Wickerman Festivals 12 and 13

My penultimate Wickerman article commences with the 12th festival which took place in 2013. Dreadzone were back for their third appearance and Dundee rock band Fat Goth were on their second showing. There was as ever the contingent Scottish representation with Primal Scream and singer songwriters KT Tunstall and Amy MacDonald.

On the roster were Welsh folk band Glendale Family, ska bands Random Hand and the 9-piece Amphetameanies from Keighley and Glasgow respectively and some rambunctious ska punk from London’s Buster Shuffle. Casual Sex from Glasgow were very much in the Orange Juice/Fire Engines mould and there was a decent set from the Edinburgh rock and roll band William Douglas and the Wheel.

Also on the bill were Mark Wilson, Maask, Machines in Heaven, Bellowhead, Friends in America, The Hang Project, Galapagos, Mark Thomson & Neil Patterson, The Yawns and Gardens of Elk. Dexys produced a rather limp set, and The Enemy from Coventry were also in town.

Wicker had over the years had many punk bands on the bill, many of whom were ageing and who should maybe give up the ghost! One sparkling exception to this viewpoint was the Rezillos from Edinburgh who were superb and their stellar single 1978 single ‘Top of the Pops’ went down a storm! My fave punk band Stiff Little Fingers also produced a fine greatest hits set.

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The Rezillos. Image Credit Blurt.

The post-burning act was my first opportunity to witness Public Service Broadcasting who were at the stage in full computer voice mode even when acknowledging the audience, they were thoroughly enjoyable, and I have seen them a couple of times since.

The best band of the weekend and arguably the finest ever Wicker performance was from the legendary Nile Rodgers and Chic. They were so accomplished and a visual spectacle and played hit after hit reminding you how many fine tunes he has written/produced. Normally one of our crew would wander off but everyone remained in place for their terrific set complete with dubious dad dancing and I have never seen the festival crowd so engaged!

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The incomparable Nile Rodgers and Chic. Image Credit godisinthetvzine.co.uk

Our accommodation at Dewhurst Towers in Kirkcudbright is literally next door to the Selkirk Arms which has an old-fashioned front room with the portable TV in the corner and fine Guinness on tap. The back room is the food lounge area with a large sunny beer garden, and remarkably it can get proper warm in Scotland in July! They also have lodging rooms and the Proclaimers resided there when they played the festival.

Other pubs in the town were at different times the Gordon House Hotel (AC/DC regularly on the jukebox), Masonic Arms (best pub in town), Commercial (apparently the racing driver David Coulthard has been spotted in there over the years as he was born in neighbouring Twynholm), the Steam Packet (by the harbour), the Royal (used to watch Open Golf) and the Tides (battered establishment where we watched the racing and contained a commendable jukebox).

Wickerman 13 in 2014 had Dizzee Rascal, Shed Seven, Jason Dupuy and the Mac Trio on the bill. The old troubadours Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Idlewild’s Roddy Woomble plus band and the always top value the Beat played. I created a first by catching two individual sets on the Main and Acoustic stage by Colonel Mustard and The Dijon 5.

Also on the roster were Explosion Soundsystem, The New Piccadillys, Neon Waltz, Vladmir, United Fruit, Broken Records, The Zombies, The Feeling, Skerryvore, The Chair, Cockney Rejects, Pale Honey and Schnarff Schnarff.

Another punk band who could still most definitely cut the mustard were The Members. They were a very tight unit and thunderously loud and their extended closing track of Sound of the Suburbs was sublime. British Sea Power were as excellent as ever.

We saw a highly touted Glaswegian three-piece rock band called The Amazing Snakeheads who produced a rip snorting live set to a frenetic packed tent. They had just released their sole album Amphetamine Ballads but disbanded the following year. I have just discovered that tragically their lead singer Dale Barclay died of brain cancer in 2018 at the brutally tender age of 32. I now feel even more privileged to see them in their heyday!

The final band to reference was a terrific vibrant set from a Scottish female 4-piece called Teen Canteen who produced slabs of sugary indie-pop and they since received acclaim and sessions and airplay on Marc Reilly’s 6 music show. 

Manchester Venues 23 to 25

Situated halfway down Oldham Street next to the Dry Bar is the Mint Lounge. I have visited there six times and all those attendances have been part of a variety of multi wristband events.

It was an interesting venue as it is a basement nightclub in its normal ‘day job’ role. Upon entry you head down two flights of stairs which opens into a bar area before heading through the stage. The loos are an adventure as to access the Gents you walk through the Ladies which I am sure will have generated some interesting banter in the past.

My first visit was to see Mimas on 19/10/14 who were a decent Danish post rock band. The following year we went to see the highly touted Kirin Leonard who Marc Reilly had been extolling. Now maybe we missed something but the three of us in attendance were significantly underwhelmed and we scampered off after 3-4 songs to watch something more enjoyable.

In May 2016 I saw Will Joseph Cook, a pop artist from Tunbridge Wells. Later that year we ensured we were in situ to catch a full set by PSYBLINGS. At a previous event I had only caught a couple of tracks. They were in the garage rock genre and they terrific and exuded so much energy into their performance. We had a parlay with them afterwards and they were lovely down to earth lads.

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PSYBLINGS. Image Credit emergingindiebands.com

A couple of years after I saw Joel Baker from Nottingham and my final attendance was to see Alice Jemima, a singer songwriter from Devon.

Further down Oldham Street is the Central Methodist Hall and this venue was for a couple of years the ticket distribution point for the Dot to Dot Festival. At the 2016 Dot to Dot festival myself and Dave Keane were endeavouring to snare all the twenty venues on the roster for that day.

We landed at the venue at some point in the evening to find them having major sound issues. We headed off to tick off a couple more venues and returned about half an hour later to find the situation unchanged. Thinking that our fates were sealed regarding our quest to complete the ‘Full Monty’ of venues, we hung around for 10 minutes.

Then unexpectedly the scheduled act Laureen Aquilina, a singer from Bristol, took to the stage and announced due to the evident constraints she was going to sing acapella. A commendably brave move but by jove she pulled it off with aplomb as she had a superb strong voice.

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Lauren Aquilina. Image Credit Genius

Ticking this venue off enabled us to head off to the final venue Texture. This is a late bar located on Lever Street with a ground floor space and a balcony vantage point. The band in question were called Blooms.

I have been to the venue a couple of other times to see Speak Galactic, a lo fi band from Sweden formed by Owen Thomas, who formerly lived in Brighton. The other being Rev Rev Rev, an Italian shoegaze band who I had high hopes for but unfortunately, they just weren’t loud enough and struggled against the annoying backdrop of chatter in the room.