2018 - Your Thoughts

[robbiez666]

As with the above, whats the crack with the mixed recycling bins? I assume no one is going to sift through and try and separate recycling from non-recycling. Seemed odd. 

[Fat_Buddha]

Another belter. Saw hardly any of the bands I had intended to due to feeling a bit pale and wan, so tended to just park myself  at either Garden Or Woods and just enjoy what came, and I enjoyed everything, apart from the bloody woeful Shopping. Highlights include Shannon and the clams, found myself bopping next to Ezra Furman for that. had too much dignity to ask for a selfie though, A Wesly hung, Hayley Henderickx, Hiss Golden Messenger, John Cale, Insecure Men and the incredible Richard Dawson/ Oh, and Omar, and the Jazz guy at the Garden. Plus loads more.

I preferred it when it was more folky and Americana, but still, they could run the entire festival again and I would still be able to see enough bands that I wouldn't have time to eat, without seeing any of the ones I saw at the weekend. So can't complain.

A couple of years ago there seemed to be an influx of dickheads in groups, there seemed to be far fewer of them this year, apart from the extremely tedious group we were unfortunate enough to be camping next to in the Honeybells field, also, the fancy dress w*nkers seem to have found other ways to spend their first September weekend.

Downsides were few and not enough to put me off/ I agree with those who have complained about the bogs and showers in glamping, definitely not enough, and quite a few of the shitters had broken seats. On the plus side there was a decent standpipe, unlike last year. One pipe for all those people seems a bit mean, the numbers using glamping seems to be growing massively, with no increase in facilities.

The Beavertown beer prices were outrageous. 6quid or 6.50 was bad enough but just about acceptable, 10 quid for a pint of nothing very special was daylight robbery. I don't care if the stuff was meant to served by the half (stupid rule), if a tenner a pint is unnacceptable, so is  a fiver for a half.

 

 

[robith]

16 hours ago, zahidf said:

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.

Who were those Nordies? I was transfixed by their magic trick

[domjon]

52 minutes ago, Fat_Buddha said:

Another belter. Saw hardly any of the bands I had intended to due to feeling a bit pale and wan, so tended to just park myself  at either Garden Or Woods and just enjoy what came, and I enjoyed everything, apart from the bloody woeful Shopping. Highlights include Shannon and the clams, found myself bopping next to Ezra Furman for that. had too much dignity to ask for a selfie though, A Wesly hung, Hayley Henderickx, Hiss Golden Messenger, John Cale, Insecure Men and the incredible Richard Dawson/ Oh, and Omar, and the Jazz guy at the Garden. Plus loads more.

I preferred it when it was more folky and Americana, but still, they could run the entire festival again and I would still be able to see enough bands that I wouldn't have time to eat, without seeing any of the ones I saw at the weekend. So can't complain.

A couple of years ago there seemed to be an influx of dickheads in groups, there seemed to be far fewer of them this year, apart from the extremely tedious group we were unfortunate enough to be camping next to in the Honeybells field, also, the fancy dress w*nkers seem to have found other ways to spend their first September weekend.

Downsides were few and not enough to put me off/ I agree with those who have complained about the bogs and showers in glamping, definitely not enough, and quite a few of the shitters had broken seats. On the plus side there was a decent standpipe, unlike last year. One pipe for all those people seems a bit mean, the numbers using glamping seems to be growing massively, with no increase in facilities.

The Beavertown beer prices were outrageous. 6quid or 6.50 was bad enough but just about acceptable, 10 quid for a pint of nothing very special was daylight robbery. I don't care if the stuff was meant to served by the half (stupid rule), if a tenner a pint is unnacceptable, so is  a fiver for a half.

 

 

I happened to be in the Beaverton bar early Sunday when it was first kicking off about the half specials...they had been instructed not to sell the specials as pints under any circumstances for some reason...the lass running the bar was trying to find a solution ringing HQ cos everyone was complaining you couldn't get a pint of anything....lol at the solution ending up being £10 pints ?

