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An excellent festival. More completely organised than I expected. This came to prominence straight away, when a rather spacey lady handling our tickets failed to give us one of the essential ID cards that pair up with the wristband to allow entry and re-entry. A security guard stopped us from heading back in to point out the error. Anticipating anguish at the gate, and hoping that a single card and a friendly attitude might get us through, we were met by a super-friendly chap, speaking perfect English, who whisked us back to the check-in, where we waited for the woman to confirm that her stack of cards and tickets were out by one, and furnished us with the missing card. And then we were in. Things do not run that smoothly at Glastonbury when your credentials go awry!

The venue is good, purpose built, although admittedly it does have a slight air of NCP car park to it. There are three amphitheatres with banked steps of seating set facing out to sea. These make up the RockDelux , ATP and the VICE stages. The other two stages, namely the CD Drome , and the Estrella Damm stage are set up on the main paved area that links the first three, with the food market between them. There are two gigantic arrays of solar cells, apparently the largest in Europe, which at least made a handy shelter during the couple of light rain showers, even if they sadly aren’t used to directly power the festival itself . There is also an indoor concert hall, the Auditori, which I didn’t manage to set foot inside once, a combination of not being nearby when anything compelling was happening there, plus not quite being able to figure out where the entrance actually was!

The festival runs over several days, Thursday to Saturday, and keeps to a gruelling schedule, starting at four or five p.m., and running through till four or five a.m the next morning. It’s really all about the music, as there is little else to do onsite, other than browse a few T-shirt and record label stalls, eat functional outdoor food, or drink expensive sponsor beer from plastic cups.

It’s far less wear upon the legs and feet than the typical British festival, the proximity of the stages, along with the near-universal seating, and paved footpaths rather than clogging mud fields thankfully mean that it’s just the marathon running time contributing to your fatigue, not trudging miles around countryside inbetween sets. The climate was pleasantly appropriate, a few spots of light rain but it was mild enough to be comfortable in light clothing all the way through the evening, so you could just stick to the basic set of clothes you came in wearing, not wrestle with lugging around cumbersome outfit changes to cater to changes in the weather.

It may be just a result of the lack of crowding, but the toilet facilites were fine, little queuing, and freshly clean each day. I recommend taking a little dispenser of handwash gel, you can pick these up in the chemists nowadays.

Another benefit of the close site is the number of acts you can practically watch. As the stages are just separated by a minute or two’s easy stroll you can mix and match to take in as much, or as little of a set as you fancy. It’s quite possible to watch the start of one artist’s set for a couple of songs, and then wander around another three stages watching a couple of numbers at each, and still return to the start to catch the final few of the original. This all makes it incredibly easy to sample new or interesting acts on spec without having to miss out on much if any of your must-see sets. Over the three days we easily managed to see dozens of acts, with comparatively little effort.

It would take too long to run through them all in detail, so I’ll just group the highlights into some buckets.

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Appearing as part of Dot to Dot , an excellent city-wide music hullaballoo, spanning multiple venues. As the schedule didn’t really sit very comfortably with my travel plans, flying out to Barcelona the next morning, I didn’t really get a chance to see many sets, just some of Fight like Apes ( excellent ), Montreal’s We are Wolves ( good stage moves ), Two Gallants ( dull enough to make me wander away and play Sonic the Hedgehog tennis on a nearby X-Box demo machine. Two thumbs up for Sonic Tennis, though ).

In fairness, the latter looked like they might be quite interesting, given enough familiarity with the material, and I’m tempted to chance an album, but I wasn’t really feeling it. And the main reason I was actually in the Trinity, was to catch the headliners, Spiritualized, one of my all time favourites.

I thought they played a blinder. The Trinity is fast becoming one of my favourite Bristol venues, great sound, good bar, and it’s incredibly handy to reach on foot. And they keep booking my favourite artists.

The band were really together, there’s the welcome return of the gospel backing singers, excellent lightshow, and J. Spaceman is looking great and singing better than he ever has, at least to my ears. New album out now-ish.

It’s been a few years now since I last went to Glastonbury, and the last few summers have been festival-free for me, save for local city-wide affairs like Venn . I came very close to attending the ‘End of the Road’ festival last September, tempted by a very me-friendly line up, but it wasn’t very compatible with school term dates, and last summer’s terrible run of weather just left me procrastinating about it until it was far too late to bother.

