Post by stesync on Jul 20, 2007 22:48:27 GMT
Godiva Festival
Coventry Memorial Park 14th July 2007
Featuring - Super Furry Animals, The Enemy, The Cribs, Noisettes, Maps, The Silent League
Reviewed by Steve Sync
This review should have been headed ‘Fflam Festival, Swansea’ as this is exactly where we would have been if the organisers hadn’t postponed this exciting new welsh event due to bad weather (you’re organising a festival in Wales for fucks sake! It’ll probably lash it down with rain over the re-organised event sometime in September).
As we’d booked time off work and still had a free weekend Dave Taxi, DJ Alf, and myself decided that we weren’t going to let this spoil our fun and arranged a new weekend of alcoholism and music around Alf’s gaff near Northampton (weather permitting). As it was pissing it down all day Friday, we decided to sample the local pubs and ended up getting shitfaced in nearby Kettering, ending up in what turned out to be a Polish nightclub! Cheap ale, although it would have to be on their wages I suppose!
As I opened a bleary eye Saturday lunchtime I noticed the sun was out. We all agreed it was perfect festival weather so we piled in the car and sent ourselves to Coventry. It’s a known fact that I am an expert in locating cheap accommodation within pissing distance from venues, and I didn’t disappoint on this occasion either. We arrived at the Hotel which used to be a 3 star hotel but had recently had one removed. This hotel has a terrible reputation and customer reviews read “Avoid at all costs”, “A disgrace to Coventry” etc. Sounded perfect, especially when we learned it had a 24 hour bar! We threw our bags in the room and walked literally across the road into Coventry Memorial Park.
This year, Godiva Festival was celebrating its 10th anniversary and is now the midlands biggest and best three day festival boasting a variety of live music, comedy, a funfair, and community based entertainment. The most amazing fact about this festival considering the size and stature of it is that it’s free, and walking into the park along with hoards of festival goers of all ages, we got the feeling that this was a very local event which may not have even been advertised much outside the area. We sniffed out the beer tent, and then went to check out the whole arena.
As we arrived at the Electric Tent, The Silent League (pic above) were part way through their set. www.myspace.com/silentleague They are from Brooklyn New York and were formed by Justin Russo, keyboardist for Mercury Rev in 2004. They looked very colourful in their unusual suits but unfortunately, they didn’t produce anything as colourful musically and I asked the lads to review this band as I wouldn’t have anything good to say. Alf reckoned they had potential and Dave said “Bag O shite!” That’s better than anything I’d have come up with! Their last song had an outro very reminiscent to Only You by Yazoo and The Flying Pickets, so we took the piss by singing Ba Da Da Da……Ba Da Da Da….. over the top like the 80’s classic.
The festival cider and lager was flowing at an ever increasing pace as Maps took to the stage. www.myspace.com/mapsmusic They immediately looked and sounded much more appealing to my narrow minded musical taste buds as all three front musicians all had synthesisers and effects to throttle when they weren’t using their guitars. This band is controlled by James who writes and records all the tracks in his bedroom in Northampton and gets his 4 mates in for live performances. Their influences include My Bloody Valentine, Kraftwerk, and Spiritualized and I’d say that’s a pretty good description of their spaced out synthscape rock. They seem to be turning heads over the airwaves and are about to release their debut album through Mute Records. I really enjoyed their more experimental and diverse tracks which had some really interesting melodies and sounds. I’d like to keep track of this band and I hope to see them live again sometime.
The 3 piece Noisettes www.myspace.com/noisettes crashed onto the stage with guitarist Dan strutting/staggering on in a ‘Keef Richards’ stylee, The stunning Shingai (bass/vocals) introduced the band confidently, wooing her new audience with smiles and charm before smashing into one of the most energetic and visual performances I’ve seen for a while. Their music isn’t something I’d choose to listen to by any standards, which probably gives them more credibility, but I have to hand it to them when it comes to a great performance. This girl’s got a hell of a voice and reminded me of Skin from Skunk Anansie at times. Their larger than life drummer Jamie with his even larger hair needs to be seen to be believed with phenomenal paced precision playing driving the band along. They’re also playing Reading and Leeds this year.
