Truck Festival - Friday ( Day one)

This reviewer has been to many festivals in his life, so many in fact that the editor of this site calls me ‘Festival Dave’, but I have never been to anything like this, and that is a good thing. They have got the balance right between a hippy inspired greenfest and a full on arts festival. I say arts because there was far more than just bands. On offer was theatre, comedy, cabaret, workshops and of course plenty of music. This was also one of the friendliest festivals I have been to with chatty stewards and amazing security staff.

The most impressive thing about Truck Festival is the lack of unnecessary rules that are there just to fatten the wallets of the organisers. A lot of festivals these days won’t let you take any alcohol into the arena purely because they can sell you theirs at inflated prices. Not at Truck, You can wander round with hip flasks, cans or anything else that can hold the tipple of your choice. If you want to buy a drink there are plenty of outlets to do so (including beer from barrels of the back of a truck – well it is the Truck festival!) at very reasonable prices. One of the bars is even staffed by colourful cross dressing chaps, or should that be ladies? The only thing that lets it down slightly is lack of food choice. Can you sort this out for 2012 please?

Believe it or not this is the first time I have reviewed a festival and my first thought was to review every band in great detail. The only problem with this is that I can’t be in more than one place at a time and you would all be fast asleep before you got to the end of the review. With this in mind I will just give you an insight to everything that is Truck 2011. Please don’t chastise me if your favourite truck artist doesn’t appear in these pages!

Friday

On the Clash stage the festival starts with an amazingly colourful troupe of painted young ladies who go under the name of Gaggle. There are so many of them the stage is completely awash with colour. They perform to an electronic backing track and are a cross between the Creatures and a demonic Sunday school choir. They are very exciting to watch and a great start to my festival.
5 stars

I wander over to the main stage to catch Marcus Foster who is a singer songwriter who brings us country-tinged rock in the style of Ben Howard and Ed Sheeran. He really rocked out at times and got the small crowd to their feet.
3 stars

Next to attract my attention is a band called Listing ships who are playing the Last fm stage which is tiny but very suitable for their noisy instrumental math rock in the vain of 65daysofstatic.
4 stars

Back at the Clash stage is Liam Finn who is high on percussion and produces some noisy rock that really entertains the audience.
4 stars

After a very nice vegetarian curry I take in a band called the Duke and King on the main stage. The alternate between a female and male singer and play soft rock that is very mellow and great for watching the sunset.
3 stars

Staying on the main stage I catch a band called Bellowhead who are no strangers to the Truck festival. They play an eclectic mix or Irish folk/lounge music lovingly played with passion. The covered everything from Jaques Brel to Irish standards.
3 stars

Graham Coxon wanders onto the Clash stage and is his normal understated clumsy self. His guitar playing is extraordinary and entertains the packed tent with a mix of old and new songs. Freakin’ out got the best response but my personal favourite is Dead Bees.
4 stars

Thinking it was time to crawl into my sleeping bag I started walking back and realised at half past midnight there were still bands playing. I am so glad I walked into the last fm stage and even though my eyelids were closing I couldn’t help but rock my socks off to The Rock of Travolta. They treat us to another slice of Math Rock but delived with more energy than most with fantastic on stage acrobatics. Quite amazing as it is now past 1am. Many bands are copying the formulae brough to us by bands like 65days of static but few do it as well as this.
5 stars
Before I retire to my tent I must mention the goings-on in the cabaret tent. I passed though various times during the day and caught some amazing entertainment including a woman belly dancing to Techno and a man drilling nails up his nose and laying on a bed of nails. Yes really.




Photos by Dave Thorpe