Darlington’s Last Train Home Festival returned for it’s seventh year continuing it’s well deserved reputation for bringing some of the best new music, as well as established acts, to this part of the North East. In addition to live music there’s also a well established comedy stage with some people attending the festival just for this. Organised and promoted by Tracks Darlington, a music collective that promotes events and activities throughout the year for the benefit of local musicians, organisations and audiences. Previous years have seen bands such as The Lovely Eggs, Pins, Pigsx7, She Drew The Gun, LIFE and Hot Wax grace it’s stages.
As it’s name implies the day is timed to finish so that people can catch the last train home to a significant number of places, including Newcastle, York and others further afield. This does, of course, depend on trains not being cancelled or bands running late.
Six stages spread across three main venues with a maximum 4 minute walk between those furthest apart mean it’s easy to get from one to the other. Three stages are in the beautiful surrounds of Darlington Hippodrome, another (the Noisy Daughters stage) is just next door in the modern Hullabaloo Theatre and two are just up the road in The Forum Music Studios. Last Train Home is not a multi-venue festival where you end up completely worn out from walking between venues.
Musically everyone, and I mean everyone (unless you actually don’t like music), will find something to enjoy. Even obsessive music fans/gig goers are very likely to discover a band they’ve never heard of before that completely blows them away. Punk, post-punk, garage, folk, rock, electronic, pop – you’ll find it here. Plus there’s the Hilarity Bites Comedy Stage.
Last Train Home is brilliantly organised, staff are great, it’s full of like minded people. People meet up with friends old and new and if you’re here on your own it’s a guarantee you’ll end up with new mates. To top it all off bar prices slice £’s off those found in places such as the O2 Academy’s, and there’s a range of decent food available, at decent prices, either in the venues or at establishments round about. All this for just £25 advance. An absolute steal. This year saw 34 bands/musicians on the stages plus another nine acts on the comedy stage. Even allowing for clashes this reviewer managed to see twelve bands using a mates rule “you can’t claim to have seen a band unless you’ve watched at least five songs”. Six were complete sets.
Like all festivals there were some absolute ‘must sees’ and some real standouts. There were also bands missed that people raved about later on. Thankfully every band seen was great. From openers No Ripcord with their blend of hard rock and grungy rock n roll, the foot tapping power pop of Feeble Strength, the brilliant The Wednesday Flowers and their rather good cover of Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’, the laid back indie of singer-songwriter and pianist Cora Manchester to the superb, guitar driven, surf influenced garage rock from Calvoas (sadly their last ever gig). There was also time to catch just a few sublime, dreamy, folk tinged songs by J.P. Riggall on the Hippodrome Main Stage, some of the heartfelt, story telling, personal songs by Jade Mia Broadhead in the Hippodrome Foyer and the first part of a brilliant set of electro pop from twin sisters Hannah and Grace (Twayn) on the NARC Magazine stage. And all this was before 5.15pm!
All great artists. However, from this point on it really was full on bang, bang, band and a real credit to Tracks and their booking of some truly electrifying acts. First up was Formal Sppeedwear. This was THE band I’d never seen before that completely blew me away. It might be my age and the memory of some of my favourite bands from my youth but imagine if you can the very best of that funky, punky bass sound of Talking Heads, the sound of David Byrne’s voice, that high pitched, scratchy, piercing guitar from the very best PiL tracks, the wacky sounds of Devo. Now bring it all together to make a noise completely at home in the 21st century and you have Formal Sppeedwear. Absolutely superb and a definite “this was my first time but it certainly won’t be the last”.
Dossers go from strength to strength. Oozing confidence, delivering an explosive live show that’s full of anger, passionate and opinionated. They’re loud and fast and express their disillusionment at the often shit-show that life can be through a set of electrifying songs. It seemed the Forum stage was made just for them – the sound, the lights, the crowd, the atmosphere and the band just seemed to come together for a perfect 30 minutes.
As it did next on the Noisy Daughters Stage in Hullabaloo for Irked. Every time I see them I just think “Wow”. Irked are what punk rock needs right now. A breath of fresh air in much the same way as the original punk bands were nearly 50 years ago. Screaming vocals over manically paced beats and slicing guitars. A band that seem to feed off the energy of each other and, in vocalist Helen, someone who seems able to vent all their anxieties and frustrations through what she does – that is pace through the crowd, on stage, off stage, crouching, standing, yelling for all she’s worth. And whilst this might make them sound aggressive they’re not. Irked play really catchy tunes and they’re great fun with plenty of between song banter. Today’s set mixes new songs with those people know. If you weren’t here then all I can say is if you like what Irked have done before then you’ll love their new stuff.
Avalanche Party headline The Forum and it’s yet another real “Wow” moment only this time it lasts for an hour. The venue is packed, expectations high and Avalanche Party do not disappoint. Whilst it is frontman Jordan Bell who grabs your attention as he pounds the stage, a ball of pent up emotions ready to explode, sweat soaking him before the third song has even finished you can feel the energy simply oozing from the rest of the band. It’s raw, it’s punk, it’s rock’n’roll, it’s straight from the soul. Pounding drums, slicing guitars, rumbling bass riffs and a hint of psychedelia from the keys. It’s visceral, sometimes haunting, sometimes apocalyptic. What it really does is hammer home just how good live music can be. There is absolutely no let-up from the opening notes to the last. A set of songs that makes you really glad you were here today.
Headlining the Noisy Daughters Stage Coach Party have driven up from the Isle Of Wight with singer/bass player Jess Eastwood admitting her geographical knowledge of the north isn’t the best – “I thought Darlington was near Manchester”. Eight of their thirteen song set come from 2023 album ‘Killjoy’ which is no bad thing. Opening with ‘All I Wanna Do Is Hate” what follows is a set of perfect punky pop with occasional hints of some big 90’s Britpop sounds. Coach Party often deal in life’s murkier moments – ‘FLAG (Feel Like A Girl)’ is a vicious assault with a furious shout of “Wanna hurt you bad just like you hurt me” – yet despite the sometimes downbeat topics Coach Party project a real positive outlook. Loads of smiles, anecdotes and a band that seems to genuinely love what they do. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they were late starting which means it’s just over half a set for me and, cutting it fine, I dash for my last train home.
See you next year.
