Noize Festival Blog

A festival blog brought to you by Noize Makes Enemies
Edited by Simon Owen and Derek Robertson

Jan 23

Primavera Interview // Teenage Fanclub

No matter how cool, how alternative, or how indie a festival claims to be, it always helps to have at least one legendary band on the bill. The cynics would say it’s just to sell tickets, but Noize would argue that it produces an interesting counterpoint to the latest and (allegedly) greatest doing the rounds. Whatever the role, this time it was filled by Teenage Fanclub, once anointed The Best Band In The World by none other than Mr. K. Cobain. Noize had ten minutes with frontman Norman Blake…so many questions, so little time.

Primavera Interview // Frankie Rose & The Outs

Having just watched Frankie Rose in a tiny club, in front of a very animated (if someone pathetic) 30 people, we were struck by their poise, their self-assurance, and the fact that nothing seemed to put them off their stride. Despite losing first her capo, then her tambourine, they just carried on regardless. Looking like they’d just come from some 1950’s diner, Noise had the pleasure of a seat at the bar with the four lovely ladies, and despite having a list of serious questions to be asked, ended up talking about breasts. And Harry Potter. Really, it wasn’t out fault….

Primavera Interview // Male Bonding

As well as all the shoe gazing and electro frippery that has been so dominant recently, there are artists who continue to operate at the noisier end of the spectrum. Artists like Male Bonding. Channelling a particularly raucous type of punk rock (and just a little bit of Nirvana), they signed to legendary label Sub Pop and released one of the albums of the year. Noize got to hear first-hand what men should do together and why you should never throw anything at a concert.

Primavera Interview // Wild Nothing

They may well be bringing up the rear end, but Virginia’s own Wild Nothing have proved that there is plenty of mileage to be had in C86-esque dreamy indie pop on the back of outstanding debut Gemini. Noize sat down with a rather ill Jack Tatum, fresh after a 14 hour van ride from Italy, to ask him the burning questions.

Primavera Club Review // A Town Past Indie

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”. Well, judging by the queue for one of the most desired wristbands this side of the Pyrenees, Matthew was just one letter out – swap the “m” for “g” and he’d have been spot on. We’re all familiar with the rise of the hipster – you’d have to be Osama not to be – but seriously, when did everyone start dressing like the weedy kid you used to beat up at school?

Sep 30

Burning Man Full Review // A Desert Disco Inferno

Our Baby’s All Grown Up

Sometimes in life, you need to stand and take it all in. So, standing next to a dusty RV, outside the gates of Burning Man, perhaps the most infamous festival of all, the Black Rock Desert stretching as far as the eyes can see, Noize stood, contemplating a week long denouement to a summer of festivals, excited but nervous about the freak show that lay before us and the other 50,000 or so assorted hippies, freaks and corporate world escapees, notably many Brits amongst them.

Sep 5

Offset Day Three// Better Late Than Never

As Pulled Apart By Horses took to the purple, monolith-like stage, singer Tom Hudson exclaimed ‘Hooray for good time keeping!’ Indeed, due to a slight overrun from Israeli loons Monotonix, and the obligatory time allocated to clear up the carnage left by the Tel Aviv punks’ crazy-mad-fun show earlier in the day, they are slightly late.

Offset Day Two // Guided By The Gods

Emerging from our tent blinking into the morning sun, heads pounding with the sound of the frivolities and Mikki Most’s DJing skills on the Dance stage the night before, we were first struck by how our shambolic efforts at tent construction hadn’t ended in disaster.

Offset Day One // Never Put Off Till Tomorrow…

Offset Festival is that rare thing of beauty - a festival combining the hipster stares and trendies of London festivals with the grotty carousing of larger events. With trepidation Noize queued up, camping gear in hand, expecting the same delights that last year’s edition had for us. With a plethora of wrist-bands secured round our scrawny arms, we rushed to complete putting up our tent, only for our juvenile excitement to get the better of us.

Sep 3

Rock en Seine Review// La Belle et La Bete

Paris, J’Taime

If you prefer mudpacks to muddy fields, and to drink bubbles not warm beer, then Rock en Seine is the perfect finale to your jet-setting summer. With headline acts starting at a leisurely 3pm, leaving plenty of time for a late-morning rise, shower, and long brunch, and the sights of the City of Lights within a stone’s throw of your tent, this is one of Europe’s more civilised festivals, and the preferred choice for all budding fashionistas and beautiful people.

The magnificent cascade entrance to the Parc de St. Cloud, designed by Le Pautre in early 1660s, sets the tone perfectly. Ambling through the statue-bordered alleys, passing countless bars selling champagne not cider, and cassoulet not fish’n’chips, the accompanying stream of festival goers are more like Charlotte Gainsbourg than Lilly Allen.

Aug 30

SW4 Review // Go West. No, Wait, South.

East London. Mecca for buttoned up, bespectacled mods, lovers of all things cutting edge and underground (not the tube), their preferred choice of travel doesn’t have gears, can’t do hills and rarely strays far from the loving environs of London Fields (just two shootings this year!). South of the river is definitely a no-go zone, and thus a festival that is synonymous with a whole load of bankers and lawyers mashed up on a giant traffic island listening to yesterday’s tunes, might, you think, hold little appeal.

Aug 29

Reading Festival // Her Indoors (Now Onstage)

While far from lonely (and still in our prime), Noize often gazes at couples both young and old, ruminating on the lack of a Mrs. Noize. What most tugs at our heart strings are the little gestures; holding hands at the supermarket, opening doors or pulling out chairs, and, the real tear jerker, ordering just one sumptuous, chocolate dessert, to be shared and mutually enjoyed. Ah, wedded bliss.

Reading Day Three // What’s My Age Again?

As a wise old sage, Noize can look back with fondness on our formative years, and the staging posts along the road to becoming a fully fledged arbiter of all things great and good. Buying our first ever tape with some hard earned pocket money (yes, we‘re that old), our wide-eyed wonder at the genius that was the Walkman, and the shiver of anticipation at arriving at our first ever gig (Shed Seven, if memory serves us correct). And of course, not forgetting packing a rucksack with your older brother’s (smelly) sleeping bag and half the contents of the local Millets in anticipation of three days in a field with only rain, cider, and the faint hope of meeting girls (or boys) for company.

Aug 28

Reading Day Two // Truly His Brother’s Keeper

Double the fun or double the trouble? Sibling rivalry rarely runs smooth, and all too often it’s the junior partner who’s hard done by and conveniently airbrushed from history. We hear nothing of Abel, slain in a fit of pique by the jealous Cain, and it wasn’t Remus who founded a city and gave birth to one of the greatest Empires of all time. To the victor the spoils, then? And what of Reading and Leeds, these two late summer behemoths, separated by geography yet united in time, taste and purpose? Noize mused on this dichotomy as we considered this unique relationship and the bureaucratic nightmare that had us here but our trusted lensman up north.

Aug 27

Reading Day One // The Great Ol’ Days Of Yore?

History hides a multitude of sins, and nevermore so than while contemplating the past with hushed reverence. “‘Twas always better in the olden days” or so they say, “they” usually being wizened old Luddites with rose-tinted specs firmly in place - and perhaps tongue firmly in cheek. Nostalgia is, after all, nothing more than the past in idealized form, detritus subconsciously filtered out of the equation. Noize pondered such issues as we approached Little John’s Farm for the Southern leg of this two-centre, Bank holiday party in the park(s).

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