Overview

Big Session was one of the surprises successes of last year’s festival circuit. Hosted by the Oysterband, and put together by the team that organizes Summer Sundae, last years event was notable for some great performances from Eliza Carthy & Mark Chadwick and Rev Hammer, as well as a great atmosphere in a very child, and indeed adult, friendly setting.

Held in the unlikely location of central Leicester, Big Session is spread across two main areas. Camping (split into family and general) is located across University Road, a change from last years event, while the main arena, hosting stages and market areas, along with the Camper van area is located a couple of minutes walk from the camping area around De Montfort Hall. This all works surprisingly well; the site is close enough to the camping areas for the separation not to be an issue. Car parking is limited however, and I did here a few moans over the weekend about car parking being 15 minutes walk from the site. However, that’s a lot less than at say, Glastonbury, or Beautiful days, so it does need to be kept in perspective.

The De Montfort Hall site was considerably bigger this year, occupying the space that had been used as camping in 05. As well as the indoor stage within De Montfort Hall, a veritable barn of a building, there are two additional stages within the arena area. Opposite De Montfort Hall was the Marquee Stage, which had had a significant size increase from last year, and finally the smallest of the three Orange Tree, combing real ale, radioactive cider and a small stage.

Interspersed with the stages was a market area increased significantly in size from Big Session 05. As well as a huge selection of CDs available from Festival Veterans the Folk Devils, the usual array of Festival tat was well in evidence, as well as a stall that seemed to be doing a raging trade in musical instruments. Food options were also much better this year, with vegetarian, Caribbean and Mexican options available, as well as the now ubiquitous Japanese Noodles.

Friday evening’s entertainment opened late afternoon with folk Grand Dame June Tabor on the De Montfort Hall stage, and Tiny Tin Lady, a prodigious young folk trio that have already started to carve out quite a reputation with performances at last year's Glastonbury and Cropredy.

But it was Nizlopi who prompted the first big question of the weekend, are these guys anything more than the band that spawned a one hit internet phenomenon with a song about heavy machinery? And the answer is yes, they are a huge, huge surprise. Faced with an understandably large crowd, Luke (who is neither 5, nor appears to be related to Bruce Lee), looks like a man that’s been doing this for years. Song after song is delivered with a staggering confidence and self assurity. Partnered by John Parker on double bass, the two men generate a big sound that seems to defy classification. Nizlopi deserve to continue to enjoy success. Far from being the novelty act I feared that they might be, they have the potential to be absolutely huge, and deservedly so.

Next up on the De Montfort Hall stage were the Levellers acoustic, arriving on stage fashionably late, and surprisingly, minus Simon Friend, replaced instead by Dan Donnelly. I have to say that the last time I’d seen the Levellers, it had been a rather lackluster performance, but with the opening bars of The Ballad of Robbie Jones, its clear that this is going to be a blinder. As a set it’s short on surprises, and is probably all the better for it. This is the Levellers at the very top of their game, and Julie, Carry Me, Beautiful Day and Dead Man’s Shoes are played with the kind of fresh intensity of songs written yesterday.

And they just keep going, The Boatman, with Dan Donnelly on vocals sounds fantastic, and as Dirty Davey winds the set up, an encore is an extension of a dream set, rather than a formality, and the combination of Another Man’s War, One Way and Liberty turn the hall into a seething sweaty mass of jumping bodies and smiling faces. Put simply, this is a staggering return to form for a band that looked for all the world as fresh as the day they took the stage at Glastonbury for their legendary performance in 1994.

With a bar license now extended to 1am, many festival goers spent what was left of the evening sat out in the warm evening air, drinking, talking and shopping until being finally kicked off site by security around 1.30am.

Saturday dawned bright and hot, and it was clear that this was going to be a day of high pollen counts and heatstroke. And like many parents faced with a hot and bothered child, we headed straight to what is probably the best kept secret of festivals at De Montfort Hall, the Children’s area. Kids are another thing that De Montfort Hall’s Festival team seems to do so much better than anyone else. There is a huge number of staff there to ensure not only the complete safety of your little angel but also to ensure that they are constantly offered a bewildering number of things to do. And if that wasn’t enough, there are the baffling and frankly terrifying exploits of resident circus loony Doctor Colin (and Son), who over his small number of performances was in some danger of developing such a dedicated following of children, and adults, a transfer to the main stage would have been in order.

