‘END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL’ – LARMER TREE GARDENS, WILTSHIRE 30.8.23 – 3.9.23
Along with the ‘Green Man Festival’, the ‘End Of The Road Festival’ is one of my current favourites. It reminds me of how ‘Glastonbury’ was about thirty-five years ago, before it was televised. It was an event that was attended by like-minded people rather than by people who wanted to go because they’d seen the festival on TV. Also the bill didn’t include pop megastars drafted in to satisfy the TV audience.
End Of The Road Festival – Friday 1st September
URSA MAJOR MOVING GROUP
Today, Friday, starts at The Folly, which until last year was known as The Teepee. Opening today we have Ursa Major Moving Group, who rather than being a band, is a solo singer/guitarist named Ursula Russell, who is also apparently the drummer for Snapped Ankles. Her Bandcamp page describes her music as “Desire surfacing like an open wound in a toxic scrapheap”. There’s certainly an element of that kind of feeling in her music. She’s a little like an early solo P J Harvey. She’s a bit quirky. There’s quite a bit of quiet / loud / quiet, and she certainly uses some unusual chords.
‘Says Diane’ is a particular highlight. It starts with delicate finger picking, gets heavier from the middle eight onwards and finishes with squalling feedback and effects. When she announces her last song ‘Baby’, she is told that she has two minutes left. So she says that she’s going to go through it at double speed! She doesn’t, which is great as it’s a good song. Hopefully she didn’t get into trouble for slightly exceeding her time. She’s an interesting artist, and has made forty-five minutes seem like a very brief half an hour.
FAT DOG
Next I head across to the Big Top for Fat Dog. I’ve seen them a few times before, mostly at smaller venues where they’ve generally come across as being anarchy on ten legs, particularly vocalist and lead anarchist Joe Love. Normally he spends much of his time in the audience, moshing and singing in equal measure. Today they are on a big, high stage in front of quite a large audience. How will this pan out?
For a start they seem entirely unfazed by both the size of the stage and the audience. They play their debut single ‘King Of The Slugs’, which was released about a week ago. People are Cossack dancing in the crowd. There’s a mosh pit but Joe isn’t in it!!! He’s soon on the speakers stage front, into the pit, on the barrier and into the crowd. It was inevitable really. I shouldn’t let the showmanship get in the way of the music, but it’s difficult not to. The music is a heady mix of rock, electro and rave with elements of jazz thrown in. To be honest, the best way to experience it is to see them live, and this autumn my friends, you have the chance!!! They play Kings Cross Scala on October 3rd, and Guildford Boileroom on October 20th. Get down there!!!
Fat Dog setlist:
1. ‘Vigilantes’
2. ‘Other Side’
3. ‘All The Same’
4. ‘King Of The Slugs’
5. ‘Running’
6. ‘Wake Me Up’
7. ‘I Am The King’
8. ‘Motherland’
ADWAITH
I remain in the Big Top for Adwaith, who are that comparatively rare thing, a band who sing in Welsh. In English their name means ‘Reaction’. As someone who grew up in Wales they make me feel quite guilty. When I was thirteen I could hold a conversation in Welsh. Now I’ve pretty much forgotten all of it. Adwaith hail from Carmarthen and comprise the aptly named Hollie Singer on vocals and guitar; Gwenllian Anthony on bass, keys and mandolin; and Heledd Owen on drums.
There are some lovely sinewy guitar lines and they remind me a little of Throwing Muses. ‘Cwympo’ (Falling) starts off in an unusual time signature which I can’t quite identify, but towards the end it switches to straight 4/4 and speeds up. One song from their latest album ‘Bato Mato’ is particularly surreal. The intro to one song reminds me of ‘Brainstorm’ by Hawkwind! ‘Eto’ (Again) is a love song and is particularly good. Adwaith have songs that should be most successful in bringing the Welsh language to an English audience!
THE MARY WALLOPERS
Next up it’s a trip to the Garden stage for The Mary Wallopers, who I’d been hoping to see at the ‘Victorious Festival’ the week before. Unfortunately they’d had to pull out due to travel issues. No such problems this week thankfully. The band hail from Dundalk, and consist of brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy, plus Sean McKenna. Their line-up is expanded massively for playing live however, and it looks as if this expanded line-up may play on their forthcoming album ‘Irish Rock N Roll’ as well.
