There can surely be no better ‘value for money’ festival anywhere in the land. Tickets were £89.50 for the whole weekend, including camping. And this year the festival was extended to three days, where previously it had just been two. Truck has a local feel and the absence of corporate badging is refreshing and the festival continues to punch above it's weight in terms of line-up.
Many of the outlets are run in aid of charities, eg local Rotary Clubs or churches, which complement the usual food and drink stalls. This gives the festival a 'do it yourself' vibe which is fine apart from the amateurishly constructed urinals many of which sloped the wrong way - enough said......
There are five principal stages with only the main one ‘Truck Stage’ outside. Second stage is ‘Market Stage’ inside a large-ish rectangular tent, then ‘The Nest’ and ‘Veterans & Virgins’ in tents of decreasing size. The ‘Barn’ is in a cowshed on the farm – on previous visits this housed some established acts but this time around felt like it was just peripheral bands appearing there. Finally there was ‘The Saloon Bar’, a mock western bar but with a real drinks counter inside – catering for country/folk performances.
The good thing is the site is small so extremely easy to dip between the stages. Sally and I got to see 31 bands across the weekend with loads of variety. As usual for us though, this didn't include any of the Main Stage headliners (Catfish & The Bottlemen, Friday; Manics on Saturday; Kodaline Sunday). Stand out sets we saw were Youngfathers and Yndi Halda, a new discovery for us. Also one to look out for: Palm Honey
Reflecting the diy vibe, alcohol can be taken into the festival. Really welcome but can lead to some hazy afternoons (and band reviews, below).
Friday 15/7
Connah Evans - Palm City Stage
Indie singer-songwriter dude. Songs complemented brilliantly with guitar (Leon) and drums (Callum). Guitar gave the songs colour, depth and quality. A confident lad but with no swagger.
Willy J Healy - Market Stage
Lively songs from WJH supported by a quality band
Ady Suleiman - Truck Stage
Cloudy afternoon with sun occasionally peeking through made for a marvellous backdrop for AS's RnB tunes. 5-strong support. We particularly liked the little acoustic guitar player
Hooton Tennis Club - Market Stage
Played some songs from their forthcoming second album. Powerful Pierre was a crowd favourite (as usual)
Boon Mew & Wooster - Saloon Stage
Rockin country tunes that somehow failed to get the place rockin. Good box-beating though.
DMAs - Market Stage
An accomplished Aussie band. Punchy and anthemic songs. Best band of the day so far albeit a little repetitive. Much chanting of 'D, D, DMA' from the ebullient crowd
Soak - Market Stage
There was an irritating over-fussiness through the set up and sound-checking which lead to Soak taking the stage 45 minutes late by which time much of the crowd had departed for the Main Stage (for Catfish & The Bottlemen). So the set was played to a sparse crowd, lacking a vibe. And ironically the sound was poor with overly heavy bass (guitar and drum)
Applewood Road - Saloon Stage
Emily Barker's latest side-project with two American girls, Amber and Amy; all three each taking a share in the lead vocal. Excellent folk harmonies and included a great rendition of Losing My Religion.
Saturday 16th July
Flights of Helios - Truck Record Shop Tent
1.00 pm set. Very pleasant dreamy tunes while we browsed the vinyl racks and sat outside firming up our plan for Day Two. Rather comically on the stroke of 1.15 the crashing opening chords from Judas on the nearby Truck Stage swamped the band completely. Fair play, they soldiered on.
Judas - Truck Stage
Rockin guitars. Perfect sunny afternoon stage-opening set.
Virgin Kids – Nest Stage
Excellent band, a pre-fest pick for me having been impressed by them in a recent supporting slot (to The Big Moon) at The Joiners earlier on in the year. 3-piece guitar band. Song 'Never Nude' is worth checking out.
Shame - Nest
5-piece guitars. This band has a lead singer with serious attitude. "We're Shame - to listen to us is a privilege". Second song in he pulled his arm out of his T-shirt so he was half bare-chested and proceeded to pour lager over his stomach and chest. The next song was titled ‘Lick’. After that they threw in a new untitled number that got a spontaneous mosh-pit going which heralded beer throwing amongst the crowd, lead singers shirt coming fully off and a spit into the audience. The final tune saw him join the mosh. Great stuff – the kind of youthful exuberance that rock n roll was built on. Ones to watch.
Estrons – Truck Stage
Estrons means ‘Aliens’ in welsh. 4-piece from Cardiff. Thumping bass and female lead vocal. A bit shouty in places
Traams – Nest Stage
This brilliant threesome from Sheffield was another ‘must-see’ for me. Bass and Guitarist share the vocals. Parquet Courts soundalike in places so they’re in great company. As ever, they build their set and culminate with Klaus, an 8-minute tune with an exhilarating guitar climax
The Big Moon – Truck Stage
London female foursome; slightly edgy but actual playing well-constructed pop songs. Totally at home on the main stage. Included a Madonna cover ‘Beautiful Stranger’. Penultimate song ‘Formidable’ sounds like a tune to listen out for on their forthcoming debut album.
