Located in the wilds of rural Cheshire, Love Lane Farm plays host (for the third year running) to the Cloud 9 festival. A one day event which, unlike many of its contempories, is decidedly smaller in size, scale and big name acts. That said if the adage about the best things coming in small packages has any heft, then love Lane farm is certainly not to be sniffed at. Cramming an impressive array of entertainment over a 15 hour period, 12pm to 12am for the acts, followed by a silent disco until 3 o'clock in the morning.
The festival itself is the brain child of local farmer Martin Wheelton who got his inspiration not from any Field Of Dreams “If you build it they will come” style ghostly voices in a cornfield. Rather, his idea grew from a request by one of his employees, who wanted to use one of his fields to host a birthday party. The good-natured Wheelton agreed to this, also donating a large marquee tent to house the proceedings. This act of generosity has since snowballed into a main stage and four smaller tents, several food stalls including halal and falafel, the requisite bar and toilets plus camping facilities for 5000 people. As Darth Vader once said to Luke Skywalker “Impressive, most impressive”.
The site opened its doors at 8am for those with camping tickets only. For everybody else it was 11am. There was, in theory, a gate curfew of no admittance after 8pm although I am unable to say if this was enforced. The bringing of own alcohol into the main area was forbidden, the festival goer’s necessity was purchased from the bar with beer tokens which were 3 for a fiver or 6 for ten pounds. Booze cost 2 tokens and soft drinks set you back 1. Those attending on the day needed to ensure they had a steady flow of cash available however as there were no cash machines on site. You were also unable to purchase tobacco anywhere, which was a killer for this reviewer whose supply had all but vanished by 6 o clock.
The main area, as I have already stated, was only small in size so no room for fairgrounds or festival villages here, just a bouncy castle (for a short while) and a pile of sand. Don’t scoff- the kids loved playing in it. For that matter, so did a lot of grown adults! The main stage was located to the far right of the area and featured acts such as ‘Ed Sheeran,’ ‘Gareth Brooks’ and headliners ‘The FutureHeads’ with the tents running around the edge of the perimeter housing the other acts. These tents consisted of the’ Eskimo Mojito’ tent which played predominantly trance and was ostensibly a chill out room featuring acts such as ‘Mark Abbott‘, ‘Broken Beats’ and ‘Scratch Perverts‘. The Euphoric Fuzion Tent played Hard House and Dance for the most part and had sets from the likes of ‘Olly Lennox‘, ‘Gimp‘, and ‘Digital Mafia‘. Plus the Headculture tent and C.A.L.M stage both featured a mixture of contemporary, folk, rock, and indie bands plus a light smattering of DJ sets as well.
The first act of the day on the main stage was Wolverhampton newcomers ‘Shatter Effect’ who had achieved this coveted position via a battle of the bands competition and have been described by some as Electronica for rock fans, which judging by their set is no bad thing. They were swiftly followed by Wythenshawe five piece ‘The Minx’ who have stated that the indie bands of the 90’s have been a big influence on their style, although looking at them on stage, all Ben Sherman and Burberry with song titles such as “This is England“, you couldn’t help but feel a tinge of ska influenced early 80’s anti-Thatcherite rebellion about them. Following shortly afterwards and not only contained to the main stage area was a biblical torrential downpour that saw many (myself included) seeking out the acts in the smaller tents. One of these acts was ‘The Glavins’ who were entertaining a large crowd at the C.A.L.M. Stage with no apparent problems. It was then time for a brief jaunt over to the Fuzion tent to witness a very impressive dance-off in the crowd before ambling back to the main stage to catch the remainder of ‘The Paris Riots’ set- a band who describe themselves as French pop but from the sound of the band and the antics of the lead singer it could be said they possess more than a thing or two in common with Iggy Pop. Following this was’ Black Daniel’, a band who have described their sound as being like “pulling tape off a hairy chest mixed in with a little old spice leftover from Grandpa’s treasure chest”. If you have no idea what that means, think Dr Feelgood, The New York Dolls and a little bit of Disco all fused together to create a fun-filled set that was aided in no small part by lead singer Craig Higgins Lewis Jr‘s likeable and affable stage presence.
Following a wander around the site to take in the sights, sounds and general atmosphere of the day, I happened to chance upon one of the most bizarre occurrences that I had ever experienced. With former Happy Mondays mover and shaker ‘Bez’ being the centre of attention at the C.A.L.M stage. His set was initially hampered by technical difficulties in which the mixing decks had to be changed. Bez filled in this time with a combination of half-arsed mid-chorus-attempted crowd sing-alongs and an incomprehensible rambling diatribe that at one point referenced the former Socialist Labour Party Leader Arthur Scargill! Eventually the DJ was able to get the decks working and proceeded to play several tracks that included Kasabian’s Processed Beats and Aerosmith and Run Dmc’s Walk This Way, all the while supported by Bez, who constantly mugged and shouted into the microphone and indulged in his trademark dancing. It was this singularly unique performance that polarised the crowd into one of two factions, those who clapped and cheered along to one of the Manchester scene’s most enduring and well loved characters, or those stunned into complete silence by the onstage antics of a gurning madman. Either way it was a set that no one was going to forget in a hurry.
Back on the main stage an altogether more professional DJ’ing experience was taking place, courtesy of fellow Mancunian and former Inspiral Carpets keyboardist Clint Boon, who was able to simultaneously bring back a sense of normality (by festival standards!) and entertain the masses. With tracks from the likes of Bob Marley and Joy Division, he had the audience showing their appreciation by occasionally chanting ‘Boon Army’! This was swiftly followed by an impressive set from Leeds New Rave rockers’ The Sunshine Underground’ who, according to several people that I spoke to on the day, are well on their way to becoming the next “Big Thing”. A final DJ set from XFM’s Gareth Brooks before the show’s headliners ‘The FutureHeads’ took to the stage and delighted the crowd with their own brand of alternative post punk indie and showed why it is that they have recently toured with the likes of the Pixies and the Foo Fighters.
It will be interesting to see how the Cloud 9 festival progresses in the future. Will it remain a smaller scale addition in the festival pantheon, that serves as a very important sound stage for unsigned and up-and-coming artists, or will it become bigger in size, duration, and notoriety of its acts? Whichever way fate takes it, I hope it remains as enjoyable and as entertaining an experience as I found it.
Published on 10 August 2011 by moon shot
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