at the 2000 trees festival.
Another scorching weekend of music, if not of weather. I played Friday about 3 o'clock this year. Not before lending my guitar to the super nice Randall Stevens who blended a bit of afro beat (his words) with Dylan-esque (mine) crooning.
My set went off a storm. Kicked off with a cracking intro from Toss. Was a good midland presence that chipped in with some help for 'Uttoxeter', and enjoyed an ace 2 part harmony with the crowd for 'Protest Song'. Some nice words about the music afterwards too. Thanks if any of them were from you. I'm in the process of sorting out a studio for a few days to get it all down.
2000 trees is always fucking brilliant at throwing up new music to get into, and these are the guys I'm going to follow with interest:
Sailorette rocked the acoustic tent on Friday afternoon with some rockabilly-killafilly-hillashilly-skank and not a small portion of slap bass.
charlie barnes is a guy to watch. Claiming to be playing his first PROPER festival at the trees, he'll be playing many more. He's everything good about Thom Yorke's Eraser, with a little Muse in the voice. Unsigned. For now.
John Crampton had an improbable number of teenagers pogoing to one of the liveliest blues sets i've ever seen. Unfortunately I wasn't one of them. But I was pogoing.
The King Blues were standout for me on the mainstage on Saturday. Looks like they've got quite a following already, and plenty of kind words have been already flung their way. It's a kind of street politics pop thing, and the crowd loved it. I feel a bit bad calling these guys pop, but anyone who can sing 'love, I got so much love, love in my heart' and still sound cool can take anything. I tried that once. Didn't see her again.
Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun helped me out on saturday afternoon after an over ambitious friday. Thoughtful folk with fine lyrics and just enough of a kick to get you moving. Word has it he's started up a label out West too. I played with his pick once. Seems a fine man.
Imperial Leisure My oh my. If the magic roundabout were a ska-hip hop-funk outfit, they might have been called Imperial Leisure. Regardless of what you think of their music (you'll think it's good by the way), seeing them live is like having your wildest night out at 11am; it's a shock to the system, but you'll love it. And want more. Oh yeah, and John Barber introduced them. A career high I think.
Dananananackroyd. Two singers. Two drumkits. From Scotland. Fond of cuddles in crowds. Ever so sllightly camp. Much fun.
Wojtek Godzisz. I don't know much about paganism, but I do know plenty about beards. Wojtek Godzisz has a great beard. Couldn't comment on the paganism, but I do know him and his band lifted the roof on the leaf lounge. It was this kind of music that got me interested in picking up a guitar - heavy but with plenty of melody. Now I'm more of a Frank Turner Mile Davis hybrid. Figuratively a kind of ray-ban-wearing-pipe-smoking-not-sure-where-this-is-going kind of thing
The Brute Chorus have great, great hair. They headlined the Leaf Lounge on Saturday night and were, I'm afraid, miles better than British Sea Power on the main stage. If Edwyn Collins was in Franz Ferdinand, would the result be this? Probably not, no. But they're stomping live.
So that was the best of what I saw, but I missed Loads. Dr Butler's Medicine Hatstand Band were all some people could talk about afterwards. Gutted to have missed them. Click on the name and go to their myspace. It's worth it.
And go see the full line-up on the 2000trees website. You can click through and hear samples from all of the bands long play records.
If you haven't been to 2000trees yet, you're missing the chance to see the next great bands before the A&R guys get their mits on them. And in some cases you're missing the chance to see the next great bands after the A&R guys have their mits on them. Point is, it's all about the music. Man. Apart from when it's about the lovely people you'll meet drinking cider and dancing through the rain (Carla, Geoff Nina et al) in the glorious british countryside.
*all pics taken from myspaces, apart from the first which came from Peak's flickr pool. Peak are the nice people who provide all the sound for the event
