Tag: Camera Obscura

Electric Fields Festival – Part 2

This week I shall continue the tale of our attendance at the 2018 Electric Fields Festival in Drumnlarig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway. It was a three-day event, but we decided to head up there for Days 2 and 3 which were the Friday and the Saturday thereby missing Orielles, Ride and James amongst others on the Thursday’s roster.

I now had an extra hour on my journey with the initial leg from Manchester to Preston where I picked up Jez Catlow and Uncle George en route. We then decamped at the Booths Café in Fulwood and nursed a cappuccino whilst awaiting John Dewhurst finishing work. We all then dived into John’s transit van with the additions of his brother’s Paul and Tony who were also in attendance.

Now, fate and timing had dealt us a kind hand due to the fact that Paul’s sister-in-law Bernie had recently opened up a bed and breakfast in Dumfries located centrally near the train station. She generously offered to provide lodgings and fed and watered us for the weekend, a lovely lady she was!   

The Electric Fields ‘Red Stripe’ posse. Image Credit Tony Dewhurst.

On arrival, we had a skelp around some of the town’s hostelries before jumping into a cab down to the festival entrance point. We slid down the hill and it was a green tinged and pretty location, and the weather was thankfully behaving itself.

They had pronounced themselves as being encompassed within the boutique festival category, and the set up reminded me of the Connect Festival I attended at Inverary Castle back in 2007. They also had the huge bonus of a real ale tent which provided a welcome alternative to the frothy Tennents Lager!

It was quite a small site, and the acts played across two areas, the Main Stage and BBC Introducing Stage. I have struggled to find a day bill listing so am going to rely on my memory as to who I think played each day.

First up were Out Lines who are on Mogwai’s Rock Action label and are a collaboration of Kathryn Joseph, producer Marcus Mackay and Twilight Sad’s James Graham and they had recorded their one and only album ‘Conflats’ the year before.

There was then some psych-pop from Hallo Maud, MC rapping from Lady Leshurr, indie rock from Soccer Mommy and ex Coventry University students Feet, hip hop from Edinburgh’s Young Fathers and a perennial festival appearance from The Coral.

I witnessed a decent country folk set from Tracyanne & Danny who were a collaborative project consisting of Tracyanne Campbell from Camera Obscura and Danny Coughlan from Crybaby. There was a fun performance from the old troubadours Idlewild who I was witnessing for the seventh time and then Teenage Fanclub who fitted into the day like your old Arran sweater!

The most enjoyable set of the day was from Public Service Broadcasting. They were in fine form and the best I have seen them, and they had just recently expanded their sound to include sporadic blasts of joyous brass which only enhanced the sonics of their performance. There were then some predictable taxi shenanigans, but we eventually made it back to our digs.   

On the Saturday we attended a couple of pubs on the other side of the river to make it easier for a tax pick up. In one hostelry there were a posse of disgruntled Queen of the South fans, Dumfries football team, who had left the nearby ground in disgust when they were 4-0 down to Ayr at half time!

Idles on stage. Image Credit www.pinterest.com

I saw a portion of the Horrors set and some rock/dance crossover sounds from Makeness which consists of a UK based producer called Kyle Molleson. The latter has recently had his biggest tour so far with a support slot with Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I also caught a noisy performance from Brighton band Black Honey and a couple of tracks from Noel Gallagher & the High Flying Birds on the Main Stage.  

My favourite three acts of the day were on the BBC Introducing Stage with first up being Baxter Dury. He has chiselled out of a music career for himself and moved away from being famous just for the fact that he was Ian’s son. Next on were Sunflower Bean, a three-piece from New York who I thoroughly enjoyed with their swirly sounds, reminding me of Fleetwood Mac and The Orielles.

 The undeniable highlight was Idles who are a proper throwback band with their socially conscious ethos, passion and glorious intensity. They pour everything into each performance and must be absolutely exhausted afterwards. The only downside was that we had already booked a cab for a specific time which resulted in only catching two thirds of their show, and I never yet seen them again!  

