Day three…
After accidentally drinking a bunch of vodka and Red Bull and then making the catastrophic decision to follow this with a 2am cup of tea, I spent much of the early hours of Sunday morning wide awake in the midst of a caffeine induced existential crisis. Worse still, I never did get that burrito…
Despite this setback, I somehow made it back to Bingley Music Live in time for Neon Waltz. The band hail from Wick, a town at the very north-eastern tip of Scotland, and they bring some of that small-town charm to Bingley with lead singer Jordan Shearer seeming faintly embarrassed that anyone had turned up at all. Such modesty is misplaced however, as the band deliver their brand of gently euphoric indie pop with aplomb with Dreamers and Bring Me to Light sounding particularly impressive.
Back at the Discovery Stage, Bryde real name Sarah Howells, was displaying her beautiful voice and no-nonsense guitar sound to an appreciative crowd. If she is able to provide more tracks like To Be Brave we could easily be seeing Bryde further up the bill during festival season next year.
Hollie Cook did some nice things on the main stage, her reggae pop sound perfect for a Sunday afternoon in the sunshine. Alas, I was distracted by the first pangs of hungover hunger. I fixed this with a, quite frankly, obscene pulled pork sandwich that required my full concentration. This process was to be shattered by the shouty stylings of Leeds rock band Pulled Apart By Horses.
Their appearance was akin to when you are watching a film that you’re really emotionally invested (or in this case eating a nice sandwich) and then someone comes in half way through and starts trying to have a conversation. They were doomed from the start. In truth, it isn’t really my music and while they play with passion, it is difficult not to concede that it has all been done before by better bands than them.
Faring better are local band done good Marmozets. I was a little dismissive of them at first, wrongly thinking it was more of the same but after a short nap in the grass I emerged refocused and by the end I was a full convert to the church of front woman Becca Macintyre. Her, quite frankly, astonishing voice elevates them above their peers and every band member smashes through their tracks with an intensity and exuberance that becomes impossible to resist. By the end, the show must go down as a triumphant homecoming.
Sheffield band RedFaces are still very much in their infancy having only released a handful of songs but if they continue to cultivate their own sound they have a bright future ahead of them. They deliver a raw and punchy set at the Discovery Stage and pick up a few new fans along the way.
Next up is Peace, a riddle inside an enigma wrapped in a bad haircut. When they are good as on tracks such as Wraith and 1998 (Delicious) they are as good as any band out there. The latter is particularly explosive with guitars attacked with gusto in an extended jam that delivers from start to finish. The fact that such an incendiary song shares top billing with a cover of Avril Lavigne’s Complicated is indicative of how all over the place Peace are. When they want to be a psychedelic guitar band they do it brilliantly, but they spend more time these days making pop music. Here’s hoping they find their way sooner rather than later.
After a day of young and hungry bands leaving nothing on the stage comes Ride and just harking back to their set almost made me drop off at my keyboard as I write this. I know the ’90s shoegazers have got some good songs but they make the bold choice not to play any of them at Bingley 2018. This could be another example of the wrong reviewer for the wrong band but as most people stood around me were looking forlornly into the distance throughout the Oxford bands set, it seems I wasn’t the only one not into it.
Before we get to the main event, a word on Bingley Music Live. When the festival rose from the ashes of Music at Myrtle in 2007, the entire lineup consisted of one stage, two days and 14 bands. The headliners that year were a Jam tribute act and the Charlatans. Fast forward ten years and Bingley has reached a point where it is normal to have 16,000 people packed into Myrtle Park about to watch Noel Gallagher. It is genuinely heartening to see a success story such as this in times when culture is so criminally underfunded. Bravo Bingley. Get some decent food vendors in next time though aye?
OK then. Noel Gallager. The chief strolls on stage and breaks straight into now traditional set opener Fort Knox complete with a full band. And when I say full band I mean backing singers, brass, keys, the whole shebang. At one point someone is playing a pair of scissors for chrissakes.
The set leans heavily on latest album Who Built The Moon? but after so long at the top of the music industry, Noel has earned the right to pick and choose how he sees fit.
The evening really takes off with If I Had A Gun and from there it is all gold. His continued insistence on playing Little By Little is baffling but the rest of the Oasis covers are show stopping. Whatever inspires the first mass singalong of the evening before Half the World Away is introduced with ‘this song is dedicated to Manchester… where you all wish you were from’. Noel jokes with the crowd about being unable to understand their Yorkshire accents but it always comes from a place of warmth and the audience laugh along with him, with the occasional ‘Yorkshire’ chant thrown in for good measure of course.
I’ve seen Noel a fair few times now and I have been a little curmudgeonly about Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back In Anger, but during the former, a young lad in front of me, proudly sporting a Noel Gallagher t-shirt, almost wells up during the unmistakable acoustic guitar opening and seeing the song through his eyes brings home just how important and era defining these tracks are.
AKA… What a Life gets an airing before the only real misstep of the night. I just can’t get on board with The Right Stuff. It is technically impressive but when you have so many great songs in your arsenal it feels like a bit of a waste. I wouldn’t say it to Noel’s face mind.
The last three tracks exemplify why Noel Gallagher is still headlining festivals. First, a rare outing of Go Let It Out, followed by a genuinely moving acoustic version of Don’t Look Back In Anger, before a unifying cover of All You Need Is Love closes out both the evening and the festival.
Bingley Music Live has captured my heart in a way that only a homegrown, medium sized festival can. The whole atmosphere of the place is special and there is a feeling of a town aching to put on a show to remember and be as welcoming as possible.
2018 was my first experience of Bingley Music Live. Rest assured, it won’t be my last.
