Paperjam

Soundstation Festival, Birmingham, 28th May

Gigs // Jim // 1st June 2006

I’m on the way over to Birmingham with an accomplice, who (due to an ongoing investigation into how a half-dead pigeon caused an outbreak of bubonic plague in the North East) can be referred to only as “Jane”, to go to the potentially exciting Soundstation festival in Eastlands park.

In a strangely prescient way, we are pissing ourselves about various bits in Spinal Tap as the train rumbles into Moor Street. Then it is off for food and a swift decision on whether rice or noodles is a better bet if there is going to be jumping around later on. The waitress is from Bulgaria, which on this showing must be a very confusing place to order food.

Eastlands park is just behind the station and is the sort of place where they don’t like bottle-tops. Or money for that matter, we have to buy little yellow tokens to swap for booze, which doesn’t work out all that cheap. The festival is in two parts; a dance tent (which we don’t go in at all, or even look at for any great length of time) and an outside stage for bands, complimented by a bar with DJ and a sloping set of toilets down one side. As I go for a quick slash they start playing Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye, which makes me feel a bit disturbed and ashamed.

Anyway, time is overdue for a drink, we decline the chance of complimentary bitter and get on spirits and mixers (ooh), which is quickly abandoned for plastic bottles of Stella. The barmaid is probably the happiest person in the entire world ever and beams widely at even my poorest jokes (which are pretty poor even before alcohol has entered the equation).

Taking position near the sound desk tent thing where angry men throw bottles away with menace and people look exactly like Vanessa (only a touch taller) we take in our first band:

Switches

They are just finishing off as we start paying attention, might be quite lively but the crowd aren’t exactly tearing each other to pieces.

At this point we get our first taste of the MC for the event. Oh dear, he isn’t very good at all. “Who wants a towel that was sneezed on by the drummer out of Switches?”, he cries. At least one person does, so he throws it at them followed by some drumsticks or something. A lone voice clearly cries out “Get off”, but he acts like he didn’t hear it. Jane points out that he is dressed like Enrique Iglesias, even including the white woolly hat.

Next up it is:

V Formation
Website is here
Myspace page

They are from Ireland and are really quite serious. The whole lot of them are giving it the big thousand-yard stare like they are at Wembley or something. Some of the songs are OK but then they do one for “All da loivley ladies out dere” which ends up with the singer screaming “Can I fuck you? Turn your dirty light on. You dirty Bitch”, which is all a bit Spinal Tap for me and I laugh a lot. Although I am quite intrigued as to what a dirty light might be. Am I being helplessly naïve yet again?

If you want to find out for yourself and live in the Leamington area, V Formation are playing the Jug and Jester on June 19th. Enjoy yourselves.

Oh no, Enrique is back. What is it this time? The necklace bit off a backstage pass, which Graham Coxon may or may not have touched. Jesus.
Our friend also announces that V Formation will be in the signing tent very shortly to meet their adoring public, it takes all Jane’s strength to hold me back.

More drinks/toilet action and then it is time for:

The Rifles
Website which has a nice version of Rat Race by The Specials playing on it.
Myspace page

The Rifles: Chirpy, caressed

I think this lot are really good. They sound like the Jam, but a lot chirpier with a bit of a 2-tone thing going on. One of them has a really good sparkly hat and they do a song about Robin Hood or something, which is great. At this point I notice that I can see the back of our heads on the giant screen, quite exciting in itself. Even better is that if I hold my hand up I can make look like I am intimately caressing (not my word) the bass player. Childish, but funny.

The Crimea
The Crimea fan site
Myspace page

Start with the singer in the crowd and the rest of the band on stage, very theatrical I suppose. They open with Opposite Ends, which is quite an epic. Follow this is a cover of Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac, which leads to me telling that story about Stevie Nicks, her roadie and the opium suppositories.

The Crimea: Oh, dear

The singer is dressed up like a cub scout leader and is flanked by what looks like one of the blokes out of The Mighty Boosh on one side, with Phil Lynott out of Thin Lizzy on the other.
They do White Russian Galaxy which is very good and some others that really aren’t. It is all a bit confusing and overly serious, I am getting a little bit bored by the time they roll out Lottery Winners On Acid as the closer. The Crimea are clearly very intense people.

