Saturday overview

A few hours kip and the hubbub of the campsite as well as the smell of coffee and bacon has me up and out of the tent. Returning with bacon and egg butties and a few wasps I try to plan out my day with the programme that’s a lot more user friendly this year, but even so the band write ups seem to steer clear of any description of what most of the bands sound like.

Before long the bars are open and we’ve made base camp at the back of the arena in front of a stall called Mad Planet which with much luck also has a regular busking session throughout the day by Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs playing punk classics like Gordon is A Moron and Pretty Vacant. Terrific to wake up with an Otter too!

The first band on the main stage is Local Heroes competition winner Merla, who are actually very good with their country tinged harmonies, it’s very pleasant and their cover over Beck’s ‘Loser Baby’ is the highlight of their set.

The Escot Education workshops and the kids area is a flurry of activity as kids and parents get stuck into all kinds of projects. Deciding to forgo a visit to the Big Top or a viewing of ‘Freeborn John’ the show we watched here last year I stay in the arena for Ox and after a while I wish I hadn’t. They should be my cup of tea with their Americana but they’re not they’re load and tuneless and I end up praying for them to leave.

Dan Donnelly on the other hand is terrific, raising hecklers from the crowd, one of the festival favourites he plays Fallen and Love Will Save The Day and it’s lovely! But he doesn’t do David Gray. Songs of love, angst and cigarettes combined with his open friendly banter and easy guitar style.

Goldblade bring the noise and the crowd and are rather messy energetic punk to jump about to and yell along with. The crashing rock and roll mayhem from the stage is vibrant and well executed and these veterans show the younger bands how punk should be done. There’s loads of long haired lads from Wales at the barrier going mad on their big containers of lethal local cider. If I’m enjoyin’ it. They’re lovin’ it boyo!

The rain hits for Neck and once again the crowd thins, not as badly this time and the natural light in the Devon sky gives a vibrancy to the colourful umbrellas and plastic macs as a good sized crowd decide to defy the rain and stick it out. A big dark glasses wearing frontman who loves to windmill his guitar, insult the bassist is joined on flute, drums, pipes and fiddle and they sound really good. They’re lively ceilidh and it’s fun.

They say they come from Ireland but sound rather London to me. No matter it’s the nearest the main stage gets to this type of music and it’s good to splash about in the rain to and hand out a bunch of lighters at the same time. Neck are loud guitar fuelled Irish music to shout and drink and dance to, with good clever lyrics too and lots of quips on stage.

If they weren’t quite so good I’d have been off to see Exeter’s local boys The Toretz for more of their Ompha Ska Jazz’n’Bass but I’m hoping they’ll be back next year and I’ll catch them then, plus I’d seen them the week before and on a recommendation from a mate I stay on for the next act and grab a bacon and sausage hoagie from The Real Meat Sausage Company, delicious and filling and reasonably priced.

All the food was superb, although Grande Bouffet would have been a bonus, but I ate like a king, god I’d love a job as a festival food stall picker!

The rain ceased for Young Blood Brass Band and their blend of hip hop and big horns. Lots of horns a sousaphone, some trombones, trumpets, tenor sax and of course a bass drum, snare drum, and cymbals. The rap wasn’t mainstream pap but quite deep stuff and the music was great with the ‘samples’ provided by the brass band. No swearing, no gun culture and not a hint of bling and music stolen from everywhere rap that’s good to the ears and good to groove to too!

I wander around to The Bimble Inn for my first glimpse of the place, catch a little of a folk band called Woolly Mammoth who are rather well placed, the venue is perfect for their brand of folk and there’s lots of people chilling on the mats or playing the outdoor games and a crowd has gathered up the hill too.

Johnny Kalsi is a legend! I love him and any band he’s in like Dhol Foundation to bits. So it’s no surprise to find me watching their mix of digital programming and live drumming but there’s lots of people there too and they appear to be loving it too. Infact when Johnny asks how many have seen them before there’s loads who put their hands up.

He gets the crowd clapping to the offbeat, takes a while for everyone to synchronise. Gets us all to sing in the language of drums (bol) and even try out for an Indian Boy Band with some bhangra dancing. Even as the rain pours down very few leave the intense rhythms and beats, mesmerising and great fun. One of the many highlights of the weekend for me.

I bump into a guy who I’ve got to know through chatting each year at Beautiful Days and it starts a snowball of meeting people I’ve not seen in years, so by the time I set off for the fabulous 3 Daft Monkeys I realise that Hugh Cornwall is about to take to the stage so remain in the arena ‘pegging’ a few unsuspecting victims.

Hugh starts in great form and before I know it I’m down the front on the barrier lapping it up. All right he may not have the Stranglers keyboard sound but he does have their voice and ability with a guitar, a behemoth of a drummer and a gorgeous bass player to lust after.

All are talented musicians and we have a great bop to classic Stranglers songs like a truncated No More Heroes (sounded better for it), Something Better Change, Peaches, Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Hanging Around, Walk On By and the huuuuge Always The Sun. Plus some tracks of his own stuff like Black Hair Black Eyes Black Suit. The band stay real tight all the way through and Hugh even cracks a smile. Superb! Better than the Stranglers I reckon.

I’m still missing loads of good bands, but there’s nothing I can do about it! Eighteenth Day of May are playing The Big Top and The Deep Sea Jivers were inside Bimble Inn, Exeter’s very own Ben And Lex are dropping tunes in The Little Big Top. And Crazy Circus Cabaret were in the Pussy Parlure and now it’s bound to be great DJs.

I want to see all of them so instead I develop mental inertia and stay for The Proclaimers. Last time I saw them at another festival they were really tight and the band behind them was in smokin’ form. Tonight however they’re a little dull and it forces the inertia from me and I head off to the Big Top.

I’m so glad I did as in some form of cosmic balance, I see Chumbawamba a band who the last time I saw them were dire. Here, in the big top in front of a huge crowd who spill outside the tent, the four of them are totally awesome! They sing old and new songs with emotion and feeling and a finger in their ear. Those old political songs are just as pertinent today, it was a bit gutting to realise this, but the moment carried me on, it’s gently painful and very beautiful, they create magic. Do yourself a favour and buy their new album A Singsong and a Scrap their old punk stuff sounds grand given the folk treatment.

I don’t hang around for Julian Cope or Killing Joke as I don’t want to miss the lanterns rising into the night and then instead of aiming for the Bimble Inn with my group of friends I listen to Killing Joke, they get my head moving, and sound a bit noisy from above the arena. Lots of people say they hated them, a few say they loved them. I can’t comment as I settled down under the gazebo to test home made flavoured vodka until dawn and wander off intermittently to listen to Freq Nasty and Krafty Kuts and chill by the fire pit outside the Little Big Top and bumble about the campsite in-between meeting new people to chat too.

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