There is an inevitable Pogues comparison. The band are fairly raucous but are slightly more traditional sounding than The Pogues were. They’re more political than the Pogues were as well, and also are not afraid to look at life’s dark underbelly. ‘The Holy Ground’ for example, is about a red light district. Their songs cover diverse subjects: there’s a song about what happens to rich people when they go to Hell. Another is about the super rich starting wars and invading neighbouring countries. I wonder who that could be referring to? Yet another song is about having to leave your home to work in another country and being treated like sh*t. ‘Building Up And Tearing England Down’ is about Irish people working in England.
‘The Blarney Stone’ is their latest single. Indeed, it has only been released today. In feel it is not dissimilar to The Pogues & The Dubliners’ version of ‘The Irish Rover’, which is a very good thing. Their single ‘Cod Liver Oil And The Orange Juice’ is saved towards the end of the set, and seems to be the one song that everybody knows. Their penultimate song gets progressively faster and the band tell us to take our drugs because the police are coming!!! The Mary Wallopers are a superb live band, and make a great night out, but their lyrics have a serious message too. They are currently on tour in Europe and then head out to the US and Canada. However, they are back on this side of the water to play Kentish Town Forum on 10th November, and Brighton’s Chalk on 17th November (Tickets HERE). You have been warned.
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA
Next I wander over to the Woods stage for headliners Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I’ve been waiting to see this lot for quite a while, having had them endlessly recommended to me. This is the great thing about festivals: you get to see artists that you’ve been too disorganised to get tickets for when they’ve toured. Well, that’s the case with me anyway! The band originated in Auckland, New Zealand, but are now based in Portland, Oregan, USA. Their core members are singer and guitarist Ruban Nielson, bassist Jacob Portrait, and drummer Kody Nielson, Ruban’s brother. However, live they are joined by touring member Chris Nielson (who I believe is Ruban and Kody’s father) on keyboards and saxophone.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra are purveyors of top notch psychedelic rock, which owes something of a debt to Hawkwind, whilst still maintaining its own identity. This music will take you to places where your forebears possibly wouldn’t approve of. They have a very clear idea of how a festival set works. Although their most recent album ‘V’ only came out six months ago, they’re not flogging it tonight. Instead, their set consists of songs from throughout their career, seemingly with particular emphasis placed on ‘II’, which came out in 2013. They’re a great band to just relax in front of and allow them to take you to other places, which they do quite efficiently. There’s no encore, but there doesn’t need to be. An Unknown Mortal Orchestra show is like a particularly satisfying meal. You don’t need another course. They have no further UK shows booked unfortunately, but as always, next time……
Unknown Mortal Orchestra setlist:
1. ‘The Garden’
2. ‘From The Sun’
3. ‘Secret Xtians’
4. ‘Swim And Sleep (Like A Shark)’
5. ‘The Opposite Of Afternoon’
6. ‘Thought Ballune’
7. ‘Little Blu House’
8. ‘Necessary Evil’
9. ‘Monki’
10. ‘Ministry Of Alienation’
11. ‘Nadja’
12. ‘So Good At Being In Trouble’
13. ‘Waves Of Confidence’
14. ‘Layla’
15. ‘Multi-Love’
16. ‘Meshuggah’
17. ‘That Life’
18. ‘Hunnybee’
19. ‘Can’t Keep Checking My Phone’
www.unknownmortalorchestra.com
BE YOUR OWN PET
So what happens after the headliners finish? Do we all toddle off to bed? Not at ‘End Of The Road’. There are plenty of things to keep you amused for as long as you have the energy, and in my case, often beyond the point where my energy has been expended. However tonight (or Saturday morning to be precise) my day ends where it began, at The Folly with Be Your Own Pet. They’d played earlier in the day in the Big Top but unfortunately I’d missed them, so this works well for me.
I never saw them back in the day (they were originally together from 2004 till 2008) but saw them twice at ‘Primavera Festival’ in Barcelona and Madrid in June and was very impressed with them. They’re described as a punk band, but UK and US definitions of punk differ somewhat. I’d describe them more as bubblegum punk, which is not meant to be insulting, but let me put it this way: they’re a lot nicer than the Pistols and The Clash were. They’ve just released a new album, their first since 2008 entitled ‘Mommy’, and quite a lot of tonight’s albeit short set comes from it. ‘Goodtime!’ in particular is impressive. However, forty-five minutes is over surprisingly quickly, and they close with a cover of The Damned’s ‘Neat Neat Neat’, which pretty much cements their punk credentials in my book.
End Of The Road part two can be found HERE and part three can be found HERE.
Book your ‘End Of The Road’ 2024 Festival tickets HERE.
