4pm Friday afternoon: I had a pint of Goose Eye Pommie’s Revenge, a seat on a straw bail and the band on the second stage had just opened their set with a cover of Pere Ubu’s ‘Final Solution’. They did a good job and consequently, they had me on side straight away. PERCY’s ramshackle brand of trebly post-punk pub rock is clearly immensely indebted to The Fall, the choppy guitar sound cutting angles in all directions against a serrated bass, but they’ve got songs and energy and a definite sense of humour, and the Noel Edmunds masks were extremely fetching.
Remaining at the Oxman stage, the sun came out for the gentle acoustic stylings of EDWINA HAYES, who drew a respectable crowd for teatime on the first night, and deservedly so.
Hopping over to the Duke’s Stage, HOPE & SOCIAL did what they do best, namely delivering a festival-friendly funtime knees-up. With all of the japes and banter and jogging on the spot and generally doing everything to get the crowd going. Arguably, the music’s almost secondary to the performance, but it works. You probably don’t need to own all of their albums but for uplifting entertainment, they’re hard to fault.
Back on the Oxman stage, THE PAUPER KINGS were proving to be pretty average, which made for a perfect opportunity to peruse the main beer tent and sample the Great Yorkshire Brewery’s Yasigi before PANDA CUBS really stepped up the standard. They just get better and better, and the quality of performance, tight and confident – coupled with staggeringly good sound by any standard, let alone outdoors – really enabled them to put across their brooding dark pop tunes with rare clarity. They’re by no means the first to follow in the Joy Division / Interpol style, but with a set packed with memorable tunes with atmosphere and groove, they’re in another league from the rest.
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In contrast, BUZZCOCKS’ sound on the main stage was rough and ready, just as it should be. One thing you can’t say about the band is that they’ve become a cabaret parody act like so many of their punk peers, and nor can they be accused of going through the motions. Whereas many of the Pistols’ reunion shows have been pretty roundly panned for all of the aforementioned reasons, the Buzzcocks have definitely still got it. They powered through their set with integrity and enthusiasm. Not surprisingly, they saved ‘What Do I Get?’ and ‘Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) for the end, and concluded with a full-throttle rendition of ‘Orgasm Addict’ to wrap up a stonking first night.
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