Bingley Music Live - Sunday

• Posted: Mon 5 Sep 2011
• By: Kev

A fairly early start for us on the Sunday, as the bulk of people I want to see are on early on. Unfortunately due to yesterdays drinking, I don’t manage to get up in time to catch Geek and Kingheadlock who have both played for The Beat Surrender before and instead make it into the festival grounds in good time to see Stereo MCs.

The Dutch group (we had some debate between us on this before a third party confirmed we were both wrong with the place of origin for the group), have been active with new material in recent years and despite being a long term fan of the group, I’d never seen them live.

Myrtle Park was once again filling up nicely with a friendly and well behaved crowd and the Stereo MCs would prove to be the perfect Sunday afternoon band, providing one of the highlights of the festival for me.

As you would expect from the experienced group they blend in a bunch of new tracks from their forthcoming album, alongside material from previous long players, all the way back to their debut Supernatural.

Rob Birch races around the stage like a man possessed (especially for his age), squatting his wiry frame on the edge of the stage when he wasn’t playing guitar, he delivers the lyrics crisply and in harmony with the rest of the group, the result is a bouncing crowd.
 

Connected and Step It Up come towards the end of a very impressive set, definitely the best I see that weekend and it shows that they are still very much a viable festival act.

The Sunshine Underground manage to aptly deliver the first blistering rays of sunshine of the day, i've seen them several times before and they don't get off to the smoothest of starts, but a couple of tracks in and they settle into their groove and the sound settles down for them.

They have a good rapport with the crowd having played the festival before, their onstage banter is infectious and the music is equally well received. I'm sure they'll be back in a few years time....

Eliza Doollittle follows them and its hard to write a review of her without mentioning those legs, the guys in the audience are glued to the stage and its as much to do with her pins as it is the summery pop music she delivers.

She can definitely sing (and just to prove she isn't a one trick pony she also plays a bit of piano as well), she does a decent Bill Withers cover in and amongst tracks from her debut long player...and while it may not be the coolest thing to admit...I kinda like her.

I've never really been a huge fan of The Coral over the years and have never bothered to check them out live. They sound far more cohesive live than I expected and as as I find myself humming along to track after track it dawns on me that I probably like them a lot more than I thought and they impress in the same way that Athlete did the day before.

We get an unexpected treat when we nip back to the press area during the groups set, its purely for our last refreshment of the day, but on entering the bar we find a group gathered around one corner of the tent and people stood on chairs angling to get a better view.

The reason is for local lad Dynamo who brings a flair and panache to card and magic tricks that instantly draws you into his performance. He blows one sceptic out of the water with one trick and i'm glad I kept quiet about being a potential sceptic myself....i'm certainly not now that's for sure.

Unfortunately due to my own gig promotion commitments I don't get to see Chase & Status close the festival, but from what i've been told they put on a hell of a show and we do miss a very good performance.

It's pleasing to walk away from the festival knowing it's been a massive success, the extra stage albeit low key was a real plus as well and it would be good to see them maybe even expanding the number of stages for another year to give more unsigned bands a chance. As a value for money festival that delivers for all the family though, it really does take some beating. Hats off to you once again Bingley.