Leicester - Summer Festival Guide

The Long Road Festival 2024 – Reviewed!

September 5, 2024 by Anna Hyams

FRIDAY

It’s that last drip of summer, the deepening skies and smell of woodsmoke in the air. Autumn is on it’s way but we have one last hurrah in the form of The Long Road festival. Nestled in the woodland and fields surrounding Stanford Hall, these Leicestershire lands play host to a little slice of Americana once a year. Bring your cowboy boots and your Stetsons, it’s time to throwdown at the hoedown.

Friday at Long Road is a relaxed affair, with the main stage not being open today there is ample time to wander around the other areas and find our feet. We catch a little of American Aquarium over at The Interstate tent, who start off sounding a lot like punk-rock but eventually settle into a more country style. After a quick tour around the food offerings we opt to take seats on one of the many long benches set out in front of The Interstate, and choose Bayou Kitchen cajun shrimp bowls. This is my go-to food at TLR, so I’m glad to see they’re back again.

We mosey around, stopping to listen in at The Front Porch and once again I can’t help but admire the choice to theme this stage. If you don’t know, The Front Porch is a cabin with… well, a front porch. Bands perform on the porch as if you’re in their backyard, there are rocking chairs and smoke pours from the little chimney. While there is always a small standing crowd up front, this stage is the place to go if you want to have a chilled sit-down to enjoy the music, and tonight there are many doing just that – under the soft festoon lights and dwindling sun.

Taking a stroll around the various shopping stalls, boots and hats enticing us at every turn, we are drawn into the Solo Stove area where bright fires are crackling into the pink sky. The merch stall is already full of people grabbing their TLR t-shirts and caps, and this year there’s an incredible knitted blanket on offer that catches my eye. We decide to finish up our night with a pot of Crumble (incredible festival food choice) and joining in with the line-dancing class at The Front Porch. It won’t be the last time I hear Rascal Flatts this weekend, but hey – now I can Cowboy Hustle to it!

SATURDAY

Today, the arena is in full swing and we are heading in for a day of rootin’ tootin’ antics, off first in search of some lunch. Today we hit up the Brisket wagon, which is a truck that houses proper southern style smokers, for some low and slow fall-apart meat on top of cheese-fries. Heaven.

Suitably satiated we take to the main stage for Kristian Bush (yes, of Sugarland fame), who is bringing some melodic country rock and his dry humour to the proceedings, alongside his brother Brandon on keys.“You tighten one butt-cheek at a time, this is for all you men out there going “oh I have to dance?” that’s how you do” giggles Bush, as they drop into hit ‘Trailer Hitch’ – which I absolutely love for it’s lyrics.

In another smooth move, Kristian talks about loving the UK show Taskmaster, and how he’s watched all of the seasons (huge cheers from the crowd) before telling us that he should get paid more for bringing the sunshine here today and yelling “…this is for all you people who still believe in summertime!”.

“I’ve won loads of country music awards and never wrote a song about drinking. I apologise. Have you ever been at the bar and suddenly you can’t walk? It just happens…” is his leading line into ‘Flip Flops’, a song that will resonate well with anyone who has ever been on a bender… which let’s face it, is the entire UK population.

Kyle Daniel is up next, shouting “Let’s boogie” and launching into some classic country rock with ‘God Bless America (Damn Rock n’ Roll)’ which is, as you can imagine; very singable. A huge crowd has come out to see him today, probably in large part thanks to the exceptional performance he gave here a couple of years ago, albeit with a different backing band. We also get a taste of his epic collaboration with The Cadillac Three – ‘Summer Down South’, which comes with the comedic timing of a side of rain.

We take off after that to check out the Fort Worth x Weber grills area, new to the arena this year. To the side there’s a tiny bar where they’re mixing up cocktails and giving out bandanas and tiny hip flasks as freebies, as well as providing a hot-branding station for leather boots. On the other side under cover, Weber are doing the most mouth-watering cooking demos you can imagine, but there are A LOT of people waiting for taste today so we shuffle off to grab our own food elsewhere. Jonah Kagen is giving the Interstate a good giggle, saying that his British Airways pilot on the way here, sounded like David Attenborough.

The Yeti custom shop has brought back it’s very successful laser-cutter custom shop again, and a double size space to house all the amazing goodies on offer. I don’t know in what world I will ever need a travel cafetière that makes 10 cups of coffee, but I sure do want one now.

