flower power Sunday fills Beautiful Days with colour, and fireworks light the night skies
Beautiful Days 2009 review
Thursday 27th August 2009
Sundays are often the most depressing days of a festival. Waking to find people packing away tents for an early departure are a reminder that it's nearly over. Less so at Beautiful Days. There seem to be a lot less people leaving. Getting up I find that one of our group is sitting amongst our tents with her leg in plaster. She's been to hospital after falling over last night and has a fractured ankle. Bless her, she desperately wants to stay and enjoy the remainder of the day but as the story unfolds, she's been offsite overnight (to be x-rayed) and the Red Cross people on site have apparently been great. Not only that but security arranged a lift back to the tent last night and – after a health and safety assessment - they are allowed to drive down to pack up their belongings and she is taken away for an operation.
It's with that in mind that our morning begins. The kids visit the family camping inflatable bouncing area and make flower power headbands in accordance with this year's theme. Even early on, it becomes apparent that the choice and theme for this year sees more people getting involved. It's great to see and it brings a welcome smile to everyone's faces. Not only that, the rain has held off and it might be that our car gets offsite this year under its own steam!
Heading down to 'base camp Main Stage', we arrive just before Subhumans hit the stage. Now, having two small kids with us makes for interesting conversations about colourful language, but it seems a lot more worthwhile when delivered in the manner of The Subhumans. This is punk, served up brilliantly and with enough anarchy to make a fireworks display out of parliament. Some of the wars that they’re singing about may not be current, but the message remains the same. They’re tight and the punchy lyrics are somehow clear amongst the relentless guitars, bass and drums. Fair play to them, and to the sound engineers!
My opinions of Frank Turner may be dismissed as written by someone who is a big fan. I am. He's bloody great. The clever song writing (both instrumentally and lyrically), have reduced me to bleary eyed moments amongst a field full of hairy sweaty blokes. It's right that his on-the-mark observations and smart recounting of experiences that we can all identify with have won him many fans. He's supported the Levellers on recent tours which will obviously count in his favour today. The Punk and occasionally bitter lyrics over a folk or acoustic backing are delivered with a passion that Mills and Boon could only aspire to. Having never seen a duff performance from him, it's reassuring that the new material from a forthcoming album sounds good too. Unfortunately seeing Frank Turner means we have to forego Chris T-T and The Hoodrats as well.
After a very kind offer from a friend, we leave our nippers with her and head to the Little Big Top on a bit of a wander to see Howard Marks on a Q and A session. Shockingly, he appears on time and looking like he's had an interesting breakfast. He appears to be either very tired, very stoned or both. I'm loathed to give away too much information about what he says because his Mr Nice book is such an interesting read and Dope Stories is a good laugh. One of the enquiries that gives nothing away was "Would you do it all again?" The answer was a pretty emphatic affirmative, and I think he approves of the casting for the new Mr Nice film.
Back down to rescue our friend from our offspring and we catch the end of The Living End. The Aussie band is obviously well respected and seem to have gone down well with the people that we speak to on the way back.
Dinner on Sunday at Beautiful Days is a difficult thing for me. I like eating and by Sunday night, I should know what I'd like as my last meal for the festival. While I struggle to make up my mind, our kids have lasagne and pasta and eat like we haven't fed them for days. This fresh air is good for the appetite! I opt for another beer while I make up my mind and Gong come on stage. I'm not a big fan of Gong, but that's only through lack of education. I really like guitarist Steve Hillage's other stuff with System 7 and his collaborations with The Orb, but I've never seen Gong.
It seems appropriate that they're playing to a field full of flower power dressed hippies, but it would also be good to see their effects and visuals under the same dark conditions that Hawkwind were given on Friday night. The fiddly guitars, electronic effects and well delivered drums are great but it all seems a bit 'noodly' and mixed up initially. Moving a little closer seemed to sort that out though. Daevid Allen's wizard suit looks great and some of the lyrics are genius: "Would you like some tea?" The set gives enough for me to want to find out a fair bit more.
Lamb is a known quantity to me and I've been looking forward to seeing them for aaaages. The beautiful haunting vocals of Lou Rhodes coupled with crystal clear top end drums and bouncing bass lines drag me down to the front to get a better listen and look. The stand out track of the set for me is 'That Sound', with Rhodes' vocal range skipping from the deep and resonating to high and eerie. It’s great to see them performing together again.
Our hosts are next up and the crowd swells as anticipation builds. Tonight Levellers are performing the whole of their debut album 'A Weapon Called The Word'. The roar as they come on stage is huge and they're straight into 'World Freak Show'. Performing in album order, Mark even shares with us the moment when the vinyl version would have to be flipped over (I wonder how many people present still have a working record player).
'England My Home', 'Barrel of a Gun', and 'Carry Me' are my favourite moments from the album. Watching Simon Friend and Mark Chadwick perform alone together on stage was another highlight. They seemed really tight, and more importantly to be having a great time!
Having played the album, we were also treated to 'Beautiful Day', 'Cholera Well', and 'One Way' which have the whole crowd roaring the lyrics. From our vantage point, we can see an entire field of people bouncing in time with each other. The last song is 'Liberty', and is accompanied by an amazing firework show. A great way to end the festival.
We're feeling a bit flat walking back to the tent but sitting around with mates and reminiscing over the weekend's highlights soon restores our smiles. Even with the rain on Monday morning, our spirits are not dampened. It's been another great weekend at Escot Park in Devon. The Levellers and their non-corporate festival have done it again, and this time, with the added tracks through the car park, it's easy to get off site.
We'll be back next year, with our kids, without a shadow of a doubt. They've enjoyed it as much as we have. Beautiful Days is a definite annual event for all of us now. The combination of a diverse melting pot of music and entertainment, and a broad range of people all intent on having a great time is too big a draw to miss.
review by James Tayler photos by Andy Pitt / Danielle Millea / Karen Williams
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