All Tomorrows Parties - Bowlie 2 - Friday Butlins, Minehead 10/12/10

So here it is, officially the first day of Bowlie 2. Whilst approximately 6,000 music lovers were making their journey from various destinations across Europe to Minehead, the Middle Boop team were already lying in our chalets nursing the first of a potential four hangovers this weekend. In the midst of all this we decided to have a little wonder around Butlins, in the hope that Pizza Hut would be open for some brunch. It wasn’t. Nor was any other food outlet for that matter. It was quite flabbergasting how quiet it was, with the only other beings on site seemed to be staff of the leisure park and ATP. Of course it was due to pick up in a matter of hours, so we thought we’d head on a mini journey to the hustle n bustle of the Minehead streets, in search of a cafe/pub/chip shop or anything that would basically serve us a large greasy meal. Instead we settled on the one open pub we could find open at 12pm, which name escapes me. Waiting until they started serving food, a mixed grill for £5.95 I think was a bloody good deal, and you may be thinking there’s something dodgy about that. There probably was.

As bands weren’t due to begin until 4.45 we spent the hours leading up till then drinking and watching the brilliant Shane Meadows documentary film ‘Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee’ on ATP TV. We then decided to head up to the arena to catch the opening act of the weekend Daniel Kitson & Gavin Osborn. In typical atp tradition they showcase acts not from the norm and provided us with a nice, albeit bizarre start to the weekend. Kitson told us spoken word tales reading short stories from what I assumed was his book. He spoke rather elegantly without a duff word in hearing. This accompanied by Osborn serenading us with acoustically sung folky melodies in between. Ideal for an opening act, but perhaps would have been more ideal opening the Saturday or Sunday.

The next act on the centre stage were one of the bands I’d been most looking forward to all weekend, Best Coast. Opening with (I think, I could be wrong I saw a lot of bands this weekend)‘Each and Everyday’, Beth Consentino and co ploughed their way through hits from this year’s outstanding debut LP ‘Crazy For You’. Best Coast, a band I’ve had countless opportunities to see in 2010, however this was the first time I’ve managed to catch them, just in the nick of time before the year is out, and glad about that too!

Next up for me were The Zombies, again on the centre stage. Apparently this band have been going since the 1960’s, which me not knowing that shows how much (or little) I know considering I write about music! I’m rather careless when it comes to ancient pop groups strumming away to old tracks from yesteryear. However, these old boys were a lot of fun, getting the near capacity crowd into a sing-a-long frenzy, myself included. Considering I originally thought I knew nothing about them, I didn’t realise how many songs they play I did actually know.

Despite personally not being a huge fan of the latest Foals album, ‘Total Life Forever’, the Oxford quintet are still one of the most energetic, charismatic live bands out there. Headlining the pavilion stage on the Friday night really shows how far they have come since I saw them play tiny clubs and smaller stages at other music festivals. They still manage to own the crowd but this time on a much larger scale, replacing the quick, sharp, mathy numbers with epic anthems from both albums, where tracks such as ‘Olympic Airwaves’ and ‘Balloons’ failing to look out of place amongst their current stage set up. These boys deserve to be playing in front of massive crowds and it wouldn’t surprise me to find Foals playing main stage sunset slots at UK festivals next year.

Back to the chalet before The Go! Team, who I’ve got to be honest, aren’t usually my cup of tea. Yet somehow, this is the third time I’ve seen these guys live, and every time I leave thinking to myself “actually that was pretty darn good”. On this occasion it was probably the best of the three as this was a more intimate affair (compared to others, being Bestival main stage [2005], and pavilion stage at ATP vs The Fans [2007]). Live, these guys are just so tight and danceable with Ninja again justifying herself as one of the best frontwomen around.

Unfortunately, I missed the first half of Steve Mason. However, I did manage to catch a good 20 minutes of his set. As ever, Mason was on top form, be it on his own, or with his backing band, even treating us to a stunning rendition of The Beta Band track ‘Dr Baker’.

Lastly the 1.30am slot belonged to Swedish female four-piece Those Dancing Days. I’ve got to admit I was feeling slightly sluggish at this hour but that didn’t stop them owning the centre stage, despite such a late slot. Wowing the crowd with new songs as well as tracks from their debut LP ‘In Our Space Hero Suits’, my personal highlights from them had to be their rendition of new single ‘Fuckarias’. However, what really impressed their loyal audience and I, was the cameo from Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch. Lead singer Linnea Jönsson would subsequently return the favour the following evening during B&S’ set.

So with the bands over with for one day it was tunes and dancing in Crazy Horse, then bed. Even though for us at the time it felt like more than halfway through the festival this was in fact only the beginning. And if you thought day one was good, it was going to get better.

Words: Freddy Rothman

Photos : Linz Smith and Gordon Reid

All Tomorrows Parties - Bowlie 2 - Sunday 12/12/10

So we’re down to just one more day of music to go at Bowlie 2. *Boo hoo*. Sunday seemed to be a much more laid back affair as opposed to the day before. The afternoon we decided to skip to Vashti Bunyan and to head for the much belated Pizza Hut buffet. That’s right, we’ve been waiting three days for this and it finally had come to suffice. Ultimately it would become the only meal I’d eat all day baring the odd piece of fruit. But I’ll stop talking about food get back to the main topic of this review.