[Fat_Buddha]

To be fair, the women in that bar were fantastic and I felt a bit sorry for them

[domjon]

1 minute ago, Fat_Buddha said:

To be fair, the women in that bar were fantastic and I felt a bit sorry for them

Absolutely. And tbh, if ya daft enough to pay a tenner a pint ...

[Stezz]

10th year for me - hope the people who inconsiderately plonked a large tent in the small space in front of mine & the idiot who stole my inflatable mat & programme suffer bad karmic reactions - enjoyed all i saw up to that point, but everything soured after gear theft & left early Saturday morning - very sad

[dmitarberbatov]

I know it’s not nice to get things stolen but was it that depressing you had to go ? 

I wonder if we were the tedious people in Honeybells? I often wonder if I’m quite tedious . 

Things I liked 

fat whites , flatworms , thee oh sees , protomartyr, idles , mulutku asatke, white denim . That French gang , white denim , Ezra , tom cox 

good food selection , showers and looks decent , I tended to go early 

some of the beers were daft prices but found some decent pints 

don’t think I’ve heard anything worse than Richard Dawson or yo la tengo .

there was some horrific over privileged parenting going on 

[Amy Lawn]

First EotR for me after many years of eyeing outrageously nice lineups and thinking how great it would be to go, I absolutely loved it.

I camped with the efests solo group, it was really nice to meet people, hopefully I'll see you all again at future festivals. Since hitting 25 it seems like none of my friends can be arsed with any festivals other that Glastonbury anymore, but it's good to know that going solo is no less of a good time, I'll definitely be looking to get groups like this going for future festivals.

The line-up for me was incredible, there were very few times I wasn't watching bands. The highlights included being right on the front barrier and in the centre for Feist, she was my main reason for going and she didn't disappoint me at all. Such a captivating performer, the sound was crystal clear, it was quite special to be right at the font for it all. After the show I had to walk around the site a few times in sombre reflection and let it all sink in.

I'm also really glad I got down the front for Ezra Furman, didn't really know much about him before other than somebody told me a while ago he was "a rockabilly performer" so I avoided him until now because that sounds p naff. His set was really fun, and he had one of the best crowds of the weekend, he clearly means a lot to people, and it felt good to be watching him surrounded by big fans, lovely atomosphere of mutual love between Ezra and his crowd. I was getting a little bit bummed out that I couldn't sing along to all the words with everybody else, and then he goes and throws me a really great cover of one of my favourite songs, that made me really happy. I'm now diving into his back catalogue and I'm going to keep an eye out for his shows in future.

Hookworms were another big one for me as well, I've been a big fan for a while, seen them loads of times, and this new album really feels like them stepping up and getting their due. In February I had a ticket to see their all-dayer at the Brudenell, I was excited to see their triumphant homecoming, until the inconsiderate weather spoiled that for me by getting all the trains cancelled and rendering the roads over the Pennines impassable, so with great sadness I had to miss that. I'm seeing them again later in the year, but the EotR gig is the first time I've seen them do the new material, I really wasn't disappointed. It was pretty much just Hookworms doing what they do, their gigs are never not on point, but I loved hearing those new songs live. It also gave me something pretty different to the usual more laid back fare I'd been watching all weekend.

I've never really got the hype around Vampire Weekend before, but they fully showed me why they're a big deal on Saturday night. It was so infectiously groovy all the way through, I was dancing the entire time. Obviously they're a really talented performers as well, I was pretty in awe of how intricate a lot of it was, and how tight they are as a band.

Haley Heyndrickx was yet again sensational, I caught her at Green Man, this was pretty much the same thing but in a much nicer setting. I was more than happy to just have the same thing again, because she's so great.

