29 August 2010 (gig)
08 September 2010
My first trip to the Wizard fest was a fantastic experience. Set in the beautiful surroundings of New Deer, central Aberdeenshire it boasted a cracking line up of acts both old and new. A refreshingly small festival, with a happy and welcoming crowd of mostly locals who were in the mood for one hell of a party.
Getting there a little late I managed to catch the end of Pearl & The Puppets who seemed to go down really well with the crowd. A large slice of Quirky, Melodic pop was on show and it seems apparent that Pearl and her band are now expanding into different territories at a dramatic rate as many in the crowd sang a long to the songs. Local hero Sandi Thom also pleased the crowd and I Wish I was A Punkrocker predictably sparking the first real sing-a-long of the weekend (That I seen)
The Peatborg Fearies were next up and they really got the party going as special guest host Jim Gellatly predicted. Jim (who champions new music on his podcast and stations such as Amazing Radio) whipped the crowd into a frenzy before The Fearies appeared and within moments turned the festival into a hogmany style carnival. These guys are made for the festival circuit and mixed the styles of traditional celtic folk music with a modern twist to much applause. Imagine the Prodigy with access to bagpipes and your nearly there. I had time to check out an upcoming band the Indian Red Rope in the aftermath in the new bands tent. Epic riffage and a certain cool made their set one of the most memorable in that arena. Fridays headliner was indie favourites James.
They played a blinder as the skys opened and soaked the revellers who were undeterred and sang back every track note for note. Lead singer Tim Booth didn’t hide from the rain as he jumped into the crowd to hold a lifelong James fans hand throughout the 90`s classic `Say Something` The fan whom I spoke to later was blown away by that moment as she had been following the band for nearly 20 years. Not many bands can boast such as a life shelve in modern music and they should quite rightly be congratulated for a stunning set. The only slight disappointment being the band not playing Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) although the crowd sung it as the band left the stage. The rest of the greatest hits were on show from `Sit Down` to `Destiny Calling` and the nostalgic trip was lapped up by the punters.
When the lights came on the crowd dispersed into the Snafu tent to catch the end of a frantic Caged Baby set and the Banshee tent for the ever-popular AKA SKA . The campsite afterwards was a low key friendly affair where the hardcore discussed their highlights of the festival so far....
Mark McG