The New Bazaar. Image Credit cdlh.co.uk

The day’s music wasn’t finished though as when we landed back in town, we headed to Dumfries New Bazaar. The pub’s main claim to fame was that it was the location of the formation of the aforementioned Queen of the South and there is a plaque to commemorate that first formal meeting on 26th March 1919. On the night we saw a local band called Nearly Not Guilty which wrapped up nicely the weekend’s entertainment.

Manchester Venues 176 to 177

LEAF began in 2007 as a small tea shop run by friends located within a Liverpool city centre gallery before swiftly moving up to a larger setting in Parliament Street where they hosted pudding clubs and album launches. They upgraded again in 2010 when they moved to their current home on Bold Street and they stock over sixty varieties of rare teas and have won various awards.

They decided to expand into another city and in 2016 opened up Manchester LEAF on Portland Street in the Grade II listed site where the CUBE gallery used to reside. They described themselves as having a ‘semi-Scandanavian feel’ and there were three separate private spaces available for business or private dining events, with room for either thirty, seventy or three hundred guests. They served food all day and had a licence until 2am at the weekends. I have just read though that the  Manchester branch closed its doors permanently in 2022.

Manchester LEAF. Image Credit premierconstructionnews.com

I visited there just twice (but on the same day) as the venue was on the roster for the 2018 Dot to Dot festival and the place had a welcoming bohemian feel to it. Our first arrival was around 5.30 in the afternoon where we grabbed a cold one and on a pop up stage we saw a singer/songwriter called Tom Lumley playing.  He derived originally from a small village in Cambridgeshire, and it was a solo performance. Since then, he has formed a band called Tom Lumley &The Brave Liaison who released their debut album ‘Everything’s Affected in 2021.    

Much later on that day, we returned and caught the last song from a four piece called MCRAE who initially formed in 2013. They however broke up a decade later by rather appropriately playing their last ever gig on 27/05/23 at the site of their first ever show on Barnoldswick Town Square.

There then occurred a ‘sliding doors’ moment as at that stage Uncle George, John Dewhurst and I were just looking for one last drink before sending the lads home on the last train back to Preston. The bar had just shut in Leaf, so after a quick discussion we then headed down randomly to the Temple Bar.

MCRAE. Image Credit louderthanwar.com

When we sat down I was approached by a chap who asked if he could sit by us and I noticed his Dot to Dot wristband and we got to chatting about music, Mogwai and his Coventry background. This chap turned out to be Marcus who at various later dates was my conduit to meeting his girlfriend Anita, his old pal Tris and her fella Ross.

Gill and I are now firm friends with them all and I then think back that if Leaf had still been serving beers we would in all likelihood have never met, a situation that would sadden me greatly. Marcus and I have now attended around eighty gigs together, but we still joke about the fact that we initially met in a bar that used to be a public toilet!   

In 2016, the owners of NoHo and Dusk til Pawn decided to open a European style subterranean beer hall in the Northern Quarter. Their venue of choice was to base Manchester Cooper Hall in the old location of Copacabana salsa club in Sevendale House off Dale Street. Within there they incorporated street food traders, DJ’s and a plethora of European beers including freshly brewed Czech Republic Tank Pilsener Urquell within the 300 capacity space.  

Manchester Cooper Hall. Image Credit confidentials.com

The name was selected to pay homage to the history of the building, which was originally completed in 1903 and utilised as a trade warehouse for I.J & G Cooper. There was an extensive £6m refurbishment in 2014 of the 120,000 square feet Grade II listed site, and other tenants include Foundation Coffee and Ticketmaster.

The hall had a vintage feel with reclaimed wood benches and tables and original features including glazed brick walls and large skylight windows and I took an instant liking to the place though I have just read that the bar sadly permanently closed in 2022. 

It was also selected as a venue on 2018 Dot to Dot monorail and on our particular visit we saw a local combo called Champions of Youth, a five-piece indie act who rose from the ashes of previous band Amida. Amida were highly touted when they formed in 2005 and garnered support slots with the likes of Tender Trap, Camera Obscura and Subway Sect prior to their split in 2012. The group we saw had a vibe of late 1980’s and 1990’s and I could understand the cited reference points of Pavement and the Wolfhounds.