Trying to get a train anywhere on Sunday is like trying to find a tasty looking bacon sandwich at your local greasy spoon on a quiet afternoon: eventually one will come along but it will take longer than normal. OK, it’s a rubbish metaphor for basically saying that the trains from Bradford to Bingley are pants on a Sunday so it was either arrive an hour before the first act was on or half an hour after. As I preferred my sleep and also wanted to catch up with Torchwood – thankfully a good episode this week – I plumped for the latter.
Sadly this meant missing opening act ‘Geek’ but I have it on good authority that they were good, but sadly I missed them. It’s a shame as I feel I could possibly relate to a band called ‘Geek’, in lieu of cause of a band called ‘Bloody Trains’ but instead I arrived on site just as the band on stage were singing a line about finding your sister is on smack. So, good omens there then.
The first band I saw were the intriguingly titled ‘Kingheadlock’ who mixed Jamaican-esque music with rock. Their music was very sunny in style, in complete contrast to the weather which, for the majority of the early afternoon was grey and miserable with two short spurts of drizzle, but it wasn’t anywhere near Leeds level of wetness. The band had a great attitude and bank of songs, with the rap-reggae style delivered brilliantly and offering something different to hear. They ended on a great track, though some of its greatness was due to their ripping off of the riff from ACDC’s ‘Back In Black’, but more on that later. I wish I’d got to see more of this band but what I did hear was great.
After this band finished I took the time to acclimatise myself again with the venue. The toilets were, thankfully, re-stocked with hand sanitiser, the ice-cream was cold and not too unreasonably priced and I had a quick nosey in the attractions nearer the entrance which included some static bikes for people to ride on; I’m not sure what they were there for, exercise or power, but I hoped they weren’t keeping the stage lights going. Oh, and by the toilets was the usual sexual health stand offering free condoms and tests. Most of the condoms, it seemed, were being inflated and used as projectiles and balloons, though if they were to be used for their original purpose then the round circle of free condom, pint at the bar, a quickie in the dark and then back round to be tested could well be achieved. Not that I attempted it.
It was noticeable at this time that the park was much quieter than the same time on Saturday, possibly due to a collective hangover, but the grounds were full of kids still collecting the cups for the rebate, some with stacks twice as high as they were with even some bringing them back in to the ground that morning on the train. With a quick bit of maths I worked out it would be 350 of them to get your money back for the weekend ticket and 34 per pint, so maybe they weren’t being daft at all. But it’s only the little kids that could get away with. Anyone over the age of eight trying to do it or the little girl in tiger face-paint on the shoulders of her father bossily directing him towards cups wouldn’t have a look in.
Next on stage was Daley. Possessing the weirdest haircut in the business outside of Lady GaGa – imagine a ginger Johnny Bravo – his mix of synth-production-heavy ballads sounded great and his song writing ability shone through with his Will Young-esque voice, though sounding a little more airy and ethereal than his. A promising performance, throw in some crisp drumming that sounded great on the sound system and it was a highlight of the early afternoon, even if he did occasionally wander into Mariah Carey-esque warbling at times which knocked a few points off.
He even had chance to perform a version of his duet (can you duet with a collective like Gorillaz? Septuet?) with Gorillaz from the special edition of their ‘Plastic Beach’ album – Doncamatic. This was well performed and, ‘Superfast Jellyfish’ aside, better than anything else from the album. The finale from the artist – who should not be confused with Tom Daley, there was no swimming on stage – took benefit from some additional backing tracks to create a really powerful finish. I took two things away from his set: firstly how I’d like to check out more of his music, and secondly how many times he plugged his website. But at least he was doing some promotion, tying in the heavier presence of Twitter promotion on the big screens for the festival in general, though it wasn’t used a massive amount looking through with only probably a score of people using it, including myself and a few others that seemed to find fault in most sets, begging the question of why they bothered even turning up in the first place, as well as a local complaining about noise from the crowds – but it is only once a year!
A lot of these tweets were put on the screens throughout the weekend so, along with train times, set lists and uploaded photos, as well as the great mix of music from the on-stage DJ between sets, there was always something to keep you amused during the gaps, as well as all the food, checking out the Tweets and maybe having a go on the volleyball.
With Russo dropping out of the festival due to recording commitments the middle of the line-up was shuffled for the afternoon. Next on was rapper Wretch 32 which I learnt was pronounced 3-2 not thirty-two. I would also say I learnt it wasn’t someone being sick lots of times, but that’s purely for comic effect and not what I actually thought. Though there had been mixed thoughts about the act from the crowd beforehand, he was greeted on stage by some of the most rigorous applause yet.
