Another Form of Relief

This past weekend brought the second festival of 2009 for Another Form of Relief. It was a local festival, but one that I never intended on going to given it’s ludicrous £125 ticket cost. Seemingly others thought the same, given ticket sales struggled to such a degree that they were giving £250 of tickets away with £10 items via a clothing store. So, one Kangaroo Poo beach towel later and I had guestlist access to two days of live music. Not too shabby.

Arriving on site at around noon, the car parking was fairly well organised and it wasn’t a long walk (in festival terms) to the box office entrance. Where, of course, we weren’t on the guest list where we should have been. Joining a second queue of people all in the same boat, it took a bit of hassle with customer services, but eventually we got our wristbands and got in.

To be presented with one of the most deserted festival sites known to man.

After exploring the site for a bit and getting our bearings, we headed over to the main stage and caught a bit of Howling Bells. They are a band that I’ve been vaguely aware of but never heard much of it, and I’m happy to say that relationship is perfectly intact after their set. They were fine I suppose, but nothing grabbed me to a degree that I had to rush home and find some of their songs.

Next up were Noah and the Whale, a band I rather like, if not entirely. I love 5 Years Time and a few others, and thankfully they played all of the ones I knew. They weren’t exactly what I expected, the sound of four of them live without the voice of Laura Marling was a little bit odd. Not too bad, but 5 Years Time certainly lost some of it’s shine. The newer songs they played were fine, if not as immediate. I suspect they will be growers though.

After that it was a quick dash over to the stupidly small Third Stage, which had some of the best bands of the weekend. We arrived to find Let’s Wrestle about halfway through their set. They sounded good, replicating their recorded sound incredibly well. The only downside was that they ran out of songs 20 minutes before their set was due to end. It was salvaged my audience participation, an extra long jam session and a boisterous rendition of their signature “let’s fucking wrestle!” that certain members of the audience seemed to take to heart.

The mighty Johnny Foreigner followed them and provided the highlight of the weekend. Their set was littered with new songs, and new renditions of old favourites. The band flirted with some new arrangements too, including one song where Kelly took to the drums and Junior picked up a bass and a couple more songs that made use of a fourth member. Alexei seemed to be having a good time throughout, correcting the MC when taking the stage with “we’re actually Editors” and calling a Twang cover of Bran Van 3000’s Drinking in LA “the worst fucking thing I’ve ever heard” when they were playing the same festival.

Back to the main stage afterwards for Ash, a band where I know the singles and that’s about it. Which is fine given that is mostly what they stuck with, just littering in the odd new song while constantly assuring us they would get back to the hits. All of the usual suspects made it into the set: Burn, Baby Burn and Shining Light, with the superb Girl From Mars providing the first almighty audience sing along of the day.

Off to the Third Stage once again for The Joy Formidable, who to my surprise had completely packed out the tent. I must have missed the point between Reading last year and now where they became massive, but it certainly felt like they had made it. It was a loud, messy set that went over incredibly well and if they aren’t playing headline slots by the end of the year I’ll be amazed.

That was where day one ended for us. The festival itself went on for a few more hours, with The Fratellis and The Pigeon Detectives being the highest acts on the main stage. But given they are shit, why bother staying?

We returned for day two and had a much longer walk from a much further car park. Which was at the very least good exercise.

Ladyhawke is someone I only know via one song that I’ve heard in someone’s car over and over again. I wasn’t expecting anything more than generic dance nonsense, so I was pleasantly surprised by her set. She seemed rather awkward on stage (apparently she has Asperger’s) and was plagued by technical difficulties throughout, but her performance was rather good. Not spectacular by any means, but an enjoyable way to spend 40 minutes.

The Super Furry Animals were up next, a band I’ve never been much of a fan of short of one or two songs. Neither of which they actually played. They were rather fun though, bringing their own “Woah!” and “Applause” audience cue cards. We actually left about halfway through their set to get to the Third Stage, so maybe they did play the songs I like after all.