Any festival goer who could prize themselves away from Doctor Colin would have a site subdued by the Summer Heat, but with impromptu jamming sessions starting not only on the stages, but also all over the site, especially in a big tent, dubbed “The Witch’s Hat” that had been placed by the organizers in a particularly prescient moment to provide some much needed shade on site.

Hayley Hutchinson took to the stage at around 2.30. I must admit that while she is undoubtedly a talented songwriter, and an accomplished guitar player, I personally found her Country Blues Pop style a little bland. Judging by the size of the crowd that thronged the already stifling Marquee Stage to watch her though, I suspect that this was defiantly a minority view.

Following on from Hayley Hutchinson on the Marquee stage was Martha Tilston. Daughter of acclaimed singer songwriter Steve Tilston, Martha has been gigging as a solo musician consistently since 2002, but, inexplicably has up to this point failed to make much of a dent. Happily, this is a situation that looks set to change, and about time too. She takes the stage to pretty rapturous applause, and glides through a set of glittering self-written songs covering subjects ranging from heartache, loss and grief (this is folk music after all) to love, and even working as a temp in an office. Martha seems to find the whole exercise of being on stage effortless. Between songs she fills in with genuinely funny anecdotes, and the whole experience winds up feeling like spending an afternoon with a good friend.

From there it’s soon time to take the walk over to De Montfort Hall to see Seth Lakeman and band take the stage. Since being nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2005, Seth Lakeman appears to have taken the decision to consolidate his position as the New Young Turk of folk music by touring, and appearing constantly, and I did wonder whether this grinding program would slow him down; well, not on the evidence of this afternoon’s show. Seth, accompanied by brother Sean on guitar, Ben on double bass and Cormac on a collection of boxes and household implements formed into percussion, steam through a set of lush melody and octane fuelled songs. True, many of them seem to involve poor honest country folk coming to grizzly ends, but the pace of the performance doesn’t give you the time to dwell on them. Instead you find yourself swept along on a relentless wave of sound that just doesn’t let up. When the set finally ends, and the compere announces that there isn’t time for an encore, I genuinely feared there would be a riot.

Following Seth Lakeman onto the De Montfort Hall stage were festival hosts, the Oysterband. I did so want to say nice things about the Oysterband, especially as this is their festival, and to say anything negative seems a great deal more than churlish, but I just don’t get it. To me, the Oysterband felt like little more than a pub folk rock band. They are extremely proficient at what they do, but whereas songs by Martha Tilson or Seth Lakeman dripped with energy, feeling and emotion, the Oysterband seemed to play songs I’d expect to find in an Irish theme pub. I want to like the Oysterband, and I will keep trying, but based on this performance, I’ll need to persevere further.

Sunday dawned bright, but thankfully, judging by the amount of sunburn around the site quickly became overcast and cool. Big Session on a Sunday has a lovely random feel to it. Both Orange Tree and Marquee stages seem to resemble after hours jamming sessions, as a combination of programmed and non programmed acts take the stage. There was even a poetry set at the Orange Tree in the early afternoon.

On the De Montfort Hall stage there seems to be even more randomness going on. At one point I’m sure that there was a ceilidh in full swing, complete with caller, band, and limbs being hurled hither and yon in the audience. I just hope no one was hurt!

The last band I get to see over the weekend were Chumbawumba. Now down to a four piece, and mercifully free of all the Tubthumping nonsense, Chumbawumba have returned to the pure folk protest style that made albums like Swinging with Raymond such a pleasure to listen to. The familiar political message is still there, with songs touching globalization, the war, and more general social issues, but paired down to a more basic acoustic and acapella sound it all just sounds that much fresher.

In conclusion, there’s no way that the second Big Session could be considered as anything but a huge success. The organizers struck a winning formula with the first event, and have refined that formula to create something fantastic. This won’t go down as the wildest party of the summer, but with some stunning performances, an organization that’s second to none, and a friendly atmosphere that really is second to none, there’s little doubt it’s a party that’s here to stay.

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