DangerousBrian

First time poster! My first time at Truck, was very, very impressed with almost everything. We only live about 45 minutes away so we decided to return to home each evening, skipping out during each headliner which we weren't overly fussed about seeing, other than The Streets. Main thing that let it down was the price of the cans of cider, 6-7quid for somebody to open a can that you can buy about eight cans for the same price is obscene as was 8.60 for a single can of JD and coke. Thankfully I was on driving duties for two days, so stuck with the Thatchers bar itself on my day of drinking, but the price of cans needs a re-think surely? Venue was great. Small but felt you could get from stage to stage quick enough to not really miss too much on tight turnovers. Felt like there was nearly always plenty of space to move around. didn't feel claustrophobic at all. In terms of the acts: Friday: Pennine Suite were a nice relaxing, easy listening way to start the day after we arrived. I'm friends with the lads in Carsick, so really enjoyed seeing them on a BIG stage after a couple of years seeing them in anything from pubs and dance halls, to small venues. Overpass were enjoyable and thought that Anthony Smzierek was a more modern take on The Streets, very entertaining set from him. The K's look set to become a band who will headline these type of festivals for the next couple of years before heading down the large arena tour venues and who knows from there. Thought they probably warranted a main stage appearance, but they truly rocked the Market stage. Was my 3rd time seeing them this year already and I really do think their going onto big things. Was gutted to miss out on Pave who clashed with The K's. Had some food from the charity tent whilst listening to Declan McKenna before heading into the This Feeling stage to see Spangled rattle through a quite brilliant 30 minute set. I think another improvement Truck can make here is to leave the headliners on these smaller stages play for a bit longer. It's a good idea that the main stage headliner gets pretty much all the crowd, but having secondary and third options is a nice thing to have. Watched a couple of tracks by Jamie T before heading back to the car park listening to him on the way around. Saturday: We weren't too fussed on a lot of the earlier playing bands, so we had a relaxing morning at home before arriving to see The Slates live out their dreams and play to a big festival crowd in the This Feeling tent. Was such a great feeling seeing a band click with a large crowd and the joy on all their faces was a real pleasure to see. Felt like a real moment for them and for those watching. 86TV's were impressive. Enjoyable to see 3 guys all taking the lead vocals at time and some great harmonies between them all at times. With no signal at the venue, I missed the Pigeon Detectives on the main stage. Seems they were on around the same time as The Slates, but the absolute highlight of the weekend was Fat Dog. A band I've been following for around a year or so now and recently caught them on tour in Oxford, so knew what I was letting myself in for, but to see a whole tent interact, bounce and get stuck in with the same energy was impressive. These feel like another band who are really going places. Half hour again, probably not long enough but they made the most of it and was surprised to see the tent still standing over the rest of the weekend after their set! 🙂 We then caught some of Sophie Ellis-Bexter before heading into This Feeling again for Lissy Taylor, who has a quite brilliant voice, but she fell victim of the huge crowd watching Sophie on the main stage, so was only a handful of us watching at the start of her set. Stuck around in there for The Kairos who were one of the most impressive young bands I've seen in a while. Some absolutely cracking tunes and one I will be looking to see in their own tour somewhere in the future. Wet Leg really isn't my cup of tea, so we took an early night. Sunday: Arrived in time to see Sabrina for 'free beer' from Barstaff! They did well there! A lack of signal failed to make us aware that Stanleys weren't going to perform as their guitar player was stuck in traffic. Did find it odd that they weren't soundchecking and had no real kit set-up on the stage, but thought we'd hang around and then they halfheartedly announced that they would only be performing Northern Soul tunes off a laptop, so we headed down to get a place at the front of the main stage for The Amazons who again, will be a band that can headline this size of festival in years to come. Sea Girls were great, a really good afternoon with food listen type band. The Kooks drew a huge crowd, they're not a band I particularly care for, but the missus really enjoyed them. Blush Puppy weren't as good as I thought they might be, so we took in The Royston Club instead and they were absolutely superb. Great entertaining set and another young up and coming band who look set for much bigger things perhaps? Same can be said for The Snuts. The path for these type of bands looks really good and they will be the type of bands that easily headline. These type of bands headlining would easily get me buying tickets for future Truck Festivals. Watched The Streets for around 45 minutes before heading home. All in all, a quite fantastic first time at Truck and with the right bands announced early, I'm definitely going back again. Positives: Lineup This Feeling Tent acts Venue Charity Food Tent Free Coke Zero and Liptons Ice Tea Plenty of toilets Entry was pain free as was parking each day Relaxed atmosphere Negatives: Price of alcohol No Wi-Fi or phone signal so missed a couple of important announcements, as detailed above. (Not Trucks fault obviously) Where can Truck Improve: Longer headline and sub headline sets on other stages Extend other stages into main stage headline slot times