Constellations Festival 2011, Leeds

Constellations 2011

By Russell Warfield

November 12, 2011

This year’s Constellations Festival was a double-decker treat for me. Not only was it a second straight year of excellent music at Leeds University Union (and only the second year in total, to boot), but it was also the first time that I managed to get back oop n’rth after graduating from the university earlier this year. Gorgeously decorated stages aside, it was a joy to roam around the place, enjoying performances, supping on pints which didn’t require me to sell a kidney to purchase. (Note to self: don’t just turn this into a review of how much you love Leeds) … Continue Reading

Split Festival: (Half) A Review

by Paul Brown

As someone who considers himself to be a major lover of the North East’s musical happenings, it is quite simply a travesty that I haven’t yet made it to either of the previous installments of Split Festival, so I’m pleased to finally rectify that this year, even if I’m only able to make it to the festival’s first day. Set in the lovely surroundings of Ashbrooke Sports Club in a pretty leafy part of Sunderland, the line-up of the festival is a gratifying blend of local and bigger name talent, and acts as a lesson to the organisers of the farcically aborted Ignition fest in Newcastle who attempted something similar recently. … Continue Reading

In the Woods Festival Review

by Stephanie Stevens-Wade
Photos by Joshua Lawrence

For a majority of music lovers the start of summer is the start of festival season: overpriced tickets, boxes of wine, headache-inducing lights shows and portaloos that burn your nostrils. Whilst you’re packed like a sardine in the crowd dodging the flying cup of ‘cider’ spinning above, a day festival, set in a secret serene Kentish woodland sounds like heaven. … Continue Reading

Preview: Supersonic 2011

Supersonic 2011

You’d be forgiven to believe that now the summer is over that so was the festival season. However you’d be wrong. Capsule’s Supersonic festival in Birmingham’s Custard Factory is an onslaught of extreme, experimental, noise, electronic and rock music, and one that will have any avante garde fan frothing at the mouth.

This year is Supersonic’s 9th invasion of the Custard Factory and has become the one of the most important events in every open minded music fan’s calendar. What sets it apart from many UK festivals is not only its genre bending line-ups where you can find anything from black metal to industrial noise but the workshops and films it provides alongside this. … Continue Reading

Seven things from Leeds Festival 2011

Words by Natalie Shaw

We went to Leeds Festival, and wrote about seven things of note. Here they are:

1) Tom Vek is the best

Tom Vek stole Leeds Festival from under the rest of the line-up’s noses. His performance was a million miles from what I’d entirely unjustifiably imagined – a shy man in the corner hiding behind a laptop. Instead, we were presented with a supremely confident performer who continually switched up his moves as bold and bright as a gawky, obnoxious Beyonce. The monotone of his vocal was the only one-dimensional element of his performance.

While the new songs aren’t as fresh, with years of amazing music having come between them and Vek’s first mini-bout of fame, they’re in perfect context here at Leeds – whose bill has essentially been nabbed from the mid-00s. He takes us back to another micro-generation where we were twattishly precious, still learning – so much so that attendance feels like an ambition fulfilled; the sighting of a rare bird.

A voice that sounds so obscure – almost flooded by oddball beats and slides on We Have Sound – feels so rich and triumphant here that it’s almost implausible to think of where he’s been during that six-year hiatus. A venture into DnB on ‘A.P.O.L.O.G.Y.’, from the new album Leisure Seizure, sounds absolutely glorious – and opener ‘CC (You Set The Fire In Me)’ leaves a packed-to-the-brim Radio 1/NME tent beaming.

… Continue Reading

Green Man Festival 2011

It didn’t rain. That’s the most suprising thing I can tell you about this year’s Green Man Festival. Otherwise, it was largely business as usual: glorious, fun, brilliant music, gorgeous scenery, lovely people, and everything else we’ve come to expect from this beguiling festival. It’s been A Bad Year for festivals (even, in its own way, for Green Man itself – taking criticisms from some noisy quarters for a relatively sub-par line up this year), but Green Man is one of those cult events, with a core fan base of people who come year in, year out – knowing exactly what they want, and exactly what they’re going to get. For the third year in a row, Green Man has sold out – and I’m so thrilled to see it maintaining the success and security which it deserves.

… Continue Reading

Boomtown 2011

by Sebastian O’Dowd

After 3 hours of waiting in the queue in the one and only entrance to the whole site of Boomtown we finally made it to the gate and the excitement began to build. However as if the long wait was not enough we then had our second hassle of the day, finding a space to put up camp, which at Boomtown proves to be very challenging due to the density of the campsite as a whole. But then the evening came and one can finally step back and lay eyes upon the arena, and what a sight. The lights filling up the night sky, a buzz of energy in the air along with the bass lines that can be heard all over. At this point already it is easy to say that the wait was definitely worth it. As we headed into the arena the excitement just grows on you, the scenery is fantastic, there is so much happening around every corner, in every tent and in every nook and cranny at Boomtown, which makes it such a great place to be as the atmosphere is to die for. … Continue Reading

Boardmasters Festival, Newquay

By Charlotte Gay

Nestled on the cliffs of Cornwall, Newquay welcomed its 30th year of surf, skate and music. Relentless Boardmasters Festival, twinned with NASS and Freeze festival, is no longer a Cornish secret, with big names such as Fat Boy Slim and Klaxons taking the lead at the Watergate Bay party site. … Continue Reading

Standon Calling 2011

By Russell Warfield

You’re probably tired of reading that it’s been A Bad Year for festivals, but Standon Calling have had a uniquely rocky twelve months. As bad as it might be to undersell your tickets by a significant margin a la Reading or Leeds, it’s almost unarguably worse to have to firefight the public discovery that the festival’s director had been funding his project through hundreds of thousands of pounds of embezzled money; an act which has wound him up in jail. … Continue Reading

WOMAD 2011 Review

by Sebastian O’Dowd

Thursday

On arrival at Womad 2011 it was clear that they have stayed true to their original layout of the whole festival, with a world of well being and the main arena being calm, relaxing and an easy space to navigate around. In the evening on Thursday there was one main band who I was dying to see, the Easy Star all Stars who delivered a set replete with entertainment and talent. Their covers of ’Dark Side of the Moon and ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ in particular were a joy to listen to. After that, we then moved on to the open air stage for Bellow Head, a great British folk band. The night was definitely a promising start, indicating what was to come for the rest of the weekend. … Continue Reading