Beautiful Days took place on 15,16,17 of August this year, and a great festival it was too. The rain was unfortunately not our friend this year and it started around about the Friday evening and was fairly persistent through much of the weekend. Friday night I went and watched the Levelers play their acoustic set which is the now traditional festival opener, and is always good and gets you in the mood for the weekend. After which food was needed and one of the things about Beautiful days is that there is no shortage of good food stalls. Then I went off to watch Xavier Rudd who is pretty much a one man band, playing slide guitar, percussion and Yidaki’s (a particular type of didgeridoo). I just had to marvel at him. At this point in the evening there was the inevitable clash as two bands overlapped. So I wandered over to the Big Top to watch a bit of Gabriella Cilmi’s set. Which I enjoyed it was nice to see “Sweet Like Me” done live and a cool cover of the Martha and the Muffins song “Echo Beach”. The next act I watched were Nouvelle Vague. They best describe themselves, from their myspace page:
And what, you may ask exactly is a Nouvelle Vague? It..s ..new wave,.. it..s ..bossa nova….it..s ..Nouvelle Vague… Too vague? Nouvelle Vague is the marriage of ..new wave.. and ..bossa nova,.. two incredibly prescient yet improbable musical bedfellows. But it..s really not that simple. The key twist is the fearless music that is translated (so to speak) into Nouvelle Vague.
The highlights of their set for me was a cover of Lords of the New Church song “Dance with me” and Joy Divisions “Love will tare us apart”. I will also never forget their covers of The Sex pistols God save the queen and Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”.
Next up were Squeeze. Which was really odd. Squeeze were one of those bands for me, that were always there in my early teens. I remember it being cool (no pun intended) to know the lyrics of “Cool for Cats” in my first year of secondary school. Watching made me realise just how many great songs they were responsible for and I got to hear my favourite Squeeze track “Take me I’m yours”.
This first picture is from the Saturday morning when it wasn’t too bad,
although with the ground so waterlogged which denies one of the great festival pastimes, sitting in a field in the sun and listening to bands. Still with so much good music you can put up with a bit of leg ache.
The first band I watched on Saturday were 12 Stone Toddler who were very interesting, and not at all what I expected, although why I was expecting a stereo typical modern indie band I’m not sure. At some point on the Saturday afternoon (I’m not entirely sure where it fitted in) I went to watch Attila The Stockbroker. Attila the Stockbroker is a (from his bio page) Sharp-tongued, high energy, social surrealist rebel poet and songwriter. His themes are topical, his words hard-hitting, his politics unashamedly radical, but Attila will make you roar with laughter as well as seethe with anger…
I last saw him about 18 years ago doing a gig alongside and with the phenomenally underrated Blyth Power. Where I am embarrassed to say I heckled him, naively thinking I was indulging in banter, the shame! I’m glad to say I was quiet this time.
John Cooper Clarke was supposed to be next on but had had to cancel, which is odd as the last time I went to see him he canceled as well, maybe he is alergic to me. The gap in the schedule was ably filled by Hobo Jones & the Junkyard Dogs. There is a great beautiful days story about Hobo Jones & the Junkyard Dogs. In 2006 they went to Beautiful Days under their own steam and busked around the site and outside the Junk and Disorderly/Mad Planet stall. Last year they were given a slot in the Big Top and they packed it out. They play Skunk Rock (Skiffle Punk) and very good they are too, so it was great to see them again this year.
At this point I got a bit lazy and listened to Stiff little fingers from a distance rather than getting off my bottom and walking back down to the main stage. In fact I didn’t really do very much until later in the evening when I went hunting for food and made my way to see Turin Brakes. They are one of my favourite bands but I’ve never managed to see them live. The wait was worth it. They were great. After such a great gig more food was required so I made my way over to the main stage and the huge choice of food vendors. Next up on the main stage were Supergrass who were a lot better than I was expecting, I saw them a few years ago and, I don’t know if they were all toured out or whatever but they seemed to play without much enthusiasm, but then we all have bad days at work.
Sunday and more rain although this photo was taken before it got bad. By Sunday of course I started to flag a little but not for long after a hearty lunch I went to watch Joolz Denby who was fantastic. I first saw Joolz way back in the early eighties as a young punky person. Joolz has the ability with her poems of reaching deep inside of you and squeezing your heart – and I mean that in a nice way.
Suitably awakened I went off to watch a bit of Dennis Hopper Choppers another extremely talented one man band! Then I dashed over to the main stage to watch Fishbone who were great, the were sadly unable to play the festival last year so I was really looking forward to seeing them, being from Los Angeles, I believe, I think the rain surprised them a little. They are an incredibly energetic band and even got me dancing in the mud.
Sadly I didn’t watch the whole set as I wanted to go back to the the Big Top to see Justin Sullivan. I’ve seen Mr Sullivan play with New Model Army many times, after all they are one of my favorite bands, and I’ve seen him play as part of The Red Sky Coven but never in a “solo” capacity, although he was accompanied by band mate Dean White. Brilliant, what more can I say! The only down side was that the set wasn’t long enough! A strange thing though I’ve never seen New Model Army at an outdoor gig without there being some rain. Maybe the rain gods are fans? Next on the Big Top stage were Oysterband who were great.
After the Oysters I made my way back over to the main stage and saw a little bit of Flogging Molly and the waited for the festival finale. Throughout the weekend I had been amazed by how quick the stage crew (on all stages) change over for the next act.
As the crowd gathered the stage was readied and the back drop changed to the Levellers back drop.
Then after a short wait the Levellers appeared on stage and played up a storm!
Another fantastic Beautiful Days mud and all!