Wretch 32 came on stage much rockier than I expected, sort of a harder version of Tinie Tempah with lyrics full of positive messages and good beats. He even threw in a cover of Jay-Z’s 99 problems though, as someone pointed out on Twitter, he introduced it as some freestyle rapping when it was, er, actually a cover. He also rapped later over, er, ‘Back In Black’ by ACDC. I hope they were getting royalties from the festival as they would be quids in.
Wretch 32 put on a great show, with good banter and a way of getting the crowd engaged, even if it wasn’t a massive crowd by this point. Former number one ‘Don’t Go’ got a riotious reaction and verses and words were sung back at him. Any negative comments on the Twitter were at odds with the crowd reaction who loved him, but I could see how the urban and grime could split the crowds, which is inevitable in such a wide reaching festival. But I thought he was great, even if times I was concerned about him as he kept impersonating Michael Jackson and grabbing his crotch whilst rapping. I wanted to get on stage and point him towards the chlamydia stall at the back.
He finished with his hit ‘Tracktor’ (a song title that always makes me laugh and think the Wurzels could do a cover) proving himself to be just as good as Tinie Tempah, possible his nearest comparison, even if doing more of the songs live rather than on backing track would have elevated it further.
Literally, as Wretch 32 left the stage, the first bits of rain came down, but it didn’t last and by the time the next act, ‘Stereo MCs’ came on, it was dry again, if still a little bit gloomy.
‘Stereo MCs’ was the first act on the final day that I would class as covering all bases with the entertainment. We got the main singer – who looked like a cross between a hippie and Gunther from Gunther and the Sunshine Girls, some backing singers, a DJ mixing the music and backing VJing that really fit with the songs and brought the set up a gear, created a multi-layered live experience and finally an act doing something more with the back screen than displaying their logo. The songs were great, thanks in part to a very energetic frontman who was all over the stage. ‘Sunny Day’ was a great tune and the occasional use of live vocoder was impressive, almost up there with Paul Smith’s use of a megaphone the evening before, but obviously without as much dancing with the mic stand.
Famous hit ‘Connected’ really got the crowd going and even knew track ‘Boy’ went down well. In fact, even though I knew few of their songs, I still really enjoyed the set which is a sign of a good band and a good performance, though maybe they went on a little too long for my liking, but much of it was still great.
‘The Sunshine Underground’ were on next, which was good as there was yet to be any sun above ground. The first band to do a second set at the festival, I’m honestly not sure if they justified that decision. Though being this high up the billing wasn’t their doing due to the shifting around of slots, they felt out of place, book-ended in by two more pleasing acts. Their set was serviceable rock and good to listen to, but it was nothing amazing and didn’t do much to get the crowd going but the sun did come out during their set and they made a piece of it. Not bad, but not amazing either.
With the sun now out there was time for some crowd spotting, observing how many young kids seemed to be having crafty fags away from the gazes of their parents; the weird costumes some people were wearing; the teenagers with the chlamydia pants worn proudly either normally or on their head; and the general wonder of how long it would take to clean the mess up.
But there wasn’t much more time to think as ‘Eliza Doolittle’ was on. Well, when I say on, she was preceded by her band, dressed in blue jeans and a lighter blue top that, when combined with the plinky-plonky keyboard playing, I was expecting them to start serving ice-cream. But, they didn’t, instead paying the way for Eliza to come on stage in the smallest pair of shorts you have ever seen that, even if it wasn’t their style of music, got the old rockers attention for forty minutes.
With a distinctive Carribbean feel, opener ‘Moneybox’ paved the way into favourite ‘Skinny Genes’ which worked well due to the balanced of backing singers, though it was a shame the whistling, which is the main hook of the record, wasn’t as loud in the mix as it could have been, but was a great live version of the track.
‘Go Home’ was up next and once more showcased her powerful voice. ‘Rollerblades’ started with just her and her piano before kicking off with the full band, showcasing two separate talents and styles, and her stage persona was definitely very flirty and sexy, something that hadn’t really been seen elsewhere over the weekend.
Eliza next performed a very slow and sensual version of Bruno Mars’ ‘Grenade’ which, though slowing the pace down when she should have been speeding it up, was a refreshing version of it and worth hearing it if you can find it on YouTube. It was a perfect tune for a lazy Sunday afternoon even if some of the crowd did start to drift off at it.
‘Back To Front’ was played next, mixed in with a nice crowd-pleasing surprise of ‘Lovely Day’ by Bill Withers, again mixing her music with material more familiar to the crowd.
In between the tracks her soulful voice was matched with her cockney talk, which included gems such as ‘Go for a tinkle [on the piano]’ and ‘Take my ring off [as it gets in the way when playing the piano]’ turning it into Carry on Bingley.
