rain. rain. rain.
its an obsession in the uk.
sensitivity to the water falling out of the sky is all the more intense in ’08 due to the fact that the whole country missed out on sunshine in the summer of ’07, and lo and behold, the same fucking thing is happening again in ’08.
this is not what i had hoped all those years of carbon footprinting were to result in.
day after day of the wet stuff.
oh yes, it’s an unhealthy obsession.
so with that in mind, ireallylovemusic became somewhat concerned as to the timing of the standon calling festival, given that the forecast through the week implied it was going to be a downpour on the one day that me and my mini-tribe were able to trek across the country and partake in the joys of camping, drinking, and listening.
i mean don’t get me wrong, i’m all for the mud and fun of a festival (i survived glastonbury ’05 don’t you know), but when there are small others as opposed to just yourself to be concerned about then these matters become all the more focused.
basically, camping with young kids when the weather is grim becomes a lot more unpleasant. seriously unpleasant. however, we were committed to the plan.
the day of reckoning came.
the car was packed the night before enabling the ireallylovemusic mini-tribe to set off at the unearthly hour of 8am, gameboys were fully charged for any emergency exit strategy, and away we went.
80 miles later and not once had i stopped the cars windscreen wipers from clearing the screen from the perpetual downpour that soundtracked our outward bound journey.
in fact the one time sun broke through the clouds (m25 – junction 19), i nearly crashed the car in shock.
quietly under my breathe i casually said to my wife, ‘are we just going home and writing this one off?’.
thankfully such cowardice was never actioned upon.
finding the site was easy and, amazingly, relatively dry. some voodoo magic had clearly taken place, though it turned out, not for fridays headliners, the mystery jets, who according to the notice on the ticket desk, had to cancel their appearance due to illness (there were rumours of them being spotted loitering the festival grounds on saturday – not that i would have ever known given the glut of cool looking skinny kids looking like pop stars wondering around all weekend).
our ever reliable argos £50 special tent was put up within eyesight of the mainstage, and while the rest of the ireallylovemusic mini-tribe went off exploring, the relaxed vibe was beginning to settle in.
i decided to catch up as to the previous evenings entertainment.
q : ‘how were glasvegas then ?’
a : ‘too loud’
oh dear – how on earth can anyone complain about a band like glasvegas being too loud, surely that’s the whole point of a band that dip in the well of jesus and marychain ?
‘what about late of the pier‘
‘wicked’
rub it in young man – i was working while you were ripping along to the bands prog’d up electro-party anthems.
tent sorted. time to have a look around.
expecting to have a proper walk, it was something of a shock to realise that standon calling used to be a private party in the garden of a hertfordshire based 16th century mansion, that has for the last two years been opened up to the public (‘this is the first year the bar staff will get paid’).
going against the grain of the larger festivals, overt commercialism is not the order of the day, nor are profits. any money this family run festival make are ploughed into a local community drugs and alcohol recovery program.
just being told that made me feel both guilty and proud.
guilty due to the fact i was eyeing up the bar from a distance, proud of the fact that the hard earned i was handing over to the royally paid bar staff was to help others in need while i got delicately shit faced.
3 stages were to become the centre of our attention with various nods towards the theme of the festival : japan.
wherever you looked there were references to japanese culture, both visually, and sonically as a major part of the standon calling tradition is the fancy dress competition.
and boy did people put effort in! far more than i would have ever had believed. over the next few hours i was in the crowds surrounded by ninjas, samurai, geisha girls, kamikaze pilots, manga monsters, whoopee cushions (no me neither) and suchlike. the winner(s) of the competition were to be awarded a night in one of the luxury tee-pee tents, the challenge was on, with the result to be announced before the appearance of melt banana.
early saturday afternoon, and the ireallylovemusic mini-tribe settled down in the gorgeous shogun tent to listen to some music. rugs underfoot meant the tent was very laid back – no mud on your brogues here sir. first band of the day for us weas a gang called old street musical union. they started off all jaunty cheeky chappy brit pop with the singer doing a fine impersonation of graham coxon, and to be fair they were not all that bad. then during their set, the heavens opened, meaning that the band suddenly had possibly one of the largest crowds of their career to date as people dived under the covers, and so the band raised their game. so much so, that one of my kids now demands their sing-along classic fat allen on a far too regular basis – available on the bands free cd-r should you be so inclined. the band finished to rapturous applause having converted several members of the dry crowd to the cause.
according to the time table i had time to catch bristol indie pop heroes new rhodes over on the main stage, time for a leisurely stroll. none of that 45 minute hike from stage to stage here.
unfortunately though timings at standon are, like the atmosphere, very loose, meaning i had to endure the rantings of a suited and booted brandon flowers wannabee, in the form of the lead single of shuffle.