In the U.K. there’s almost too many to choose from now, spread right across the summer, with something happening seemingly every single weekend from May to September. This means that it’s now becoming something of a stadium tour circuit, and with a depressingly production-line feel to the majority, it’s increasingly hard to differentiate them.

End of the Road didn’t seem to have as many must-see bands this year, and so my attention wandered a little further afield. A couple of years ago, I noticed the Primavera Sound festival, in Barcelona had a line up of acts very much in tune with my way of thinking. I’ve wistfully looked at it every year since then, and this time around I’ve actually decided to go.

It seems to be built around the music, with a thoughtful and genuinely alternative line up , very much my sort of thing. There’s a great mix; bands I currently like very much and would *really* like to see ( Boris , Animal Collective , Okkervil River , Prinzhorn Dance School , Six Organs of Admittance , Om ), significant ‘legacy’ acts ( Devo , Public Enemy , Dinosaur Jr. , Shellac ), critically favoured ‘name’ acts ( Portishead , Cat Power , Rufus Wainwright ), favourite acts I’ve seen before ( De La Soul , Tindersticks , British Sea Power , Explosions in the Sky ), and, perhaps a new trend, bands with amusingly rude names ( Holy Fuck! , local outfit Fuck Buttons , and the charmlessly named Pissed Jeans ). My single line up complaint is that it’s a European festival, and there’s no dEUS , even though they have a new album out to promote.

Like every festival, it’s sure to be pointless attempting to programme any kind of strict itinerary. Events will indubitably conspire to wreck it. Given my estimate of at least 70% of the acts being the sort of thing I’d go and check out if they were playing locally, I think the best policy is to be mostly be guided by serendipity. Suggestions for things to check out are welcome!

The festival site is next to the sea , and just a couple of km out of Barcelona itself. We’re going for the whole week, flying out on the 24th and returning on the 1st of June. I’ve rented an apartment, right on the waterfront in Barcelonetta , which looks like it ought to be within fair walking distance of the site. This gives us a few days preceding to acclimatise, relax and see the sights before the festival properly starts.

Second time I’ve seen the Secret Machines now. They played our stage at Glastonbury last year, upon which I noted ‘they make music almost scientifically designed to appeal’ . That much hasn’t changed.They have a new album out, which moves them into a slightly more poppy, slightly less belligerent mode, without deviating too far from their fundamental style.

One thing that does irk. When a band is touring in support of a new album release, I try to purchase it ahead of the show, so I can be more familiar with the new material that usually will make up the bulk of the set. In this case, the album in question, ‘Ten Silver Drops’ was only availble to purchase at that time as an ‘iTunes exclusive’. I don’t like buying albums on iTunes, I think that it’s too expensive, especially considering the restricted nature of the files. I’d rather buy and rip a CD. In this case, fanboy that I am, I bought the download, and I expect I’ll buy the disc as well. pwn3d. But slightly annoyed.

Another slight downer is the Bierkeller itself. It’s a horrible hole, with murky sound at best. The layout is peculiarly flat, with a very low stage, minimal space for a lighting rig, and large open seating and bar areas adjacent to the audience pit. For no reason I can ever fathom, these seem to collect milling crowds whose persistent smalltalk reverberates, often audible over the sound of the band.

I can’t really understand why anyone with little or no interest in a band would shell out ten quid or more to go hang around in a toilet and attempt to shout conversation, perhaps drinking expensive, poor quality alcoholic beverages. I’m obviously well on my way to being part of the older generation. Almost as puzzling, there was an indie disco night scheduled for after the gig, although this does seem to be the prevalent modern trend. Presumably all these hangers around had either paid silly-money to turn up early for this affair, or had managed to blag their way in free en masse, for the same. Whatever the reason, it seems to be a constant at Bierkeller shows, and it’s a real spoiler.

The band had a very early start, hitting the stage for around 7:45pm, with no support. I don’t know if this was the normal plan, or was scheduled to facilitate the disco shindig afterwards, but I think it surprised a lot of punters, as the place seemed half-empty for the first three or four songs. The sound was as murky as ever, which the band seemed to decide to attack with volume, which was probably a wise decision given the ambient noise and sound reflection.

I was never closer than about half way to the front, but although there was no real detail to the sound, it was an impressive racket, and combined with plenty of pretty colours and stobe lights to good effect. I even managed to grab some rather impressionistic photos on my Tesco Value digicam.

