The End of the Road Festival
I really have made you wait for this haven’t I. Ah well, no matter. So, another year, another End of the Road Festival. We drove down again, specifically renting a hippy VW camper for the journey, and Christ almighty what a fucking death-trap that thing was. As I wrote in the intro to the podcast about this festival, the thing steered like a bathtub full of water. Honestly, if you ever needed to react to anything unexpected turning the steering wheel was like trying haul a bucket of water out of a well. Throw in the rubbish high beams and the teeny-tiny windscreen wipers and we can count ourselves lucky we got there at all.
But get there we did, to be welcomed by pissing rain. Splendid. I’ve led a charmed life so far, as far as festivals are concerned, having encountered no more that the slightest of sprinkles in the five or six I’ve attended so far. Spoiled, you might say. Well no such luck here. I had the interview lined up with Micah P. Hinson and it was pissing down and they wouldn’t even let us into the photography pit at the front, as had been promised beforehand. I was struggling just a little to stay cheerful. Anyhow, Micah’s set was outstanding – his recorded music may be quite beautiful at times, but when he plays live he puts some real snarl into it.
The lineup is pretty basic – Micah on guitar supported by Nick on drums who plays occasional banjo, and Ashley, his wife, on keyboards – but they manage to dredge some racket out of it when they want to. During the set the sun finally broke through, and the rain stopped falling, and suddenly everything was good. Hinson’s slower songs get a bare and lovely outing with just a guitar, and his sightly abrasive on-stage manner never seems to strike a dubious chord with the audience. The interview went well, and will be posted here shortly, but safe to say that this gig seemed to be the turning point of the End of the Road Festival as far as I am concerned.
Micah P. Hinson – When We Embraced
The mud was still liquid despite the sun, and were still sloshing about somewhat treacherously, but optimism was restored, and people’s spirits lifted with the cessation of the rain. I managed to meet up with
Tim from the The Daily Growl again, which is always a pleasure. His festivalling is somewhat curtailed by the presence of the Baby Growl, but himself and his lovely lady still managed to find time to wander about and enjoy things, despite their little passenger.
Last year End of the Road was almost two thousand visitors short of their five thousand capacity, and the empty space was very, very welcome. This year they sold out, which meant a lot more people, some queueing for toilets (surely not!) and a generally less relaxing atmosphere. As lovely as the tea garden was, as excellent as some of the food was and as good as some of the bands were, I came back from this year’s festival feeling just slightly ambivalent. I found it difficult to settle on things, and became a little prone to watching half a set and then wandering off. I don’t know why this was, but maybe the fact that the lingering damp made it impossible to sit down had something to do with it. Let’s face it, we came very badly prepared.
Few of the bands I went there to see really made much impact on me, actually. Calexico and British Sea Power seemed to suffer from some very squishy sound on the main stage, although the rougher sounds of Micah P. Hinson and The Wave Pictures seemed to just about tear through the fug and shake your eardrums with real bite. The Big Top was on good form this year as well, with Liz Green sounding very promising from the little of the end of her set that I caught. One to investigate there, I think. The other great big bundle of joy given by the Big Top was me finally discovering Jeffrey Lewis.
The Wave Pictures – Leave The Scene Behind
I deposited Mrs. Toad near the Pavillion with a book for most of the festival, although she participated a little towards the end of Sunday, and tended to wander about either on my own, with Tim or on Saturday with Johnny Pictish. On one of those solitary moments, I meandered into the Big Top as Jeffrey Lewis played and now, finally, I get it. People have been recommending Jeffrey Lewis to me for a couple of years, I think, and I’ve never quite got round to investigating. His torrent of verbiage seems always on the verge of tripping over itself, and the accompanying guitar style seems liable to divorce itself entirely from the music at any point and simply wander off on a path entirely its own. However I describe it there’s something incredibly arresting about it. I finally get it. Sorry it took so long.
Jeffrey Lewis – Don’t Let the Record Label Take You Out to Lunch
Mrs. Toad reckons there’s something sort of sad about the last day of a festival. The ground’s all worn out, people are tired and dirty and the inevitable end hangs over everyone just a little bit. If anything, I think I enjoyed Sunday the most. I wandered about by myself, the Wave Pictures interview went really well and that was the day I discovered the most interesting new stuff, such as the aforementioned Mr. Lewis. One other group who really impressed me were Glasgow band Over the Wall. I’ve seen them before, funnily enough, at one of Euan’s Trampoline nights but they didn’t really grab me then for some reason. This time round they seemed to be having a ball, enjoying the enthusiasm of the crowd, and that effusive enjoyment spread to their performance. For the most part I guess I’d descrbe them as pop music filled with electronica. Not electro-pop, I don’t think, because that sounds a bit disco, which they aren’t, but hopefully you know what I mean. They have an EP just out as well, which I’m guessing you’ll have to get in touch to request, because there’s no sign of it on their MySpace page just yet. Out in October, I think.
