This weekend`s Vince Power-curated Hop Farm festival in Kent will be host to a most spectacular sight, that of numerous skinny-legged indie stars going toe to toe against ex-professionals and vaguely famous reality TV bods alike.  Yes, it`s another Celebrity 5-a-side tournament!

On both Saturday and Sunday, eight teams will compete against each other showing varying levels of soccer skills. 

Saturday will see The Pigeon Detectives, British Sea Power and The Sunshine Underground (remember them?) take on the likes of ex-footballer and professional reality showman Lee Sharpe and Jeremy Lynch (who google tells me appeared on Britain`s Got Talent with a football recently).

Meanwhile Sunday brings European flavour from Belgium in the form of a 2 Many DJs team going up against Kid British, No Fiction and Joy Formidable, criminal gold-digger Jack Tweed and statuesque former Welsh number one - the legendary Neville Southall.

With this much excitement fans may very well forget to check out the excellent Hop Farm bill including Paul Weller, The Fratellis, Pigeon Detectives, The View, Editors, Doves, Ash, Etienne De Crecy, 2 Many DJs and Scratch Perverts.  Never fear though, we`ll be there bringing you full coverage.

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

Green Man Festival has announced the last of its headline acts, Sheffield’s finest Parisian exile, Jarvis Cocker. Jarvis will round-off Saturday night, acting as the meat in an Animal Collective-Wilco headline sandwich. The Jackson-baiting one joins a raft of new additions to the bill, including Blue Roses, Emmy The Great, Noah & The Whale, James Yuill and The Aliens.

Tickets cost £115 for adults, £99 for students and £50 for teenagers and are available from www.thegreenmanfestival.co.uk.

Bob Ferguson (View Original Article)

Saturday 4th July 2009 

The Hop Farm Festival started for me with a leisurely ten minute drive from my house. That’s one in the eye for all of those who had to travel from far and wide in order to savour the delights that the festival had in store for us and, although many people claim that the campsite provides the very essence of any festival, I was looking forward to going home for a good night’s sleep! After being held up in the guest list queue by some tits who thought they were on the list but quite clearly weren’t, it was off to the press tent for a look at the day’s schedule. Why pay the quite frankly extortionate price of £5 for a guide when a few clicks of my camera phone could do the job?!

All of this meant that I, somewhat predictably, missed the opening band of the day, 12 Dirty Bullets but seeing as how they didn’t seem to be on the pre-festival billing anyway I didn’t mind too much. So the honour of being my first band of the day went to Howling Bells. Out came Juanita and co and launched in to a set that included their most recent singles ‘Digital Hearts’ and ‘Cities Burning Down’. I have a theory that those Antipodeans put something in their water as they produce some fine looking women. This is a theory that Ladyhawke managed to back up the following day. Unfortunately for the Bells their early time slot meant that they weren’t getting the most out of the crowd but they still managed to hold their own and engaged with a fan with an air horn. Next up were Noah and the Whale, who I can remember alarmingly little about. I have no notes, no photos and can vaguely remember a very enthusiastic, floppy-haired violinist and a big reception for their much loved ‘5 Years Time’. Maybe my drink was spiked...?

Looking around the site it was good to see a lot of families in the crowd, many with picnics, introducing their children to the joys of live music. It’s refreshing to see a family orientated festival that can still be enjoyed by the older people as well, even if it does mean that we have to endure parents with their kids on their shoulders standing right in front of us!

Keeping up with the no branding, ethical love-in nature of the festival, between all of the acts I was delighted to see a man giving out free hugs and plenty of festival goers taking advantage of his generosity. Unfortunately he disappeared before I could document his activities.

Having refused to enter the photo pit at the front of the stage up to this point because of a severe case of camera envy, the arrival of Florence and the Machine prompted me to throw caution to the wind and enter the fray. I’ve been listening to her debut album, ‘Lungs’, almost religiously for the past couple of weeks so she was naturally one of the acts that I was looking forward to most and she didn’t disappoint, owning the stage from the moment she stepped out on to it. Many critics have mentioned her ‘eccentric’ performance style but I don’t think it’s too eccentric. People tend to forget that she’s only 22 and she’s just very obviously having a great time. Twirling and dancing her way through previous singles such as ‘Dog Days Are Over’ and ‘Kiss With a Fist’ the songs take on a whole new life and showcase her hugely impressive vocals. "This is `Cosmic Love`" she says, "the name’s kind of lame but it started off as a joke and then stuck" before launching in to the album highlight. Finishing off with current single ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)’ she leaves the stage to rapturous applause and was one of the highlights of the weekend.

After Florence I set off to explore the site and was impressed by the sheer amount of t-shirts and silly hats that could be packed in to one field. One thing that I was impressed and appalled by in equal measure was the persistence of the girls trying to give out massages. After walking past for about the millionth time they must have recognised me and yet time after time they kept on offering. Maybe they were attracted by the dashing shade of scarlet I’d turned by that point, having been caught out by the sun.

