a fantastic line-up showcases on day one of Nightmare Before Christmas

When I first heard that the recently reformed My Bloody Valentine would be curating this year's All Tomorrow's Parties' Nightmare before Christmas festival, I was instantly left with a feeling of, "how great is this festival going to be!"

With the All Tomorrows Parties festival now going into its 10th year, and this, their third out of four festivals due to take place this year, in my opinion, the organisers couldn't have done a better job in creating what is arguably one of the best festival line-ups of the year.

Featuring a host of reformed and older acts, such as My Bloody Valentine themselves, The Pastels, and Swervedriver; amongst other My Bloody Valentine influenced talent, such as Le Volume Courbe, Lilys, and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

For those who haven't been to an All Tomorrows Parties festival, in my opinion, it comes with a high recommendation from anyone who's attended.

Set in a Butlins, there are three indoor stages of differing sizes, hosting the best in alternative music, with an atmosphere that comes across as being both safe and friendly, and as I mentioned earlier, this weekend's festival had an incredible line-up, but it must be said that the organisers are consistently drawing up fantastic line-ups for each event that they hold.

Opening proceedings on the weekend, were De La Soul, the three-piece hip-hop brigade, now celebrating 20 years since the release of their debut album, 'Three Feet High and Rising', which was the focal point of their set.

Treating the large turnout of fans to songs such as 'Stakes is High' and 'Me, Myself and I' amongst a whole host of other 'hits', and for me they provided a great set. Throughout they continually worked the audience, arguably a little too much by the end of their set, and they couldn't fill up their allotted 1 hour time slot, but from what was given by the De La Soul trio, and their talented backing band, it proved to be an excellent set, really celebrating the album's 20th birthday in style.

Over on the Centre Stage, a much darker, and more intimate room, were Witch, the American, grunge rock four piece, and side project of Dinosaur Jr's frontman Jay Mascis, who this time took a back seat, taking his place behind the drums.

With a mass of silver hair, the band played a fantastic and ultimately surprising set, in the sense that I wasn't expecting to hear what I heard. Two highlights from the set included 'Seer' and 'Sweet Sue', both of which offered great examples of what the band seem to be all about, playing great, American grunge rock, without complications and just going for it, and for me they played a really impressive set.

Back on the main stage were Glaswegian country rockers Primal Scream, the headliners for the day.

The band headed up by frontman Bobby Gillespie, took to the stage with their true rock n roll swagger, and Gillespie took the microphone and just let out a snarl of jumbled words, you knew you were in for a treat.

Taking the chance to deputise new material, the band also raced through a host of hits, which the band of plenty of, including 'Country Girl', 'Accelerator' and 'Jailbird', offering fans the perfect opportunity for a sing-along with friends, whilst appreciating a really talented band, and the crowd who turned out in big numbers were not left disappointed.

Playing before the festival's curators, three piece New Jersey band Yo La Tengo, seemingly had it all to do to keep the crowd in the mood, which they achieved with seemingly relative ease.

Having only heard of the band before their performance, however, they came highly recommended, and didn't disappoint. In a lengthy set, the band performed a very tight set, with highlights including 'Mr Tough' and 'Periodically Double or Triple', with the latter being quite simply an excellent performance, leaving me with a feeling that I'd made the right choice to catch them, and by the time of the end of their set came, I was only left wishing for more.

The real highlight of the day however came from My Bloody Valentine, who played a full 1 hour and 45 minute set, and didn't disappoint for any moment of that.

Overcoming sound problems at the beginning of the set, the band went on to deliver a simply sublime, and awe inspiring set, with 'Soon' being my personal highlight. If you haven't been able to catch the Dublin band since their reformation then they're definitely worth seeing.

On a personal level however, with this being the first chance I've been able to catch the band, I was left a tad underwhelmed, with the band not living up to my own, personal high standards of what I expected. However, that's not to detract from what they did, they did perform incredibly well, and didn't disappoint the huge numbers that turned out for them on the first of their three performances across the weekend.

Closing the opening day's proceeding were 'legendary' Manchester punk band Buzzcocks, a band who have influenced music since their creation in 1976, by frontman Peter Shelley. The veterans offered yet another sing-along set, and brought the day to anthemic close with 'Why Can't I Touch It' and of course 'Ever Fallen In Love', reminding everyone what a great band they are, and were, and from their whole set it's clear to see why so many band have been influenced by them, and will continue to be for years to come.

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