Automatic For The Steeplechase

I wrote this for a magazine called Oxfordshire Music Scene, which I'm told has just folded. Well, I shan't mourn too much, as they were too chirpy for my liking, and had too many pictures, and not enough naughty words. Ah well, they were harmless enough. I wasn't planning on writing much for them. Still, their loss is your gain.

Edit: Oh, apparently OMS is still going, but they're going to skip an issue whilst the management changes. OK, let's be positive and wish them luck.

WYCHWOOD FESTIVAL, Cheltenham Racecourse, 4/6/10


What, precisely, is a boutique festival? It’s not musical obscurity or even sponsorship by left-leaning broadsheets or overpriced music mags that defines things, but a self-imposed intimacy, the implication being that the organisors could have sold five times as many tickets, but have chosen charm over profit. Wychwood, in the handy but uninspiring environs of Cheltenham racecourse certainly has a family-friendly warmth, and falls somewhere between the village fete ambience of Truck and Cornbury’s sedentary wine-cooler and canapé air. We’ve always been uninterested in non-musical festival trappings, and whilst we’re cynical about children’s swings and Waitrose smoothie bars, they’re a nice change from the hemp weaving and pubescent drug-pushing we associate with festivals.

Wychwood’s music might not be pulse-quickening, but it is solid. The Leisure Society sprinkled their refined pop with ‘cello and flute, sounding at their best like The Divine Comedy when they were on the cusp of dispensing with the clever lyrics and intriguing arrangements (but that’s what you’re good at Neil!), whereas the BBC Introducing Stage, featuring acts from many counties - generosity of spirit, or tacit admission that there aren’t many good Gloucester musicians? – hosts a cheery set from spry fiddle-flecked folk trio Roving Crows.

At the other end of the spectrum, Justin Currie sounds drably like Elvis Costello & The Attractions without Elvis Costello. Or any of The Attractions. We’re later told he was in Del Amitri – do the math. The Tunnelmental Experimental Assembly are deeply disappointing, ruining harmless big-boned indie by giving some office joker in a hideous waistcoat a mike: it’s like mid-period R.E.M. gatecrashed by Pat Sharp. The Levellers’ folkstival headline set is popular and functional, but Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun have more intriguing folk melodies to bash out.

We didn’t want Oxfordshire Music Scene’s visit to Gloucestershire to turn into a West Side Story turf war, but the fact is locals The Epstein are comfortably the best act we see. They open with a glacial waft recalling the Erased Tapes roster, and proceed with a more spectral, delicate version of country than in previous incarnations. Olly Wills’ voice is gorgeous and perfectly pitched emotionally, Jon Berry’s bottleneck interjections spice things up, and a new keyboardist dusts the songs with icy synths and reverbed Twin Peaks piano. They’re also the only band the omnipresent kids enjoy, a small group crawling frantically in front of the stage: call it toddlemosh.

A local couple explain their love of the festival with tales of returning laden with new CDs. Perhaps Wychwood is aimed at professionals and parents who don’t have time to follow trends, but who still want to broaden their horizons, which is nothing to be ashamed of. Oh, and a mad Mancunian rants about the toilets’ cleanliness, as he had mislaid his shoes and gone in barefoot; it’s a good weekend for the hygiene-conscious drug-addled loon too.