Every festival I go to, I make the effort to get there as early as possible after gates open and every time I find when I get there, everything is in place, the camper field is half full already and the place is pretty much swinging! So this year I decided to chance my arm and turn up the day before Bearded Theory officially opened and see if I could get in. I arrived at my first proper festival of the year, Thursday lunchtime, and you guessed it, already it was pretty much in full swing with the camper field….. oh never mind, I hadn’t missed any music and, I had an extra day to get my bearings, meet some people, chill out and iron my beard ready for the Sunday “false beard world record attempt” what a great decision!
So, Thursday night, the night I always seem to be running around like an idiot, throwing stuff into a holdall, loading my Ipod, looking for tickets, money and directions, I was sitting in the grounds of the beautiful Kedleston hall in Derbyshire, with a glass of wine and wondering what all the fuss was about. As it turns out, the main fuss was that the “Lock inn”, the smallest of the dedicated music stages, was hosting some kind of impromptu (apparently) music for the evening including two bands that you might ordinarily expect to see on the main stage at most festivals! Folk punks “Ferocious dog” did an amazing job of warming up a packed tent for festival stalwarts “3 Daft monkeys”.
The extra day, and a relatively early night had already done me some good and Friday I woke up fresh and early, not the least bit grumpy that the street drummers have decided to have a practice right outside my van, in fact I was actually enjoying it!
And there I was, still on the campsite at lunchtime, enjoying a bit of light refreshment with a few new acquaintances when my first breath of fresh festival air came, to be honest, long before the air had showed the slightest signs of getting stale! The first act on the main stage were young Scouse band “the Hummingbirds”, heavily Beatles influenced, complete with shades and a John Lennon signature Gibson J45 worn high up on the chest, a gorgeous sound floating in the wind, blustering in and out, carrying their harmonies over and drawing me down to the main site like a Bisto kid hungry for a proper taste of what I could hear. I wish i`d not been so slow getting going and seen more of their set, for a first band on they certainly had drawn in a pretty sizable audience and kept them there for the duration with tight, melodic original songs interspersed with a bit of cheeky banter . I will certainly be checking their website for more info.
I thought that by 1pm on the first proper day of the festival I might have already seen my favourite band of the weekend, but a couple of hours later I was blown away again by a local band who’ve been around the block and are now back together after 15 years apart. “the Beekeepers” in their heyday the were supported by the likes of Travis, played on MTV and signed to “Beggars Banquet” records, they re-formed a couple of years ago, apparently for a one off “farewell” gig, not the most successful farewell by the looks of things! but the experience of their previous life shined through what ever 15 years away might do to a band and they put on what was for me, performance of the weekend, playing a through some of their back catalogue, they also threw in a few new songs suggesting they could be up for a second bite of the cherry?
Following another brilliant performance, this time by “Neds atomic dustbin” the crowd were now moving in their droves towards the main stage ready for the arrival of cult band “New Model Army”, this was as much proof as anyone needed that all the “NMA” tee shirts on display around Bearded theory every year were more than a fashion statement, these people were devotees, this was almost a way of life and the main stage was jammed, rammed, busting at the seams, put it how you want, it was like a home coming!
Not being particularly familiar with the band or its music I was more curious about this than anything over the weekend, could they really live up to the hype? The truth is, they could and did. Its not surprising the band refer to their fans as “family”, this is about the most hardcore and loyal bunch you’ll ever come across, stood on each others shoulders, acting out the lyrics with their arms, this was an impressive performance by band and fans alike, also a really good booking for Bearded Theory.
As always there is far too much going on at this festival to see a quarter of what’s on offer here, but no one can say they don’t cater for all tastes. While Reverend and the makers were closing the Friday night main stage line up with their electro- indie classic “heavy weight champion of the word”, on the Tornado town stage Maroon town were hitting the punters with their own brand of Ska, or if that didn’t take your fancy, “the bar steward sons of Val Doonican” were adding a comedy slant to some of your favourite tunes. Personally, I took a wander around the trade stalls which are all open till midnight and had a curry, though in hindsight, given the standard issue festival bathroom facilities, this may have been a bit risky, but it was late and I was willing to take a chance!
One of the more interesting bands I saw over the weekend was Wiltshire based band “Port Erin” on the Tornado stage, as is often the case at the smaller venues, they were up against a named band on the main stage, so it was relatively quiet, but they didn’t let that deter them from putting on a fine display of some of the most generically un-define-able material I saw here. They describe themselves as progressive pop rock and were here promoting their latest album “wheel inside a wheel”, almost psychedelic in places, it was clever and very tight and as with all bands is saw at the Tornado, the sound was exemplary.
Saturday night and a favourite of mine “Seth Lakeman” was nestled between “the Quireboys” and “Asian dub foundation”, at first, seemingly a bit of a random place for the godfather of new folk, but he has a hell of a sound, for a fiddle, a bass and a wooden box for percussion, and to be honest, he was a really good crossover act between the other two.
Aside from “New model army”, Sundays band line up would probably be what was going to draw people in off the streets as far as music was concerned with the main stage having many fine moments.
Following on from the “Red Barrows” choreographed wheel barrow display, this year featuring a “ring of fire” no less, the annual Bearded record attempt brought in the funniest collection of fake face fur your ever likely to witness, peoples imaginations had been working overtime as beards made from flip flops, bottle tops, felt, corks and wire wool arrived, this was a really funny event that was eventually won by two robots.
The comedy continued with “the Lancashire hotpots”, I only caught the last couple of songs, but they had managed to attract and entertain a massive crowd and got some right old whooping and a hollering with their audience participation, surprising so early in the day maybe, but the sun had come out properly for the first time all weekend and everybody had a smile behind their beard, possibly helped by the thought that we might not all get stuck in the mud when the time came to go home! “the Farm” warmed the audience for the band I had been looking forward to most “Stiff Little Fingers”. Last year I had thought it a brave booking for the festival to have “The Damned” as a headliner and I was wrong, they were amazing and I wasn’t going to have the same thought twice, but would anyone apart from me and a few other middle aged losers, desperately clinging on to what hair and youth the have left really remember S.L.F? But this IS Bearded Theory lets not forget, they seem to specialise in catering for the slightly punkier punter, and when the opening riff of “Alternative Ulster” belted out of the P.A speakers the whole crowd told me that I wasn’t alone, there were women and children singing along with band classics such as “at the edge” “gotta get away” and “suspect device”, and since the charts have seen the emergence of grunge over the last 20 or so years with bands like Nirvana and Green day, all of a sudden this didn’t sound like punk, but just great songs, lets be honest, anyone who can come from a war torn community and write a love song that includes the classic line “hearts a bubble in the rubble, it was love at bomb site” has got to be worth a watch what ever your age!
All that was left was for “the Levellers” to close the evening in front of probably the biggest crowd of the weekend and Bearded theory was pretty much all over for another year.
Im not sure if it’s the case, or just my imagination, but the festival felt bigger this year, not necessarily physically bigger, no less friendly, but maybe slightly less intimate? Like a small festival on the verge of moving up a gear. It would be impossible to have the roster of bands on offer here this year without selling tickets, big names don’t come cheap and people want big names. Bearded theory do have a knack of picking bands that you don’t see at all the other festivals and making it work well, and still within a very reasonable budget for average people. It’s a fun, family friendly festival and this year was as good as ever, I would be disappointed not to be back next year!
Published on 22 May 2013 by insomniac jack
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