Splendour Festival 2012

With the “unpredictable” British summer weather now having become predictability humdrum over the past few weeks, festival-goers weren’t brimming with enthusiasm at the prospect of being soaked to the bone during Nottingham’s Splendour festival. So, to learn that we’d all been slightly premature in pre-judging the weekend’s weather, made the glorious sunshine that spontaneously broke out over Wollaton Park all the more enjoyable.

The park bore a noticeable resemblance to Knebworth House. Although, I can imagine there are still Oasis fans awakening from alcohol-induced comas in the vast grounds surrounding Knebworth and wandering around asking, “have Oasis been on yet?” Only for the poor, bewildered soul to be told its now 2012, Britpop no longer rules and that he may want to seriously consider changing out of that loose-fitting Ben Sherman shirt. But, one act on the Splendour bill that seems to be of the same song-writing ilk as the Britpop-brigade is local lad, Jake Bugg. With Bugg being championed by the likes of Zane Lowe, a Jools Holland performance under his belt and an upcoming slot supporting Noel Gallagher, he’s being hailed as one of the countries most formidable young artists – and just one of a number from Nottingham’s burgeoning live scene. I’d overheard excitable crowd members also dubbing Bugg as “the English Johnny Cash”, although I personally think that’s a fairly lazy comparison and one that underestimates Jakes range of influences. But, unfortunately, its going to be unavoidable for any artist playing slightly country-esque riffs to not be compared with any of the past country giants, with Cash being number one on the list. Yet, for me, his influences lay a lot closer to home. His track ‘Lightening Bolt’ could have easily been directly lifted from The La’s self-titled album. His songs contain dirty vocal sounds and lyrics encouraging escaping the dirty town you live in, while at the same time retaining a Mavers-like pop/melody sensibility and clearly showing his ability to craft a shining pop-song. There is one thing that is definitely clear about Jake, and that’s that there is a huge amount of expectation on such a young mans shoulders from all around him – fans, DJs and music press alike. Hopefully, that weight of expectation doesn’t turn itself into a burden and stop this artist from progressing, because the boy has talent in abundance.

Another act on the bill that once had the staggering ability to write perfectly crafted pop-song were Razorlight. Until they fell into relative obscurity and after a turbulent few years coupled with extreme line-up changes, Johnny Borrell and his unusually dressed mob are back. I was intrigued to see how the group were doing after being a big fan during the early days and often going to watch them in dingy basement venues around Manchester. I must admit, Borrall hasn’t lost any of his youthful arrogance and stage presence, but it’s difficult to see a once promising act seem so flat and lifeless. Not that Johnny was flat and lifeless, his showmanship and exuberance are still as strong as ever. Although old hits like ‘Golden Touch’ were ultimately well received with the vast majority bellowing the lyrics back at him, it seemed that some of the material had become stale and hadn’t dated well at all.

It’s incredibly hard to tell just exactly where it went wrong for Razorlight. That youthful arrogance many were fond of could have been partly to blame, or it could have been the uproar within the group. Yet personally, I think the fans felt they’d become alienated somewhere amid ‘Up All Night’ and ‘Razorlight - I should know, I was one of those fans myself. Their debut, although offering brilliantly original songs, was far too polished during the production and mixing process. The groups spiky riffs and live improvisation was totally lost when put down on the record and took away from what most of their gig-going army of fans loved about the group. It’s tough to see an act I once had such high hopes for wheel themselves out as some sort of novelty for people who remember ‘Golden Touch’ or ‘America’. I think the bands real test of character/artistic merit, or whatever you’d like to call it, comes when they release their fourth studio album. 

I’d been catching up backstage with an extremely animated Katy B post her main stage performance until it was time to head over to watch ex-grime star turned pop hit machine, Dizzie Rascal. Luckily for us, and slightly to the annoyance of some of the crowd, he took to the stage fashionably late like any self-respecting headlining artist would be expected to. At least he wasn’t all Nicki Minaj about it – demanding the staff and crew cut the grass around his dressing room and throwing a strop. Standing in the pit and looking out over the crowd, it almost seemed like every single person in attendance had descended on the main stage for the performance. Although the festival had an overwhelming family atmosphere with people attending of all ages, the Rascal turned it into a mammoth 20,000 people strong party as the sun set over the hills of Wollaton Park. With his entourage in tow, the atmosphere intensified as they blistered through a set of recent hits and his old skool classics. New material like “Bassline Junkie” was greeted with mixed reactions from the kids, most just bobbing their heads back and forth as a seal of approval. Yet, it was evident the crowd were here for nothing but the hits, and who could blame them, it’s what he has now come to do so well. He didn’t so much bring the curtain down, rather tore it down on yet another successful year at a local festival that’s going from strength to strength in establishing itself as on the UK’s most desired one-day events for festival-goers.