09.06.07
It’s not for the cock, it’s for the most fun a girl can have with four underage boys.
Patrick Wolf, Carling Stage, Leeds Festival.
This year Braham Park played host to the biggest ever Carling Leeds Festival. Stages were moved, headliners were (for the first time) exclusive and picking up cups opened the door to countless free beers. Also, with endless after hours entertainment and glorious sunshine in the daytime, confining oneself to the dark and humid tents of the Carling and NME stages became only worth it for the highest calibre of the musical acts on offer.
Patrick Wolf
The first time this member of the blog team saw Patrcik Wolf live was back in 2005 when he supported a fairly new, and relitively unheard of, Bloc Party. Back then Patrick was unsigned in the UK and both his music and stage performace gave a dark, chilling and not entirely positive image of the singer. Fast forward 2 years and Patrick is signed to major lable Loog and has grown into a glorious, theatricle darling riding high on the Carling stage bill.
Backed by a full live band, his show fills the tent with a full, grand sound which is only spoiled by snippets of Razorlight’s set infultrating the tent, like someone letting one off in the middle of a crowd. Wolf takes the invasion in his stride joking that people should leave to go and enjoy the headliners which is met with boos untill the band plays the opening bars of ‘Magic Position’ and deafening cheers ensue. During this song he shows himself to be a true festival performer, running up to the barrier and stripping for his more than enthusiastic audience. The entire set gets the carling stage not jumping or pushing but dancing which is a rare sight at a festival and something Patrick should be proud of.
‘The Magic Position’ is out now.
LCD Soundsystem
When faced with a man who is to thank for the entire credible indie dance scene (think Simian Mobile Disco genius rather than Klaxons hype) there is little room for critisism. It’s clear that the man is pure genius in the studio from hits like ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’ and ‘North American Scum’ but whether this could be reproduced in the live arena was yet to be seen by any of inftc untill Leeds 2007. I am pleased to report that as soon as James Murphy stepped onstage with his full live band we knew this was going to be more than a vocalist and a backing track (aka Calvin Harris).
The fact the set was fairly short is entirely forgivable as it was entirely killer and zero filler. The band and James fed off the audience’s undying enthusiasm for LCD’s tracks which made the show have an spontaneous and organic feel, likening back to the first dance raves of the 90’s. James complained of a hurt knee throughout the set but in no way let that hinder his performance (unlike the hamming up of a lifetime a certain Klaxon gave us). The sound quality and superpb energy meant the set could’ve been nothing but a highlight for anyone who was there. LCD are not just a great dance act but a true experience live.
‘Sound Of Silver’ is out now.
Interpol
For a true, die hard fan of Interpol (such as myslef) Saturday’s late afternoon set was simply genius. The setlist was compiled of the great tracks of all three albums and the band’s sound and live aura was simply immense. Each member came on singularly in black and never spoke a word to the crowd, which only supported the undeniably cool image built up aroud the New York foursome. The highlight, for this blogger at least, was Guitarist (and moody indie pin up) Daniel Kessler two stepping along to recent single ‘The Heinrich Manouver’, which was met with cheers of undying admiration from the crowd’s hardcore fans. Leed vocalist Paul Banks was on top form with his vocals never slipping throughout the more than generous set.
It has to be said that this set was more for true fans of the band rather than a festival audience as none of the four piece uttered a word to their huge, maint stage, audience, as this may have seemed rude and of an unshowmanship nature to anyone other than a true Interpol fan. However, to the trained…ear? it was purely a testament to not only the moody New York setting of the band but also the obvious inspirations such as Joy Division which made it a purely epic set for those there only for the band on stage.
‘Our Love To Admire’ is out now.
Bloc Party
At the Leeds festival this year is the first time Kele Okereke showed himself to be worthy of a stadium/mainstage audience. Even though there is very little doubt in this blogger’s mind that everyone in the audience got very bored of him bellowing ‘Hello Leeds 2007′ after the fifth time, he still put on one hell of a show. He was far from the moody, tortured artist many of us are used to seeing in medium sized venues and in interviews across the music publication specturm. This was a man who was pushing the audience to clap, sing and dance along while jumping offstage to touch the people who had been waiting all day for the best view of their idol.
The band played a well thought out set with hit and fovorites from both masterpiece albums included. The rest of the band did not show the evolution to rock gods that Kele did but still put on a great show, showing their more than impressive musical ability. However it was turly Kele’s enthusiam that made the set, he even managed to gain a festival injury by accidentally headbutting a guitar being passed to him. Their few British gigs left this year may be the last the band play in fairly medium sized venues but if you are unable to catch them, fear not, as they are well on their way to becoming the kind of Stadium rockers we can finally be proud of.
‘A Weekend In The City’ is out now.
Long Drop
Finally, to the four (almost) underage boys the title of this post refers too. While spending a weekend not only camping with these young punk rockers, but bullying them to the point where it came beyond a joke, we found that their music was miles better than we expected. A link to their Myspace will be posted below and all we ask is, even if you don’t like them, please pass it on to your little brother or sister who will have either heard of them or be the next to sign up to the army of die hard fans they have all around Nottingham.
Long Drop are playing Nottingham’s Rock City on September 18th
long drop said,
September 6, 2007 at 1:40 pm
haha thanks for saying our music is miles better than you expected, we love you too
xxxx
Captain Lovebead said,
September 6, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Patrick Wolf was the best thing to happen to me ever.
Long Drop are fucking amazing, and the whole blog crew will undoubtedly go to see them. I don’t think they were telling the truth with their email address though.
G Town said,
September 6, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Captain, you basically ARE Patrick Wolf. But in a completly non pretensious way.
Long Drop’s music was indeed much better than expected. When they played their tracks, there was the silence of people who weren’t sure what to do when they realised they had nothing to laugh at.
Who are Long Drops playing with at RC? Let’s go.
Captain Lovebead said,
September 7, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Just realised you need to resize your photo.
Martin said,
September 16, 2007 at 6:52 pm
“Patrick Wolf was the best thing to happen to me ever.”
[Insert gay-joke here]
I agree with most of what you wrote. I’ve decided (it was ages ago now, but i’ve decided) that Bloc Party were a bit gay really. “Helicopter” was not the orgasm I expected it to be live at all.
Interpol were awesome though, but even as a ‘true’ fan the no-speech malarkey kind of annoyed me a bit. Plus they didn’t play “Untitled”, mega sad face.
I’m currently listening to Long Drop in preparation for the gig.