Anyway it was back off to the main stage for every Dad’s favourite: Echo and the Bunnymen. I can’t help but feel that the generation gap was never so obvious, with the exception perhaps of Paul Weller, than when they were treating the crowd to old favourites such as ‘Seven Seas’ and ‘The Killing Moon’. Despite this fact it was a privilege to watch some true giants of British music. In a complete reversal the youngsters went wild when the Ash strolled on to the stage, barely acknowledging the crowd before launching straight in to a spirited rendition of ‘Girl from Mars’. Displaying a slightly rawer edge since the departure of Charlotte Hatherly the three-piece proved that they could still make a sound that would put most other bands to shame as they performed a very balanced set of old and new, including the heavy ‘Orpheus’ and ‘Kung-Fu’. They also showed any Radio 2 listeners how ‘Shining Light’ (covered by Annie Lennox) is supposed to sound and finished up, as always, with their anthem ‘Burn Baby Burn’, provoking arguably the biggest crowd reaction of the day so far.

I then missed mumbling Scottish rockers The View as I was putting my blagging skills to the ultimate test in order to get a quick interview with Ash after their set (see elsewhere on the site).

Perhaps it was the rush of being allowed in the photo pit because I have slight regrets now that I only stuck to the main stage on the Saturday to see The Pigeon Detectives and The Fratellis complete the day’s music. I would have liked to have seen Bell X1 on the Third Stage and everyone I’ve spoken to have said that White Denim and The Sunshine Underground were both brilliant on the same stage. However, The Pigeon Detectives were great fun to watch with front man Matt Bowman’s boundless enthusiasm leading him to run around the stage, twirl his microphone and just generally trying to combine the frontmanship of the likes of Mercury and Jagger. I’d also forgotten just how many good tunes they’ve put out over the last couple of years and found myself rediscovering them all over again. I don’t really have much to say about The Fratellis’ set. Although they’ve been headliners at various festivals over the past year or two I see nothing in them that justifies their billing. The success of the biggest hit ‘Chelsea Dagger’ was down to it being, as I would describe it, ‘a chant for morons’ rather than through any actual musical ability. Even so, the last time I saw them at Radio 1’s Big Weekend last year in Maidstone, they were surprisingly fun but here they were just a bit limp and it was a disappointing end to the day. 
 
Sunday 5th July

I unfortunately missed the first band of the day, That Petrol Emotion, in remarkably similar circumstances to the previous day, but I was able to catch up with them later for a chat about life back together again. After heading to the press tent to get the timings for the day, and being harassed by the massage girls, again, it was off the see The Rifles on the main stage. Lumbered with the same early slot that had plagued Howling Bells the day before the London boys fared slightly better than their Australian counterparts but there were still plenty of disinterested picnickers, which was disappointing considering the very accomplished performance that they were (supposedly) being treated to!

I was slightly, perhaps annoyed isn’t the right word, but disappointed maybe, that I had to miss the first half of Ladyhawke’s set but I did so in order to grab an interview with The Twang, who were due on stage about halfway through the day. However, the few songs that I did manage to see the New Zealander perform were highly impressive. Dressed as a kind of grungey eco-warrier with a Nirvana t-shirt and floral headband she effortlessly floated through songs such as ‘Paris is Burning’ and ‘My Delirium’ and left the crowd wanting more. Next up were Mystery Jets who I’ve never really had much time for but their live show was surprisingly good and certainly gave a new life to songs that just sound plain dull once they’ve been recorded.

After watching the opening songs from The Twang, with double front men, Phil Etheridge and Martin Saunders swaggering around the stage, I headed off to the Third Stage to see a bit of Fight Like Apes, who I’d heard good things about. They certainly were creating a hell of a noise in there but the crowded conditions inside the tiny tent meant that I decided I would be better off catching the end of The Twang on the main stage. However, I got back just as they were walking off stage so I settled down in anticipation for Super Furry Animals who are famed for their eccentric and eclectic live shows. Eventually the heavily bearded Welshmen appeared on stage dressed disappointingly ordinary and the crowd began, for perhaps the first time in the day, to flock as one to the main stage. My interest in seeing how they performed was cut short about 20 minutes in to what was a very interesting, if unspectacular, set when I got a call to tell me that they would be doing interviews afterwards. Rushing back to the media tent to prepare for this (and missing the rest of their set as a result) I was then told that they had changed their mind and weren’t going to do any interviews. Typical! This also meant that I didn’t have time to see Danananakroyd on the Third Stage, but the Scottish girls that I’d been chatting to during the day assured me that they’d been brilliant.  Damn those Super Furries!