Jane’s fag reserves are running on empty so we head to the pub round the back of the site called The Eagle and Tun, where England flags and banging reggae are the order of the day. Quick whisky and visit to the gents before heading back for a bit of:

Boy Kill Boy
Website
Myspace page

…who are the indie-chick’s band of choice, especially judging by the way that a large purple bra finds its way onto the stage at one point. A bit of laddish banter breaks out before the bra is given to the keyboardist. Backstage Enrique is sobbing quietly as this is exactly the sort of thing he has been trying to inspire all day. Boy Kill Boy do Civil Sin which sounds like The Pet Shop Boy’s It’s A Sin at the start and actually seems to get the crowd going a bit. Nothing you haven't heard before though.

When they finish the queue for the signing tent gets a lot longer and as a kind of gestalt entity appears to be doing all its hair at once. We hang around and have a quick chat with the very friendly chap who is picking up all the rubbish.

Guillemots
Website
Myspace page

This lot have been heavily talked up as being a bit on the experimental side and from the off are definitely a lot more diverse than anything else we have seen today. The set up is interesting, the singer is playing keyboards while sitting in a rocking chair, what we reckon is his girlfriend is playing the double bass in a nice red dress (the only woman to trouble the stage all day). Then there is the drummer who may well be a bloke we know called Dave wearing a kaftan and fetching hat, the guitarist looks like he on loan from another band and there are some hip jazz type geezers floating around at the back with saxophones.

Things start out ok and move up a gear when they play Go Away - I find myself well impressed. Due to the nature of the band, the spirit of Prog Rock is never far away. When the guitarist does a solo using what looks suspiciously like a black and decker cordless drill, Spinal Tap once more seeps back into my consciousness.

By the time the Guillemots set draws to a close an extended piano workout is taking place “Its all gone a bit Cullum now, hasn’t it?” says Jane and she is dead right.

Orson

They may have been number 1 but it has turned a bit cold and we can’t be arsed, heading to the pub round the back again instead. On the way we see her in the red dress from Guillemots; “You were really good”, I say. “Thanks”, she replies. “Well done”, I add pointlessly and deservedly feel like a total twat for at least ten minutes.

In the pub Jane and the barmaid engage in a lengthy Stockport/Digbeth cultural exchange while I fall over a step. After waiting out the Orson storm over more drinks it is back inside courtesy of Des the helpful security man, although he really shouldn’t you know.

Graham Coxon
His website
Quality (bright yellow) interview with TOTP
Wikipedia entry

Coxon: Lovelorn, loud

Time for the main reason that we are here, the mod-punk stylings (what on earth am I on about?) of the former Blur guitarist. After a mercifully short intro from Enrique, things kick off to a startling You Will Always Let Me Down, we dash down the front and start jumping around like idiots. Fortunately the idea catches on and before long things are getting a touch hectic as Graham belts out the likes of Don’t Let Your Man Know, You & I and No Good Time. There is a bit of a break for the blues of Girl Done Gone but then it all goes mad again with Spectacular, Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery, I Don’t Wanna Go Out plus a harmonica’d up What’s He Got?. Crowd surfing breaks out and the stern looking bouncers in the “Ouch, do I have to?” trousers finally get something to do.

Everyone is waiting for Freaking Out and when it arrives it is ace, Jane accidentally molests the girl next to her and my mobile phone decides to get in on the act by heroically jumping out of my pocket to join in before being trampled (and miraculously rescued).

He must have been on for about forty-five minutes or so, but it felt like five to me, like all good things it is over far too quickly and there is no encore.

Coxon works on a couple of levels, all his songs are about being a bit useless, lovelorn and downtrodden which appeals to the likes of me, yet are really catchy, noisy and make you act like you are at an Art Brut gig. In short, fun for everyone.

Eastlands park empties out really quickly as we excitedly agree that Coxon was great and manage to completely walk past the place where Matty is with all the other dads to give us a lift home.

Back home it is time to count the damage; one mobile phone, a bundle of little yellow tokens and cramp in my left leg.

Soundstation Festival: Muddy phone, tokens, cramp

So was the Soundstation festival any good then? Well I had a great time, but if Graham Coxon hadn't been on at the end and my favourite drink was Bacardi Breezer I may well have felt differently.

The crowd was definitely a bit pedestrian and more musical variety would have been extremely welcome - But on the other hand it was really, really quick to get a drink. They should do it again next year but merge the dance and band halves into one event.