Muddy Nora

Published on Thu 26 Jul 2012

Busy weekend!

On Friday we played at the Secret Garden Party. I was on at 2.30, and what with it only being a 30 minute drive from our house we thought that leaving at 11 would probably be ok. In the end it was pretty close. There was an accident on the A14 and it looked like we were going to be stuck on there all day until they let us go back up one of the "on" slip roads and we muddled round the smaller roads to further along than the accident (modern technology eh?). As if that wasn't bad enough they were only letting one car at a time park at the festival site (cars kept getting stuck in the mud) so there was an enormous queue. We got there in the end though and after a mad dash across the site got backstage in time for a soundcheck. They had a thing I've never seen before where they do the monitor mix on an iPad, allowing them to hear what you're hearing. Pretty swish. And, unlike every other application of an iPad I've seen, really useful. The tent was almost completely empty at the start of my set because the guy who was meant to be playing was still stuck on the A14 but it filled up a little as I went on. I thought I played well - it's nice having a big PA - it's easier to lose yourself. Setlist: The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, So Finally a Love Song, Magnetic or Rhetorical, Closure, Soaked to the Skin.

I didn't manage to see that many bands - a bit of Scanners (who sounded great) and a bit of Beth Jeans Houghton (who had an interesting costume, and played what sounded to me like a series of children's TV themes - not that there's anything wrong with that)

before we got driven to the crushingly expensive beer tent by the rain. I also wandered past this bluesy band from Manchester 

who played some great guitar solos but I never found out what they were called, and managed to catch a bit of Alabama Shakes making the sun come out before Annie's really nice set.

The Secret Garden Party has grown a lot since I was last there and everything that was good about it is even better than it was. There are still a lot of annoying posh people slumming it in fancy dress, and the acts seem pretty weak considering the ticket price, but to be fair, of all the festivals I've been to it's the one that seems least about music and most about atmosphere. Look at the size of the fox sculpture. The Living Room Tent (where we were playing) has also grown a lot - it seems like a fairly major stage. They had two people with songs high up in the charts playing on the Sunday apparently. Pretty good going!

Shame about the mud this time, though if you're there for the whole weekend and accept that you're going to get muddy, even that can be fun. Top hats seem to be in this year in case you didn't already know.

We were back in time for me to pop over to The Cornerhouse and catch the end of Tellison, who've been high up on my Bands I've Never Seen But Really Want to See list for a couple of years now. They keep playing here (or London) when I can't go. I thought I was going to miss out again this time, but I'm really pleased I didn't. They were every bit as good as I'd been hoping. Everything was spot on. Normally with gigs when there's a weaker song I get a bit annoyed that they're wasting time when they could be playing the best ones, but I realised as I was watching that there isn't a single song of theirs that I wouldn't have been really happy to hear. I don't think there are any other bands like that.

The next day we went up to Yorkshire for the Deer Shed festival (via OK Diner) where I was playing keys for Annie.

It was much smaller than the Secret Garden Party, much more family oriented and much, much less muddy - I guess because it was on higher ground - apparently they'd had loads of rain there too. We got the same kind of treatment as the more famous acts (dressing room, catering etc), which was both nice and an interesting insight. Turns out it's really boring backstage at festivals when you're too shy to talk to anyone. Even just for an afternoon. It kind of made me glad I've never got anywhere.

 

Though the food was nice.

I did manage to see  bit of The Staves who are very good at that harmony singing that people seem to like these days. I've always felt like that kind of thing can take away from the songs themselves a bit, but it is very pretty. I also saw most of Los Campesinos! who were brilliant. I'd always thought they were American and really twee (I think because someone told me they have a glockenspiel), but they're mostly British and really clever. And he beats the shit out of the glockenspiel. Though they did back their van into a soft patch of ground and have to rope some muscular looking steward in to help push it out again so maybe not that clever. I've been listening to them a lot this week. Oh, the set was fun too. I was nice and low in the mix so felt fairly uninhibited. At one point a toddler came to the front and started dancing, then clapped just as the song finished. One of the cuter things I've seen in my life.

We got some funny looks on the way home because the car was completely caked in mud. It got fixed.

The weekend before last I got a new mandolin! We went down to London and after a quick trip to Portobello Road (I'd never been there - it's good! Doesn't feel like London though) went traipsing round every music shop in the vicinity of Denmark Street and played all the f-style mandolins in each. Twice. Fortunately they are fairly rare. I wanted one with a pickup but apparently that's not the done thing, according to the guy in the shop I did eventually buy from. He was good fun actually - imagine if Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons had worked in a music shop instead. But you don't mind being belittled because he only works in a music shop and clearly has issues. Trying stuff out in shops is intimidating at the best of times - partly because I feel like I'm being judged (presumably I am) and partly because I never know what to play (though on mandolins I always just fumble through "Regular Guy" by Steve Earle). I got immune to it in the end and the one I ended up getting was so, so, so much nicer than all the others that even though it was a bit more expensive there wasn't really a choice. It's also really pretty to look at. Maybe I will play it out one day.