By now, the festival crowd had doubled and the beer tent wasn’t operating as efficiently as it was earlier so we were ordering double rounds to save time (or was it to drink even faster?). The festival grounds were now difficult to walk through due to the sheer volume of people piling in. There appeared to be no limits to how many people this park should hold, but there was an exciting buzz around which gave you a feeling that this event was going to get better and better. Wakefield’s The Cribs were next up www.myspace.com/thecribs, and I know they’re quite a well known band in the music press and have had singles out such as Mens Needs and Hey Scenesters! But my ‘new band knowledge’ isn’t as good as it used to be, so they appeared like just any other 3 piece band to me until they played their radio aired songs which also got the crowd going. They weren’t as visual as the likes of Noisettes but they had a more Modern Indie sound with a very ‘Weller’ and ‘Britpop’ influence. Judging by their imminent US tour and credible Bloc Party support slots, this band are steadily progressing through their career and picking up new fans at events such as this.
By the end of The Cribs set, The Electric Tent had filled up to its 3000 capacity and the surrounding areas outside the tent were also packed out with about another 3000 more. There was a security void made up of waist high steel fencing beyond the surrounding areas with what appeared to be another 10,000 people congregating in front of that to get in earshot of the next band up which were local magnet and Coventry’s finest - The Enemy www.myspace.com/theenemycoventry. We were lucky to be within the boundary inside the security void (with drinks), and whilst the DJ played Too Much Too Young by Coventry’s even finer The Specials, the security void became a challenge to those who dare break through the fence and outmanoeuvre the ’lack of’ security into the tent area. This was fucking well entertaining to watch as a pissed scally would try his luck, and whilst he was wrestled to the ground by a security member not wanting to give up his pointless fight, another shed load of ‘Enemy Lovers’ ran across the void into the tent. The Enemy appeared on stage and the response was absolutely phenomenal with a very loud Coventry welcome home for these boys who have had a successful UK tour earlier this year with singles in the charts and their album - We’ll Live & Die In These Towns about to go to number 1 in the download charts! They’re also playing a load more festivals this summer ranging from Abersoch to Tokyo! The previous night in Kettering, we were talking about The Enemy and trying to remember their best known songs. One of our posse started chanting “Away away oh oh oh away from here” and we all immediately recognised that vocal charade but we were unsure of any more, but it’s only after seeing them you realise you recognise a lot more. They started off with 40 Days And 40 Nights and the crowd went berserk, beer and bottles were being thrown in all directions, and as the song finished the very local crowd chanted ‘Sky Blue Army’. Tom the front man exclaimed how it was “fucking great to be playing back in Coventry again” and he humorously told the hoards how they played this same tent at this same festival 12 months ago to 40 people! The band played a set also including - Pressure, Away From Here, Techno, Aggro, It's Not OK, You're Not Alone, and finished with the very popular new release ‘Had Enough’. Half way through their set members of the audience had clambered up the scaffold uprights that held up the tent either side of the stage. At one point there must have been 10 people on each scaffold, until a couple of more experienced climbers (or not) took it upon themselves to scale the whole height of the scaffold to the top of the tent. A couple of them became compulsive viewing as they climbed onto the top support bars of the tent and then frolicked 100’s of feet up and dangled (one handed) in front of the band and their audience. You expected them at some stage to plummet to the ground but it was only nearing the end of The Enemy’s set that the band declared that "They would have to get down otherwise they’d have to stop the gig". They did climb down, but only to climb back up again for the encore ‘Had Enough‘. At the end of the gig Tom thanked everyone for supporting them before breaking into Coventry City’s ‘The Sky Blue Song’ which according to a couple of locals was written by famous Ex Coventry City chinster - Jimmy Hill. After this, the whole place erupted in the ‘Sky Blue Army’ chant which was to echo round the city for the rest of the night.