Public Access TV – Nest Stage
This festival serves up a good helping of British bands so it was a refreshing change to hear some good old American garage rock from PATV. Good set.
Spector – Nest Stage
Back to quintessentially English tunes. Indie pop to perfection. The tent was the most rammed we saw it all weekend. Brilliantly crafted tunes, the crowd singing along to most of ‘em.
Ratboy – Truck Stage
Jordan Carty’s show takes on a different hue on the bigger stage. Solid performance, fully appreciated by youthful crowd, but loses a bit of edge compared to performances we’ve seen on smaller stages.
Spring King – Nest Stage
Spring King’s debut LP ‘Tell Me If You Like To’ is one of my favourite albums of 2016 and was given a good airing here. Started the set with ‘Better Man’(not on the vinyl but is a bonus track on the download) a belting song that got the boisterous crowd forming pit-circles from the off. Drummer and Lead Singer Tariq Musa sounded truly genuine when he said this was the best festival crowd they’d ever played to.
Youngfathers – Market Stage
Marvellously different to anything else we heard all weekend. Dramatic drumming in the Scottish standy-up style. Perfect backdrop to the rapping/chanting of the three front-men. Strong on social commentary. Particularly impressive is that they can all sing very well. Powerful in all regards. The most striking set of the weekend.
The Long Insiders – Saloon Bar
Was expecting country but got rockabilly rock n roll. With disguised relief we had to depart after four numbers for our final band appointment of the day
Recreations – Veterans & Virgins Stage
‘Recreations’ is Sam Duckworth’s new persona. Played some tunes off recently released album under that moniker, including excellent song ‘Built To Last’. Also several songs of inaugural ‘Get Cape Wear Cape’ album ‘Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager’, Joined on stage for final two numbers by Festival co-organiser Joe Bennett on cornet.
Day Two was rounded of with an hour in the Silent Disco – an experience I cannot commend highly enough.
Sunday 17th July
Palm Honey – Veterans & Virgins Stage
From Reading – four-piece band but refreshing to see keys rather than the usual second guitar. First on at noon but I made a point of catching their set as had encountered them previously in a support slot. Great vocalist and the keys give an electro/orchestral feel. Shades of The Boxer Rebellion...... or in places even Radiohead (but that may be brain being unable to break the connection with this band’s name). Drummer was shoeless. Penultimate song was a wonderful orchestral/melodic 6-minute song. Final number ‘a new one’ was a seven minute epic with a lengthy metronomic middle eight and a fantastic guitar climax that wound down to see the band take us into ‘two additional minutes’ of scuzzy guitar. Real potential here.
Cassels – Nest Stage
A guitar and crashing drum duo. Grunge rock in a classy style, interlaced with some good social comment (or maybe they were just angry because their booking agent had ripped them off so they weren’t getting any fee for playing the festival). Confident in what they do. Lyrically clever.
Emily Barker – Market Stage
Usual top notch country folk from EB. Today supported by The Dreaming Spires
Yndi Halda– Nest Stage
Our find of the weekend. This band has a welsh-looking name with a sound like Icelandic favourites Sigur Ros mashed up with Scotland’s Aerogramme, but actually hail from Canterbury. Yndi Halda means ‘Enjoy Eternal Bliss’ in Old Norse. Fantastic cinematic tunes with violinist taking centre stage. Definitely will be seeking out their recorded material.
Storme– Band Stage
Our one visit to this stage. 3-piece with female lead vocal, keys and electronic keypad.
Get Inuit– Nest Stage
Angular rhythms, sounding like Alt-J in places. Confident lead singer.
Danny & the Champions of The World– Market Stage
The best thing by far about this band is the great sight and great sound of the Hammond Organ.
Blossoms– Truck Stage
Looked highly presentable on the main stage. Played their increasing recognisable pop-indie tunes.
Black Honey– Market Stage
Crowd in excellent lively mood for this band who I feel are slightly underrated. Haven’t had the same attention that Wolf Alice have had, but their songs and stage show are equally as strong.
Mystery Jets– Market Stage
Irritatingly were 45 minutes coming on (in common with the Friday and Saturday headliners on this stage). Particularly annoying in this case as the excellent Blaenavon were paying another stage at this time and we could have squeezed them in as well. But during the wait the crowd was extremely good natured and remained lively during MJ’s excellent set that featured a number of tunes from their excellent recent release ‘The Curve Of the Earth’ with some old crowd-pleasing favourites thrown in ‘Two Doors Down’ and ‘Half In Love With Elizabeth’
Si