Over the Wall – Thurso
Ultimately, we had a really nice time. I think on Saturday I was just struggling to relax for some reason and this slightly got in the way of enjoying the festival. By Sunday I’d chilled out a bit and was able to enjoy whole sets without getting jumpy. Calexico closed with real flair, their battle with the spongy sound won with a brilliant rendition of Minas de Cobre (For Better Metal) and by then I was ready for another day. Perhaps by the end of Sunday I was finally in the frame of mind to have enjoyed Saturday properly. I feel like I’ve let down an excellent festival with this review, but I felt like I was letting down an excellent festival all the way through until Sunday by just not quite gelling with it for no reason I could really think of.
Calexico – Minas de Cobre (For Better Metal)
Calexico – Sirena
This feels like one of those classic ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ lines, doesn’t it. But it’s true, sometimes.
i kinda know what you mean.
although it was only wet on friday the fact that it turned the whole site into a mudbath made the whole thing seem like awful hard work.
festivals is all about lounging around on the grass innit? it does make a huge difference when you can’t do it.
and the bogs were, indeed, chronic.
but all the music i saw was damn good and Bon Iver on Saturday was a wee bit special.
so i’ll be back.
Quit yer bictchin’. Don’t they have folding chairs in Britain? Umbrellas? It rained at Woodstock you know. You should have just stripped naked and dropped some acid.
erm, that should be “bitchin’,” of course.
Quit yer biscuits.
Headlunging – I think I agree with you. For all the sun, and what a mercy that was, the mud still kind of put an damper on things. But I agree with you as well that the music was excellent again and so I suspect Mrs. Toad and I will be back.
Mind you C&B is right as well – we were woefully under-prepared. I think I’ve been so spoiled with festivals so far that it never really occurred to me that it might really, seriously rain. Anyway, lesson learned and next year we will be equipped.
Although C&B really should know that one simply does not strip naked in the UK in September, especially not when it’s raining. You’d have nipples like bullets and a penis like a raisin.
Oh but The Young Republics almost guilty pleasures cover set in The Bimble Inn was so much fun on Saturday night/Sunday Morning. We did have a split decision on it as one of the stalwarts of their Edinburgh gig decided they just shouldnt be a covers band. I think slightly tipsy singalongs are always good fun. Oh Loving Over The Wall tune.
Cogstar – that was a fun set actually. If I had an American accent I would say that they fuckin rawked. Kristen is turning into something of a whateverafemaleshowmanis on the violin too, and I am very much liking this turn of events.
I was thinking today how much more confident Kristen’s violin work on Shiloh sounds.
She was hardly a slouch on the fiddle to begin with – but now there seems to be a sense of panache and – well – as Matthew said – showpersonship.
I’d love to catch up with these guys live again soon.
I discovered Jeffrey Lewis at SXSW this year and while the first song had me scratching my head, by the end of his band’s set I was completely won over. Very entertaining.
Did you see Low? I was going to go to this festival but wimped out and went to North Devon last weekend instead, can’t cope with the toilets at festivals!
Chalky
I think that’s a very fair reaction. There weren’t great at EotR, but Simon and Sofia are aware of this and apparently it’s in hand for next year.
Hey Matthew,
Wish you would have found us at the festival and hung out, I mean I know we only played four fuckin’ times!!! I always enjoy your writing, even when we’re not gushed over and I’m glad you err, kind of, sort of enjoyed the festival. I actually had a great experience and spent most of my time in between performance wandering around and meeting people with Nate’s little brother. The folks there are particularly nice. And even though I didn’t have any albums from anyone except the Acorn and Conor Oberst I still found a lot of the music very enjoyable – even though it’s really lame that EVERY band has a fiddle player now. But the hilight you ask? Wandering around my band’s campsite at 8:30 in the morning and having a hung over Richard Hawley stumble from his camper and give me a peach, apple and tangerine and an hour long, very vague speech on how to live life as an “artist”. That was cool.
Well, wish I had seen you and Tim too, he’s a sweet guy, but I’ll keep you up to date with the new album. I think you’ll like it. We’ll be back in the spring, I expect you to come see us. I think the UK is growing on me because I actually wasn’t dying to come home when we left. I’ve accepted the blandness of the food.
