowd cheering for an encore and provided the best singalong moment of the weekend. Later that evening St Etienne reminded us that maybe they've been more influential on modern dance music than they're given credit for. Sarah Cracknell's stage presence was nothing short of mesmeric and the performance as a whole was certainly one of the highlights of the festival. Speaking to her as she left the stage she spoke enthusiastically of the 'really really great' crowd and praised the festival as a whole stating 'I'm not much of a festival goer but this is one I'll come back to again and again' (one for the Truck website).


So often the success of a festival can rest on the kindness of the weather and this year's Truck was subject to days blessed with high temperatures and cool breezes, perfectly complementing the music that the Main Stage (Truck Stage) had to offer during the afternoons. Soft, largely acoustic guitar strummers such as Marcus Foster and Pete Molinari kept the sunbathing families entertained throughout the day and it is at these times when Truck is really in it's element, as children kartwheel around the edges of a dispersed crowd and hippies hula hoop at the barrier. Where the mainstage suffered however was perhaps when the temperature grew harsher in the evenings, pulling crowds to the tents. The one band that mother nature could not affect however was Bellowhead, their folk pulling in all the freaks in the best way possible with a front row looking like it could have been assembled for the purpouse of a government diversity survey. Their set packed with jigs and shantys really got the crowd dancing and ended the friday night of the festival on a great note. The cold did somewhat stifle the later headliners though with Gruff Rhys and Dreaming Spires both bringing in modest audiences, underming the respective sets.


Speaking to a couple of the festival going public one issue that was raised consistently was slight disappointment at the removal of the popular Barn Stage with Ela and Megan, both 18, noting that the stage had 'added to the rural feel of the weekend' and the festival 'didn't quite feel right without it.' This was a view echoed by Jez and Susan, both 45, who mentioned that 'despite the fact we didn't really go to the Barn Stage it was certainly a part of Truck we heard a lot about and probably shouldn't have been taken away.'
This has been a year of transition for Truck and with the competetive nature of the UK Festival scene of course evolution is necessary to survive. On the whole we felt that despite the expansion of the festival it lost very little of the traditional charm that makes Truck what it is and why it remains to be such a popular independent event. Typically the festival ended with a bit of good old fashioned fun as the All Stars played through 'Rumours' to a rapturous reception of a crowd just able to sum up some last ounces of energy after a great weekend.

Thanks to Andrew Kendall for the photos of Bellowhead and St Etienne, Louise Roberts for Johnny Flynn, and Iam Taylor for The Truck All Stars

Truck 2011, One Sleep Left

With Truck 2011 kicking off tomorrow, we thought we would just post a couple of tracks up from the local Oxford talent we are looking forward to catching over the weekend.
Hope you enjoy.
Jonquil - I Know I Don't Know by Jonquil
Swimmhaus Johannesburg by Fixers.
Another night by Wild Swim
SUPERPOSITION - Pet Moon by pet moon