The band really put in the effort, with a long set. I would sum it up was an enjoyable show in a poor venue, pretty much what I was expecting when I bought the tickets. Much as I dislike the Bierkeller, when a band I admire is coming over from the US to play a show in my home town, it’s very much a case of beggars choosing gift horses. I think on balance this was one of the most enjoyable performances I’ve attended there. Certainly cheaper and less exhausting than making the run up to Shepherds Bush. 

dEUS . Belgium’s finest jazz-grunge-art-rock collective. I suppose it’s a sign of aging, favoured bands from your younger days reforming and pulling a comeback. This might well be the first of many such events for me, as time marches relentlessly by. It felt like a peculiar novelty at the time.

I first encountered dEUS on a stage, as the support act for P.J. Harvey and John Parish . I was terrifically impressed. Stretching the then still-current quiet/loud alterna-rock template into surprising new forms, with counter-vocals, and violins, noise freakouts and obvious, but not too obvious musicianship. Searching to find points of comparison I was hearing Pixies , Velvets , Magic Band , Tom Waits and strains of other delightfully challenging jazz-styled wank-rock. Love at first sight really. I ran out the next day and bought their first album -” Worst Case Scenario “. And played it to death.

The second “ In A Bar Under The Sea ” was released shortly afterwards, and extended the palette a little further, amidst changes in lineup. Perhaps a little of the harder, wilful oddness from the first CD had been smoothed away. Some of the tracks verge towards ballads, usually injected with surprising instrumentation. Singles were released, and bothered the UK charts a little. I saw them at least twice touring this CD, and all my misgivings were annihilated; they were at least as exciting on a stage as before. Maybe more so.

More of a wait before their next release, “ The Ideal Crash” . Personnel changes again. This time I saw them playing the set before I’d had a chance to buy the CD, and they were powerful and exhilerating again, the new material fitting in place alongside the old . The CD was a shock. Mellowed further, very clean, almost AOR production with conventional sounding hooky song structures. Programmed percussion and more prominent synths than before. I probably only listened to it a half-hearted handful of times before consigning it to the bottom of the stack.

And then the band split. No more dEUS. A good innings. I find myself giving ‘Ideal Crash’ one more try, more and more often. As I paid it more attention I realised that most of the elements I looked for in dEUS were entirely present; dissonance, counterpoint, surprises in rhythm and harmony, all blended skillfully into a mix that seems to proportionally reward careful listening. Today, it’s maybe my favourite dEUS CD, depending on the day of the week. A real grower.

After sensibly allowing me all this time to appreciate their legacy work, they suddenly reform, with a suitably amended line-up There’s a handful of festival gigs I can’t make, and an internet-only single that’s incompatible with my computer-lifestyle-choice. Then a full European tour is announced, preceding a new album. No way I can avoid this, even though it’s another trip to London to the Empire.

New CD “ Pocket Revolution ” seems to continue with the now-predictable streamlining of the dEUS sound. I’ve learnt not to be too hasty this time, I’m reserving judgement till I’ve had a good time to let it stew. Arriving at the concert was a little ominous. Not much of a queue. Touts outside selling at lower than face. European accents predominante in the scant queue.

Concert is a blinder though. Support from “ Red Organ Serpent Sound ” - who came across as a good glam blend with interesting visual appeal. Shades of Manics and Ziggy, they had one of the best t-shirt designs I’ve seen, amusingly only available in kids sizes. Trepidition before the main act. I really don’t want this to suck. All my fears are misplaced, they’re as strong as ever. It’s an enormously successful set. They present most of the new CD, with a generous sampling of older material. The crowd, obviously partisan, surprisingly young, love it all. dEUS are back, it would seem. Predictably, unpredictable; pretty much exactly where they left off. 

I recently had some technical hitches that prevented me from being able to update this site. In the meantime I attended a couple of noteworthy gigs without passing comment. Here’s a back-dated update.First up, Sufjan Stevens and the Illinoisemakers. He now seems to be shifting CDs by the barrow-load, and deservedly so, but I sort of stumbled on him by accident through emusic . You’ve probably heard the soundbite - recording a concept album about every state in the US in turn, which is a conceit that will either make you joyfully bound towards it with a willing embrace at the ready, or cower on reflex, and make some kind of wrinkly cynical sour-face and double up. Myself, I’m firmly in category one - but given that I still secretly think that Peter Gabriel-era Genesis is some kind of pinnacle of western rock music, that’s not really very surprising.