It was lovely to finally see a full show from This Is The Kit after catching an acoustic set at Green Man last year. Lovely instrumentation, and in conjunction with her lyrics I always find the songs really evocative, I get powerful mental images and sensations from these songs that I rarely get from other stuff, so it was very gratifying to see them performed live. I'll also say that I'm not a guitar person, I don't play and I don't know much about them, but I was struck by what a work of art Kate's green guitar she started off with was.

Julien Baker completely owned the stage, again the Garden Stage setting lent a lot to the performance, but she herself is a really powerful performer. I got wobbly a couple of times during that set, it was good to see her get a crowd who knew her and was into what she was doing, instead of a bunch of chatty Belle & Sebastian fans like when I saw her in March.

Other stuff I really enjoyed; Zimpel Ziolek, The Orielles, Protomartyr, Screaming Females, Wild Billy Childish, Mulatu Astatske, Imarhan, Titus Andronicus, Bas Jan.

Stuff which I didn't enjoy so much; St Vincent, I'm a huge fan, I've seen her play many many times across her career and seen her evolve and change as an artist. I saw this show on Tuesday in Leeds, and I did enjoy it, but then we got almost exactly the same set at EotR, just without the visuals on the screen. I'm a big fan of her new album, but I felt like the show leant a bit too heavy on that material, and the older songs felt like they'd had a lot of their edge taken away when she did perform them. I did enjoy they show, especially New York and Happy Birthday Johnny, but it felt very watered down compared to St Vincent of the past. I wish the instrumentation didn't rely so much on the pretty boring synths, and she'd loosen up and do some proper guitar wig-outs like she would do up until this tour.

I've been really keen to see Omar Souleyman since the year he did Glastonbury and looked loads of fun on the TV, but after half an hour of his set I realised there's only really one trick there and it's not entertaining enough to fill a full hour when there's other stages to go to.

Lift To Experience were one of the best bands I saw last year, but Josh T Person's set just didn't really interest me at all, it all felt a bit uninspired and kitschy.

Also I sustained a sunburned scalp (my fault for deciding I'm going to have a hair reboot and shaving my head the night before the festival really), and a sore knee. The knee injury happened during The Orielles (I think), there were teenagers crowdsurfing, which I highly support their right to do, you have to go nuts and crowdsurf at gigs when you're a teenager, nice to see youths at the festival going nuts as well. But one of them decided he wanted to crowdsurf away from the stage, which obviously takes you to where the crowd is too thin to support you. A fully grown teenage male came crashing down from the sky, I tried to catch him but he landed on my knee, which fucking hurt. Couldn't put any weight on it for a while and was a bit worried I might've done something serious to it, but it become ok to walk on after about an hour. It's still got ugly swelling going on, and it sore in the morning/to touch, but it's pretty much just a big horrible ugly bruise. I urge all teenagers to go mental at gigs, but in a responsible way.

[domjon]

36 minutes ago, dmitarberbatov said:

 

don’t think I’ve heard anything worse than Richard Dawson 

 

Wat!?

He was awesome ?

[WM Hall]

find it hard to believe that anyone would think Richard D was anything other than sensational!

[dmitarberbatov]

Just wasn’t for me ... or any of our group , which is diverse in tastes , and he was recommended by an author that I respect and love so I guess it just goes to show how great it is that we all have different tastes 

[DrFunke'sFamilyBand]

My eighth EOTR, brilliant weather and great headliners. Lovely crowd too. Dickhead count seemed extremely low.

Fantastic:

Feist - I love her so much and it was a perfect end to the weekend. She was a total pro when her in-ear monitor went and even charmingly heckled the guy who filmed the whole gig from the front without being a diva about it. I loved the purple/pink lighting for the Pleasure tracks too. Haven’t seen her since Glasgow in March 2012 as she hardly ever tours here so was thrilled when she was announced as an EOTR headliner.

