Blast Arts 2006

Waiting out the rain

Beached Extravaganza

Unlike the usual festival traumas of trench foot, the lack of being able to find your tent among thousands, it then being submerged by rain, not eating for three days, fighting for that last pair of wellies and the sheer stench of toilets, Beached has none of these problems. So if you’re into cleanliness, it’s the festival for you. Personally, not a problem, but it’s nice not to have to find that elusive tent in pitch black.

Big Names

What makes this festival, now in its sixth year, so striking, is the time and effort that goes into the free event. First there’s trying to attract the big names, something they seem to achieve year in year out, whether it be the Libertines, Thunder or the Bluetones. This year managing to grab the Fratellis and Rick Witter formerly of Shed 7 amongst others can only help matters further. Second of all, is actually getting them to turn up, which they were successful in most parts. And finally there’s the matter of the roof that’s just bursting to leak. It survived... just.

There was a common theme running through Saturday’s musical feast and that was change. It was impossible to predict weather, beer prices, high tides and who exactly was playing when, as some bands scheduled for the morning arrived on stage early evening. But that’s what makes Beached great; you just never know what’s going to happen next.

Saturday

Rick Witter struts his stuff

Saturday’s bill just shows how eclectic this festival is. With indie, pop, rock, rap, metal, dance amongst a few of the differing genres, enough to whet the earnest of music fans appetite. Scarborough’s Fuzzgun Sniper is a fine example of this diversity.

Their mix of electro punk funk is a sonic assault of great choruses and profound bass lines. There’s the electro beats of ‘Shoot You Down’, the fantastic punk rock of ‘Jesus Christ and Rock and Roll’ and the fusion of dance ability and trancy quite hypnotic sounds of ‘Chicken Ranch’. All this makes them one of the highlights of the day sounding like an angst Clash fighting with Primal Scream beats. And best of all they’re local.

The showcase of local talent continues with Hull four-piece the Bonnitts, with their epic soaring rock, reminiscent of Coldplay. It’s a head turning performance and one which is reflective of the interest that’s surrounding the band at present from the likes of Steve Lamacq and company.

The Fratellis beach their car at Beached

After Scarborough bands Six foot daze, The Variants and Puritain all excel it is time for another Hull band to take to the stage. The Johnsons clearly take their influences from the Beatles, Strokes and Libertines epitomising a bit of dirty rock n roll. It’s a highly engaging set that’s energetic, fiery and all-round encouraging. At times their music even harks back to the good old days of Britpop. Someone should really tell them it’s been ten years now. But the likely lads from Hull go down a storm with the crowd and are refreshing in their approach.

Eclectic Mix

As the night draws in and the sand castles are fading away with the tides threatening presence becoming ever closer, it’s time for something a little different. The arrival of Gompa is quite extraordinary and they probably have the weirdest background ever. These guys are from everywhere. Jake is the lead singer from Scarborough and then the rest just confuses bystanders. One from Denmark, the other from Sweden, one born in Switzerland, let’s just say their music represents their geographical diversity.

They are unbelievably catchy and even with one member not turning up, put on a mind-bending display. Their music flirts between grunge, pop and metal which clearly represents their influences from Nirvana to the Beach Boys and why not throw Jeff Buckley in there too. On the evidence of current single ‘Planet Blue’, ‘Jack Knife’ and ‘Tranquil Mind’ they have a knack of mixing strong melodies with catchy hooks and a grunge edge.

Rapping the night away

The night just seems to get better with rappers Dyzo impressing. Then it all turns ugly, as foul-mouthed, Frank Skinner look-alike Devvo is booed, bottled and finally thrown off stage. Thankfully, I shall say no more and luckily The Enemy from Coventry were very talented and up for a good night. Their attitude and swagger on stage lead nicely into headliners the Fratellis, who happened to have got their vehicle stuck in the middle of the beach.

