impressions along the way: August 2006

Richard Hawley on the first night. Foul-mouthed, irreverent and yet, charming. Great music too.

Below, Kissmet, Bhangra fused lively pop. Got us all dancing on Saturday afternoon.

Below, Nouvelle Vague on Saturay evening. Mad, entertaining, wonderful.

And below them, Psapp, cat loving London band, the last act Paul & I saw on Saturday night.

Below, the indoor stage packed out waiting for the Buzzcocks. Who were very very loud.

Paul (above), and I (below), waiting for the Guillemots to come on, Sunday evening.

And below that, Nan & I crash out on the sofas inside De Montfort Hall, after having seen Isobel Campbell.

It was also a child friendly festival.

And Leicester's pretty too!

So, just got back from 3 days and 3 nights camping in Leicester for the Summer Sundae festival. We ate well, we stayed warm and dry even though it rained all through Saturday night and most of Sunday, and we saw a lot of great bands. What more could anyone ask for?

My favourites were: Richard Hawley, Seth Lakeman (what a fiddler!), Psapp (funky weird music and woollen cats being tossed into the audience) on Friday night.

Kissmet (got us hopping), the Howling Bells (gave me goosebumps), the Brakes ("snippy punk" as Paul called it), Nouvelle Vague (who were moved outdoors to replace Martha Wainwright who'd cancelled), Calexico on Saturday. We wanted to see Joan as Policewoman but couldn't get in. Also, we didn't catch Gomez because that's when the deluge started and we didn't have our rain gear with us. We also saw Isobel Campbell, but she was without Mark Lanegan, making most of the songs from the Ballad of the Broken Seas sound incomplete. Also, she seemed a bit reluctant to face the audience, almost like she wasn't sure she wanted to be there. We didn't see M. Craft, but heard that they were good.

And on Sunday, the best acts were: Sophie Solomon (frenzied, intense folk poet violinist), Mike West & Truckstop Honeymoon (fantastic banter, catchy country songs with brilliant lyrics, had us all clapping and laughing, their song Johnny & June had me tearing up) and Belle and Sebastian. Jose Gonzalez was a bit disappointing. Pretty songs, but nothing special live.

Food: there are an amazing number of veggie restaurants in the centre of Leicester, surprising for such a small place. Unfortunately a lot of them were closed when we were looking to eat (mainly late morning). But we were only a few minutes walk away from the town, so eating was no problem. Highlights were breakfasts at The Barley Mow pub and fantastic chips from The Sea Cow stall at the festival.

Most of the photos I took of the bands didn't come out that well, but all in all, it was a great festival. Nice and small, low key and laid back, but incredibly well organised with a good, varied line up. Camping and facilites were great, comfortable enough to not feel at all like I was roughing it. And really, we weren't. Despite the rain! Will be going again next year...any one wanna come along?