as per discussions with others in my vicinity, music fine (angular post punk-ish pop), inter song wordplay, crap.
advise : button it, and play the music.
in contrast, the sweet indie musings from new rhodes meant a change in the days groove. the band have been in hiding for a while (new location, new drummer, new songs, new sunglasses), and seemed happy to be on stage as were the bands parents, and so looked to actually be enjoying it. people warmed to their obvious old school indie charms. lets hope the second album doesn’t get lost in the post.
oh, and the best thing – the sun was shining. a lot.
next up came the real highlight of my time at standon calling.
the ireallylovemusic mini-tribe ventured back to the shogun tent, and managed to catch most of the 30 minute set by revere. from first appearances, the band look to be your usual indie band set up with additional keyboards, cello, violin and trumpet. however, nothing would have prepared me for the sheer epic-ness of the bands music. they were on fire and their drama filled indie rock cast an eye over post rock orchestrations, noise, beauty and jaw dropping vocals. if i were to play the lazy assed comparison game, then i’d throw out suggestions along the line of ‘epic doves like build ups with dashes of arcade fire instrumentation excess’ into the melee. here was definitely something in the air as even the band thanked the soundman for the sonic perfection that they were experiencing for this last gig of the summer for them (they are studio bound to finalise their forthcoming album fact fans).
something tells me that i will be reporting more on revere.
after that particular blood rush, the ireallylovemusic mini-tribe went walkabout, and soaked up the increasingly beautiful vibe.
i learnt that the spoken word tent, aka lordship, situated in the garden of the mansion was decked out just like a ghostly living room, and was ‘designed’ by family friend walter who comes down from scotland every year for standon calling, that up until two years ago, this was an invitation only affair, and that the bars were better stocked up on champagne bottles than any other festival i have ever been too.
we sat on a hillside in the breathtaking beauty of the sunset, ate some delicious orkney fish and chips, and realised how lucky we were, all while imperial leisure got the main stage watchers pumped up with their mutant crowd friendly ska-punk-pop, before alex (the festival organiser), then came on to announce the competition winner and build up the special appearance by melt banana.
alex was obviously chuffed to bits to have the japanese band come over especially for his little social get together, however, as i had heard one track back in 95 and could remember being suitably unimpressed by their noisy 90 seconds outbursts, i knew what was to come. obviously the majority of the crowd didn’t. 4 minutes into the set (ie about 15 songs), the exodus was palpable.
thankfully, this meant we got to see the closing part of the set by they came from the stars, i saw them back over in the shogun tent.
3 people on stage making a dance riot of colour, apple based noise, and lcd soundystem bass lines.
i liked. a lot.
only to find out that the elongated groove monster that i was gushing over, is not on the bands recently released album.
the mini-tribe were flagging, so tent based beds were filled, while acid mothers temple got their finely honed space groove machine into gear. they really are a sight-n-sound to be experienced, though i’ve never felt any urge to listen to any of their records as i am very aware my soundsyetm would never do their drawn out epics justice.
and so to the main stage headliners.
throughout the day i had come to realise that the maccabees are popular, really popular.
while i couldn’t get my head around the fact that they had been chosen to headline the festival, it became clear that i was definitely in the minority. so when they came on stage the crowd reaction was quite something. needless to say their quirky short short indie dancefloor tricks went down a storm.
me ? i ventured off to the so called love hotel, which despite all the neon and graffiti artwork was in actual fact a rundown cowshed, but on saturday night, it was the host to a full on hands in the air acid house rave. the place was wall to wall rammed, making it impossible for yours truly to bust-a-move, however, soaking up the joy and shouts of delight when old school acid classics were dropped into the mix from the elevated dj booth.
fuck, it was good.
then to finish off the day, i hung onto my dropping eyelids to catch up with phil hartnoll, he of orbital, and now his own solo party trick, long range, but like the previous nights headliners, he never turned up, meaning the day ended on a dampener, which for once wasn’t due to the weather.
sunday morning came in a blur of hangovers, festival dropouts, random excess and the hunt for peace and calm. unfortunately due to the grown up demands to be back in the mortgage paying office early monday morning and the 3 hour journey home, meant that the ireallylovemusic mini-tribe were unable to see anything of worth, which seeing as the line up had a human, the mae shi, and the big tour bus operators, super furry animals, meant that sunday was probably even better than the rather wonderful saturday.
so there you have it. another name on the annual festival season. one that’s beautifully different in that it still has that feeling of you gatecrashing a well dressed private party, that has a genuinely warm civilised family friendly (though we were just about the only people with kids meaning that my offspring were treated like stars) vibe about it, and a very fun loving crowd come rain or shine
more detail : here