The first group I wanted to catch were Glaswegian’s Sons & Daughters on the pavilion stage. Who I personally think are a much underrated band who have been writing simple but effective pop songs for the best part of a decade. How they have only had ONE top 40 single is beyond me, and that only managed to scrape in at number 40 in the charts! Anyway, unfortunately I missed the latter stages of their set to catch the second half of Tottenham Hotspur vs Chelsea in the sports bar. Did I make the right choice? Probably not, but oh well.

Next up were Scottish heroes The Vaselines who were simply brilliant. Not only was it a set full of sing-along Indie classics but the onstage banter between Francis McKee & Eugene Kelly with the audience was on par with Shellac and Future of the Left. I didn’t think they would be as enjoyable as they turned out to be but I left feeling a bit overwhelmed. Their set comprised of a mixture of early favourites and tracks from their new album ‘Sex With an X’, was more vibrant than expected. Ending their set with the upbeat dance anthem (to me it is) ‘You Think You’re a Man’ was a joy to behold.

My first venture to the centre stage on Sunday wasn’t until 7.30pm and that was to catch Laetita Sadier. I’ll have to be honest I’d yet to really listen to much of her solo work and I knew not to expect any Stereolab-esque tunes or covers. She was definitely the most intimate artist of the entire weekend. The set up was simply Sadier, an acoustic guitar, and her beautifully French voice and humour. Topics such as her music, 10 year old son and social issues that she seemed passionate about were frequently discussed between songs. I had almost lost sense of what was going on around me, and her debut solo record ‘The Trip’ is an album destined to be purchased.

Headlining the pavilion stage on the final day were Belle & Sebastian favourites Camera Obscura. Bowlie 2 was indeed the perfect festival for them and I think a large quantity of the festival participants were aware of that. In a sense I felt a slightly out of place at a Camera Obscura show. As much as I enjoyed their performance it seemed that everybody else around me knew all the words to every song where as I only really recognised the big favourites. However, they went down a storm, and it’s fair to say that the vast majority of the audience left in a buoyant mood.

Next up. A tribute band! That’s right, I’m not stuck in some Somerset pub with the local resident Sunday night house band, and this was All Tomorrows Parties festival with a Beatles tribute band, aptly titled Them Beatles. Makes sense a bit though really, its 10pm and people are exhausted from three days of partying and are in need of a musical pick me up. To be fair to Them Beatles, they got the crowd going and were actually quite similar sounding to that original 1960’s pop group you may have heard of. Musically, and even speaking in Liverpudlian accents referring each other to their on stage characters. A set split in 2 halves, with the first being the early era, ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’, ‘Please Please Me’ etc with the second being ‘Sgt Peppers’ ‘Let It Be’, and White Album, with the appropriate costume changes in between adding a nice touch.

Having caught a 10 minute glimpse of Zoey Van Goey, I think we felt perhaps they were a bit too laid back for a midnight slot. Shame they didn’t perform earlier in the day as I feel they had some nice sounds and definitely the potential to gain some mainstream success and would have stuck around longer otherwise.

I feel its worthy of a mention for the DJ set at the Reds stage during the latter stages of the evening. Being on the same dancefloor as Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand, the DJ’s awkwardly played ‘Take Me Out’ unaware that Kapranos was right there. However, I cannot believe it took me until after the event to realise that the man DJing that slot was ex-Chelsea and Scotland football legend Pat Nevin! Just a shame I didn’t spot the great man once during the duration of this weekend.

So all that was left of us to endure was the long Monday morning journey back to London, coupled with the mandatory post ATP depression. I’ll have to admit I was less psyched about the build up to this weekend as I have been with others but it turned out to be as consistent as ATP festivals can be. Here is to Bowlie weekender 2020!

Words: Freddy Rothman

Photos : Linz Smith

ATP Bowlie Weekender Exciting Additions

As if the lineup for part two of this years ATP Christmas events, the Bowlie Weekender wasn't hot enough, we are now very excited to announce these sizzling additions:

WILD BEASTS
SAINT ETIENNE
CAMERA OBSCURA
THE GO! TEAM
LAETITIA SADIER (Stereolab)

So the whole lineup now looks like this:

BELLE & SEBASTIAN / JULIAN COPE / THE VASELINES / FRIGHTENED RABBIT / FIELD MUSIC / HOWLIN' RAIN / THOSE DANCING DAYS / TEENAGE FANCLUB / ISOBEL CAMPBELL with MARK LANEGAN / THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS / The Apples in stereo / VASHTI BUNYAN / SILVER COLUMNS / FOALS / CRYSTAL CASTLES / DEAN WAREHAM PLAYS GALAXIE 500 / MULATU ASTATKE / EDWYN COLLINS / STEVE MASON / DIRTY PROJECTORS / THE ZOMBIES / JENNY AND JOHNNY / SONS AND DAUGHTERS / TREMBLING BELLS / ABAGAIL GREY / ZOEY VAN GOEY / THE 1900s / 1990s / BEST COAST / THEM BEATLES / PHENOMENAL HANDCLAP BAND / PETER PARKER / AMPHETAMEANIES / WILD BEASTS / SAINT ETIENNE / CAMERA OBSCURA / THE GO! TEAM / LAETITIA SADIER.

Booked your ticket yet?