In terms of popularity, The Enemy should have headlined this event, although as 50% of the festival goers disappeared after their set, this left a more relaxed and laid back atmosphere for the more relaxed and laid back Super Furry Animals to perform in www.myspace.com/superfurry. I’d been looking forward to seeing SFA again ever since I drunkenly happened upon them at V a couple of years ago after I’d ditched Oasis at the main stage cause I found them overrated and bland! As the techno beats to Slow Life kicked in, I made my way down the front to get a better view. I’ve never been a huge fan of SFA although some of their songs have made it to a very exclusive pinnacle (my Ipod). The band are very laid back and easy listening, and I agree you have to be in the mood for this type of stuff, but when I got back to Dave and Alf after a few songs, they exclaimed how they thought they were shit and too slow! I had been biging the SFA up all day to the lads after my V experience and couldn’t believe their ignorance, but I was wearing my super furry tinted glasses so I told them they were wrong and went back down the front for more. Gruff Rhys was in typical lethargic dry witted form between songs with unusual introductions to songs like “This next song is about being chased by bees”. He also re-created the famous celery chomping solo that Paul McCartney munched on their Receptacle For The Respectable track. They played a 100 minute set including - Rings Around The World, Northern Lites, Hello Sunshine, Juxtaposed, and by the time they played my favourite track - Ice Hockey Hair, Dave and Alf were trying to walk me out of the tent! I did give in eventually as the band played their rather ironic last song - The Man Don’t Give A Fuck. We then went on a very late leery night out in Coventry ending with us eating kebabs and drinking brandy and vodka in our hotel reception at 5am. We all agreed Godiva Festival was a fucking good day out, and this year it was all about The Enemy who completely stole the whole show, and rightly so in their home town which they probably won’t see too much of for a while now they’ve hit the big time.
Some Youtube highlights of The Enemy's set -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TdXi49-aJM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl1B770qeP4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB1fnaTlKIY
Coventry Memorial Park 14th July 2007
Featuring - Super Furry Animals, The Enemy, The Cribs, Noisettes, Maps, The Silent League
Reviewed by Steve Sync
This review should have been headed ‘Fflam Festival, Swansea’ as this is exactly where we would have been if the organisers hadn’t postponed this exciting new welsh event due to bad weather (you’re organising a festival in Wales for fucks sake! It’ll probably lash it down with rain over the re-organised event sometime in September).
As we’d booked time off work and still had a free weekend Dave Taxi, DJ Alf, and myself decided that we weren’t going to let this spoil our fun and arranged a new weekend of alcoholism and music around Alf’s gaff near Northampton (weather permitting). As it was pissing it down all day Friday, we decided to sample the local pubs and ended up getting shitfaced in nearby Kettering, ending up in what turned out to be a Polish nightclub! Cheap ale, although it would have to be on their wages I suppose!
As I opened a bleary eye Saturday lunchtime I noticed the sun was out. We all agreed it was perfect festival weather so we piled in the car and sent ourselves to Coventry. It’s a known fact that I am an expert in locating cheap accommodation within pissing distance from venues, and I didn’t disappoint on this occasion either. We arrived at the Hotel which used to be a 3 star hotel but had recently had one removed. This hotel has a terrible reputation and customer reviews read “Avoid at all costs”, “A disgrace to Coventry” etc. Sounded perfect, especially when we learned it had a 24 hour bar! We threw our bags in the room and walked literally across the road into Coventry Memorial Park.
This year, Godiva Festival was celebrating its 10th anniversary and is now the midlands biggest and best three day festival boasting a variety of live music, comedy, a funfair, and community based entertainment. The most amazing fact about this festival considering the size and stature of it is that it’s free, and walking into the park along with hoards of festival goers of all ages, we got the feeling that this was a very local event which may not have even been advertised much outside the area. We sniffed out the beer tent, and then went to check out the whole arena.
