03 July 2010 (gig)
05 July 2010
'No sponsorship and no branding’ is the tag line for this increasingly successful 2 day festival in the Kent countryside, a proverbial stones-throw south of the M25. Still, regardless of it’s ethos, there’s still the usual festival regularities in the form of huge queues for food, drink and the usual scummy loos, and the prices for such are as high as any other festival which remains somewhat irksome. But hey ho, it’s all about the music and today had a rather impressive line-up on the main stage to follow on from the likes of Blondie, Dr. John and Van ‘The Man’ Morrison who graced the stage the evening before. And with a few other small stages hosting an eclectic schedule there was plenty going on around the peripheries to keep one interested. Maybe, it was just the hangover from the night before, but there was a nicely chilled vibe for much of the day.
Despite a busy schedule on the ‘lesser’ stages it was all too easy to stay put and lounge around the main stage. With a continuing surprisingly relentless English summer sun beating down Foy Vance and then The Magic Numbers kicked off the afternoon’s entertainment. There was plenty of families with young kids running about which is always great to see, but there really was nowt to do for the little ones other than put up with the hot sun and sit and watch the acts. Maybe next year a small area dedicated to art and crafts would help to ease the pressure off the parents and make the festival truly family friendly.
Johnny Flynn followed and set the mood for Laura Marling who arrested the slowly growing crowds’ attention, commanding the biggest applause of the day so far. Pete Doherty was up next, bringing a nice change of mood. Maybe it was because he was conscious of Ray Davies and Bob Dylan standing in the wings, but he proved himself to be that - albeit flawed - songwriting genius of his generation, delivering a set sprinkled with Libertines classics that commanded at times a raucous sing-along.
Despite the mighty presence of Ray Davies and then the most reverend Bob Dylan deservedly stepping into the headline slot, for me, it was the next 2 acts that stole the day. Firstly, Seasick Steve with his ‘dog house’ blues on his home made ramshackle assortment of guitar-like instruments, and then Mumford and Son’s who managed to draw the biggest attention, the loudest applause and succeeded in lifting everyone’s spirits. What marked them both out was their general disbelief of their popularity as well as the shared down-to-earth humility, both in who they are and what’s expressed through their music.
Seasick sings the blues and certainly alludes to a painful and colourful history. Whilst, Mumford and Son’s express an uncanny wisdom and understanding of life in their lyrics and through the music that has touched a darn lot of people and has gotten a lot of folk raving about them. Certainly, my 9 year old agrees with the hype and loved being yards from the front singing loudly on my shoulders. Mumford performed a good uplifting set, showcasing a couple of new tunes, albeit that they’re momentarily upstaged by a young lady’s mishap with her bikini top that the cameraman failed not to miss…and linger upon. They’ve had a pretty bonkers year, being thrust into the limelight and being adored by so many. I hope they manage to keep it together and keep the focus.
I did wonder how Ray Davies and Dylan could follow that and tried to convince my boy that the best really was yet to come. In some respects it was. Being in the real time presence of historic songs like Lola (Davies) or Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright (Dylan) for example is of course pretty damn special. But of course it doesn’t mean the gig is necessarily going to blow you away. To some up the reaction to Dylan it was the very icon of who he was and still is - his legacy personified - that many folk wanted to see. One 40-something said to me that he had to see Dylan at least once before he died, simply because it’s Dylan. Whereas a 17 year-old lad summed it up by saying that Bob Dylan ‘is the man!’ The fact that Dylan’s performance really wasn’t particularly anything special didn’t matter. He is the man. And so is Ray Davies.
Ray chooses to load his set with plenty of classics mingled with the odd newer tune that I confess I didn’t recognise. But the ones I did know … ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’, ‘Sunny Afternoon’, ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘Lola’ are nonetheless fantastic tunes. However, for some reason he had to cut his set a little short hence ‘Waterloo Sunset’ was ejected. Bummer. But the highlight for me nonetheless was the nostalgic ‘Days’, which Ray delivered with timeless gravitas.
Bob Dylan eventually stepped up to headline, looking resplendent in a white cowboy hat, grey suit and pink shirt and bow-tie, backed by a similarly smartly dressed aging rhythm band. Yeah, maybe he can’t sing like he used to. He’s certainly come in to a lot of criticism over the years for the way he sounds – let alone the way he keeps himself aloof from the audience. But these are his songs and he delivers a set that’s littered with such classics as ‘Just Like A Woman’, ‘Simple Twist of Fate’ and the mighty ‘Like A Rolling Stone’. The crowd love to sing along and I’m quietly proud as a dad that I got to take MY son to see Dylan! And Bob didn’t disappoint. He even looked like he was actually having a good time.
All in all a good afternoon. A pretty awesome line-up, albeit not everyones cup of tea all of the time, but generally a good set-up for a days lounging in the hot summer sun listening to some great music.