Exit 2011

After a couple of weeks on the road around Europe we've come back having seen some great performances by a few of the bands doing the European Festival circuit (also OB from Hollyoaks). First up was Exit Festival which takes place within a fortress in the Serbian town of Novi Sad, the line up promised much and the first night certainly didn't disappoint in terms of headliners. It doesn't get much better than Pulp following Arcade Fire co-topping the bill with a crowd not composed of topless Englishmen shouting along to 'Common People' and 'Wake Up'. Although Jarvis didn't quite have the electric stage presence of Glastonbury (but who can blame him seeing as Pulp seem determined to play every festival this side of the ecuator) it will always be a privilege to catch such an incredible band. What's so amazing about the festival is how late everything takes place and so after the headliners had finished at about 2am we headed to the dance arena to catch Deadmau5. Although the set was absolutely shockingly awful the dance arena has to be about the most impressive stage at any festival that we've ever seen. A narrow strip just under the decks is backdropped by an amphitheatre, partly constructed from the original fortress, which would make it perfect for watching some nice relaxed music, perhaps not quite the same for Underworlds or Steve Aokis...
What we found to be the most enjoyable aspect to the weekend was the variety offered by the smaller stages, especially if you're willing to head into the festival slightly early or stay up super late. Even if latino or metal's not your thing head to the reggae tent, or alternatively if you don't fancy Hadouken(!) at the Fusion Stage head to one to one of the local artists workshops and sip Rajika with Pavel Pop whilst discussing your friend's future as a druid.Perhaps the most pleasantly surprising set of the weekend came from M.I.A who played a show stuffed full of air raid sirens, klaxon horns and couple of stage invasions from photograhers. It was clear that she completely engrossed the audience from the moment the opening horns of 'Bucky Done Gun' blared out and by the time 'Paper Planes' came round the atmosphere was perfectly euphoric. This performance somewhat overshadowed Santigold the next day whose songs, even the high energy 'Creator', did not translate especially well to the expansive Main Stage.
By the time the fourth night comes around you're starting to realise why most festivals only last for three nights, especially when you're dealing with 35 degrees. But nonetheless we trekked to the front to catch Portishead and realised why they had been the tipping point for us to go to the festival in the first place. The trip-hop fitted perfectly into the more mellow mood of a crowd fatigued by three nights of Exit and the odd high energy bursts such as 'Machine Gun' were greeted rapturously by the audiece. For us they were the best of a weekend we'll certainly be returning for.

Indie Tracks - 2011 - Interview with Organisers

We caught up with Natalie, one of the organisers from up and coming music festival, Indie Tracks.

What inspired the launch of the Indie Tracks festival? And what led to it be situated at the Midland Railway?

The festival was actually set up by Stuart Mackay, who used to work on the Midland Railway restoring the trains there. Stuart's a massive indiepop fan, and back in 2006/7 he was travelling to a lot of indiepop gigs across the country. At the time the Midland Railway was hosting events for other types of music, and so he had the idea of seeing if he could hold an indiepop event there too. The first one was just a one night affair in April 2007, with three bands playing. It sold out so quickly and was so successful, that he decided to try out a weekend festival in the summer of 2007 - which was the first full Indietracks festival. The rest, as they say, is history!

How has the festival evolved since the inaugural event in 2007?

We've grown in lots of ways.. We now have a large outdoor stage which makes the most of the natural slope of the site, meaning that everyone gets a great view of the bands playing there. We also run music and craft workshops, which are really popular with music fans and families alike! However, even though we've got a bit bigger, we've stuck to our one main aim with the festival - which is to put on music that we love and showcase new and talented indiepop bands from right across the world.

What is your favourite act to have played the festival in it's history?

I can't speak for the rest of Team Indietracks, but for me personally it would have to be La Casa Azul. It was such an electric atmosphere during his set - everyone was dancing, and the visuals were amazing. It felt like the whole festival came alive - definiely one of my favourite ever Indietracks moments!

Which act are you most excited for this year?

Again, I can only speak for myself, but I'd probably have to say Edwyn Collins and Jonny. I'm huge fans of both, and feel very privileged to have them playing at Indietracks. However there's so many great bands playing this year - I'm genuinely excited about the entire line-up, and am already worrying about how I'm going to see everyone I want to watch!

And finally what sets Indietracks apart from other festivals?

Obviously the fact that it's set in the grounds of a steam railway, set amongst beautiful countryside makes it pretty unique, but I'd have to say what makes us really special is the relaxed atmosphere, the friendliness and, above all, the sheer amount of new and brilliant music that we manage to squeeze in every year. Ooh, and we do smashing real ale as well!

Lou Reed, & Mellow Mondays

On Friday night I was lucky enough to catch Lou Reed live at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall. It was one of the most enjoyable gigs I have been to in years, and a true honour to catch such a living legend of music live, we even got to meet him very briefly a couple of hours after he finished. It was a stunning set filled mostly with his lesser known tracks, including a brilliant cover of Lennon's 'Mother', and a version of 'The Bells', which sounded nothing like the original and was simply put incredible.

On a more modern not, here is a track from the Loved Ones, a great, if slightly premature Mellow Monday track. Hope you Enjoy.
Loved Ones - Hi Pressure by Gruff Trade

Oh and here is a Lou Reed classic, which he played on Friday.
Lou Reed - Ecstacy by luxlain