Glam Rock

There was one hell of a crowd and a rapturous applause greeted their arrival onstage. For a band that has sold-out London venues in minutes, it was great to see them embracing the Scarborough audience. They have come from nowhere and risen so rapidly. The Glasgow three-piece, all of whom are brothers, jump straight into second single ‘Henrietta’. The foot-stomping glam rock nugget is the sign of a band confident enough to throw away arguably their best song within minutes.

Follow my lead Henrietta....

Their set is unbelievably tight, raucous and at times riveting. They play their forthcoming debut album in full, performing fans favourites ‘the Gutterati’ and new single ‘Chelsea Dagger’ a song that will stick in your head forever. ‘Creeping Up the Backstairs’ follows with its banjo-wielding big dumb chorus that sends the crowd into a frenzy. It’s just great fun. I further thought my ears deceived me, as they came back after the encore rip-roaring through Goldfrapp’s ‘Ooh La La’. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this ever being covered, let alone by the Fratellis. Yet it’s refreshingly good. The silent disco follows in pitch black as Alan Raw, the presenter of Raw Talent spins the discs.

Sunday

Sunday arrives quicker than ever, so for the hardened aficionado it was time to don the mac, cleanse the head and prepare for another day of live music and epic rain. The bill included an array of talent and even featured the Beached Academy in action. However one of the highlights of the day was Ripon’s The Call.

A band that seems to be causing a fuss everywhere it goes, receiving vast amounts of radio airplay and poster-friendly taglines. One for the pop-pickers out there who loved every minute of their engaging power-pop set that shows they have real potential. It’s straight forward sprightly music of the highest order that seems to work well on the day.

Kava Kava is another mixed bag not afraid to experiment in what they do. They are a concoction of electric soul, funk, blues and rock. On this evidence you can tell why they’ve been round Europe, played Glastonbury and been praised by DJ magazines worldwide. The Huddersfield group are the most eclectic band of the weekend for me, which is why I liked them so much. The fact one minute they would dabble in bleeps, big beats and even horns and the next brass and strings were apparent, left the audience guessing all day long. Each song has about a zillion different phases in and these rare oddities do sound like nothing I’ve heard before.

Disco Down

The rain comes down at Beached

With the festival drawing to a close on a starry night, what better man than Rick Witter and his band, the Dukes, to step in and create a finale to remember? Rick formerly lead singer of ‘Britpop’ legends Shed 7, showed why he was still in the business, with a fantastic piece of showmanship. His voice will never change and the new songs all present on their upcoming album sound familiar to that of his former band. But that’s a good thing to the majority, as the Shed fans have turned up in force to cheer on their hero. New songs ‘The other way around’ and ‘Sky falls down’ are all good additions to his back-catalogue which he uses to his advantage sometimes as we take a great look down memory lane.

The performance starts with one of Shed 7s best ever songs, ‘Getting Better’ sounding re-vitalised and fresh, as the distortion and drums kick like the sound of 1996 all over again. Other songs that feature include the fabulously mellow ‘On Standby’ and ‘Where have you been tonight?’ However the most spine-tingling moment is when Rick dedicates the last song of the night to a friend. The song being the epic ‘Chasing Rainbows’. It gets the biggest cheer of the day with its stunning chorus and strong verse.

Showmanship

What is so special about the performance is Rick’s ability to interact with the audience. He is good natured saying “Where we all off after this? Why not let’s all go back to Stew’s?” He then persisted to jabber with the crowd about X-Factor and get singing impressions from the crowd, with one young man singing the chipmunk song. God forbid! The best thing is you can see how much he not only cares for his music and audience, but he does all this with such charisma.

Until next time

So what have we learnt after another year of Beached? Well for one, the weather will never dampen the carnival spirit on the beach. There will always be an inflatable doll in close proximity. The tents will be pitched in the most stupid places and we shall overcome the tide with strong will power. All this has made for another great and unique year at Beached.

Alex Jackson