Oklahoma kid Wyatt Flores is giving a fantastically energetic performance over on the Rhinestone, but unfortunately the rain is moving in fast and heavy. We run for cover under the Visit Austin barn, and manage to snag ourselves some more freebies in the form of bandanas and tote bags – which have armadillos on them. Cute. There’s even a photobooth in there, nice swag Austin, nice.

After the downpour abates, we hop over to The Showground to watch the annual Hot Dog Eating Contest. Last year was beset by calamity in the form of Brioche buns – and the winning contestant only managed a measly three dogs. No such silliness this year, as the very standard buns are brought over in giant catering trays, to the gingham-clothed table.

Drawn from a hat, the contestants fill the tables and are told that they have 7 minutes in which to chomp as many hot dogs as they can, that there’s a sick bucket behind them, and that the ambulance service people off to the side are trained in the Heimlich maneuver. A girl named Jordan (who didn’t even enter) is filling in for her absent boyfriend, and is expertly dunking her bready buns into water cups to consume faster, Aussie Harry seems entirely unbothered and looks like he’s just there for lunch, but the winner is Miles with 8 hot diggity dawgs. Congratulations man! Although I must point out, that champion scoffer Joey Chestnut has just recently downed 83 dogs in 10 minutes at his most recent match. So, there’s that.

Brittney Spencer is our next pick, she’s rocking an incredible laced-flared 70’s floral two-piece and has the most phenomenal voice, one of my favourite performers of the weekend by far. It might be overcast and cold today, but there’s no standing still when she shouts “Get your drinks up, put your tequila whisky or water up!” for ‘I Got Time’, so we are all dancing along with her.

Following Brittney is ethereal moonchild Paula Cole, who is giving ‘next-door neighbour who is actually a witch and will help you hex your ex’. “This song is about my mother” she says about ‘Follow The Moon’ a beautiful melancholy ballad. If you like Tori Amos, Sinead O’Connor or Kate Bush – this is your jam at TLR. ‘Where Did All The Cowboys Go’ and Dawson’s Creek tv show theme tune ‘I Don’t Want To Wait’ close up the show with a big old dose of the 90’s, and it’s really interesting to hear her speak on her most well-known hit; “I wrote this for my grandfather. He came back from Okinawa with more than just physical scars. It affected my whole family.”

Afterwards we take a chance to re-fuel with some delicious chicken and gravy sandwiches from the Roaming Rotisserie, and catch Brittany Spencer taking on (extremely unsuccessfully) the buckin’ bull rodeo game – kudos for trying though, that thing looks difficult.

The ‘American Troubador’ Don McLean is tonight’s Rhinestone headliner, heading to the stage with a big ensemble and not much other fanfare, smiling in his shirt and jeans. Touring through the back catalogue ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Winterwood’ come interspersed with tales of his musical career, “…don’t know how I found myself in Nashville, but I went and I stayed there, and I have been treated so well by the country music community. I’m sort of a misfit… I have songs from here there and everywhere because I’m interested in everything”.

A cover of Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ is lovely, but it’s clear that Don’s voice is waning as he cracks through a couple of notes. My Mum used to sing ‘Vincent’ to my sister when she was little, so we all croon along to that, but it honestly takes until the obvious choice ‘American Pie’ to get the whole arena joining in. With red white and blue strobing stage lights, Don takes the crowd’s enthusiasm for a ride – doing an extra chorus and verse to finish up. All in, I’m glad I saw him live, but I wouldn’t say it was a spectacular set otherwise.

SUNDAY

Kaitlin Butts is giving us gorgeous sunshine vocals on The Interstate as we head over to Lil’ Possum County kids area to play some cornhole and skittles, before hitting up the Weber area for a Chilli tutorial (culminating in tasters of the delicious Elk chilli, made Texas-true – no beans!).

Vincent Neil Emerson is giving a soulful banjo-picking performance in Buddy’s through the woodland walk, and we take the opportunity for a beverage and a sit down. It’s a shame the low tent stage facilitates so few people here, this is one that I wish would grow a bit for next year.

Brooke Eden is stunning in an all-white fringed outfit on the main stage, she’s enigmatic and funny, bringing her loud and proud pop-spiked brand of country to our little corner of the world.