Take it easy,
Julian
PS. We should write a really cynical book together called crotchety indie dude vs. snob musician
Having been to Bestival the weekend before End Of The Road seemed like a stroll in the park for me…. Mud ? Nah, that wasn’t mud, just a little bit of slightly damp soil.
I dread to think what that means in relation to the toilets.
Tim is perhaps the loveliest bloke you’ll meet. You know I bumped into Nate about half a dozen times – poor fella probably thought I was stalking him.
According to the man himself, Richard Hawley got absolutely fucking cabbaged on Saturday night, so I can only imagine what that conversation must have been like.
I don’t know – I left a lot out of that review because I am still trying to figure out what I felt about the festival. It is a dozen times better than pretty much any other UK festival, as far as I’m concerned, but for some reason this year I just wasn’t quite feeling it. I think that may well have been me though, because by the time I’d chilled out a bit on Sunday everything was fine. I think I was a little irritated at myself for coming so unprepared for the weather, and just not quite in the right frame of mind to sit down and listen to music for some reason. I hardly managed to sit through a single set from start to finish on Saturday, which is weird.
About that book – don’t you dare call me a snob!
Yeah, Robin, I heard Bestival was something of an endurance test. We went to Bestival a couple of years ago, but it was just too big for me and I didn’t like it. Five thousand seems to be just about my limit, I think.
And I liked your review, by the way. Spot on, in my book.
Yo Toad. Nice tae see ye too. It was a pleasure of a festival, and now that I’m back in civilisation I’ll be doing my own review. I meant to ask if you enjoyed Hawley. We did from the back.
Truly a fine festival again, and though I wasn’t fully engaged again due to the wean, there was still plenty to enjoy. This time I got to experience some of the other musical treats, such as the kids singing bloke on Sunday morning (pretty good, btw).
Chalky – Low played a great set, but at the end Alan Sparhawk totally lost it and threw his guitar at full pelt into the crowd. He had already complained about having a ‘crappy day’. He’s not a well man, but that doesn’t excuse a pretty reckless action.
Jules – sorry I didn’t see you either. I was hoping to bump into you or one of the band, but I guess my attention was looking down at the small person rather than around and everyone else. Hope to see you sometime in the not too distant future. I actually managed to catch bits of all your sets, and it was all good stuff.
We’ll be back next year. My finger is hovering over these early bird tix….
Hey thanks for the update. I used to frequently get hit on the head by stray footballs in school, so sparhawks guitar would probably have had a good chance of finding me, maybe it was a good thing I didn’t go
In a campfire straw poll of stalwarts from 07, we thought the music at last year’s festival was better…but rose-tinted specs can distort things. There weren’t enough standout sets from artists this year – No Midlake, Joan as Policewoman, Seasick Steve, Dawn Landes, The Bees, Herman Dune..etc. Bon Iver were terrific this year, but the local pub PA system on the main stage put a dent in many performers sets, particularly Calexico.
Did anyone feel that some bands were on the wrong stage? The likes of The Accidental should have been swapped from the Big Top to the Garden Stage – the Bowerbirds and Woodpigeon are too twee for a big stage.
Then you had the overly glitzy (Freddie) Mercury Rev and disappointments from British Sea Power.
However, American Music Club were great – Mark Eitzel is highly watchable on stage.
Sadly, there was a whole swath of lacklustre performances and if those said artists are booked for next year…I’d hang out doing all the other terrific things on offer – the Arabian tent was cool, I loved playing Kubb again, there were terrific people hanging out in the Arabian food tent, chilling.
The mud? Who cares! If you survived The Green Man Festival 07 or a bunch of other chest wader events, then you never talk about such things again. It’s too traumatic.
By the way, there’s a cracking, eclectic mix of tunes going out on the Hypem.com radio player this morning, which is where I picked up the songbytoad link from. Doesn’t always float my boat, but this morning it’s great. Respect.
In some ways I am tempted to agree with you about the lineup in ‘07, but I actually enjoyed not having every single moment planned out this year, and the chance to wander about and give new things a try.
I certainly agree that a few bands were on stages to which they weren’t entirely suited. I really don’t like the Big Top very much, but the sound seems to be better in there. The Bimble Inn is easily my favourite venue, but you can hardly fit a festival of five thousand people into half a dozen Bimble Inns dotted around the site, so I don’t know what they would be better doing. Taking more advantage of the Local might be an idea – opening it earlier for some of the smaller bands who maybe need the more intimate setting, like you say.
We thought that the Arabian tent was ace too, and the food was bloody brilliant.