Glasgowbury – part 1/4

July 27, 2010 No Comments

Words By: Matt Wheavil

There is one reason alone why Glasgowbury is quite possibly the best music festival this side of the Atlantic Ocean – it has an ethos. Beloved founder, Paddy Glasgow, doesn’t care about getting the biggest acts or the largest crowd. He cares about the often-underrated virtues of talent and respect. In other words, every band that plays Glasgowbury is there because they deserve the exposure.

The festival’s 10th anniversary served as an esteemed celebration of our ever-burgeoning music scene. 56 acts, just about all Northern Irish (with a couple of Southern exceptions – namely Fight Like Apes), playing every genre under the sun, from the ska punk of Pocket Billiards to the metal techno of And So I Watch You From Afar.

2:45pm

My Glasgowbury bus arrived well over two hours into the festival line-up, which left me feeling a little gutted that I’d already missed a tonne of class acts, including The Wonder Villians, More Than Conquerors and The Rupture dogs.

Thankfully, this disappointment was quickly removed by the final two songs of Colenso Parade, who had the G Sessions tent rocking at full tilt. Their 60s pop melodies of the ‘sha la la’ kind fused with gutsy guitar riffing and the sizeable crowd in attendance enjoyed every minute – even at this early sober stage, they boogied along very happily indeed.

Already, a fun vibe was in motion as CP closed their set and as the tent evacuated, I noticed a couple of guys with endearing signs, stating: “free hugs” and “Who cares about Oxegen?”

How long have you been at Glasgowbury?

“I’ve been here since last night”

What have you seen so far?

I’ve seen Henrietta Game – they were class.

And you think this is way better than Oxegen?

10 times better than Oxegen. Who cares about Oxegen? I don’t care about Oxegen!

3:00pm

I moved on to an absolutely packed Eagle’s Rock tent where Silhouette was in full swing – front woman Shauna Tohill beamed with her usual charm and charisma, conducting the adoring crowd to sing every ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ of her infectious melodies with effortless ease.

This created a truly overwhelming atmosphere in the tent and ‘Volume Destroyed’ (the single everyone’s been talking about) was delivered with delicious enthusiasm – every band member literally bounced in time with its infinitely catchy hooks and the overjoyed audience responded with enough cheers to fill a mini-stadium.

Talking to an awestruck gentleman afterwards proved that this was a defining moment of Silhouette’s career,

What did you think of that?

“Like most people here, we were just walking past, nobody really knows who Silhouette were but we just heard the sound of it, dandered in to have a look and ended up staying until the end. I think that’s what most people were like – Silhouette are definitely worth checking out if you haven’t heard of them.”

3:30pm

There was a huge buzz emitting from the G sessions tent as I walked past – ‘The Q’ were putting on one hell of a show – slotted in just before And So I Watch You From Afar’s “secret” appearance, their jaw jutting stage presence and solid hard rock was the perfect recipe for psyching a crowd brimming with anticipation.

I reluctantly withdrew my gaze from this spectacle and decided to finally check out the main stage where ‘The Jane Bradfords’ were giving a great performance to a modest but very enthusiastic gathering. One sunny girl twirled around in front of me, showing off her bright red welly boots – how cute.

Meanwhile, The JB produced an engaging sound – altering their pace effortlessly between thumping drum beats and beautiful piano based melodies, courtesy of Katie Richardson (from Katie and the Carnival), who provided added charisma points with her eye-catching tinker-bell dress.

Thankfully (for the sake of my editorial reputation) female apparel wasn’t the only thing on my mind as I caught Aaron Shanley in the corner of my eye and managed to catch a word (not too long before he was due to play the G Spot tent):

You looking forward to playing Glasgowbury?

“I cannot wait, I’m playing in about two hours time.”

Cool, you got anything exciting planned for the set?

“Yeah, we’ve got two different backing singers, an acoustic bass player… It’s going to be really mellow. I only do one song by myself – we do 9 songs as a band.”

What have you enjoyed so far?

“I’ve had a good time, I’ve seen… The Jane Bradfords are on right now – that’s cool and I saw Silhouette and More than Conquerors.”

What were More Than Conquerors like?

“Great, really good, they’re cool, they’ve good a really good vibe. I like it.”

Who are you looking forward to the most?

“I don’t know, there’s so many… I really wanted to see Mojo Fury but I’m playing at the same time. So in that case, I’m looking forward to Rams Pocket Radio and Pocket Billiards.”

Good choices.

4:00pm

At this point I realised it was 4 o’clock – ASIWYFA were due on in the G sessions tent – so off I whisked to find it absolutely packed to the gills. The tent crowd is literally like a tin of sardines – it’s as if the entire 10,000+ strong festival population are crammed inside. Somehow I manage to push my way in, ending up with a ridiculously obscured view of the stage, but it doesn’t matter, what’s about to happen is nothing short of historic.

Paddy Glasgow arrives to ‘G’ up the anticipation, “Everybody Alright!?” The loudest “YYYYEEEEEOOOOO” since the creation of man erupts in response and a droning, apocalyptic buzz emits from the stage amps.

After a minute more of tension, ASIWYFA arrive and one guitar riff later, an explosion of energy erupts from the sea of bodies present. From where I’m standing I can see about half a dozen crowd surfers and several piggybacking girls air drumming ferociously.

ASIWYFA certainly don’t have to be seen to be heard – they produce a loud concoction of instrumental paradise, transcending all genres, weaving metal with techno and funk with jazz.

A new as yet untitled track is premiered, sounding like a grittier version of Daft Punk’s Aerodynamic and it goes down an absolute storm with a crowd in full riot mode.

The atmosphere is fuelled with ecstasy – passionate head banging and euphoric grins aplenty and during the encore, a large mosh pit breaks out right in front of me, approximately half way down the tent.

Two hours into Glasgowbury and I wondered how anything could even conceivably top what I’ve just experienced…

To Be Continued…

Video of ASIWYFA @ Glasgowbury By Gary Moore:

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