And so to the business end of the night and first up...Doves. You could feel the excitement stirring the crowd as they anticipated the final trio of acts on the main stage and the crowd erupted as they stepped out. I’ve seen a few places report that Doves actually got the biggest crowd of the weekend but, in my view, that’s nonsense as the vast majority, if not all of the crowd stayed for Editors, and then the biggest crowd gathered for Paul Weller, which was only to be expected. Jimi was in a chatty mood and soon easily got the crowd on his side as they raced through favourites such as ‘Snowden’, ‘Winter Hill’ and ‘Kingdom of Rust’. An entertaining side show to their set was Jimi’s constant claims that Helmans Mayonnaise stole the logo from their latest advert from the Kingdom of Rust artwork...“Have a look and see if we can sue them. Boycott Hellman’s Mayonnaise!” Unsurprisingly the biggest reactions of the set were reserved for ‘Black and White Town’ and the set closer ‘There Goes the Fear’.

I’m an unashamedly big fan of Editors, having seen them about six time previously so they were always going to be one of the highlights of the weekend for me but, having run in to Tom backstage where he revealed they’d be playing four new songs, coupled with The Twang assuring me that the new stuff sounded like it had come from The Terminator soundtrack, my excitement was turned to intrigue and I wasn’t disappointed. The opening synths sounded exactly like The Terminator, which I wouldn’t necessarily have expected to work in a proper song but they managed to create a storming number out of it. In amongst the darker, edgier, heavily synth based new tracks were old favourites such as ‘Munich’, ‘Bullets’, ‘Fingers in the Factories’ and the biggest reaction was probably saved for ‘Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors’, which I suspect may well become the song that they become remembered for.  After they finished with the final new track of the day I headed off to the dance tent for the first time of the weekend in order to see the end of Scratch Perverts. I’ve never really seen the appeal in watching a couple of blokes play records of other people’s songs but the nutters in the dance tent were going crazy. I suspect the bar inside the dance tent itself had some form of effect on this! After they’d left the stage I headed back to see Paul Weller walk out to headline the night.

I’ve never been much of a fan of Paul Weller, partly through ignorance of his stuff and partly though ambivalence towards the stuff I had heard but I thought I’d give him a chance given his seemingly near-legendary status. However song after song came that were performed extremely well but just didn’t interest me so, after ‘Eton Rifles’ I headed off to the dance tent again to see what all the fuss about 2 Many DJs was. I was not expecting to see two blokes dressed as James Bond behind the decks but whatever floats their boat I guess. Again, loads of people were going mental and, again, copious amounts of alcohol was being consumed. Alcohol to enjoyment correlation? Maybe. (`Hell no, you should have stuck around, you`d have witnessed one of the true party acts out there` - shocked Ed).

As you can probably guess I decided I’d be better off back with Weller and arrived to hear ‘Wild Wood’ and a couple of other tracks before he came back on for the first of his two encores and the unsuspecting crowd were in for the treat of the weekend as Weller introduced Roger Daltrey to the stage for a version of ‘Magic Bus’. With Weller on backing vocals and Daltrey rocking out on the harmonica it was undoubtedly the highlight of the portions of the set that I actually saw and I’d argue that the appearance of The Who frontman got a larger cheer than any aimed at Weller. And so it was left to ‘Town Called Malice’ and an impromptu performance of ‘Whirlpool Ends’ after half the crowd had started heading away, to end the festival.

So my first experience of the Hop Farm Festival was a highly enjoyable one and I was impressed with the calibre of the acts and the calibre of the facilities around the site. It all added up to a very satisfying festival experience and I for one will be back next year.

Adam Gibby (View Original Article)

Looking and sounding as if Juno`s Michael Cera was a formative influence, Planet Earth are two young lads playing quirky, personal guitar music.  There wasn`t much polish to their act, but then they had enough charm to see them through, even if many in the crowd preferred to chat near the bar.

Sleeping States managed to stem the crowd`s hubbub, at least for a couple of songs.  Partly this was because the opening swashes of  lo-fi sound made conversation pretty difficult, but partly it was because they seemed interesting.  They were too, although too much fiddling with toys and gadgets detracted from an appreciation of their shoegazey folk.   

Noah And The Whale are a different proposition to the band I saw outdoors at Cannock Chase a mere four months ago.  There, in a larger space and trailing behind Fionn Regan and The Zutons on the bill, their sound packed little punch.  In the confines of the Glee Club, with a top 10 hit to their name and a few more bodies onstage to bolster their sound, they were much more impressive.

Charlie`s hangdog vocals often contrasted with the merry stomp kicked up by his cohorts, especially on `Rocks And Daggers` and `2 Atoms In A Molecule`.  With only one album`s worth of material to play, we got most of `Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down` with the odd cover chucked in (although not of MGMT`s `Kids` despite the fiddle veering in that direction of that songs melody a couple of times).

Their biggest hit to date was introduced with little fanfare but the crowd needed little encouragement by this point and duly provided some polite excitement.  As `5 Years Time` ended and a few fans made an early move towards the door, I got the impression the band might have a few more on-the-money pop hits in them.

http://www.myspace.com/noahandthewhale

http://www.myspace.com/sleepingstates

http://www.myspace.com/planetearthsongs

Chris Unitt (View Original Article)