2018 - Your Thoughts

[benali]

We had a fantastic time, really have to say it was up there with one of my favourite festivals. Perfect weather, too much good music that I missed loads of stuff because of clashes.

Highlights:

Oh Sees, Idles, Flat Worms, Fat White Family, Amyl & The Sniffers, Suggested Friends, Shame, Jeff Tweedy, Gruff Rhys, The Liminanas, Richard Dawson, Hookworms.

The people, amazing. Love you all. 

Lowlights:

Errr, nothing really. £10 a pint for some Beavertown beer was laughable. Toilets had some pretty big queues and didn't seem to be cleaned as regularly as normal. A few sound problems here and there but nothing major.

Not that is affected me, but I'd like to see some crowd management in the Big Top. Seeing pictures of people queuing for Idles when there was plenty of room in the tent was strange. Maybe get some stewards inside to direct people down the sides rather than closing the entrances when it looks busy from the outside. It's good that the tent doesn't get rammed but there needs to be a balance so people don't miss out unnecessarily.

See you next year.

[Yesiamaduck]

As amazing as End of The Road was. And it was AMAZING! I am SOOOOOO happy to be laying on my bed right now.

For the record:
TOP 5 that I saw. 1, Josh T Pearson. 2, Screaming Females 3, Omar Souleyman 4, St. Vincent 5, Something (cant remember the first word) & The Sniffers

But in reality everything I saw deserved a place on this list.
Apologise to everyone for me and my group constantly yelling the Wallace and Gromit theme Saturday night, we got over excited after watching it in the morning 

Personal highlight: Ezra Furman cracking out an amazing cover of Smashing Pumpkins seminal classic ‘Tonight’ and the flawless weather.

Lowlight: The beer ran out, as much as I enjoy ale I can't be doing it in the sun like that 

 

The £10 for a pint of Beavertown was for the beers that were designed to be sold in halves to be fair, but yeah I aint paying that

Edited September 3, 2018 by Yesiamaduck

[Charlie B]

Highlights for me: Remembering how good Vampire Weekend are, Omar Souleyman, the Pork Belly Banh Mi from Pho Sho, and the amazing weather.

Downside: Queues for the toilets in the campervan field were ridiculous in the morning, and I couldn't believe the number of people who were prepared to wait over an hour for a prime time shower!

I spent a lot of time and money in the Beavertown bar - there were pints available from £6 which is not totally unreasonable at a festival. The £10 pints were specials, and meant to be served in halves, and they had brought along a very good selection which went on across the weekend.

[scrippit]

Highlights for me - the weather, the camping area (we were in the accessible camp), the garden stage and the general atmosphere - all glorious. 

As for music, my first experience of Richard Dawson blew me away. His opening accapella made me cry! Fortunately I had big sunglasses on...

Destroyer were a revelation despite a brief set half and hour delayed. 

I finally caught Fat Whites who were brilliant and enjoyed Jeff Tweedy, Warhaus, Screaming Females, Shame, Wave Pictures and many others.

First time at EotR but definitely not the last.

 

 

YesIamaduck -The missing word is Amyl. Seems obvious when you know!

1 hour ago, Yesiamaduck said:

TOP 5 that I saw. 1, Josh T Pearson. 2, Screaming Females 3, Omar Souleyman 4, St. Vincent 5, Something (cant remember the first word) & The Sniffers

 

[Nobody Interesting]

Really enjoyed it.

Bands - loved all I saw though found the queues at the Big Top a bit frustrating especially when you learnt that there was lots of space inside after all. Missed Hookworms and the Idles as a result but never mind.

We decided that people love to queue as in general camping there were loos back to back with long queues one side and none the other.

We soon learnt that the onsite loos were empty in the morning and the camp site ones empty in the evenings and as it was all close never once queued for a loo.

A good very laid back end (ish) to the festival season. Roll on the next one later this month.

[domjon]

awesome weekend! absolutely awesome.

Highlights for me : Amyl and the Sniffers, Josh T Pearson, Richard Dawson, Colter Wall, Amen Dunes, Gruff Rhys (happiest crowd of the weekend that), Stella Donnelly, Tiny Ruins, loads more tbh I hardly saw a disappointing set all weekend...The goddamn amazing weather!

Lowlights (minor quibbles) : Bugger all t-shirts for sale in the rough trade shop. The old pizza place was gone and the new one seemed very good at burning pizzas, Missing Hookworms and Destroyer...ah well you can never see everything. 

How was Ariel Pink? I saw him in manchester a few weeks ago and loved it but couldn't drag my tired ass into the big top last night.

 

[SweepingTheNation]

Never fails to be the best of weekends, especially when it's the best festival weather I've experienced all summer (I chose the few wrong weeks, obviously) Could list an endless stream of musical highlights, but the best of the best would be Hookworms, Protomartyr, AK/DK, St Vincent, Gwenno, Stella Donnelly, Shopping and the ever singular David Thomas Broughton.

