It’s about time we at Purple Amp Towers declared for our new favourite Birmingham band – Goodnight Lenin.
Earlier in the year a buzz built up around these feisty young folk kids, largely due to extensive coverage across BBC Radio, on 6 Music, Radio 2 and WM. So much so, they were given the honour of headlining the Lunar stage and warming up for Donovan at this year’s Moseley Folk Festival. They did not disappoint.
They put a modern twist on the obvious references of Simon & Garfunkel and Bob Dylan, adding in really quite beautiful vocal harmonies and a real innocent quality.
Ragged Schools and Crook In The Creek are standout tracks and if the debut album matches up to the quality they’ve produced so far, don’t bet against it catapulting them to instant stardom.
After such a glorious weekend of sun my thoughts have turned to festivals. Quite why I’m unsure, as my memories of festivals tend to involve mud and soggy tents rather than blazing sunshine, but hey ho.
LCD Soundsystem and Crystal Castles win the Purple Amp title of Festival Whores of 2010. LCD Soundsystem will perform their new material at Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury and Wireless, whilst Crystal Castles play at all those, plus Latitude.
The undisputed “will they wont they” title goes to The Libertines for their scheduled appearances at Reading and Leeds. If Pete ends up behind bars then headliners Arcade Fire can always perform a double set, which would be no bad thing!
Fans of the old timers have plenty to watch out for too. Guns n Roses headline Reading and Leeds after their shambolic appearance at Leeds in 2002. They turned up nearly two hours late meaning their set went on until 1am, threatening the festival’s license for the next year. Oh, and they were pretty dull too. Stevie Wonder closes Glastonbury, AC/DC, Aerosmith and Billy Idol play Download, Grace Jones and Roxy Music will be at Lovebox, while down at the Isle of Wight Festival we’re really spoilt, with Blondie, Spandau Ballet and Crowded House all taking to the stage.
Fans of all things dance and electronic may want to check out Rockness for Fatboy Slim, Friendly Fires, Crystal Castles, Pendulum, Leftfield, Soulwax, or Lovebox where Empire of the Sun, Chromeo, Cut Copy, Hot Chip, New Young Pony Club and Peaches all make the line-up.
There’s plenty of smaller festivals knocking around this year. As regular readers know, I’m a huge fan of Moseley Folk Festival where Donovan, The Divine Comedy and Turin Brakes will be playing this year. Sticking around Birmingham, Supersonic wraps up the festival season in October with headliners Swans. Up in Derbyshire, Indietracks is worth checking out if the idea of a boutique indie pop festival with heritage trains excites you!
Whilst I’m on the topic of festivals, it’s worth checking out the Greenpeace Taste of Glastonbury auction on eBay.
To sign off this post, what else but a YouTube video and one of the best festival performances I’ve seen at that. MUSE from V Festival 2008… turn off the lights, turn up the volume and watch full screen. Enjoy =)
Curated by Moseley Folk as part of Town Hall Symphony Hall’s English Originals weekend, Folk For Free saw some of Birmingham’s finest singer-songwriters take over the foyer of Symphony Hall for an afternoon.
I caught the latter half of Abie Budgen’s set whose fingerpicking and guitarslapping quirkiness kept my attention. The lovely thing about the venue was the opportunity to sit up on the balcony and have a picnic. In the interlude some lovely red pepper humous and carrot batons were consumed, followed by chocolate fingers. If only all gigs were like this. Promoters, take note!
Then came Deb Hodgson, who first came to my attention at the folk stage of last year’s OxjamBrum. Her voice is nothing short of sensational. She really made this relaxed setting her own, leading her band of guitar, piano, violin and cello on a journey from smokey New Orleans jazz club to the picturesque Moseley Park and back again. Of particular note was a beautiful interpretation of a poem “I Count The Days”, written by a member of the audience.
From a few conversations afterwards it seems Folk For Free is going to become a regular occurance in the Symphony Hall bar, in a similar vein to the Rush Hour Blues shows.
All this has really whetted the appetite for Moseley Folk 2010. Roll on the first weekend in September…
