So I woke up on Sunday morning, having had about half an hour’s sleep, in a bit of a grump. Soon sorted that out with a bacon roll, coffee and an iced coffee milkshake from the Rotary people, yum! We had been worried about the weather over the weekend but Sunday turned out to be as lovely as Saturday, if not warmer.
We started the day in the Village Pub stage again with another band we’d never heard of – Minor Coles. Really impressive – good bouncy rock, not too heavy but had its moments, and the two guitarists also alternated with the singing – one had a quite soft sweet voice and the other’s was harder and rockier but could go gentle too. Made for some nice harmonies. Was good to have Joe Bennett doing a trumpet guest spot too!
Next up was Borderville on the main stage. Second time I’ve seen this band and they didn’t disappoint. They have a unique sound, hard to describe, (slightly piratey, Katie says, and she’s right!) great to listen to whilst lying on the grass in the sun with a beer!
After that we had a bit of a loll around in the DandyLion lounge and heard bits and pieces of music around us and had a chat with other Truckers. Then back to the Village Pub for Sound of Guns who were possibly one of my favourites of the weekend. Very rocky, realy melodic too, lots of stand out songs. I’ve been listening to their album on Spotify since we got back, and am still impressed. The main singer put a lot of energy into the performance even though the tent was only half full – and it must have been thirsty work, at one point he walked over to the crowd, picked up someone’s beer and took a big swig of it! Rock and roll …
Back to the main stage for the band formerly known as Shouting Myke, A Silent Film. They are very tuneful in a Coldplayesque sort of way, but a bit more edgy. Enjoyable without being especially memorable. Then our only visit of the day to the Barn for Little Fish, who are a superb Oxford band. The female singer, Juju, looks like a tiny scrap of a thing on stage but has the most incredibly powerful voice, and really rocks her guitar too. Drum and keyboards fill in the gaps and it all makes a lot of very pleasurable noise!
We spent the rest of the day back at the main stage. Danny and the Champions of the World are always good for a singalong dancealong session but I felt they were a little muted this time round, despite a rousing finale with the Truck Monster present – but maybe the tiredness was just getting to me by then. Steve went up the front for Los Campesinos! and came back raving about them – I thought they were okay but nothing overly special, but maybe I’d have enjoyed them more if I’d been moshing up the front rather than listening sedately from the back! We sneaked in some dinner between bands – one of the delicious veggie curry boxes from the Rotary stand, lentil dahl, onion bhajis, chapatti and mega hot chilli chutney, yum! Finally, part two of the Battle of the Shoes – Blood Red Shoes, a boy/girl duet (guitar/vocals and drums) who I thought were really really good. Catchy yet quite dark songs, lots of energy, and a couple of choruses that stuck in my head long after their set ended. Definitely a band I’ll be following. Steve, of course, still prefers Good Shoes!
And that was it for us. Neither Steve or I were ever fans of Teenage Fan Club ad so we all decided that we’d had a fabulous weekend, seen loads of great bands and were all happy and ready to go home. No doubt Teenage Fan Club were amazingly good and we missed a treat, but given that I couldn’t name a single song by them, it’s no great loss to me really!
So finally, to sum up, here are my five favourite bands of the weekend (this is going to be tough!)
1. Sound of Guns
2. Bellowhead
3. Silent Alliance
4. Alphabet Backwards
5. Mr Shaodow … or Blood Red Shoes … or Little Fish … or Borderville … or Minor Coles … or Thomas Truax.
OK they were all fab! Now roll on Truck 14!!