What else? Kind of missed the old pizza place. The cider bus disco was a interesting addition but oddly it was packed out on Thursday and then I barely saw anyone in it for the rest of the weekend. Did nobody there really see the demand for Idles coming?

Also, if you saw one of the millions of copies of that hardback novel being handed out, someone's actually read and gone through it in Twitter thread form: https://twitter.com/jackrgann/status/1036237605199912961

[SighMo]

First time for me after a snap decision to go a couple of days before; so, so glad I did. Plenty of first time gigs for me including the wonderful Ezra Furman who I’ve been playing loudly since I got home around 1300. Saw Ayml and the Sniffers twice; brilliant crazy set and I really thought she was off up the tent pole at one point. Oh Sees were predictably totally ‘on it!’ Wow; had to get changed after that sweat fest. 

So many great gigs, Idles, Fat whites, Shame. French band, Limonana are definitely worth a look and a band I saw at GM, Black Midi; such young raw talent. Bet their bassist won’t try a front flip on stage without a bit more practice though...ouch!

Timed it right and rarely queued for toilets and never encountered an unpleasant one apart from the male urinal on Sat night which was just about to overflow. Need to ditch those cramped urinals and go for the more open plan set up as at GM. 

Loved this festival ?

[wolfamongwolves]

Another great end of the road. Lovely weather , people, food. 

Musicaly not the best for me personally. Found myself wondering between stages . Big top could definitely do with a few more late night electronic . 

Highlights

oh sees, wonderful

protomartyr

yo la tengo

iceage 

james Holden 

feist

tirzah

Mulatu Astatke

Zimpel Ziolek 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by wolfamongwolves

[WM Hall]

5th EOTR and one of the best... It had it all - blinding rock music (Destroyer, Kiran Leonard, Ariel Pink) a show stopping headline set (Vampire Weekend), gorgeous folk (Haley Heynderickx, Feist, Tiny Ruins), great diverse 'out there' stuff (Omar Souleyman, Richard Dawson, Zimpel Ziolek, Tirzah, Julia Holter), African acts (Mulatu Astatke, The Scorpios) and mooooore.

Saturday was possibly my favourite EOTR day ever. Omar into Mulatu into Destroyer into Vamp Week into the disco ship into karaoke.

Top 5 sets:

1. Destroyer - perhaps because they were 30 minutes late they played with incredible urgency and played "the hits," so to speak. Absolutely mindblowing

2. Richard Dawson - Unbelievable, best of the 4 times I've seen him. Soldier was phenomenal

3. Vampire Weekend - Caught me off guard, to say the least. Not a massive fan but knew it would be fun - didn't realise it'd be that fun. Superb set.

4. Haley Heynderickx - Gorgeous, really really lovely midday sun set. So personable and endearing, too.

5. Mulatu Astatke - Great to see a legend at work. Loved the variety of material they played. Really had my jaw on the floor for parts of it.

Honourable mentions: Omar Souleyman, Tirzah, Kiran Leonard, Feist, The Scorpios

 

Lowlights:

Alex G - lol what a load of rubbish

Fat White Family - was burdened with their shite will returning to the tent to pick something up

Toilets not cleaned as regularly as previous years - urinals were literally overflowing!

Strange stewarding/security decisions re Tipi Tent. Was a bit of a mess!

The knob who played Muse on the piano stage on Saturday night

[The Nal]

Snapped Ankles. That is all.

[paulwa]

The best EOTR in 10 years of going. My top 5 this year (no order):

Shame
St. Vincent
Stella Donnelly
Lucy Dacus
Sunflower Bean

Saturday was amazing. As well as being my birthday, we had sunshine, bloody mary's, Beavertown, to the soundtrack of A. Wesley Chung (really impressed with him), Shannon & the Clams (great fun), Shame (am I allowed to say "Awesome" on here?), Sunflower Bean, Vampire Weekend. That day will live long in the memory.

Disappointed with:

Yo La Tengo. I was bored until Pass the Hatchet came on (ironically a 10 minute repetitive dirge!)
Big Thief. They seemed all over the place. Too much talking, not enough music

I didn't see any problem loos for the whole weekend.

Some standout tracks: 

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by paulwa
Added link

[Mardy]

Great weekend. One of my favourite festivals ever. Superb music, lovely friends

 

musical highlights:

Snapped Ankles. See them whenever you can. The most urgent, thrilling, vital band curently playing

Richard Dawson; unbelivably good

Davd Thomas Broughton; in a bill full of outsiders, he managed to be the most out there. Quite an achievement

 

but most of all, the weekend was just fun. Vampire Weekend brought it, so did Ezra F and St Vincent. No complaints apart from the site running out of booze last night. Early bird tickets for us tomorrow.

 

[Andeeroo]

A pleasant weekend. A few highlights - VW, Ezra, Julien Baker, Sunflower Bean, Haley Heyndrickx - a fair amount of 'meh' and some real dross.

A real friendly atmosphere and great weather were all to it's advantage but unless there is a stellar lineup, I can't see myself rushing back.

Glad everyone else had the time of their lives though ?

