Music fans revel in local sounds at Bickerstock Festival

Although the weather didn’t quite live up to its initial promise, the Bickerstock Festival 2008 was deemed a great success, with music fans descending on the quaint village of Bickerstaff, Lancashire to be entertained by a diverse mix of local talent over two days.

Saturday August 2nd saw the stages graced by troubadour Jim Holmes, rockabilly rebels DC & the Customatix and boy-girl acoustic duo Northern Daze, whilst on Sunday August 3rd crowds enjoyed the unique gypsy jazz of Trez Fez, the Irish folk of Gary James McGovern and the Ormskirk indie-rock band The Listed.

One of the highlights of the weekend was provided by the guitar prodigies of Greenbank High School, who joined Les Jones onstage to run through a variety of pop, blues and classic rock numbers. Their admirably tight renditions put the crowd in a mellow mood ready for the evening ahead.

Unfortunately, the caliber of their performance couldn’t be matched by local ‘character’ Davey Edge. In spite of the array of local musicians he drafted in, his overlong and self-indulgent set threatened to send the crowd to sleep.

An incendiary wake-up call was provided by The Listed when they burst into their opening Iggy Pop-style number, The Holy Trinity. After a long day of music, the lagging audience pricked up their ears to the Listed’s refreshing brand of old school rock given a contemporary edge. Singer Matt Blundell led the band through raucous covers of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues and Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone as well as treating the crowd to an exciting mix of their own country-rock repertoire. The Listed received a rapturous reception, and along with Les Jones’ musical troupe, were one of Sunday’s stand-out acts.

The Bickerstaffe Community Festival, now in its sixth year, is a free festival intended to raise money for Jospice by bringing the community together on a summers weekend to support local music of all different genres.

Late Of Their Pier

Late Of The Pier’s eagerly awaited, Erol Alkan-produced debut album promises to be one of the stand-out records of 2008. The concept doesn’t exactly inspire - synth heavy disco rock, replete with indulgent prog rock solos – considering the market is already saturated with 80s influenced ‘indie’ groups.

However, the boys from Castle Donnington have that essential quality required in a band - they actually make you want to get up and bop. Since forming in 2003, Samuel Eastgate, Andrew Faley, Sam Potter and Ross Dawson have generated a devout teenage following after delivering explosive performances at a series of all-ages gigs. With around 40,000 friends on Facebook, the commercial success of their first offering, Fantasy Black Channel is all but assured when it is released on August 11th through Parlophone records.

One could be forgiven for thinking that Late Of The Pier are simply trying to catch the electro-indie gravy train set in motion by the Klaxons. Since winning the Mercury music prize last year, the Klaxons have given the greenlight to a profusion of electro-lite guitar bands content to produce music which has been labelled by critics as tepid and tedious ‘poly-filler’.

Late Of The Pier need have no such worries. Reminiscent of Gary Numan and Roxy Music, they are a shining example of retro glam rock done well- tipping their hats to their predecessors without simply aping them.

The song that caught my ear is debut single Space And The Woods and is available on iTunes. It wouldn’t be out of place on the soundtrack to a future sci-fi film, probably involving some sort of choreographed phaser gun shootout/hover car chase.

After appearing at Summer Sonic in Osaka, Japan, Late Of The Pier will be playing at Leeds and Reading festivals, Creamfields and Bestival.

Check out their Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/lateofthepier