Summer has arrived for the Sunday of Field Day 2016, following the monsoon on Saturday, Sunday brings mud and showers.
First band up are Arthur Beatrice and a fine early afternoon show this is, vocalist Ella Girardot is the focal point of the band and her vocal range is excellent. The band have an enthusiasm that really lights the spark for the bands to follow.
Parquet Courts are the first band on the main stage. Twenty minutes late, they waste no time in bringing their Talking Heads/Pavement style songs to our earlobes as they hurtle through a set of material mainly from their new album Human Performance’
Steve Mason is on solid form and is another one with a new album to promote. The Return of the Rual tent is packed for his set. The Thurston Moore Band follow next and are in sonic form. Just a 45 minute set was short particularly, as the band were scheduled for an hour. Some great guitar work!
Blossoms have a steady growing fanbase and a heavy shower meant a packed Shacklewell Arrms stage (as it is for most of the afternoon) for their set of pop tunes.
Set of the day goes to The Ben Watt Band featuring Bernard Butler who had a teatime slot in the tiny Moth Club tent. Quality songs, mind blowing guitar, a tight rhythm section and a fine beard courtesy of Laura Marling’s bass player. a brilliant set from a band of quality musicians plying their trade.
John Grant gets an hour in the sunshine on the main stage and really gets the crowd engaged and dancing. Beach House headline the Shacklewell Arms stage, which I suppose is the second stage at Field Day. As a second stage this really needs to be bigger or an open air stage, over the years it is constantly packed and overflows (12 people deep for Beach House and something similar for the Fat White Family) but this has been the same across the many years of the festival. Beach House played pretty much in the dark but, they sounded magnificent.
PJ Harvey is the headliner and it is a brilliant show to round off another excellent day in Victoria Park.
Pete