So it’s prog-folk-whimsy-art-rock. With Christian overtones, and very heavy on the banjo. Somehow this assembles to something dramatically better than the sum of it’s parts. Musically dense, complicated, honest yet cryptic, genre-spanning, awe-inspiring stuff. To me, anyway. Enough to make me throw silly-money at tickets when I discovered he was playing a single UK show; already long sold out by the time I met with the bandwagon.

Luckily, given the expense, and the struggles getting there, it was a great show. Largely seated, which I hadn’t realised ahead of committing, I was quite relieved to find out that both my tickets were for the rear stalls, fenced off to form a raised standing-only section, at the rear of the venue. As the front stalls were correspondingly lowered and seated, we were able to lean against the bar staring through to a clear uninterrupted view of the stage framed below the optics. A novel vantage point, and one that I’d be happy to repeat.

The act was framed in terms of a cheerleading routine, with the band dressed up in orange and blue uniforms, engaging in call-and-response and coreographed routines to introduce many of the songs. They also formed a human pyramid, twice. The majority of the set was taken from the ‘Illinoise’ album, which forms the second installment of the scheme, the predecessor covered Michigan . There would seem to be a theme song for the 50 states project as well, which the band use to introduce the set. They emerge performing it, somewhat in the style of a marching school band.

Musically, they never failed to disappoint the material, which is possibly a challenge considering the musical depth, especially the vocal complexity, of the perfomance they are combining with theatrics. While the showbiz elements never really climbed higher than the sort of thing you might expect from an endearingly ramshackle school-play, the music was performed and presented to a quite flawlessly high standard, still managing to be raw enough to be obviously a live band at work. It was an excellent and inspirational evening’s entertainment, I’m really glad that I managed to catch them before they went gigantically global. 

I’d not actually been to the Louisiana before, though I thought I had. I also thought it was in a different part of town. It’s a young person’s pub, the venue is a tiny room upstairs with a barely raised stage at one end, and a bar large enough to serve maybe three people at the other end. Official capacity is 120 people, this show was a fast sell out.

King Biscuit Time is Steve Mason, former front singer with the recently split Beta Band . On this occasion accompanied by another multi-instrumental gentleman, providing bass, extra percussion, keyboards, and other flourishes. KBT existed already as an ongoing side project distinct from the BB, now presumably it’s his main gig.

The back catalogue is modest, just two ‘EPs’ to date; the liberally named ‘Sings Nelly Foggit’s Blues in “Me and the Pharaohs”‘ from around 1998, then a followup ‘No Style’ from around 2000. Tip to the would-be purchaser, the ‘No Style’ CD EP contains the previous EP as a bonus disk, buy one, get both. And now there’s a single ‘C I AM 15′ , which is good fun, and presumably the reason behind this current micro-tour.

It was hot, and packed close. Support was from Pip Dylan , in a pedal steel and fingerpicking solo-folk-country sort of set, which bored all but four of the punters to find other distractions, prompting complaints about the conversation noise from the stage.

The main set was around an hour and a half, almost entirely new material, save a couple of highlights from the ‘No Style’ EP, a pair of subtly chosen Beta Band songs chucked in in the middle, and the single, twice ( well, it was being released the following day ) . And a surprising reggae-lite reading of ‘Anarchy in the UK’ which brought a smile and didn’t outstay it’s welcome.

It all sounded great, a big sound from what may have been a duo (I have a suspicion that there was a drummer tucked in in the back, but I couldn’t really see much, having loitered towards the rear of the crush where there was a pretence of aircon). Regardless, it was a full sound, and all the songs were focused, melodic, and quite possibly radio-friendly, given sufficient promotion. I’m not sure if there’s a big media campaign planned, although we were informed during some stage banter that he was shortly going to be filming a contestant appearance on ‘Never mind the Buzzcocks’ alongside Lionel Blair .

On the way out, I picked up the customary t-shirt from the stand from a familiar looking vendor. It was Pip Dylan, who advised me against the pink, and also sold me one of his own CDs. Low-key, and presumably low-cost, touring. I think the the first King Biscuit Time album is scheduled for sometime in the summer of 2006. I’m looking forward to it.