“Have you ever fallen In love with your best friend… I did and she was a girl” she says, to cheers. “I moved to Nashville from Florida… Florida’s beautiful but you know craaazy” she laughs, before telling us “I’ve performed with my Dad’s band in country bars since I was 6yrs old… and you know I thought I’d meet a country guy there, and get married… but I met my wife.”

“They told me if I wanted to keep my career in country music I had to stay silent. Did that for 5 years and… don’t do that. I don’t recommend it. I came out 3 years ago with a music video with my wife in. I just had to scream it from the rooftops.” She says, as she leans into her Trisha Yearwood cover ‘She’s In Love With The Boy’ with altered lyrics to ‘Girl’. Her own single ‘Outlaw Love’ for “…anyone who has had to fight for their love” is the true star of the show though, it’s a cracking set. I will also celebrate anyone who has the courage to be vocal about diversity in a traditionally conservative genre.

Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors sing about family and home in Tennessee, and chats to the crowd like an old friend. Some helpful fan decides to help Drew with the pronunciation of our location and yells “It’s LESS-TAH”, to which he chuckles and says “Thank you for that, a couple of weeks ago we were in Sweden and I got their town really wrong, felt like an idiot”.

Drew also tells a story about his Grandad, who was a ‘big fish’ telling tall tales. Apparently he once told a story about being invited to a dog show at Sandringham, and accidentally getting in a car with The Queen. Years later, when his Grandfather died – they got a letter of condolences from The Queen’s office. The song ‘Dragons’ is a gorgeous tribute to him. Drew also plays the harmonica, signs the jackets of fans, and is just all-round nice. ‘Find Your People’ is maybe my favourite add-to-playlist song of the weekend, and had the whole crowd dancing along.

Bringing earlier Interstate performers The National Parks on stage for a boogie during their collab ‘Dance With Everybody’, it’s a great ending to a wonderful set. Call me a new fan.

Randall King, self-proclaimed purveyor of honky-tonk and some classic rock n’roll, is bringing deep south to the rain-spattered main stage; “Do you know what time it is? It ain’t time to go home y’all… it’s tonk time!”. ‘You In A Honky Tonk’ conjures the image of The Blues Brothers having bottles thrown at them unless they play Rawhide on repeat. Randall might be trying to re-write the honky-tonk lore, but if you’re from the UK – you were brought up on cowboy depictions from the movies. “You stood out in the wind the rain, all to listen to some of our songs… I really do appreciate it so much. I get to live the dream on this stage” he says. You can’t go far wrong if you’re nice, nice to look at, and have a great voice. Randall gets my vote.

Russell Dickerson closes out TLR’s main stage offerings with a party atmosphere, gyrating his way across the stage and dancing with his guitarists.

Referencing our bank holiday Monday; “I heard you guys have a holiday tomorrow? So we’re gonna go big tonight right?” is slightly overshadowed by the immediate and hefty downpour – which he is nicely shielded from under the capped stage. ‘Love You Like I Used To’ has everyone up and dancing along despite the soggy conditions, and new song ‘Bones’ garners a roar of approval from the arena.

Russell is a fantastic performer, it’s such a shame that the heavens have opened though, as many people are packing up and defecting to other stages or even home to campervans. There’s plenty to keep everyone occupied around the arena still, with bands continuing on other stages and entertainments all over. Despite the rain, the beautiful soft festoon lights and the roaring fires are highlighting golden joyful faces, a sign of a festival well-done. There’s no other way to describe this festival than overwhelmingly friendly and consciously chilled out.

The tagline for The Long Road is ‘Welcome Home Old Friend’ and after a few years of attending this truly amazing little festival, I fully feel in the fold. Let’s hope for sunnier climes in 2025. See you next year, old friend.

Wheatus: The Soundhouse Leicester – Reviewed!

May 1, 2024November 15, 2023 by Anna Hyams

Scuttling down the dark back streets of Leicester city on a Sunday night would normally mean you’re up to something dodgy, and as we sidle up to the queue of distinctly eclectic looking folk bathed under the faint green glow of a neon sign, it occurs to me that this is exactly the sort of reputation the ‘alternatives’ always had – dodgy. Luckily our band of choice tonight, made their mark singing about precisely this sort of thing, so we’re in good hands.