I’ve read so many things about Dananananaykroyd’s “legendary” live performances, but nothing quite prepared me for what I walked into. Arriving in the tent, the band were just having the audience perform the Wall of Cuddles. They followed this by storming through a song with such ferocity that they immediately blew out an amp. While this was being fixed, the band killed time by telling jokes (“What has eight legs and is harmless to kids?” “The Jackson Four”) and playing a television theme tune quiz. We got through Eastenders, Hollyoaks (“that show sucks balls”) and another before everything was good to go again. The band launched into their second wind even more manically than the first, security trying to drag Callum back on stage from crowdsurfing while singing repeatedly. It was an insane, but utterly fitting show for the band, and I hope to see them playing outside of a festival environment in the future.

If it’s possible to go to sleep while standing in a crowd of people enjoying themselves at a festival, I could have managed it during Doves. Nothing particularly wrong with them at all, just all very uninteresting.

Speaking of uninteresting, Editors were on next. The crowd seemed to enjoy them, so maybe it was just me, but they bored me to tears on the most part. I just spent the time watching the lead singer flail around like a lunatic for seemingly no apparent reason. Never have I so randomly and intently hated a man as much as that guy. Thankfully we left about halfway through and I didn’t have to suffer any more of his twattery.

The last band of the weekend for me were the rather pleasant Rumble Strips. I missed most of their set, but I enjoyed what I saw. The band seemed to be very much on form, even managing to get the brass instruments sounding good in a live setting, which isn’t always an easy feat. I felt kind of bad that I only caught about three of their songs after the event.

And that was it.

Some random observations:
- The security guards were fine at times, dickish at others.
- The bar had nice, cheaply priced drinks.
- The food stalls had crappy, expensive food.
- The toilets (in the bar at least) were excellent by festival standards.
- The Grilled Chicken & Bacon Salad in the Brookers Oast next door to the site is lovely.
- The ridiculously long walk to get in and out of the site (and thus to the pub) was a bit of a git.
- For a festival that prides itself on “no VIP areas” so “everyone has the same experience”, it seems odd to have a VIP bar.

Pretty damn good for the price of a towel though.

Photos from Day One can be found here.

The second day of the Hop Farm Festival was a bit busier, presumably due to the headline appearance by Paul Weller. Still fairly well organised, although security seemed a bit more regimented. Everything ran more or less to time, and the music wasn’t too bad, if a little close to middle of the road blandness for me at times.

Highlights today:
- Ladyhawke was surprisingly enjoyable, given I didn’t expect her to be very good at all.
- Dananananaykroyd had an insane set on the Third Stage, including the “wall of cuddles”, band crowdsurfing and technical difficulties masked by a tv theme tune quiz and jokes.
- The grilled chicken and bacon salad I had in the pub next to the site.

Photos below of course. You can still click through to Flickr for the full size versions. Next up on the Another Form of Relief festival tour: Indietracks!

Photos from Day Two can be found here.

Interesting first day at the Hop Farm Festival down here in Kent. Even with the massive ticket giveaways it has obviously still struggled to fill out the 20,000 capacity. Which is kind of a shame, firstly because it’d be nice to see a local festival succeed, and secondly because it’s actually quite decent. Despite suffering from some odd lineup ordering (The View higher than Ash, really?), it’s a fairly professional, well laid festival.

Highlights today:
- Johnny Foreigner who included a whole bunch of a new material in their drunken set, a new band member on a few songs, saw Kelly and Junior swap positions and more.
- Let’s Wrestle played to a small, but certainly rowdy audience.
- The Joy Formidable seem to have become ten times more popular than when we saw them at Reading last year too, which was a pleasant surprise.
- Ash, who I haven’t heard anything from in the best part of ten years, were really bloody good.

Photos below. You can click through to Flickr for the full size versions. Tomorrow’s lineup includes British Sea Power, The Rumble Strips, Super Furry Animals, Editors and the mighty Dananananaykroyd.

As part as our ongoing attempts to cover what little exists of a Kent music scene, it seemed only prudent to put together a brief guide to the major music festivals taking place in the county over the next couple of months. A few years ago such a thing would have been impossible due to a lack of said events, but now new festivals seem to be popping up each year. Obviously not all of them work (like Electric Gardens) and some will probably have their organisers lynched if they ever come back (Zoo8) but it’s good to see a varied selection appearing.