[benali]

18 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Snapped Ankles. That is all.

Gutted I missed them. Stayed to the end of Oh Sees and by the time we got to the tipi they'd been on 15 minutes and the queue was massive. Listened from outside for a while but it's never the same. 

[rug568]

First time at EOTR and it was a real real pleasure, can't quite get over how good the music was. Protomartyr, Haley Heynderickx, Shame and the AK/DK vs Snapped Ankles sets were my personal highlights. The snapped ankles set is one of the best i've ever seen. God i wish i could do it all again. 

Minor gripes about the beer running out; also didn't really rate the overall selection but personal preference. I was working sunday night stuck in the car park so i missed idles but I suppose if i wanted to see everyone i should have bought a ticket. 

Personal preference but I can't say I fell in love with the festival the same way as I have with Green Man, so won' be rushing back unless there's a similarly good lineup. 

[IBee]

1 hour ago, domjon said:

How was Ariel Pink? I saw him in manchester a few weeks ago and loved it but couldn't drag my tired ass into the big top last night.

 

Eventful apparently.

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,27696.msg3597896.html#msg3597896

[rug568]

4 minutes ago, IBee said:

Eventful apparently.

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,27696.msg3597896.html#msg3597896

It was everything i thought an ariel pink gig would be 

[domjon]

were the oh sees not way way too quiet? I was watching from the back and had just come from the front at Gruff so it could just be that but I thought I heard a chorus of 'turn it up' early on? I ended up wandering off tbh but seen em a few times so wasn't too fussed

[WM Hall]

Ariel Pink is one of my favourite ever artists and has been for about 8 years. His set was a total car-crash and I loved it. It's impossible to be disappointed because it's impossible to have expectations in the first place. I just found it hilarious, watching a hero of mine crash and burn in front of a bemused crowd.

[Yesiamaduck]

21 minutes ago, domjon said:

were the oh sees not way way too quiet? I was watching from the back and had just come from the front at Gruff so it could just be that but I thought I heard a chorus of 'turn it up' early on? I ended up wandering off tbh but seen em a few times so wasn't too fussed

2

The lead guitars amp was busted for the first few songs. Once the amp got replaced the chorus of 'turn it up' stopped and it sounded great. 

Edited September 3, 2018 by Yesiamaduck

[domjon]

1 minute ago, Yesiamaduck said:

The lead guitars amp was busted for the first few songs after the amp got fixed the chorus of 'turn it up' stopped and it sounded great. 

ah right...glad they got it sorted....great band

[Avon]

Lucy Dacus, Snail Mail, The Weather Station & Boy Azooga will all play to bigger audiences next time they come to EOTR. I'd go so far as to say that Lucy and Lindsey are Garden or Woods headliners of the future. 

So are Idles. 

Really worry that Richard Dawson is seen as one too. Simply cannot see the appeal myself. Each to their own. 

Sunflower Bean and Lost Horizons are both very competent bands that lack an ounce of soul. 

Mulatu Astatke's was up there with greatest ever EOTR sets. 

Posies were reliably brilliant apart from Ken's constant spitting. At one point he gobbed in John Auer's face. That fella must have the patience of a saint. 

Big Thief started off in sublime form then seemed to lose their way mid set. Overawed by size of the audience? 

Destroyer's curtailed set due their lateness was perfect. Less really can be more. 

Wild Billy Childish is an all round good human being.  

Josh T Pearson isn't. 

Amazed by the number of people on site who raved about Jeff Tweedy's set. I love Wilco but on his tod he's dull as. 

St Vincent is the best headline act in the world right now.

I now know that Anna Burch's first name is pronounced to rhyme with Lana (as in Lana Turner) rather with spanner. Serious haircut mind. Better singer than I expected her to be too. 

Some of the BBC Radio 3 tipi sets were exercises in testing the limits of the audience's patience. Anyone see Moor Mother? - it was like Mulligan and O'Hare on the South Bank Show. More next year please. Marvellous. 

Can the lead singer in the Oh Sees (can't be arsed to look it up) please lengthen both his guitar strap and his kecks. Wearing shorts on stage during a rock show (and I include Angus Young in this) is not acceptable nor is holding your guitar at chest height a la Mark King from Level 42. 

Honey Harper. It's gonna end in tears so enjoy her while you can.  

[SweepingTheNation]

5 minutes ago, Avon said:

Big Thief started off in sublime form then seemed to lose their way mid set. Overawed by size of the audience? 

Maybe, but also Adrienne said she couldn't hear her monitor properly and I'm not sure she was alone on the stage. Thought they picked back up at the end but that lull (and that she isn't a great talker) let down what initially shaped up to be a great set.

Someone on Twitter said they saw Cate Le Bon around. Anyone?

Edited September 3, 2018 by SweepingTheNation

[zahidf]

Big theif were better at their piano stage set 

Boy azzoga and plastic mermaids best new bands. I also a random northern irish band on the piano stage Sunday late night 11.30 who were ace. Sounded like arab  strap.