As we slip past the giant sage green tour bus, jammed like a conga eel down a tiny alleyway, and head into The Soundhouse venue, we are greeted by friendly faces and an absolutely tiny room. Now, I must note two things here. Firstly that I adore gigs in small venues. There is an intimate and special quality that definitely dies in larger places. Secondly, I have no idea how we’re all going to fit in here, nor the band on the miniscule stage.

As it turns out, I need not have worried – the tattooed skinheads, stoners and hipsters have all filed in just fine and there’s a decent amount of dancing room. I do slightly fear for the health of the two very on brand dirtbags at the front, who have come in full ‘Loser’ movie regalia of parkas and furry trapper hats. Exemplary dedication to the cause.

A small merch stand is selling the very last of their tour tshirts, signed posters and such. There are quite a few items that have sold out, presumably due to the fact that we have ended up being the very last date on this tour due to Brendan B Brown’s illness causing the cancellation of the previous show. I’d also like to highlight how brilliant it is that they and The Soundhouse worked together to get this night stuck on the end instead of just faintly promising “they’d be back at some point” – we are truly grateful, and it’s a sellout show for a second time.

Up first is the perfectly awkward purveyor of (as he puts it) Nerdcore Rap, MC Frontalot. Ascending (and by ascending I mean taking one slightly elevated step) the stage wearing a very convincing Dwight Schrute outfit, and a head-torch he yells “I’m a nerdcore rapper, from San Fransisco to Knife Crime Island” and laments that this is the 47^thand final time he’ll have done this show on this tour.

Instantly taken with his self-deprecating rhymes, we giggle our way through the likes of ‘First World Problem’ and ‘Power User’ – “I’m in a sadomasochistic relationship with my desktop computer” he says, deadpan. The beats are distinctly 90’s in feel, and I guess the intersection of rap and rock was a lot lower in the UK than it was in the US, so the crowd is unfortunately kind of flat, which is a shame as Frontalot is actually really fun.

There’s a definite Flight of The Conchords style familiarity about him, which I obviously enjoy, and joking about being dressed like a sixth grade English teacher has us in stitches, mainly because my plus one for this gig tonight actually *is* a high school English teacher. Finally the ‘Tut Tut’ song requires a bit of crowd participation and at this point everyone seems to decide it’s ok to join in and have a bit of a boogie, which obviously serves to rocket the temperature of the room. Anyway, MC Frontalot – I salute you, that was a kickass set, and I shall join your Nerdcore rap movement by subscribing to you on Spotify later.

As Wheatus sneak onto the stage to start setting up, a commotion in the middle of the room is brewing. It seems that a lady has passed out and they’re trying to get her to the fire doors for some air. As Brendan B. Brown calls for security to come over and help before they start, I joke “Well, you’ve got them passing out before you’ve even played a note” and he replies “Ha, well… it’s not my first choice”.

© Anna Hyams for SFG. Do not use without permission.

Once the situation has been appropriately handled, the gap in the crowd closes and all eyes turn to the now very cramped stage. Brendan is sporting a rather excellent semi-acoustic guitar whose sound holes are shaped like the Wheatus stylized ‘W’, and yells out a quick hi to the crowd before asking what we want to hear. Now, I knew that for the rest of the tour they’d been taking requests, but I simply wasn’t ready for how far they would go – this night, we had an entirely crowd-curated set list. Mixing hits with B-sides, never before heard-live tracks and the band working their asses off to keep a 63 song repertoire live in their heads, is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen at a gig.

Starting out strong with ‘Pretty Girl’ and then my yelled suggestion ‘Leroy’, I am already absolutely delighted to be here tonight, Brendan’s voice sounds fantastic despite the recent illness, until he has to stop for a short cough-break after ‘Semolina’. “That’s the sound of pneumonia… it’s not Covid, I tested negative five times! This is just regular sick. See they love that!” he laughs as the crowd cheers.

Swigging from a paper coffee cup he quips “I’m actually completely drink and drug free, so when I get the chance to have medicine and 4 shots of espresso, I take it, woo! But yeah don’t do drugs, especially don’t do cocaine it fucks up your nose then you can’t sing the girl part to teenage dirtbag.”

Flowing into ‘Truffles’ with an extensive solo on the end, it’s more like we’re earwigging on a jam session than at a gig, I can’t rave enough about how collaborative and interesting it feels to not just be played *at*. “That was some lead singer gratuitous bullshit there… I decided I’m not a good guitarist halfway through.. was it OK? You don’t have to cheer you know” Brendan says, underestimating a UK crowd who immediately 180 to giggled booing instead. “Oh bollocks” he replies in a British accent.

