Tom Middleton brings 'Summer Of Love' to The Big Chill on Saturday

Saturday started out bright and sunny once again, and we duly trooped down the hill to The Castle Stage. Our first band of the day was The Blessing, the newly formed jazz-rock quartet which has grown out of Portishead's live rhythm section, including bass guitarist Jim Barr and drummer Clive Deamer. Like Acoustic Ladyland before them, The Blessing fuse driving rock rhythms with a wailing jazz horn section, giving the band strong anthemic tunes and an excellent live presence. While they are perhaps not a band whose CD I would purchase, as a live band they are extremely impressive and they certainly won the crowd over by the end of their performance.



Swedish pop-stress Lykke Li is the next performer to take to the Castle Stage, allowing her band to start the music before she appears from backstage with characteristic drama. There has been much written about 21-year-old Lykke Zahrisson and her band, who have been touted as one of 2008’s ones to watch. I didn't think I had actually heard any of their material before, but as 'Let It Fall', with its "so I weep" chorus proves to me, I have definitely heard this girl before. Like her fellow Scandinavian, Annie, Lykke Li's stock in trade is perfect pop music: lo fi electronica that somehow manages to sound simultaneously upbeat and morose. The melodies are always cheerful and usually memorable, while the verse lyrics belie a little more substance hiding behind the often-repetitive refrains. Lykke Li's set is extremely well-received and has many up and dancing by its close.

Trying to watch Bill Bailey at a festival is always a mistake. You would think I'd learn, as these attempts to see him never end well and The Big Chill was no exception to this rather depressing festival cliché. As usual, the organisers decided to squeeze this amazing comic with a giant reputation onto a small stage, which effectively brought the entire north end of the festival to a standstill as literally everyone tried to get into the Underbelly tent to see him. The crowd was so dense that Big Chill radio were forced to step in and broadcast Bailey's set for the thousands of people outside trying to get in, but by the time we got down there, the whole area was so jam-packed that we couldn't even get close enough to hear that!

Festival organisers: why oh why won't you listen to your customers who are (of course) always right??? We all like Bill Bailey (surely you know this by now?) let's try putting him on a proper open air stage and let everyone who wants to see him, get to see him! I don't see how this simple bit of programming can be so beyond these organisers, but it would seem that it must be, unless of course there is some problem with this equation I can't see - perhaps Bill just doesn't like sunshine or fresh air...? Who knows, but I was told the situation was no better for Russell Howard's set when he played in the Underbelly tent at a similar time the day before.

Returning to the Open Air Stage after our fruitless journey to the Underbelly tent, our spirits were soon lifted as we were treated to a fabulous set from the wonderful Hot 8 Brass Band. Hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana, this 10-strong brass band seem to be inspired by elements of traditional jazz and urban music, creating a unique brass sound that also draws upon the spirit of hip hop culture. Certainly the band are dressed like a hip hop act, which is not what you tend to expect from a group of musicians playing classical instruments. Having only heard the band's version of Marvin Gaye's 'Sexual Healing', I was not entirely sure what to expect from these guys, but they did not disappoint, as their joyful horn sounds rang out across the valley.



The eagerly anticipated Mighty Boosh were the next act to take to the Open Air Stage, playing to an enormous crowd who were already on-side before they had so much as played a note. Having seen The Mighty Boosh live before, I had expected them to play one of their live comedy shows, but apparently I had missed the point entirely, as tonight Vince Noir and Howard Moon (aka Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt) were showcasing their new live band experience. Mixing songs that fans knew from the programme (Electro Boy, Eels, The Soup Song) with short sketches from familiar characters including Naboo (Michael Fielding), Bollo (Dave Brown) and Bob Fossil (Rich Fulcher), with guest appearances from the Hitcher, Lester Corncrake and of course the Moon.

My only qualm would be the timing: 7:45pm meant that loads of kids were still up and running about, meaning that I could barely hear the show for all the bored kids screaming for attention and was troubled by the shows unsuitability for this younger audience, especially with songs about 'eels up your anus' and Noel Fielding shouting "Look at the f**king state of you!" to the rapturous audience. The Mighty Boosh delivered a highly entertaining set that was actually far more musically engaging than I had ever expected - who knew Julian Barratt was actually that good on the bass-?!

Picking straight up where the The Boosh left off, Tom Middleton took to the decks on the Open Air Stage for his Summer of Love Classics Set, playing to a crowd who were well and truly in the mood. Celebrating 20 years of House music, this DJ set featured tunes from across the dance music spectrum taking in Old School, House, Techno, Garage and Rave. Playing a set packed full of floor-fillers like 'Love Story' and 'Papua New Guinea', his set was a definite highlight of the festival for most people I spoke to this weekend.



Moving onto the Castle Stage, we caught at bit of the Matthew Herbert Big Band. As a writer who has written for Jamie Liddell and Roisin Murphy, and as an experimental producer who has previously made concept albums that sample food noises and bodily functions, I had no idea what to expect from this man, even when in Big Band mode. It was therefore a great pleasure to find him in conventional big band mood, playing the electric piano while his band was lead by the most energetic dancing conductor I have ever seen, playing sweet soulful big band jazz that seemed to put smiles on the faces of all those who saw it. This was a set that was over far too soon for me.

After catching a little of the below par set from Still Black, Still Proud: An African Tribute to James Brown, we decided it was definitely not for us. Like many others, we had held out high hopes for this set, but to be perfectly honest we just found it a bit dull. While there was no doubt that the band were extremely technically talented, I felt there was a total over-abundance of self-indulgent jazz funk noodling included in this set, yet precious little sign of the Soul Man or any of his songs as I know them at all.

To add insult to injury, we then made the mistake of hanging around for the Castle Stage's headline set from Big Chill veteran, Mr Scruff. I am usually a huge fan of the Scruffy one, but he also seemed intent on continuing the noodling jazz funk trend, playing absolutely nothing vaguely dance-able whatsoever. The resulting crowd was so thin by the end that it could only have been made up of die-hard fans.

Worse still, after his fairly pitiful Castle Stage closer set, it seems Mr Scruff then went on to keep it unreal for a private after-party in the backstage area, which apparently kept the majority of the family field awake well into the early hours. And when does Mr Scruff decide to ditch the chin-stroke music and crack out the real party anthems...? You guessed it: the good stuff was not for the likes of us and was instead saved for the VIPs. An extremely poor end to what could easily have been a great night.

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