Next up was what I subsequently found out is a Kanye West cover, ‘Runaway’, which sounded like the child of Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’ and the Kook’s ‘Naïve’. The crowd loved it though and it was a good cover, though I hadn’t heard the original in comparison.
‘Mr Medicine’, complete with some nice break down elements from each member of the band and her jumping down into the crowd to shake hands with people before being lifted back on stage by some very lucky security people, led into her final song ‘Pack Up’, delivered brilliantly, to complete an excellent ten-song set full of energy and catchy pop tunes.
Following her on stage were ‘The Coral’ and they started by seemingly challenging Saturday’s ‘White Denim’ were the longest, most boring guitar section but thankfully this was a one off. They proved to be good musicians but lacked stage persona and the ability to talk to the crowd and after the energy of ‘Eliza Doolittle’ was a let-down. ‘She’s Coming Around’ was a nice slice of indie pop and the crowd got going when they burst into more familiar territory such as ‘Jacqueline’. ‘Pass It On’ followed a new track and was, of course, received by the crowd but there wasn’t so much dancing as shuffling.
‘Who’s Gonna Find Me’ and their version of The Beatles’ ‘Ticket To Ride’ continued the set in good fashion and favourite ‘Dreaming of You’ at the end meant people went away with a happy feeling about their time on the Bingley stage, even if their appearance can be classified as a good set but not enough at this stage of the proceedings.
So then it was onto the headliner of the night. With a lot of work to be done onto the stage, including bringing on two extra video screens, a massive circular drum kit and two DJ points shaped into a ‘C’ and ‘S’, and it was time for ‘Chase and Status’, an act that seemed to divide opinion beforehand: the younger end of the audience were looking forward to it, with their band t-shirts on and the artist name drawn onto their bodies, and the older audience that derided it as ‘not music’. But, I would hope, at least from a spectacle point of view, the latter were won over.
Entertainment wise, they took what ‘Stereo MCs’ had done earlier and built on it. Featuring live drumming and DJ mixing, plus MCing from MC Rage, the performance was added to with the vocals of all the variety of guest acts on their tracks – something difficult to replicate live unless you bring them all in or have a guest vocalist or two doing them all – played out live, synched to videos of them on screen, which were mixed in with all sorts of imagery in a trippy, eclectic but ultimately amazing way. The VJ operator of the side screens should get a medal for the speed they had to swap images around.
The spectacle of the act could not be denied and if there were any criticisms it would be that much of their hour set sounded very similar and fit a certain mould: VJ of singer comes on, sings a few lines, goes off into some heavy beat. I can’t say it wasn’t enjoyable or dragged on, but something a bit different would have been appreciated.
It was an unusual set to describe as, aside from Chase occasionally coming out to play some guitar, the named people were hidden away on stage with MC Rage being most of the presence on stage, doing a sterling job in getting the crowd going and adding to the records, even if he did often stumble into annoying repetition of two things: firstly, his chants of ‘where’s the mosh pit? There’s the mosh pit’, which made me want to buy him a pair of glasses, and the insistence that the band were called ‘Chase and [pause for effect] Fuckin’ Status’, but these are minor points included for humour more than anything else, but it did start to get annoying!
Opener ‘No Problem’ with its haunting visual effects (see them on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPRkYWVinF0) was a fantastic away of opening, and they moved onto hits including ‘Eastern Jam’.
The energetic set, which saw the biggest crowd reaction and dancing of the weekend across most of the floor, was one of the massive highlights. They even brought on Liam Bailey to perform live vocals of ‘Blind Faith’ in the two-song encore, though the absence of ‘End Credits’, which would have fitted in so well at the end, was a missed trick.
But, as the fireworks went off to signify the end of the day and the festival as a whole, you couldn’t have asked for a better headliner for the second day and their mixture of live DJing, vocals, MCing and impressive VJing was something to behold, as was the crowd reaction.
Though, for me, Saturday was the strongest line-up of the festival, there was much to enjoy over all three days and once more Bingley Music Live has proved itself to be both a great value festival and one that provides great acts. Sure, there were some duff sets but when you have to cater for such a wide taste of music from different age groups you are never going to be able to please everyone.
Musically, the festival was excellent, I just hope next year they solve a few of the – admittedly minor – problems of this year including the issues with the sound on the Friday night, the lack of bins and, as I mentioned last year, would it be too tricky to put toilets at both ends of the camp?
But with excellent headline slots from Maximo Park and Chase and Status, plus many other quality performances, you’re not going to hear me complain about the festival, only embrace something that is local, good value (food costs aside!) and full of great acts for everyone.
Overall another fantastic weekend of music at a great price and I will be certainly buying the early bird tickets for next year’s festival when they go on sale 9am on Monday morning!
Sunday, 4 September 2011
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