‘F.B.S.M’ comes with a side story about how this forgotten song was rebuilt due to Neil (in the crowd)’s shitty flip phone recording at a previous gig, which of course galvanizes the record-everything crowd to hold their phones aloft for ‘Temporary Song’. It’s irritating in a small room, and they’ve memorised all 63 of these songs already my guy, put your phone down and enjoy the music.

Perhaps in karmic response, suddenly the stage goes dark as the lighting desk goes kaput and a very frantic fiddling begins to try and fix it. ‘Tipsy’ is played in a blueish twilight (totally useless for the iphone videographer crew, ha), but apparently Saviour tech ‘Archie’ manages to harrass a new board in place before ‘Hump’em n’Dump’Em’ which then morphs into some sort of disco rave situation. Following this, a full crowd karaoke ensues for their hit cover of Erasure’s ‘A Little Respect’, which is weirdly poignant on this Remembrance Sunday, amid the news of Gaza – “We can make love not war”.

When someone yells out ‘Punk Ass Bitch’ I expect to be singing my head off, but they instead play their alternate lyrics version written for Jackie Chan’s Adventures, called ‘Chan’s The Man’. It’s cute, and again something unique… but I am damn well singing the OG lyrics over the top.

‘Marigold Girl’ is a bit of an emo dirge, but you know – so am I, so I liked it. “This song is about a Zombie apocalypse. This is my dead people song. This is a tour first, we haven’t done this yet in the 46 other shows we’ve played, it’s the only one we haven’t played so we’re gonna complete it”. Up next, ‘Sunshine’ is the absolute antithesis of the previous song and it sounds every bit as excellent as teenage me thought it might, back in 2000, listening on a silver CD walkman.

‘Wannabe Gangstar’ has everyone singing along again, into ‘Whole Amoeba’ and when someone yells out “PLAY THE LEICESTER SONG” the band quickly whip up a few bars of funk and call it ours. ‘London Sun’ and ‘Lemonade’, are two of my favourites that aren’t from their debut album and for a final show set of a long tour, plagued by illness and extensions – I am surprised and awed that the band continue to sound this good.

Someone calls out ‘Mr. Brown’ – another great debut album track, and then it’s time for *the song*, ‘Teenage Dirtbag’. Rocking a safari style bucket hat, Bendan says “So, Dirtbag… back in the charts… I don’t know how you did that but it’s down to you, thank you so much. Anyway, we know it’s your song now, not ours. Here we go”, and then it is a deafening crescendo of crowd singing through to the ‘girl part’ which hits the kind of sound barrier that makes neighborhood cats scarper and brain fluid fizz. “You wanna hear me do it?” BBB asks to a chorus of agreement, and thankfully most people understand the brief and let him actually sing the section before ending on a full house high. Oh, but not before we get some inserted bars from the returning MC Frontalot. I love it.

At almost 11pm a few people prematurely head for the doors, but the chants of “one more song” ring out and we get to hear ‘People’. “Thanks for supporting my illness these last few shows, your love is felt. Oh, yes we’ll definitely be back don’t worry” Brendan enthuses. “This song is about how it’s better to have more diverse people, and less of the same people” brings about cheers and clapping, and sadly, the end of an epic set.

This version of the band, although almost entirely changed from the original line-up, have an energy and connectivity that flows so organically that it truly feels as if you’re being swept by the tide of them. I can’t rave enough about how special and interesting this one-of-a-kind show was. Yeah, I know we were number 47 on the roster but, if you weren’t at this one, you’ll never see it again – and that, is the power of live music and a band who are brave enough to let their fans run the show.

Handmade Festival 2014 Review

November 8, 2018May 6, 2014 by Conor Davies

For its second year, the burgeoning Handmade Festival, situated in a number of venues across the inner-city landscape of Leicester, brought in a diverse range of acts once again.

Headliners for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday amounted to Irish experimentalists And So I Watch You From Afar, Japanese pop-rock girl-band Shonen Knife and the rousing acoustics of Dry the River, a pretty eclectic mixture, I'm sure you'll agree! Throw in some top comedic acts interspersed throughout local talent and smaller acts, aswell as photography and art installations at some interesting venues, a great combination of entertainment all for just £30.