As we arrived at the Electric Tent, The Silent League (pic above) were part way through their set. www.myspace.com/silentleague They are from Brooklyn New York and were formed by Justin Russo, keyboardist for Mercury Rev in 2004. They looked very colourful in their unusual suits but unfortunately, they didn’t produce anything as colourful musically and I asked the lads to review this band as I wouldn’t have anything good to say. Alf reckoned they had potential and Dave said “Bag O shite!” That’s better than anything I’d have come up with! Their last song had an outro very reminiscent to Only You by Yazoo and The Flying Pickets, so we took the piss by singing Ba Da Da Da……Ba Da Da Da….. over the top like the 80’s classic.
The festival cider and lager was flowing at an ever increasing pace as Maps took to the stage. www.myspace.com/mapsmusic They immediately looked and sounded much more appealing to my narrow minded musical taste buds as all three front musicians all had synthesisers and effects to throttle when they weren’t using their guitars. This band is controlled by James who writes and records all the tracks in his bedroom in Northampton and gets his 4 mates in for live performances. Their influences include My Bloody Valentine, Kraftwerk, and Spiritualized and I’d say that’s a pretty good description of their spaced out synthscape rock. They seem to be turning heads over the airwaves and are about to release their debut album through Mute Records. I really enjoyed their more experimental and diverse tracks which had some really interesting melodies and sounds. I’d like to keep track of this band and I hope to see them live again sometime.
The 3 piece Noisettes www.myspace.com/noisettes crashed onto the stage with guitarist Dan strutting/staggering on in a ‘Keef Richards’ stylee, The stunning Shingai (bass/vocals) introduced the band confidently, wooing her new audience with smiles and charm before smashing into one of the most energetic and visual performances I’ve seen for a while. Their music isn’t something I’d choose to listen to by any standards, which probably gives them more credibility, but I have to hand it to them when it comes to a great performance. This girl’s got a hell of a voice and reminded me of Skin from Skunk Anansie at times. Their larger than life drummer Jamie with his even larger hair needs to be seen to be believed with phenomenal paced precision playing driving the band along. They’re also playing Reading and Leeds this year.
By now, the festival crowd had doubled and the beer tent wasn’t operating as efficiently as it was earlier so we were ordering double rounds to save time (or was it to drink even faster?). The festival grounds were now difficult to walk through due to the sheer volume of people piling in. There appeared to be no limits to how many people this park should hold, but there was an exciting buzz around which gave you a feeling that this event was going to get better and better. Wakefield’s The Cribs were next up www.myspace.com/thecribs, and I know they’re quite a well known band in the music press and have had singles out such as Mens Needs and Hey Scenesters! But my ‘new band knowledge’ isn’t as good as it used to be, so they appeared like just any other 3 piece band to me until they played their radio aired songs which also got the crowd going. They weren’t as visual as the likes of Noisettes but they had a more Modern Indie sound with a very ‘Weller’ and ‘Britpop’ influence. Judging by their imminent US tour and credible Bloc Party support slots, this band are steadily progressing through their career and picking up new fans at events such as this.
