Having given London a sizable slice of time, the question was what to do next. I'm ridiculously easily pleased, so it often takes a fair amount of inventiveness to decide how to spend my time, what with the pressures of expectation and all. Of course, I would be a massive hypocrite if I let those pressures hold sway, so I allowed the tide of time and circumstance to carry me a while instead.
Before I left London I hooked up with everyone's favourite front-woman: Helen from Shrag. She was putting up a couple of Californian friends of friends for the night so we aided them through to the early hours and their transfer to Stanstead. Added bonus of a new facebook friend on the West Coast, should I need any guidance later in the year. Helen also mentioned Indietracks festival, and proffered a spot on the guestlist thanks to her new ambassadorial role as the face of Fortuna Pop.
Given it was still a couple of weeks until Indietracks rolled around, I took to the internet and spotted a dirt cheap offer of Truck festival tickets. The line-up was reasonable and weather reported to be fair, so I snapped up a weekend pass. From what I understand, capacity had been almost doubled, with stages added but, having far from sold out, it was an easy job to get a decent view of the bands you wanted to. I fear for its' future though - it felt terribly empty. Personal highlights included The Cellar Family (part of the current Oxford pantheon of new bands, but 80's Matchbox, totally opposed to the wannabe-Yeasayer crowd), Lanterns on the Lake (who, unfortunately, are so akin to a Sigur Ros fronted by Hope Sandoval, it's basically impossible for them to ever truly 'make it') and Treefight for Sunlight (a slightly surfy slightly reverby fully Danish harmonising foursome, who were great). The recent coincidence theme continued apace, with a number of former classmates in attendance, one of whom I probably hadn't seen for almost 15 years. A scarily long time ago.
I must mention the origins of Truck: it started as a birthday party gig in a field for some bloke from Oxfordshire, and is now in its 14th year. It's got a real family feel, much like that of Dragonfly, with the Sunday headliners fronted by one of the organisers. We were treated to an unscheduled 'Truck Allstars' gig after the last band of the weekend, as they performed Rumours in its entirety, a real sing-a-long-a-thon to end the weekend.
So, from Trucks to Tracks.
Indietracks is another small boutique festival, this in its 5th year, which is dedicated to Indiepop. It is probably the most partisan of all festivals; rumours abound that everyone in attendance is in a band. You may think the coincidences would end...well, who should be there on a whim but Kate Bentley and a bunch of Altwood girls. Bizarre. Help Stamp Out Loneliness were unexpected main stage headliners after a power outage curtailed the Saturday night, and they stole the show.
The weekend was great, I had a totally awesome time hanging out with famous people, totally awesome.
[A week later and I find myself sat in the lounge of a beautiful hostel somewhere in the South Downs when a hazy vision of 'The Thong Song' materialises in my mind, but Sisqo is nowhere to be seen; in the vision the song is performed by Helen, and maybe Jervis, or Monster Bobby, in a Swedish sauna. It should be unsettling but, for some reason I can't explain, it isn't. It's actually comforting.]
Yep, the series of decisions I've taken the last few years that have led me to Indietracks are some of the best I've ever made.
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Number 6 on the list: Splitter van/driver for hire
Experience, clean licence recently renewed, requires investment (offers welcome), industry should be sustainable...there will always be live bands, won't there?
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