When June 4-6
Where Hope Farm, Ashford
How much £55 weekend / £35 daily

Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
Supergrass, The Holloways, Emmy the Great, Ben’s Brother, Red Light Company, Alessi’s Ark, Cut La Roc, Hoxton Whores, Thomas Tantrum, The Answering Machine, Karima Francis, The Young Knives, Tubelord, Marina and the Diamonds, Alex Cornish, Oh, Atoms, Royal Treatment Plant, Bender, The Rosie Taylor Project, William, 4 or 5 Magicians, motion picture soundtrack, Video Nasties, Bobby Long, The Domino State, The Ryes, Micky Slim, Silvery, Hungry Ghosts, Los Salvadores, Minnaars, Lucy and the Caterpillar, Kids Love Lies, Barefoot Confessor, Right Turn Left, Tin Soldiers, Far From The Dance, Seven Story Down, Ten Bears, Tom Williams & The Boat, The Suggestions, Elephants, The Dirty Disco, Junkstar, Brandon Block, Mr Basista, Monday Street, Romanov, Polka Party, HANDSHAKE, Greg McDonald, The Quirk Burglars, The SheBeats, Alma Mahler, Floors & Walls, Eddy Temple-Morris, Rob Cockerton, Adam Bloom, Haunted Stereo, Small Fry, Joe Mac, The Streetlight Conspiracy, The Little Philistines, Illegitimate Sons of the King, AEF, Shadow Aspect, Vagner Love, Peter Andrews, Twisted DJs, Rhys morgan, Krissy and the Jackdaws, The Hidden Revolution, Bruised Beauties, Groove Monkey, Cocos Lovers, Everybody Be cool, Waterhorse, Lotte Mullan, Lucy Holliday, Circle of Rage, Kouncilhouse, Amoriste, Sean Mooney, Steve Day, Spooka, Jamie Abbott, Robbie Styles, Nic Bennett, Hal Cruttenden, Jamie Ley, Nathan Caton, Outa City Committee, Lester Clayton, Jeff Barker, Kev Harris, Lizzy Spit, Jarmean?, Pete Jonas, Delta Connection, danny reject, Matt Rudge, Adam Crow, Sally-Anne Hayward, Christian Reilly and 3 Parts DJ

In 2007, Sellindge was populated by bands you’ve never heard of. Last year, they managed to nab Idlewild to headline more bands you’ve never heard of. This year, there are a few solid bands at the top of the bill, a handful of decent ones underneath, and of course, a whole slew that you’ve never heard of. Still, for the money you can’t really go wrong.

When July 5-6
Where The Hop Farm, Paddock Wood
How much £125 weekend / £65 daily

Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
The Fratellis, Editors, Doves, Echo & The Bunnymen, Ash, The Pigeon Detectives, The View, Mystery Jets, Super Furry Animals, Paul Weller, Ladyhawke, 65daysofstatic, British Sea Power, The Rifles, Alex Gopher, Noah and the Whale, Bell X1, Cage the Elephant, The Twang, The Twilight Sad, Howling Bells, Florence and The Machine, Johnny Foreigner, Eight Legs, Dananananaykroyd, Jape, Fight Like Apes, Etienne De Crecy, That Petrol Emotion, Let’s Wrestle, Dr. Lektroluv, D.I.M, The Chapman Family, Burn The Negative, The Good the Bad, R.S.A.G, and 2Manydj’s

The Hop Farm Festival has jumped from being a one-day event last year to a two day festival this year. It’s gimmick is that it has no sponsorship (yay!) and no VIP areas (boo!). Of course, such things come at a price, which results in the excessive £125 cost for the weekend. Which is a shame as I actually quite like the lineup. The main stage doesn’t do much for me, but the creatively named “third stage” with the likes of Johnny Foreigner, Let’s Wrestle and Dananananaykroyd looks like the place to be.

