The Zutons and New Beautiful South close the final day of Summer Sundae
Summer Sundae Weekender 2009 review
Thursday 20th August 2009
We get a visit from friends staying in a nearby hotel and it's easy to forget that we're in the middle of a city, there's no city hubbub around the well cared for grounds, although the occasional skyscraper of Leicester’s University gives the game away.
Another day of sunshine greeted us as we made our way to take up some space in front of the main arena, it clearly wasn't quite as busy as the day before, but there was still a good turn out on this, the last day.
The first band I see is You Fellows Of All Souls back on the Rising Stage, and their breezy sixties music is a nice way to get into the day's music. I even end up singing along to their cover of Tracy Ullman's 'They Don’t Know' and enjoy their sunny set. The good vibes continue with Maybeshewill on the Main Stage. An enjoyable local rock band, who delivered festival friendly soundscapes with the help of a backing track, and then added some punchy rock.
Meeting up with my family who had been enjoying the comedy, I took them to see Sound Of Rum on Phrased & Confused and again Kate Tempest delivered her rapidly delivered commission 'Patterns' and it sounded even better second time around. She’s a great lyricist and has a wonderfully timed delivery, even if it is a million miles an hour.
The Main Stage is playing host to Devon Sproule, all the way from Virginia, she sings songs that appear to be mainly about either marital bliss or women taking revenge on the men who wronged them. I'm slightly alarmed at some of the fervent clapping going on by the women in the crowd after a song written by a friend of hers, about how much she's looking forward to killing her husband. The music is gentle country and her voice, which reminds me of Loretta Lynn, is most pleasant to listen to, she fills in the background of each of the songs between her sweet singing which adds to the performance.
A brief distraction taking a look around The Garden at the front of De Montfort Hall, with it's giant pillow fight, mushrooms, Mad Hatter's Tea Party, mushrooms, scarecrow, dancing flowers and kids making stuff is a hive of activity. It's keeping the little ones very happy.
I head for Tommy Womack And The Dissenters to lap up some seedy Nashville country, and some great banter from Tommy himself. He's a live wire constantly chewing, and jerking about the stage. The slim musician sure can play guitar to, and songs about working in those shitty jobs a musician often has to do. 'Fluorescent Light Blues' being the best of a great bunch of songs. I miss the chaos that is the speedo wearing Monotonix
and their beer throwing, balcony jumping exploits which I later hear about, wish I'd seen it, it's the talking point of the day.
The Musicians Stage also plays host to Kingsize local boys who regularly play venues and were a favourite I'm told at the now defunct Charlotte. Starting with 'Monkey Man' the ska fuelled band deliver a flawless performance of big horns, dizzying guitar, great keyboards. The rammed tent is hot as hell but we all lap up a terrific performance, that even sees a 10 foot saxophone drift through the crowd at one point. I recognised the giant instrument from the kids area earlier.
Limbered up it was back to the main stage for the highlight of the weekend. Easy Star All Stars brought their reggae versions of the classic Beatles' album 'Sergeant Pepper' to a sun basking audience. At last tracks the audience knew, even if they were different takes and throw in Pink Floyd's 'Money' and a few dubbed up Radiohead numbers and it's the perfect mix for a sunny Sunday.
Where next? I wander about in search of something to enjoy, eventually settling on Teitur and his soft Faroe Islands songs, his music is the most pleasing of those available, whether accompanied or playing solo his songs hold a certain fascination. His anecdotes between tracks are captivating, and he's rather disarming. The songs all have kooky viewpoints and are actually dark, and funny when they shouldn't be. Another new discovery and an act I'd like to see more of.
I'd seen Bon Iver inside a tent at another festival and raved about his performance. However, here, beside De Montfort Hall, the set sagged. Their last UK gig for a while just didn’t deliver the same charged emotion that I'd previously witnessed, and despite showcasing some new material, the crowd weren't that interested, and even 'Skinny Love' failed to ignite the performance.
Lightning Seeds, or Imelda May? I go for the latter and squeeze into a packed tent to see Irish rockabilly of sheer quality. Imelda starts facing a bank of photographers inches from her face, and unfazed still conveys an awesome set. She even delivers an unaccompanied song to a frothy audience. A band well beyond just another Fifties rockabilly bass and guitar fuelled tribute band. Great stuff, Imelda is another one surely destined for a future main stage performance. By comparison The Dykeenies headlining the Rising Stage seem rather flat.
So it comes to the final acts of the weekend main stage headliners The Zutons, who draw a packed crowd full of everyone from crowd surfers to kids on shoulders. I'm sure they hit a peak with the mass singalong 'Valerie' and leave the entertaining crowd pleasers for my first sit down in the circle in above New Beautiful South.
The band contains only a few of the members of the original band including the distinct vocal of Alison Wheeler, with Dave Hemingway doing a great impression of Paul Heaton even down to similar attire. The set slowly builds to a most enjoyable climax as they delivered their back catalogue of classic singalong hits, and there's a cheer for a local legend on horns (Gaz Birtles).
Sunday has had the most diverse music offerings on the main stage, and I thoroughly enjoyed the music on all the stages. The festival has been going nine years now, and grown year on year, this has been my first visit, clearly I'd waited until it was damn near perfect.
A great festival to see a lot of up and coming bands and enjoy some festival favourites alongside talented Leicester bands, sample dishes from a terrific range of quality food, and sup on 20 real ales, all at reasonable prices, in a well organised and pretty location. I'm sure the musical offerings will continue to be varied, and I'd highly recommend a visit.
review by Scott Williams photos by Karen Williams / Phil Bull
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