Music Overview

Musically there were many highlights, Seth Lakeman, Billy Bragg and biggest draw of the weekend Dreadzone on the mainstage on Friday, all of which were up to their usual standards and who I’ve seen many times now. Mr Scruff was providing the entertainment in the Big Top with The G’s providing the scantily clad dancers and Karen David proving hugely popular on the Other Stage. Not bad for the opening six hours and that’s before we hit the Silent Disco.

Saturday and the scorching sunshine meant we lazed before the main stage after a little yoga and some chai at the Tiny Tea Tent watching the energetic This is Seb Clarke, an acoustic Chris Difford and lots of classic Squeeze tunes and two imaginary encores. By this time the main arena is awash with colours, the wonderful flags are fluttering, the huge kites are flying in the background, but too low for many to see and there are kids everywhere. Which is not a nightmare of chaos as you may think as they all appear to be wonderfully well behaved and keeping themselves entertained.

Soothsayer and their vibrant African beats replace Louis Mhlangla who was refused a visa. 3 Daft Monkeys entertain a jigging crowd and have the front third of the tent packed full of more happy well-behaved kids. Where as Polar Bear have most of us wondering what the heck is going on but certainly make an impression few can forget.

The Guillemots are off-form compared to their recordings - much more feedback and weird moments where the song ends only to splutter back into life, but I suspect it’s an off day for them rather than their usual performance.

Doreen Thobekile - who was in Transglobal Underground - is just amazing in the Big Top. Wow, what power and energy and she has the whole crowd on their feet applauding come the end. She’s so good that I miss the opportunity to see one of my favourite bands of last year - SKANKt.

Martha Wainwright is very good too, I wasn’t expecting just her, her guitar and her pink hot pants, I thought she would have a band around her but no, she plays visceral listenable tunes and judging by the crowd there’s a lot of ladies in the crowd who know many of her songs.

Captain Paranoid was bringing his own brand of country sleaze and high octane tunes which clearly went down well with the bar staff who seemed to take an age to serve a couple of pints of Hobgoblin which was the stronger of the two ales as the weaker Brakespear had all gone for the day. Fortunately this year the beer would flow all weekend.

Next up was surprise hit, newcomers The Feeling who open with ‘Out Of Time’ but clearly aren’t, playing a pounding bass and crashing rhythm ruffled up with clear guitar. It’s the first gig of their new tour and I think they’ll prefer festival slots to venues they have a good sound for festival speaker stacks. I think they have one hit ‘Sewn’ but with ‘Fill My Little World’ they clearly have two as the crowd all join in. Guitarist and singer Dan Gillespie pulls a few windmills on guitar and shows off a surprisingly rich vocal. This lot remind me of Razorlight or Snow Patrol – not particularly musically but in the clean sound and future festival darlings feel they have - a future band for Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage perhaps. Certainly they’ll be festival favourites of the future and their performance is already a polished one. They have an authentic feeling sound and get the crowd moving with some decent rock. ‘Love It When You Call’ and ‘Rosé’ win the crowd over and have a bouncy beat. Well crafted tunes and rising stars – a good capture for Wychwood.

The bearded Ed Motta and DJ Giles Peterson have their respective grooves on in the Big Top and they’ve pretty much managed to fill the tent with lots of smiling faces and envelop the crowd in warm latin beats. The former really impresses me his music conjures images of South America and he’s probably the best musician I see all weekend.

