Saturday overview

Saturday had an odd collection of bands spread over the four main stages, with Belle and Sebastian, Dizzie Rascal, Panic! at the Disco and Sick of it All making appearances.

Again getting into the arena was a hassle as most of the Leeds crowd had arrived bright and early, eager to sample any fresh new music they could get their hands on at the first available opportunity. You have to admire their dedication.

The first band I managed to catch were The Long Blondes, none of whom are actually long blondes, which is a bit of a surprise if you’ve never seen them before. They hail from Sheffield, but can hardly be associated with the same scene that propelled The Arctic Monkeys to stardom.

Their danceable art-rock and glam image has gained them quite a following, and songs like ‘Lust in the Movies’ with it’s shrieking chorus line gets everyone singing along. The retro feel of tracks like ‘Weekend without make-up’ and upcoming single ‘Once and never again’ add to the charm of the band and most of the crowd seemed happy to bob along to the chirpy nostalgic 60’s style tunes.

More than a little odd, Scissors for Lefty are a bit like America’s answer to Franz Ferdinand, but with a Bloodhound Gang edge. It’s definitely music to make girls dance to, as Franz Ferdinand so famously claimed, but the synth effects are just irritating and I got the impression they would have been far better had they kept their music a bit more stripped down, rather than laden it with quirky effects.

The Subway’s were proving that no challenge is too big for them and they managed to pull off a blinding set on the main stage. Billy Lunn’s great vocals have the type of rockability to them to make people punch the air and sing his choruses back at him. Incredibly stripped down, simplistic rock tunes played out with power riffs are what gets Leeds Festival bouncing along enthusiastically and it certainly goes a long way to proving that the best songs are in fact the simplest.

After joint winning the Glastonbury new bands competition and extensively touring The Subways have built up a huge following, even though they have never really received much in the way of major commercial success. However, on the strength of this performance I expect copies of their debut album ‘Young for Eternity’ will be flying off the shelves.

‘Oh Yeah’, and the folk-like strumalong ‘Mary’ are all performed with rock-star credentials, and they command the stage with a presence unusual for a three piece. No doubt the crowd was leaning a bit more to the right where bassist Charlotte Cooper was flying the flag for the sexiest bass player in rock music. As a unit the band are extraordinarily tight – probably due to the intimacy of the band (the drummer Josh Morgan is actually Billy’s brother, yes I know they have different surnames and no I don’t understand it either!) and Charlotte is actually Billy’s fiancé too.

The band close with the monumental ‘Rock and Roll Queen’, with Billy struggling to get the introduction out, clearly more than a little inebriated. It involves the biggest sing along of the weekend and packs more punch than a whole bottle of that stuff they were selling in the Aftershock tent.

Chants of ‘Yorkshire, Yorkshire’ can be heard emanating from the Carling Stage, which is packed for local band Little Man Tate, who are clearly overwhelmed by the support. As Sheffield churns out bands by the bucket load and A&R men scramble about excitedly waving their cheque books in the air whilst muttering ‘next Arctic Monkeys’ Little Man Tate take it in their stride and belt out catchy, foot tapping numbers that bear far more resemblance to The Cribs or The Stereophonics ‘Word gets around’ than they do to Sheffield’s current chart toppers.

There is a certain vintage sound to Little Man Tate that can be traced back to influences like The Who and other pioneers of the mod rock scene. Thumping cheerful broken chords and chirpy little elevating guitar solos make for a rousing set. ‘House Party at Boothys’ is quickly lining up to become a well established indie anthem and it will only be a matter of time before Little Man Tate will be gracing the main stage.

Following on from Little Man Tate were the simply awesome Sunshine Underground, with a collection of danceable rock hits set to teach El Presidente and The Rapture how to really create the perfect indie dance tune. From the brilliant bass-line that runs underneath ‘Put you in your place’ to the multi-percussion ending during ‘Raise the alarm’ The Sunshine Underground managed to captivate the entire crowd. Every now and then hints of Radio 4 were exposed but when a band is this good live everything else just pales in comparison.

Hidden behind a screen of swirling fog and sporadic lighting effects The Secret Machines were putting on a mesmerizing show on the Radio 1/NME stage. Dreamlike and captivating their tunes rose and soared majestically, reminding me of similar performances from acts like Sigur Ros. The subtle beauty behind The Secret Machines music swept over the crowd and created the most tender moment of the entire festival. ‘First Wave Intact’ didn’t quite fit in with a set list which was full of rather unusual numbers that you wouldn’t expect The Secret Machines to perform at a festival, but all in all the overall performance was so gloriously delivered that leaving without a smile on your face was almost impossible.

I watched Yeah Yeah Yeahs briefly, but didn’t feel they held the main stage particularly well and as a result decided to look elsewhere. It was a shame as the band’s live performances are usually held in such high esteem, but the truth is that it is far more difficult to pull off a decent gig on the main stage than it is in one of the smaller tents. I left Karen O’s screeching vocals behind me and made my way into the Radio 1/NME tent for the return of a band who went completely AWOL a couple of years ago.

The Vines were hyped up to blow away the music scene back in 2002. Early beliefs of The Vines doing for garage rock what Nirvana did for grunge didn’t really help their cause either. Anyway, they had disappeared off the scene for a while as lead singer Craig Nicholls was declared a little bit mad and had been carted off somewhere to sit around all day in a long blue coat and eat his own tongue. Now The Vines return for one of the best sets of the weekend, churning out classics like ‘Get Free’, ‘Ride’ and the single that initially brought them into the public eye ‘Highly Evolved’.

It was a blistering performance filled to the brim with great riffs and heavy overuse of power chords. Even if the latest material ‘Gross Out’ and ‘Don’t listen to the radio’ is just a rehash of their older hits it’s still great no-brainer rock. The band even managed to slip in the cover of Outkast’s ‘Ms Jackson’, a welcome addition to the set.

The day was closed by Franz Ferdinand on the main stage and Primal Scream on the Radio 1/NME stage. I opted for the latter as in my opinion, Franz Ferdinand have had their day. I was expecting a bit of a greatest hits set from The Scream, but instead we were provided with just a smattering of hits, while most of the material featured came from new album ‘Riot City Blues’.

The band really were on form, even if they chose to ignore much of their back catalogue and even left out ‘Loaded’ from the set list. Latest singles ‘Dolls’ and ‘Country Girl’ go down the best, moving away from their psychedelic roots, and their more recent delve into electro dub/dance music and returning to the likes of their brilliant Stones Rock n Roll sound, best represented in 94’s ‘Give out but don’t give up’.

Bobby jokes about bassist Mani being arrested earlier and even dedicates one song to the Yorkshire Police Constabulary, taking the whole thing rather light heartedly. Primal Scream seem to have eliminated that painful hissing noise that used to accompany their live performances and are now a cracking live band with great feel-good tunes and their set signalled the start of a night of Leeds Festival partying.

Latest Updates