Worcester Music Forum

Worcester Music Fest 2008 - Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th August 2008
Review by Andy O'hare

Well here we go with a round-up of last weekend's mammoth first-ever Worcester Music Festival. 100 bands at twenty-five different venues and I'm sad to say I only got to about a third of them!

Kicked off on Friday in fine style (well obviously) with the Friday Session live at the Marrs Bar - opened up by Mayor Lucy 'Rock Mama' Hodgson on bass! Sparkling bubblepop to start from Will Dance For Chocolate followed by Jamie Knight's tasty threepiece outfit - with added cello for a touch of class. Loads of pleasing melodic stuff from The Amateurs from Kiddy but I thought Claire Boswell had a slight struggle with the sound system - more of Miss B though a little bit later

Great to see Pete Unwin of the Cowleys rolling up on his Harley, Colin and Linda of The Swan With Two Nicks, Siani of The Donns, Neil Ivison, Claire of Harlem Dandy, Stan of The Brethren, Willis of Cape Of Good Hope, Rooney of The Capital, Rachel of Blue Radio and James '11-47' Perry all turning out to support the bands.

A quick blast of Harlem Dandy spin-off The Brazilians before I slipped out the side door and up the road to the Firefly to catch a few bars from Dandelion Killers - plus a quick press of the flesh to Rupert and the Robbers, Joe 'Mr Hereford' Schiavon and ex-Parker outfit Crooked Empire.

Schmoozing over - back to the local to catch the end of thunder-rockers Meg's set before Flo Rowland launched into the most awesome performance I've yet seen from the Worcester warbler. It's now 10 o'clock and the end of the broadcast but there's time still left to catch a swift taste of Cobweb Dilemmas at the Pheasant followed by the bright, young, jangly powerpoppers The Dastards - impressive or what? Nightcap provided by capable indie-covers outfit the Magoos at Drummonds next door - what a great night! - but there was more to come

I knew where I wanted to be on the Saturday of the Worcester Music Festival - and that was at the Marrs Bar for the Little Hellfire all-dayer village fete - much apologies to other bands and venues on the day - I'd make up for it tomorrow though. Wicked kick-off from cosmopolitan swap-rockers Gamble Gamble followed by enigmatic duo Helen's Evil Twin with their frothy ditties about circus freaks and weird stalkers - heavy stuff!

Back to reality with complete rock outfit Silver Tequila showcasing some of their new offerings followed by George Clarke turning in his always immaculate performance - and his songs are pretty good as well!

Great performance from heavy-heavy-rockers Expedestrian before this week's album launch - and this had to be the most melodic stuff I've heard yet from the Bredon foursome. Another set of crowdpleasers from omnipresent songbird Flo Rowland before classy out-of-towners Brontosaurus Chorus produced all the kicks you'd expect from a 7-piece. Great to see Pete 'Mr Worcester' Adams dragged on stage for 'Under The Stars' - another little Hellfire 'moment' moment!

A brief pleasing folky acoustic set fro Pete Austin before a sparklery intro to the original clatterpoppers themselves And What Will Be Left Of Them? Another awesome set from the heartwarming pick of the home-grown talent ahead of their album release - I can't wait (but not on vinyl again please guys!)

As this was my 'day-off' we only had a short time for a brief smattering of 'challenging' emo-punkers Untitled Music Project's bass-heavy offerings before calling it a night - but what would the final day be like?

Well I kicked off Worcester Music Festival's 'Super Sunday' at Keystone's with Jules Benjamin's classy mix of covers and originals - impressive basswork mate!

Sharply over to the 11-47 Club mid-afternoon at the Marrs Bar - and was there a bit of a Ronnie Drew tribute to Pete Adam's acoustic set of Dublinerish numbers? - well I'd like to think so anyway Great to see Stu of the Donns doing his solo set despite freely admitting suffering from a 'whopper' - he wasn't the only one! More pleasing stuff from Haydn and Rachel of Blue Radio plus Shane aka Jasper lending a helping hand.

Time to check out the Five Ways for another but different offering from Stourbridge/Lancashire duo Helen's Evil Twin - get a feeling that we'll hear more from this bunch real soon! Swiftly followed by an all-too-rare outing from enigmatic jazz-funky Zappa-esque outfit Zanders Of Severn - always an excellent set guys! (hint)

Another trot across town (I wasn't the only one) to the Pheasant in New Street for an unexpected little treat from the Abbot Of Unreason, The Arquettes and Highway Five mixing and matching their various exceedingly capable talents for an hour or so of breezy pure enjoyment.

A swift call again at Keystones for a taste of Neil Ivison and The Misers' Crocodile-Rocking set before a sample of upbeat Worcester ska-punkers Skankbox at the Firefly.

Getting late now so no time to lose - we caught 20 minutes or so of 36-Stone spinoff Fallen Angel at The Gun Tavern before racing back into town for rock-opera merchants Da Vinci at the Five Ways and rounded off the weekend with my personal highlight that was Claire Boswell's pitch-perfect guest performance.

Great also to see Chris 'Mr Worcester Music Festival' Bennion also winding up with the 5.15-ish prog-rockers - credit to him, Lisa Ventura and the rest of the WMF organizers for delivering the goods! Roll on next year!