The Glastonbury Movie in GroovieMovie and the fire display up in the kids fields are both attracting a good crowd, and so there’s less for the Saw Doctors than the previous night’s headliners. I’m a huge fan and really looking forward to them playing. However after a great opener in ‘N-17’ and a crowd sing along in ‘First Love’ and ‘Red Cortina’ it’s noticeable they are playing at a slower pace and also that the crowd is haemorrhaging audience members. ‘Clair Island’ is lovely but far too slow, as are the new songs showcased, but perhaps people leaving in such numbers spook the band. So they rally with a cover ‘Get It On’ and I’m thinking ‘Saw Doctors doing covers????’ But it does the trick and they end a lack lustre performance with some oomph with crowd faves ‘That's What She Said Last Night’ and ‘Bless Me Father’ before closing with a rocked up (at last) ‘I'll Be on My Way’ They encore with ‘What a Day’ and ‘Hay Wrap’ mixed with a bit of ‘Don’t you wish your boyfriend was Hot Like Me’ It’s entertaining enough but not as captivating as they could be.

Sunday is hot and sunny and we’re late getting into the arena because we’ve had to pack up the tent and move the car to the car park becoming distracted by the Car Boot Sale. By the time we get into the festival proper Bagelfish are because of their numbers crowding the stage of the Other Stage. It’s pretty crowded in the tent too and the crowd are moving with their rhythms.

It’s certainly busier than last year’s Sunday crowd in front of the arena who have already seen Lisa Fitzgibbon and Field Music but we arrive in time for Cornwall’s own Wire Daisies who sing a song with the line “Just a little Shower” and what happens? It starts to rain. It’s a shame because lead singer Treana Morris sounds like Portishead mixed with The Cranberries, but as the rain continues those sat out in the earlier heat depart leaving a thin crowd by the time their melodic rock set comes to a close.

Fortunately the rain stops by the time the Children’s Parade reaches the main arena – it’s longer than last year but still woefully small compared to the massed ranks of kids about before the downpour. It’s an unfortunate disappointment.

The Isle of Skye to Wychwood must be some journey but I’m so glad the Peatbog Faeries made the trip, bagpipes, basslines and dub reggae to bounce around to, superb. The nine of them some in kilts raise a hullabaloo and scare off the rain re-instating the sun and draw the crowd back from the cover of tents. It really cheers me to see the place become lively again after the shower. A phat bass can’t keep any of us still and it’s a trip through the generations to see how those watching move to the hot reggae beat! They are a welcome addition to the bill and sound terrific. I’d have been happy to have them play all day.

An unusual collaboration is up next Eliza Carthy and Salsa Celtica and it takes a while for me to get into but once the rocking fiddle gets going it’s suddenly dance, dance, dance with no idea I’d been sucked in so rapidly. Salsa Celtica sure live up to their name with big samba beats of salsa and reeling jigs of Celtic tunes. Not knowing either act I’ve no idea whether the tunes played were Eliza’s or not but I’m certainly going to look out some recordings by both her and Salsa Celtica.

There’s a fair gap for set up before Amadou and Mariam and they are great! I bought the album ‘Dimanche a Bamako’ towards the end of last year and they played a few tracks from it. I was rather worried I wouldn’t know their other records but with Afro-Blues this good I really didn’t care. Wow can Amadou play the blues. If you like any Blues guitarists ever than catch them live cos it’s more of a showcase of the 12 bar blues than the African rhythms of the album. It’s sweet music to make you feel good and really danceable. Even those feeling a little wiped from the weekend are rejuvenating in these sweet harmonies. Mali has some great musicians who are able to mix reggae, seventies groove and funky blues into a lovely experience. The musical highlight of the weekend for me, I really hope they play more festivals this summer.

And closing the weekend, well apart from the comedy and Jeff Martinez’s late night acoustic set or more giggles at the Silent Disco was The Bays, the band who don’t make records or singles and just jam together on stage playing a set of improvisation. They’re relaxed with a slow dance beat and it’s a very gentle conclusion to the festival. They slowly build in a dance rhythm but it’s a relaxed groove tonight. Great musicians and a great idea to improvise every gig and have no songs and it works.

And that’s it, the weekend’s over for us. We walk back to the car park taking in the end of a rather excellent fire display of poi and spinning things on fire. Before saying our goodbyes to the festival, its wonderful atmosphere until next year.

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