review

Small but beautifully formed, the Off the Tracks organisers reliably live up to their motto of doing small things in a great way and this years spring festival, the tenth, was no exception. All the things we’ve come to expect were in place as well as some new improvements to the venue and the usual eclectic mix of live music.

Despite the lousy weather forecasts the site is busy when I arrive on Friday evening and with a short list of entertainments on offer it’s a time for catching up with friends, fresh out of their winter hibernations, never straying too far from the new lavish outdoor real ale bar (ok it’s a cow shed) whilst gravelly voiced singer Paul Miro provided the background sounds from inside the newly refurbished ‘Oak Room’. All intentions of taking it easy, as usual, go astray and it’s the early hours by the time I wobble back up to the campsite.

Saturday dawns and it’s so-far-so-good with the weather staying dry through the lazy morning and the smell of bacon frying wafts around the campsite and it’s soon joined by the sounds of the first acts take to the main outdoor stage to properly kickstart the festival into life. But the effects of the previous nights over-indulgence put a brake on the eFestivals intrepid festival reviewer (it’s a hard life) and it’s mid-afternoon before I haul myself down to see ‘Leatherat’ on the mainstage with a stated mission “to entertain the pissheads” - and so they did.

The cobwebs blown away, the afternoon unfolds at a leisurely pace, flitting from the warmth and slow vibes of the music on offer on the indoor stage and back outside to the chilly, but livelier, outdoor stage. ‘Skankt’ are a young band who, as the name suggests, play a high energy blend of ska-rock and keep the crowds warm by dancing as the rain starts to fall. Never the ideal weather for a festival the rain persisted which seemed even more of an affront when the headline band is the epitome of sunshine music, but ‘Osibisa’ still brought a glow to the proceedings and their uplifting, infectious tunes and beats made the rain seem an irrelevance for a while. After another amazing Osibisa OTT performance (their third) the place to be was the dry indoors of the large barn where ‘Banco de Gaia’ (Toby Marks) chilled things out with a heady re-invention of Pink Floyd’s ‘Echos’ with onstage visuals to entertain the eye before cranking up the tempo for the eager to dance OTT crowd - top stuff!

Still the rain persisted through Sunday and in a lazier mood the crowds largely stayed away from the puddles of the outdoor stage, preferring to huddle indoors in the dry. Soothing guitar music is the usual order of the Sunday hangover-shift and was provided by Paul Rose outdoors and also John Gomm indoors. The Inter-Africa Drum Workshop provided an opportunity to ‘trance out’ for a while, and further spiritual re-juvenation of the sore-headed audience was attempted by a group of exiled Tibetan monks from the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery with a performance of ancient sacred rites.

In sharp contrast, youthful band Elmoe (winners of an OTT sponsored Battle of the Bands competition) were a loud and raucous wake-up call that won the crowd over with their energetic funk rock mix. The softly spoken Eleanour McEvoy provided another contrast, but the softness felt a little bland to this listener so it was time to abandon the warmth of the barn and venture outdoors in search of livelier action which was provided by folk rockers ‘Press Gang’ who drew a steadily larger crowd to dance in the rain. Nine Below Zero came highly recommended by a fellow r&b fan and sure enough they maintained the tempo set by Press Gang with an immensely booty-shaking set of tight rhythm & blues tune-age to wind up another fine weekend of varied musical treats in great style.

The OTT September edition features legendary reggae act in the shape of ASWAD - see you there!

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