When July 10-12
Where Merton Farm, Canterbury
How much £85 weekend / £35 daily

Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
Dub Pistols, Bent, DJ Food, The Horrors, Nostalgia 77, Cage the Elephant, Edwyn Collins, The James Taylor Quartet, Horse Feathers, DJ Format, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, The Aliens, Krafty Kuts, Jeremy Warmsley, Lights, DJ Food & DK, Zomby, Wild Beasts, The King Blues, Chris Murray, Kid Harpoon, Mr Scruff, Ipso Facto, Solid Steel, Golden Silvers, Portico Quartet, Jonquil, Son Of Dave, Chris Difford, It Hugs Back, The Temper Trap, Jay Jay Pistolet, Flamboyant Bella, The Invisible, Sargasso Trio, Trost, 6 Day Riot, DK, Mumford & Sons, James Taylor Quartet, Baddies, Chris T-T, Toddla T, Greg Wilson, Pete Molinari, Casiokids, The XX, Drums Of Death, Cha Cha, The Pan I Am, The Congregation, Peggy sue, Congregation, Greco Roman, Rae, S.C.U.M, Joe Gideon & The Shark, Josh Weller, Skeleton, cherbourg, Wave Pictures, Tom Allalone, Elephants, Black Market Karma, Psychotic Reaction, Onlookers, Ghost of a thousand, Tom Williams and The Boat, Monday Street, The Simonsound, Syd Arthur, Hobo Jones & the Junkyard Dogs, Wheeler Street, The Goodtimes, Moon Music Orchestra, Zombie Met Girl, The 18 Carat Love Affair, Amber Room, J*Star, Zoo for you, The Lovedays, Cocos Lovers, The Startover, The Wild Wolves, Trevor Moss, Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, Samondi, Mr Lovebucket, Mc Serocee, MC Honeybrown, djbunjy, Ukulele Gangstas, The Chihuahuas, The Mind Without Maths, The Steve Hillage Band, calico street riots, Greco Roman Soundsystem w/ Ross Allen, Raf Daddy & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, VJ LSDave, Comfy Porn DJs, Hannah Lou and Boxing Octopus

Lounge on the Farm is the almost the little festival that could. Growing from strength to strength over since the first in 2006, the event now boasts over 100 acts including a decent mix between minor recognisable bands and a ton of local talent. Operated by the same team that run the delightful Farmhouse in Canterbury, they really do seem to be doing everything they can to foster a local scene.

One of the things I always find lamentable about Kent is the lack of a quality music scene. Sure, you’d get odd bits and pieces at the Tunbridge Wells Forum, but that was about it for the entire county outside of unknown local bands playing in dodgy bars every now and again. It always amazed me how Canterbury, a city with a large student population, didn’t have any real full-time venue for indie music.

Welcome The Farmhouse. It’s about damn time.

The Farmhouse is operated by the same people that run Canterbury’s Lounge on the Farm festival, an event that is now entering it’s fourth year. The venue has actually been up and running for a while now, but this was the first opportunity I’d had to get down there.

The thing that most struck me upon entering was how unlike a typical venue it was. Sure, it had the usual bar, posters and tiny stage in the corner. But also sofas, a ton of tables and hell, even flowers in the toilets. See, the place is only a live music venue after 9pm. All day, it’s a restaurant, and it retains the laid back feel that comes with that right through the night.

First band on were The Goodtimes from Southend. They started things off pretty well too. Nothing sensationally original granted, but solid, fun rock and roll that kicks off the night perfectly. Next up were local Rochester band The Mind Without Maths. If I’m honest, they weren’t entirely my cup of tea, but they were decent enough.

Finally, and getting close to midnight before even stepping on stage, it was Sky Larkin’s turn. Now Sky Larkin are a band that I have been following on here for the best part of three years now. In that time they have gone from being an unsigned band with a few good songs to a signed band who has released their first album, toured all over the place and even supported the likes of Broken Social Scene and Conor Oberst.

This was the second time I’d seen them the live. That time they were a support to Los Campesinos! but two years later they are enough to attract a crowd themselves. The set itself is of course made up mostly of songs from their recent album The Golden Spike. Songs like Antibodies, Fossil, I and Keepsakes all come across particularly well, even if the last struggled with a minor incident instrument failure (see tweet below). The band seem much more rounded than that last time too, the three of them managing to fill the room with a melodic racket.

weareskylarkin twitter
Scoreboard tonight; 1 Stevie nicks style dancing injury, 1 broken 45yr old snare skin, 1 bottle vin rouge, 1 van rouge. Canterbury roolz kx

Upcoming gigs at The Farmhouse include Jeremy Warmsley, Maths Class and Eben. Details here.