Vampire Weekend - insanely fun set, I knew it would be good but they blew my socks off. Diane Young and Cousins were brilliant. Pleased to hear New Dorp. New York and loved the Solsbury Hill snippet during Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa. Full feel good factor when they got a few of the crowd on stage at the end too, especially the guy dancing in his wheelchair and the lad hitting the cymbals.

Ezra Furman - just brilliant and I totally lost it for the Tonight, Tonight cover - stunning and brought a tear to my eye.

Big Thief - not overly familiar with them but was moved by their set. Slightly excruciating in-between song chat at times but could see Adrianne was having sound issues on stage and was clearly nervous.

Hiss Golden Messenger - first time seeing them and they were brilliant. Phil Cook’s harmonica playing was incredible. Disappointed they didn’t play Heart Like a Levee but you can’t have it all.

Destroyer - really good when they finally got on stage. Annoyed to have left Gruff Rhys early for Destroyer to then be over half an hour late on. Must have been a nightmare for them though.

Also enjoyed what I saw of Gruff Rhys (I thought that was Lilly Cole hanging around the side of the stage), Boy Azooga (what a total sweetheart Davey is), A. Wesley Chung, Suggested Friends, Sunflower Bean, Lucy Dacus, Tiny Ruins, Plastic Mermaids, Anna Burch and Jonathan Wilson.

Burgers & breakfast options at Smoking Buns were so good.

Not so good:

St Vincent - I did enjoy her set but we got what we thought was a great spot near the front on the left hand side. However because of the set design we couldn’t see any of Annie when she came on and she remained there for pretty much the whole set. We did move to the back right eventually but there wasn’t much atmosphere back there. And despite New York being one of my favourite songs of hers I’m not completely sold on the new album, I can’t stand Pills.

Julia Holter - was so looking forward to her but found the set totally lacking, she seemed really disinterested and not at all happy to be there. So many of the crowd left.

The Wave Pictures - normally love them but found their set a bit self indulgent and got tired of Dave’s play all the notes guitar solos. They also came across as a bit mean about Damien Jurado and slightly bitter that they hadn’t been approached to play in the first place...whether they were or not I'm not sure but I didn't think they came across that well. Also I can never work out if Franic is pleased to to be there or mercilessly taking the piss.

I know it’s his whole schtick but Josh T.Pearson’s sexist jokes are pretty tiresome.

£5 for a half pint of limited edition beer at Beavertown was an absolute piss take. Can just about cope with £5 for a cold can of Neck Oil.

The site seemed particularly rammed on Saturday. Very frustrating not to be able to get into the Tipi set for Stella Donnelly’s set. Also couldn’t get into the Big Top for Japanese Breakfast or IDLES.

The Silent Disco folks really good could have got their shit together quicker. Queued up for an hour on Thursday night & still couldn’t get in because it was so rammed. Then queued up for 45 mins waiting for them to set up on Friday night. When the headliners have finished you just want to crack on and have a dance, not stand around in the cold for ages. If it is going to take ages to set up then they should adjust the times in the programme.

The line-up was a bit too clashtastic on Saturday which meant having to do half sets or miss stuff completely - Hookworms, Gwenno, Sweet Baboo, Soccer Mommy, Mulatu Astatke…sob!

[Amy Lawn]

10 minutes ago, DrFunke'sFamilyBand said:

She was a total pro when her in-ear monitor went and even charmingly heckled the guy who filmed the whole gig from the front without being a diva about it.

Plot twist; he wasn't filming at all! He was just holding his camera like that so it didn't smack against the metal barrier. It was switched off with the lens cap on, other than for one or two photos. He didn't seem to upset about it though. I think cameras must really freak her out, there were no photographers in front of the stage at all, and they were asking for nobody to take pictures during the morning soundcheck.

[DrFunke'sFamilyBand]

1 minute ago, GETOFFAMYLAWN said:

Plot twist; he wasn't filming at all! He was just holding his camera like that so it didn't smack against the metal barrier. It was switched off with the lens cap on, other than for one or two photos. He didn't seem to upset about it though. I think cameras must really freak her out, there were no photographers in front of the stage at all, and they were asking for nobody to take pictures during the morning soundcheck.

