Bingley weekender
August 30-September 1st 2019
After a very long 6 hours of travelling and waiting, due to Northern trains being shambolic, we arrived on Friday about 6pm in time to catch a few of the acts. We started on the main stage with Gang Of Four, a funk rock band who started in Leeds in 1976 and have had several line ups ever since.
We stayed for a few songs but due to main stage acts being quite behind the time schedule we headed over to the discovery stage to catch Kawala. This alternative indie band from London were a massive hit with the young crowd who had gathered in front of this intimate stage, we had great music, singing, energetic dancing and humour from the guys.
Back to the main stage next to catch The Idles, eventually. The set was way behind schedule by now and the band were on stage a good while sorting things out before they even started. You knew what you were in for as soon as guitarist Mark came out just in his underpants. This punk band from Bristol were raw and raucous, spitting, swearing and generally entertaining to watch, they definitely got the crowd moshing and throwing beer. I could have stayed longer but James Walsh was playing the discovery stage and I needed to be front and centre for that one.
The Starsailor singer took to the stage alone for a beautiful acoustic set, his voice as haunting as ever sounded spot on, although his mic stopped working for a little while. He had the guys running around confused for a bit to what had happened before he told them he’d only accidentally pulled the lead out.
He began the set with Good Souls and played many other hits, Alcoholic, Poor Misguided Fool, Silence Is Easy and Four To The Floor and also treated us to his beautiful new solo track Until You Find Someone. He was definitely the highlight of the night for me. The headliners on Friday were 90’s band Ocean Colour Scene who sounded amazing but unfortunately due to being so late on and we had trains to catch we only caught 4 songs but it looked like the crowd were in for a bonanza of hits as they started with You Got It Bad, Profit In Peace, So Low and July.
Due to work commitments we couldn’t make Saturday but some of the bands on were The Blinders who always put on a great show, Circa Waves, Tom Grennan and headlining the main stage were The Doves.
Sunday was a great mixture of old and new bands. Anteros on the discovery stage and Miles Kane on the main stage were superb. There was also a stage for new, upcoming bands and a comedy stage but there just wasn’t enough time to check any of these out. The crowd was much bigger tonight and they all flocked to the main stage for 80’s legends Echo And The Bunnymen.
Surprisingly I knew more of their hits than I thought, The Killing Moon, Seven Seas, Lips Like Sugar, The Cutter and Nothing Ever Lasts Forever.
The headliners of the night have got to be one of the best live bands when it comes to festivals and James played the best set I’ve seen from them. They began with Waltzing Along and it didn’t take singer Tim long to descend into the crowd where he stayed for the full track and on his way back to the band he said ‘testing muscle’. Muscle must be fine as he probably spent about 50% of the set off stage, standing on the railings, crowd surfing and generally mingling with his adoring fans.
They played quite afew tracks from their new album, Living In Extraordinary Times. Hank with its distinctive drumming, What’s It All About, Leviathan and Many Faces which always gives the crowd a chance to sing back to the band and is always very moving especially at festivals.
So many hits from the bands back catalogue were played too, Ring The Bells, Tomorrow (Saul commented on the fact he’d forgotten what a brilliant song it is), Getting Away With It, Just Like Fred Astaire, Come Home, Sit Down, Moving On and an acoustic version of She’s A Star.
They just had time to squeeze Laid in at the end and Tim had a cheeky little banter with the lady who was signing for the deaf, saying he couldn’t wait to see what ‘she only comes when she’s on top’ was in sign language. At the end of the song he asked her to repeat the line and she got a rapturous applause from everyone. The whole band were faultless and I don’t think anyone left Bingley feeling disappointed.
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