Saturday on the Topman Raw Talent Stage blasts away any half doubts that might have flickered on Friday. It’s a beautiful morning and across the whole site 60,000 people are wide awake and warmed up for some serious thrill seeking. VESSELS (13) from Leeds provide an unforgettable start to a brilliant day on this stage. Totally unfazed by a mad half hour of surreal technical nonsense (Ice Cream Van Power Thief Shuts Down Festival Shock!) they bring on two extra guitarists for a thrilling finale of lyrical, melodic soundscape geology-rock that has the crowd going nuts and collapsed in a heap of smiling cheering pleasure. "Follow That!" thinks I.
It takes only a little while. Such an early climax does unsettle the ordered universe by a fraction. The stage's second act, MR BEASLEY (14) are an idiosyncratic proposition – a funk styled electro band of a Goldfrapp persuasion. Sarah J has a nearly Minnie Ripperton sort of vocal range and a gold lame jacket. A trumpet on stage is also very welcome. Digitised beats keep it moving and the large crowd are well pleased.
Young lads CENSORED (15) are from Ilkeston, but have a nifty song about Nottingham. They dole out a mess of standard licks and finish on a questionable cover of Sam Cooke's mighty "Shake". Nathan Clarke has a decent voice and as a bluesy trio of likely lads they have unstoppable enthusiasm for whiskey and girls who might sit on their face. In the bright sunshine the cod US accents and big guy swagger aren't 100% convincing. But the crowd is big and they get plenty of cheers. They have natural talent and plenty of scope for development.
At the other end of the scale, ten years of development underpin the fearsome juddering presence of THE SCARAMANGA SIX (16, 17). Their finale brings four additional drummers on stage to join their own full complement of drummer and second percussionist (the ubiquitious Chris Catalyst). The show takes in the whole of their operatic punk outsider thing, with the anthropomorphic and magnificent new tune "Vesuvius" threatening us all with death if not worse. Steve and Paul Morricone are mad as hell, and the music is immense. Julia Arnez's glittering guitar is a lethal weapon. They succeed in making the Topman Stage seem small and fragile. Laughter, crowd hypnosis, the physical thrill of grand tunes, improbable lyrics and stentorian harmonies are just the half of it. This really is the finished article.
Irony is not part of what the DIRTY DREAMERS (18) do. They write big fat anthemic rock songs with a bit of funk and they punch them out with a squared jaw, a pair of shades and a truckload of northern attitude. Ash sings, Baz plays guitar, Marv plays bass and Chris drums. What you see is what you get – an underdog band from Hull with fire in their bellies. They’re making their own waves.
Liverpool's DIRTBLONDE (19) are the most enigmatic of the bands on this stage. They're a punk duo with a spitting and snarling Ivan Hell on guitar and a gentle bass playing vocalist in Lula Blue. They have a drum machine that doesn't help as much as it could. But DIRTBLONDE achieve the wonderful result of driving a lot of bored people away while a small but fierce cluster of disaffected and wonderful looking kids are drawn like bruised moths to a rather guttering candle of venomous wax. Hell savages the security rails with his guitar in the finale and the new fans are in raptures. For world-weary me the music itself is too tame. But for the kids who love it this is the real thing, and probably the only dose they’re going to get all weekend.
O FRACAS (20) have been bounding ahead in coherence and stage presence since we saw them at Bramham Park last year. Andy Abbott of THAT FUCKING TANK is depping on bass guitar for this set only. He has a Travis Bean fretless instrument that makes me horribly covetous. Never mind that. He masters the intricacies of O FRACAS's tortuous lines so completely it’s hard to imagine the band without him. The crisply turned-out songs lurch and swerve like a series of white knuckle rides, and the bass clamps them to the twisting rails. Alex makes light of the math rock second guitar parts and does some cheeky chappie banter as well. He pauses for a skit on the weekends press abuse of immigrant punks and gypsies (darkly punch-lined by Ben's more serious front man/composer role). The blend of seriously tricky music and good clean fun threads run right through to a mass distribution of dayglo maracas by a man in a bear suit, with everyone shaking it about for the finale. O Fracas maracas indeed – calculation can be fun kids!
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Now that was good. Excellent even. But what follows has already ben filed in "the most memorable gigs you’ve ever been to" list. The sun is shining. NAPOLEON IIIrd (21,22) is on stage, beaming with his reel-to-reel machine and a decoratively smiling drummer (Ali), And normally that would be about it. But today there are nine more people. Solo eccentric NAPOLEON IIIrd is an 11 piece band with full horn section, two percussionists and myriad other noise sources. From opening track "Boys in Bands" to euphoric closer "Hit Schmooze For Me" the band are perfect, the crowd sing the huge choruses like mad things and we all know this has been a special event. The imagined euphoria we hear on the recordings is suddenly and vibrantly real.
THE SOMATICS (23) are a gilt-edged trio who do not disappoint. At a hiatus time of day (about 6.30 in the early evening) their huge psychedelic guitar sound lures new people to the stage and I can see a lot of musicians in the crowd swaying around in deep appreciation. Three (or was it four?) of the tracks from the new album, (Dynamo Mercurial) fill the half hour slot. Stephanie Green is calm and serene on bass and strong harmony vocals while Richard on guitar and Bruce Renshaw on drums are like men possessed. This is true Festival Music, created to be heard under a clear sky in a huge space. Possibly with intoxicants of your own chosing.
Saturday's finale is provided by Manchester's POLYTECHNIC (24). With two guitars and two keyboard players on the go there are plenty of ideas rushing through the set. It's a contemporary indie club kind of sound with a trademark woo oo oo chorus thing that works very nicely. The final two numbers snap into focus and we can see the real quality and the reason for them being signed to Trangressive alongside THE NOISETTES and REGINA SPECTOR, and for them being asked to round up today's eight hours of high excitement. What a day.
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