Oooh, that is quite the twist! 

[IBee]

Slight back to normality depression kicking in now.

This was the fourth or fifth one in a row, I can't remember and can't be bothered to work it out at the moment.

The weather plays a big part as always and it was fantastic- last year on the Sunday I lost my sense of humour about it and went to bed early after a miserable day.

Stand out acts included for me Zimpel/Ziolek, The Scorpios, Billy Childish, Mulatke Astatke, Sweet Baboo, Snapped Ankles (though I left before the end as I wanted to see Mark Watson, and I am ok with that decision) Idles and Feist- I was surprised by how much I enjoyed her set. I liked Yo La Tengo on the Thursday as well- obviously I'd heard of them but I have never investigated them.

Toilets were fine in my experience.

Not that many talkers but on Friday I had an unfortunate run of them at various bands with the end result that I ended up angrily telling a middle aged pair of blokes to shut up. I don't want to make enemies at EOTR- it is small festival and you are likely to run into people again- but I snapped.

But yeah, its good.

I really need to drink less at this festival- I felt like paste yesterday- but that isn't something I can blame on anyone but myself.

 

[DrFunke'sFamilyBand]

Anyone know why Zulu Zulu's set was cancelled? 

[Mardy]

Sweet baboo was also ace, yeah. I’d forgotten how much i enjoyed that. Was a real wrench to leave the Tipi and go to see VW

[Nobody Interesting]

4 hours ago, robbiez666 said:

As with the above, whats the crack with the mixed recycling bins? I assume no one is going to sift through and try and separate recycling from non-recycling. Seemed odd. 

Half the councils in the UK do it like that and they have higher rates of recycling - it is separated part by machine and part by hand.

[robith]

Cackling at people moaning about the Beavertown special pricing. You don't have to buy it, and if you want more than a half of a peach and raspberry weisse, you've got more issues than the cost.

£6 for draft neck oil is quite steep, but then my work local charges £6.20 for it, and at the only other festival I went to this summer i got charged £5.50 for a can of red stripe. *shrug*

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, GETOFFAMYLAWN said:

I was getting a little bit bummed out that I couldn't sing along to all the words with everybody else, and then he goes and throws me a really great cover of one of my favourite songs, that made me really happy

 

1 hour ago, DrFunke'sFamilyBand said:

Ezra Furman - just brilliant and I totally lost it for the Tonight, Tonight cover - stunning and brought a tear to my eye.

 

Quite apart from everything else, they're the best covers band in the world.

[DrFunke'sFamilyBand]

17 minutes ago, robith said:

Cackling at people moaning about the Beavertown special pricing. You don't have to buy it, and if you want more than a half of a peach and raspberry weisse, you've got more issues than the cost.

£6 for draft neck oil is quite steep, but then my work local charges £6.20 for it, and at the only other festival I went to this summer i got charged £5.50 for a can of red stripe. *shrug*

No you're right, I didn't have to buy it but I don't really think anyone should be charging £5 for a half pint of 4% ish beer (and it wasn't peach & raspberry weiss...could easily have drank a pint of this stuff) and I wasn't made aware of the price until after I ordered so it was a bit of a surprise. 

 

[zahidf]

Beaverton was a rip off, but I avoided it. I think next year I'll bring more cans in myself!

[Fat_Buddha]

1 hour ago, robith said:

Cackling at people moaning about the Beavertown special pricing. You don't have to buy it, and if you want more than a half of a peach and raspberry weisse, you've got more issues than the cost.

£6 for draft neck oil is quite steep, but then my work local charges £6.20 for it, and at the only other festival I went to this summer i got charged £5.50 for a can of red stripe. *shrug*

 

[Fat_Buddha]

What the hell is is peach and raspberry Weiss?