Underground Festival – Gloucester Guildhall 25th and 26th September 2010

This weekend sees one of the two festivals in Gloucestershire, which will become the playlist to the transfer between summer and Autumn for me this year Gloucester’s Underground Festival (The other being Walk The Line in a few weeks).

It has been a while since I have seen something in the listings for The Guildhall which I’ve been really excited about but Underground was a concrete plan as soon as I heard about the idea and much like Off The Cuff at The Flapper in Birmingham this line up becomes more amazing every week as every band increases in popularity.

The £25 weekend ticket price is a snip considering the incredible line up with Chapel Club and Egyptian Hip-Hop headlining the main stage on Saturday you have two bands generating column inches throughout the music press and Sunday’s Pulled Apart By Horses and Joy Formidable double header also attracting major press attention you have your value for money right there. Once you throw in November and The Criminal, The Xcerts, Throats, Galops, Run! Walk! And more onto the two day bill for the main stage you have two days of music watch before even considering the other two stages.

The Music Glue stage has a good line up on Saturday with performances from Kid Adrift and Sons and Lovers sure to blow the crowd away during eight and a half hours of fantastic live music. Sunday is when the stage really comes to life for me with Hold Your Horse Is kicking off a jam packed afternoon and guaranteeing to blow any cobwebs left over from Saturdays festivities. Throughout the afternoon Shoes and Socks Off, Tangled Hair, Brontide and Tall Ships top my list of must see acts.

If these two line ups don’t start to make you consider timetabling issues with watching as many great bands as you can there is a third and final stage run by the fantastic Risk and Consequence Magazine which again features a load of amazing live acts. For Saturday my personal highlight is Men Diamler who is one of the greatest performers mixed up in the new folk scene and other highlights include Serfina Steer and Sam Little. Again this stage really gets going on Sunday with one of the first performances from Istartedthefire record’s very own super group Falcons followed by Jim Lockey and The Solemn Sun, Joe Summers, TubeLord and the incredible Boat To Row.

I’m genuinely puzzled as to how I will see all the acts I want to see over the weekend and manage to fit in interviews with some of the artists but I will watch as many acts a physically possible. I know one thing though I’m really looking forward to the weekend!

A look forward to 2000Trees Festival

So this weekend starts on Thursday and sees the fantastic 2000trees festival take place on the outskirts of Cheltenham. This festival is my personal favorite and highlight of the summer for me every year This year is no exception with the best line up the festival has ever had and some big decisions to make on which stage to watch acts on throughout the weekend.

Thursday is going to be an interesting one with me and a select few able to get to the site early to set up camp and enjoy a quiet evening of entertainment with acoustic acts and comedy. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what goes down as every year there are rumors about headliners taking the stage on Thursday to play acoustically (please be Frank turner). I’m sure beers will be drunk and catching up will be done late into the night.

Hopefully Friday morning won’t see too savage a hangover but I have Mountain Dew ready for this eventuality. Friday sees an awesome line up with a whole day of amazing music by the look of the line up starting with David Goo and ending with Frank Turner, in between there will be visits to see Midnight Mile, Shoes and Socks Off, Men Daimler, Chris TT, Beans On Toast, Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun, The Xcerts, Pulled Apart By Horses and Gold Heart Assembly. That list isn’t even everyone I want to see on Friday but again it’s sure to be another heavy night of drinking and catching up with the people not lucky enough to be there on Thursday night.

So on Saturday the 2 day effect on hangovers will kick in and despite probably spending the whole of Friday night wasted I’ll wake up feeling fresh but looking like I’ve gone two days without a proper wash. Saturday sees another day of incredible music I will definitely be seeing Ruth Bewsey, Joe Summer, Sparrow and The Workshop, Kill It Kid, Three Trapped Tigers, Sonic Boom Six, Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit, 65Daysofstatic and The Subways. Before submitting myself to the always surreal head phone disco which is sure to confuse as I dance around a field to music that only half the people are dancing to (the others will be dancing to the other channel) again I’m sure Saturday will end in a drunken stupor and long chats about music and anything else that seems very important at the time.

By Sunday the whole thing will be over and I’ll wake up after another night of sleep deprivation pack up the tent and head back home dreaming of the same time next year and wondering who will top the bill.

Every year 2000trees has amazing headliners but it’s the bands you were not yet familiar with that stick longest in the memory. Take last year for example I can’t remember anything about Fightstar (apart from we ate pies whilst watching them) but Imperial Leisure and Dannannackroyd are two of my favorite bands. Maybe that’s not the fairest example due to personal tastes as I did very much enjoy the King Blues and almost every other band.