By the end of The Cribs set, The Electric Tent had filled up to its 3000 capacity and the surrounding areas outside the tent were also packed out with about another 3000 more. There was a security void made up of waist high steel fencing beyond the surrounding areas with what appeared to be another 10,000 people congregating in front of that to get in earshot of the next band up which were local magnet and Coventry’s finest - The Enemy www.myspace.com/theenemycoventry. We were lucky to be within the boundary inside the security void (with drinks), and whilst the DJ played Too Much Too Young by Coventry’s even finer The Specials, the security void became a challenge to those who dare break through the fence and outmanoeuvre the ’lack of’ security into the tent area. This was fucking well entertaining to watch as a pissed scally would try his luck, and whilst he was wrestled to the ground by a security member not wanting to give up his pointless fight, another shed load of ‘Enemy Lovers’ ran across the void into the tent. The Enemy appeared on stage and the response was absolutely phenomenal with a very loud Coventry welcome home for these boys who have had a successful UK tour earlier this year with singles in the charts and their album - We’ll Live & Die In These Towns about to go to number 1 in the download charts! They’re also playing a load more festivals this summer ranging from Abersoch to Tokyo! The previous night in Kettering, we were talking about The Enemy and trying to remember their best known songs. One of our posse started chanting “Away away oh oh oh away from here” and we all immediately recognised that vocal charade but we were unsure of any more, but it’s only after seeing them you realise you recognise a lot more. They started off with 40 Days And 40 Nights and the crowd went berserk, beer and bottles were being thrown in all directions, and as the song finished the very local crowd chanted ‘Sky Blue Army’. Tom the front man exclaimed how it was “fucking great to be playing back in Coventry again” and he humorously told the hoards how they played this same tent at this same festival 12 months ago to 40 people! The band played a set also including - Pressure, Away From Here, Techno, Aggro, It's Not OK, You're Not Alone, and finished with the very popular new release ‘Had Enough’. Half way through their set members of the audience had clambered up the scaffold uprights that held up the tent either side of the stage. At one point there must have been 10 people on each scaffold, until a couple of more experienced climbers (or not) took it upon themselves to scale the whole height of the scaffold to the top of the tent. A couple of them became compulsive viewing as they climbed onto the top support bars of the tent and then frolicked 100’s of feet up and dangled (one handed) in front of the band and their audience. You expected them at some stage to plummet to the ground but it was only nearing the end of The Enemy’s set that the band declared that "They would have to get down otherwise they’d have to stop the gig". They did climb down, but only to climb back up again for the encore ‘Had Enough‘. At the end of the gig Tom thanked everyone for supporting them before breaking into Coventry City’s ‘The Sky Blue Song’ which according to a couple of locals was written by famous Ex Coventry City chinster - Jimmy Hill. After this, the whole place erupted in the ‘Sky Blue Army’ chant which was to echo round the city for the rest of the night.
In terms of popularity, The Enemy should have headlined this event, although as 50% of the festival goers disappeared after their set, this left a more relaxed and laid back atmosphere for the more relaxed and laid back Super Furry Animals to perform in www.myspace.com/superfurry. I’d been looking forward to seeing SFA again ever since I drunkenly happened upon them at V a couple of years ago after I’d ditched Oasis at the main stage cause I found them overrated and bland! As the techno beats to Slow Life kicked in, I made my way down the front to get a better view. I’ve never been a huge fan of SFA although some of their songs have made it to a very exclusive pinnacle (my Ipod). The band are very laid back and easy listening, and I agree you have to be in the mood for this type of stuff, but when I got back to Dave and Alf after a few songs, they exclaimed how they thought they were shit and too slow! I had been biging the SFA up all day to the lads after my V experience and couldn’t believe their ignorance, but I was wearing my super furry tinted glasses so I told them they were wrong and went back down the front for more. Gruff Rhys was in typical lethargic dry witted form between songs with unusual introductions to songs like “This next song is about being chased by bees”. He also re-created the famous celery chomping solo that Paul McCartney munched on their Receptacle For The Respectable track. They played a 100 minute set including - Rings Around The World, Northern Lites, Hello Sunshine, Juxtaposed, and by the time they played my favourite track - Ice Hockey Hair, Dave and Alf were trying to walk me out of the tent! I did give in eventually as the band played their rather ironic last song - The Man Don’t Give A Fuck. We then went on a very late leery night out in Coventry ending with us eating kebabs and drinking brandy and vodka in our hotel reception at 5am. We all agreed Godiva Festival was a fucking good day out, and this year it was all about The Enemy who completely stole the whole show, and rightly so in their home town which they probably won’t see too much of for a while now they’ve hit the big time.
Some Youtube highlights of The Enemy's set -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TdXi49-aJM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl1B770qeP4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB1fnaTlKIY