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Rob Da Bank’s Camp Bestival’s 6th year was circus themed. Clowns, acrobats and every animal under the sun were all in attendance down in sunny Dorset. With over a dozen different tents and stages filled with music, comedy, dance and weddings – Camp Bestival is the most fun family festival around. Especially when headlined by James, De La Soul and Basement Jaxx!
Over 30,000 come each year to get let their remaining hair down and allow their children to run a mock all over Lulworth Castle. Without their being a babysitting tent it’s a wonder what happens to all the children, when their parents throw shapes in the Silent Disco ’til one am? But before the late night disco there was Public Service Broadcasting. The first band on the Castle Stage of the weekend.
Due to some difficulties they come on stage 15 minutes late, but the three-peice dressed in bow-ties and glasses, dress to impress. They certainly did. PSB are an unusal act, they make instrumentals, covered in cut n paste samples. The visuals match the bands samples of early TV with 1950s images merging around with the music on a on TV set side of stage. Front man J. Willgoose, Esq was a one man machine, playing bango, guitars, keyboards and communicating to the audience through pre arranged samples, whilst Wigglesworth pounded out the beats. Another well dressed man looked stressed at at the back, lost in a chaos of leads and screens and gadgets, trying to make sure the visuals did their thing.’ Spitfire‘ and ‘Everest‘ got the best crowd reactions, especially the introduction of live horns for ‘Everest’ . The hippies down the front danced annoyingly around the stage. PSB are certainly interesting, but not sure how much scope they have for longevity. 3.5/5
The Cuban Brothers were up next. The overcast day wasn’t the best arena for the Cuban’s to dance around naked, but don’t worry it didn’t take long for them to shed their fancy get up and remove their turbans and hats. Their onslaught of none family fun was in full swing,bum jokes, peadophile gags and hip-hop at its best. They had their strong fan base up the front, equal men and women in Cuban Brothers fancy dress went crazy for the faux- Cuban’s on stage who now have a new member in Juan Erection. They try to auction the teenager to the crowd – to do ironing, cooking and some “hows the father”. He turns out to be an amazing dancer, who somersaulted and break-danced on and off the stage. They managed to bring out some kids to dance to ‘Single Ladies’ by Beyonce, but they children just froze under the pressure, which was even funnier seeing grown men desperately trying to get some six year old’s to bust a move. It was disappointing that they couldnt enjoy the sunshine, the clouds and light drizzle wasn’t the best way to see the Cuban’s. They are a sunshine band, but after a few more jokes in bad taste and their crowd pleaser ‘Roll Call’ the brothers exited the stage to a massive cheer. 4/5
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As the rain came down it was time to check out the comedy at the Greatest Tent On Earth tent. The ‘adult comedy’ was in the same tent that had previously had an entire day of children’s entertainment. It seemed that many parents were unaware that at Seven it was comedy for two and a half hours.
Jim Smallman compered the tent and warned the audience of what sort of none child friendly acts they were to witness, but none of the children down the front were escorted to safety. Which made it very interesting for the comedians used to playing to a stags and hens, not pre-school and toddlers.
Colin Owens struggled with a mosh pit of under- fives sat in front of him, he did his best work,with improvising with the chaos of the tent and found it hard to express his own material to the crowd of kids, parents and anyone sheltering from the drizzle
Howard Reed desperately tried to appeal to all the elements. He used silly songs about his kids and references all he can to being a family man by gurning and using cheap gadget to win over the kids. But failed to entertain anyone who came for the adult humour.
George Egg buffooned around with mime and magic and the odd pun,but as his set went on he seemed to get quite pissed off by the kids trying to talk to him and especially when a child threw a shoe on stage. I left the choas as a certain guitar hero was due on the main stage. 3/5
Johnny Marr looked sharp, dressed in a hot pink shirt and black attire. Backed by his solid four piece band, they began with last years , ‘Upstarts’ that gets the the audience in the mood for some edgy rock n roll. But as soon as he played the opening riff of ‘Panic‘ , everyone’s prayers were answered- there will be Smith songs. He treated us to ‘Big Mouth Strikes Again‘, ‘Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before‘ a beautiful long version of ‘Please, Please, Please’ and a stonking ‘How Soon is Now‘. I joked about him playing any Electronic tracks, my smile turned to shock when ‘Getting Away With It‘ got a rare outing.
A cover of ‘I Fought the Law‘ kept the crowd jumping, Marr would play guitar riffs as close as he could to the end of the stage and looked like the class act he is. The band ended with an anthemic rendition of ‘There Is A light‘ the crowd sing-a-long, with the morbid chorus, a sight that surely would have made Morrissey grumble. A surprisingly great performance and it would be hard for the headliners James to top. 4/5
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If there is a band who are perfect for a festival it is Manchester’s darlings James. They always have a few crowd pleasers in their worn pockets and they start with rarely played ‘Seven‘. ‘Waltzing Along‘ took its time to get started singer Tim Booth joked that Mark Hunter ( keyboards) should have never have switched from Apple to PC. Not the last of the jokes and Booth and violinist/guitarist Saul Davies, would take it in turns to make the worst jokes possible.
They played half a dozen songs from their new album La Petite Mort. ‘Curse,Curse‘ won over the audience the easiest, with help from Booth singing the song whilst leaning over the audience. They strangely chose to omit the album’s first single ‘Frozen Britain‘, but with stunning tracks like ‘Walk Like You‘ they could get away with it. The slow burner sounded massive live, with its epic dance-outro. An instant classic. The band chose two set lists before they came on depending on the weather. They say thanks to the lack of rain they can play slower tracks, ‘Top Of The World‘ is beautifully performed, with its haunting violin solo. Booth wished Beyonce did that when he saw her, as she chose to play a none crowd friendly set, whilst her fans stood glum in the rain.
James played ‘Sit Down‘, ( obviously) but early on in the set , just to get it out the way. They said they weren’t going to play it, but with so many messages from fans on Twitter they changed their minds. The crowd went crazy as soon as the infamous drum intro rang out. It was cute to see so many little children trying to copy Booth’s frantic dance moves.
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The band made a few new fans tonight and with songs like’ Tomorrow’ and ‘Getting Away With It‘, how could they not? Johnny Marr joins the band for a Manchester reunion (James supported The Smiths, back in the day) and the axe man helps them with BBC 6 Music’s winning Manchester anthem ‘Come Home‘. They leave after a long version and audience participation of ‘Sometimes‘ and come back shortly to quickly fit in their classic ‘Laid‘. James may not be getting any younger, but they are still a great live act. 4.5/5
A fantastic end to a great first day of the festival.
The post Camp Bestival|Friday 1st August 2014|Review appeared first on Hit The Floor.