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  • The Electric Gardens

    This may not have been one of the fashionable summer festivals but for people like me, who like a non-stop selection of indie that hasn't quite made it into the mainstream, it was immense.

    Day 1
    The first act that I really stopped and watched properly was Blood Red Shoes after I had heard that they were good and although not bad they sounded a bit too much like The Subways for me.
    Next it was Pull Tiger Tail who again were decent but nothing particularly special.
    Then off to 2nd stage to see the Foals.. these were pretty dissapointing I thought (this review is beginning to sound like i didnt enjoy it but it gets better now)
    On the main stage next was Kate Nash, an artist who I had wanted to see for a while and she put in a stirling performance. The only downfall to her set was the timing, I unfortunately had to miss out on seeing most of Lethal Bizzle but luckily I did manage to catch 2 or 3 of his songs on second stage, including the amazing Pow! and a cover of House of Pain's Jump Around
    I stayed in the second stage for one of the main reasons i went to the festival, The Holloways who once again were amazing, every time I see them the number of people who really seem to enjoy them rises, especially when generator comes on. Having seen them 6 times now I am still wanting more, another clash of timing though happened during this, I had to miss out on The Pipettes who I had really wanted to see but I just had to see the Holloways
    Next on second stage were the New Young Pony Club, who i managed to bag a photo with earlier in the day, playing a solid set which included most if not all the tracks from their album Fantastic Playroom, it is quite amazing the energetic dancing of the lead singer Ty, she is quite awesome.
    And finally on day 1 was Supergrass who I watched from a way back as I dont know much of their new stuff but nevertheless I enjoyed their performance.

    Day 2
    Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man were the first band I saw on day 2 and although not really knowing much about them I did like the band that two of the members were in before hand Les Incompetence. And they didnt dissapoint with their very charismatic front man and good selection of songs including a cover of a song by the farm.
    Then quickly yo the Main stage to see Hot Club De Paris who although were quite enjoyable, not knowing many of the songs I didnt find particularly inspiring.
    After on the main stage were the Noisettes who despite me not knowing much about were very impressive and I will deffinitely be checking out more from them.
    This succesion of artists was my longest stay in one part of the fields for the entire festival, Milburn were the next band on the main stage and despite technical difficulties and in my opinion too many songs off the as of yet unreleased new album and not enough of the old songs that made them one of my top bands of last year, they still provided a very good performance.
    The Maccabees followed and gave a very good performance and although I think they are a good band, their single Precious Time for me is the only song that really stands out, I left their set 5 minutes early to rush over to the second stage.
    This was because Kid Harpoon was playing, my third time seeing him but the first with his backing band, The Powers that be and they deffinitely gave the performance a very different feel, not better nor worse but different, this performance was one of my highlights of teh festival having never heard the great songs such as milkmaid and late for the devil with a backing group.
    I headed back over to the main stage to catch The Rakes who were unsurprisingly very good, with the strange dancing and banter of lead man alan donohoe just adding to the experience
    And finally Patrick Wolf coming on late dressed in the weirdest concoction of clothing and make-up Ive seen for a while was excellent, in fact much better than I was expecting, I have always just thought of him as a pretencious, cocky man with some talent and he is pretencious and cocky and VERY talented but also does put on a great show and clearly enjoys himself whilst doing so and through his performance gained me as a fan.

    All in all a very good festival, at least 9 if not 10 out of 10, my personal highlights being The Holloways, Kid Harpoon and Patrick Wolf