For me, it began on Friday evening with Matt Henshaw at the Cookie. Henshaw had pre-empted his slot with a selection of photos featuring him alongside Leicester landmarks like the Clock Tower and the King Power Stadiumon on his Facebook page. It was a nice way to kick-off the festival as his soulful style was soothing, after a long week for the majority of the audience! Henshaw is appearing back at the Cookie in a month's time to launch his new EP, so the city obviously means a lot to him, something he pointed out inbetween songs.

I jumped over to the Firebug pub to check out MJ Hibbett & the Validators set upstairs. They attracted a sparse, yet involved crowd upstairs, as they rattled through a relatively short 30-minute set. The leader of the group, Hibbett has a great history with the music industry, creating his own music label 'Artists Against Success' and peppered with a few viral hits, including he claims, the first ever viral video. I liked the tight drumming and the use of a violin, shaking things up a bit, and the lyricism of Hibbett was subtle yet effect, in a similar vein to Melvyn Bragg.

From Firebug, it was then over to the exquisite Hansome Hall, my third venue of the night for the backend of Three Trapped Tigers' set. I emerged into the ex-theatre venue to see a room full of bouncing fans, as TTT had the crowd in the palm of their hand. From the brief end of the set, it was clear to see they were on fine form, a fact confirmed as I discussed with a fellow fan who'd seen the entirity of the set.

But it was undoubtedly obvious what the majoirty of said fans were there for, the experimental stylings of Irish band And So I Watch You From Afar. Having listened to some of their work beforehand, I was anticipating their arrival greatly, and I wasn't left disappointed. The three-pronged guitars were backed up brilliantly by their drummer and some choice cuts from last year's 'All Hail Bright Future's' LP went down a storm, 'Big Things Do Remarkable' and 'Eunoia' amongst them. Their second record has progressed them higher up the musical spectrum, so it was great to see them in such an intimate environment, where they filled the room brilliantly with their sound. What was great about the band was that they controlled the room with very little vocalisation, but when that did kick in, you felt the effect fully. It was a great ending to the first evening of fun, as the band told their ecstatic audience just how much they loved playing in Leicester, a city that has been great to them.

Saturday began with a set from locals Juniors. They played at Firebug, which again showed its impressive use of space for a live music venue. It was brash, loud start to the day as the alternative-rock the band plays throws in some ragged, raw riffs to create a pacy, head-pounding sound. 'Sharman's Rug' was the pick of the bunch, as Leicester's eclectic music production line looks to have created a new batch of stars.

Brawlers followed Juniors, and kept up the relentless pace. It was almost as if the two bands were in direct competition for who could be as fast as possible. Nonetheless, the quality didn't dip either, as they impressed immensely. I got a Dinosaur Pile-Up vibe from the foursome, whilst there were also shades of the Strokes too. Handmade did well to deliver two such exciting bands so early in the day.

After settling down, I was ready for the calming acoustics of Katie Malco at the Bishop St Methodist Centre. It was a much different affair from the back-to-back rockers of earlier in the day, but it's clear to see Malco is just as talented, as her haunting vocals put her in the bracket of fellow songstress Emmy the Great. The use of a piano on 'September' elevated her gig even moreso, making me delighted I'd picked to see this rising starlet. Go YouTube her now and prepare to be excited!

The exciting thing about this festival is the sheer variety, for this you just have to go for Shonen Knife. A band who toured with Nirvana and taken influences from the likes of the Ramones and the Beach Boys are never going to be boring! They followed on from ASIWYFA the previous evening to take on the headline status at Hansome Hall, and they lived up to the high standards set on Friday night, with their range of tunes that delighted a passionate crowd. After seeing a lot of up-and-comers it was refreshing to see band who'd toured the world over and still had such love for the art, most bands should look at Shonen Knife as a great template to follow.

For me, Sunday was a quieter affair, beginning in the surroundings of the comedy basecamp, St Martin's Coffee Shop. I took my place in the terrfically decorated venue ready for a slice of comedy from 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks' panellist and Pete Docherty lookalike Joey Page. Possibly the first observation from Page was of his passing resembelance to the Libertines frontman, as his eccentric show took in some Noel Fielding-esque stories of fantasy encounters with Eric Cantona in the five-item queue in Tesco Express…a ramble that began after thanking a guy called Stan for attending his show. Granted it might not be to everyone's comedic taste, but Page, admitting that the show was a smorgasboard of new and old material, had everyone roaring with laughter, especially with his discussion of just what has gone wrong with ITV's very own 'Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'. A great diversion from the excellent music I had seen up to that point.

