Rockaway Beach Festival

A week into the new year and once again we have our first music festival under our belts, and goddammit it feels good.

Rockaway beach has become an essential start to the year for Music News over the last few years. What better way to put the hysteria of Christmas to bed and kick the morbid back to work/school/reality of early January feeling well and truly into touch.

Rockaway Beach is more than a festival, it's an immersive experience that keeps a smile on your face the whole weekend. The crowd are easy going and friendly, there's a swimming pool, several amusement arcades, you can nip across the road from the back entrance and have a stroll on the beach. There's a great, eclectic mix of music, and if you really want 4 sausages, 3 eggs and 6 slices of fried bread in your full English you can have it in the Butlins canteen.

As far as the music is concerned there really is something for everyone and this year there have been even more acts squeezed across the two stages, enough to force us into some difficult choices.

After Bob Vylan had rampaged the main stage on Friday evening it was going to be a hard one to follow. This two-piece are full of vigour, anger and attitude in equal proportions. Their edgy and vibrant bursts of energy take the crowd by the metaphorical balls . An act that are getting increasingly talked about certainly don't pull any punches in subject matter and this crowd is captivated.

Both the happy Ska of the Sleeter and the Maudlin heartbreak of Patrick Wolf fail to top the efforts of the Vylan boys. Patrick was without his drummer and bassist tonight, and in addition to his guitar was mainly accompanied by a voila, and what looked like a recorder. There were a few very moving songs in his impressive performance, but it was a bit too laid back for 2nd on the bill on a Friday night.

The Cheery indie pop of Madrid's Hinds warmed us all back up and sent us off to bed with smiles on our faces.

Rockaway has always had the ability to mix exciting up-and-coming acts with older established acts, and dare I say it legends. Two punk Icons play on the Saturday night. The Skids on the Main stage and Hugh Cornwell, original frontman of the Stranglers in Reds. The Skids filled the huge main stage area. Frontman (and only original member) Richard Jobson is a force of nature and a bit of larger than life character who is still seemingly clinging onto some of that angry young man from all those years ago judging by some of his angry banter. They bang out a string of classics including Masquerade, The Saints are Coming, a superb cover of The Clash's Complete Control, and Working for the Yankee Dollar. Ironically it's the song that Jobson says is "the worst punk song ever written, and I wrote it", TV Stars, that gets the most interaction of the night, with the whole crowd shouting out "Albert Tatlock" back at him. It might not be the best punk song ever, but it's probably the catchiest. You can't watch the Skids without thinking of the legend that was Stuart Adamson, and Jobson plays tribute to his old mate. Into the Valley is of course the one we have all been waiting for, and the set closer is a rousing joyous singalong, which probably is one of the best punk songs ever written.

We head over to the other stage as the ending strains of Into the Valley are ringing out to beat the inevitable rush for Hugh Cornwell, but it doesn't happen. Everyone is either very excited about Fat Dog, or they don't realise who Hugh is. For me this is the one performance that I really don't to miss for the weekend. Cornwell has a simple 3 piece set-up who play though a fantastic selection his solo work and some Stranglers classics. Not having been that familiar with his post Strangles output I am mightily impressed. His songwriting talent and knack for a cool melody and insightful lyric never faded, and I will certainly be hunting down his back catalogue. Highlights from his set were Skin Deep, Strange Little Girl and the beautiful Always the Sun. The venue was barely half full, a lot of people missed what was I would consider a classic performance here tonight.

Sleaford Mods are like no other act playing this weekend, and lets face it, like no other act, ever. The other couple of times I have seen them I seem to remember Andrew Fearn being a little more held back and subtle, standing there nodding his head, but tonight, he's in full on rave mode and he brings some proper energy to the stage, not quite as much as the strobe lighting which thankfully calms down a little after the first few tracks. The newer material seems to be a lot faster and more urgent, which is great,. but it does mean we don't get to hear all of Jason's lyrics quite so clearly. When we do though, he is as biting and witty as ever and his satirical diatribes are delivered with perfect timing, only enhanced by his physical tics. Twelve albums in but these guys seem like they're only just starting.

"I'm John, he's John, we are the band John, good luck finding us on Google" says drummer/vocalist John Newton dryly a couple of songs into the two piece's powerhouse of a set. It's out with the not-so-old and in with the new for these guys today as they play material mainly from the superb new album A Life Diagrammatic. You'll struggle to hear more noise come from a two-piece. Johnny's guitar kicks out a huge and complex rhythm over John's thundering drums, and those gruff vocals really are something else, once you know, you know. Highlights are set opener At Peacehaven, Theme New Bond Junior and Trauma Mosaic.

Amongst other bands that really made us sit up and listen this weekend were Lonely Tourist. Usually, one Scot with an insightful wit and an acoustic swelled up to Scots and two acoustics for a performance full of humour and insanely catchy melodies.

Japanese Television, how to describe them? On Facebook they label themselves "UK's No. 2 Space-Surf band", so who is number one we might ask? Who knows? It's difficult to describe this bands instrumental style, but we'll throw Hawkwind, the Ventures, Question Mark and the Mysterians and early Inspiral Carpets in the hat and hope we come out with a hit. There's no vocals, but the tunes make up for it. Catchy as hell, go and have a listen to Bumble Rumble and i challenge you not to leave them playing all evening!

Ditz have it all. Dark and controversial subject matter, anger, excitement, they're a hell of a tight musical outfit and the lead singer gets the first crowd surf we've seen for the whole weekend, for quite some distance too. These guys get compared to Idles but they are so much more. If you haven't already, see them and buy them, destined for greatness.

Enjoyable Listens. Do just that, listen to them, they are enjoyable, maybe not massively memorable, but then, see them live and your eyes will be opened. They are a 3 piece, but in a similar way that Sleaford Mods are a two piece, ie, one of them just presses buttons. Another plays bass, but it's front man, and originally lone ranger, Luke Duffett who is the undeniable star of the show. In all my years of watching bands live (and that's quite a few years!) I can quite safely say I have never witnessed a guy who can sing this well in glorious baritone and who can mesmerise and quite frankly crack up an audience in between every song. The guy could have been (and no doubt could still be) a stand up comic. His delivery is pure genius and compliments a musical style that somehow lands smack in between Interpol and the Divine Comedy.

This festival goes from strength to strength every year and seems to set a higher bar every time for the rest of the year's festivals to reach.