Speaking in Italics followed up a show the other side of Leicester (the O2 Academy) the previous evening to entertain the citizens of Firebug with a half-hour set of progressive rock, that strayed into a more hardcore area at times. I enjoyed the vocals quite a lot, as they clashed with the instrumentation, but in a good way! No, SiI were placed well, offering a nice slice of entertainment ahead of their quieter counterparts.

Next up for me were Cut Ribbons, another interesting mixture of sounds. A lighter offering of indie-pop with male and female vocals, the sound was fresh and crisp as I got poppy-vibes, alongside something like early Kings of Leon. The vocals are hard to place though, given their originality. I enjoyed single 'Damascus' a lot, and they are supporting Thumpers on a UK tour, so watch out for more from this original group.

Possibly the most famous act at the minute on the entire bill came last, Dry the River, were an act a lot of people had been waiting for and a little bit later than advertised, the moment they took to the Firebug stage was a great one. The bar was slowly filling up throughout the evening and was almost to capacity when the foursome came on. Every song was greeted with rapturous applause, as songs from 2012's 'Shallow Bed' LP were sung from the rafters with some new material cheekily thrown in for good measure. They played for just under an hour, but it was a great experience, seeing such a hot band in such tight circumstances, made for memorable moments, such as 'Shield Your Eyes' and 'Weights & Measures' a rousing tune. The band themselves appeared to be loving every moment too, thanking the crowd for their patience and support throughout.

So there you have it, Handmade Festival is an exciting event that is growing with each annual edition. It was my first proper metropolitan city festival, and an experience I thoroughly enjoyed, allowing me to take in a wealth of different arenas, picking out some hidden musical gems in the process.

Handmade Festival hits Leicester for the second year with Dry the River the standout act

November 18, 2018February 27, 2014 by Conor Davies

Leicester's very own inner city festival is back for its second year, with a recent announcement for the Handmade Festival, seeing Dry The River amongst others, revealed to be playing.

Dry The River take to the stage to play on Sunday May 4, with And So I Watch You From Afar the must-see act on Friday May 2 and long-running Japanese trio Shonen Knife topping the bill on Saturday May 3.

The aim is to bring an eclectic mix of music and the arts to fill the bars, venues and cathedrals (yes you read right), full of the best musicians, comedians and pieces of art going, alongside raw local talent, with applications being accepted from around the region.

2013's edition of the festival saw Rolo Tomassi, Dutch Uncles and Nine Black Alps amongst others feature on the bill, and with more acts promised for this year, the festival is looking to surpass its debut year.

Tickets for the full weekend are currently priced at £30 or £15 for a day ticket, with the wristband gaining access to a number of venues across the East Midlands city.

It's the beginning of a good year for Leicester, with the massive homecoming gig at Victoria Park for Kasabian in June, a new music festival pencilled in for Welford Road in late July and the annual Strawberry Fields, held in rural Leicestershire to come in August.

Strawberry Fields Festival 2013 – Friday Review

November 8, 2018August 10, 2013 by Sarah Gill

The place was getting dark, and as the crowd began to gather round the main stage, eagerly awaiting jaguar skills, what earlier looked like a reasonably empty festival scene soon became a place of chanting and cheering, excited people running to get a spot at the front of the stage ready for the headliners to begin.

As the video game style booth set got wheeled onto the stage, the crowd began to go crazy as the wait for Jaguar Skills was almost over, and the night was about to kick off. The chanting began, people began stamping their feet and clapping their hands; he enters the stage, arms in the air, face covered with a black Balaclava, his opening line 'put your mother fucking hands up'. The party had started.

His set list included some chart toppers, including Kanye West Niggas in Paris, love me again and rhythm is a dancer. About half way through he shouted to the audience 'this is an illegal party'. People began screaming, drinks were sent flying towards the stage and people got on others shoulders and began singing along with the next song 'woo woo that's the sound of the police.' The choice to have Jaguar Skills headlining the Friday definitely got everyone ready for what was in store for the rest of the weekend, and with their outstanding performance, the crowd loved the show they put on,begging for another song at the end of the set.