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2/9/14 12:33 pmClick here to permanently switch to the new feed? No. No no. Where do I click to never see the new feed again? It is very means of you to do this to me after I come back from holiday, livejournal.
End of the Road was nice. Bit chilly during the day - three days of solid wind and constantly changing weather - but gorgeous on the last day. Bands were a bit variable, but the food was lovely as always and for the first time I finally found the woodland disco. The gardens are gorgeous after dark; all these light installations and interesting places to explore. All the teenagers perched in the trees and pretend to be peacocks (there's a ton of peacocks on the site) like another extra installation. There was a karaoke shower cubicle and a photobooth with an artist inside and a bear made of straw. Popped down to the comedy stage a couple of times. We saw Sarah Bennetto and Ryan Coffey during the day, as well as Knightmare Live after midnight (and got told off for being too loud). What else? Oh, a Q&A with Ben Wheatley and Andy Starke in the cinema, which was in a building this year, which was weird. Looked like it was built for weddings.
I think it was busier this year, though the camping seemed about the same the stages were much busier from much earlier on and the bars kept running out of booze, which was odd. The local cider was limited to one barrel per bar per day, so was usually gone by lunch, while the ales were running out by about nine. The gin and tonic bar ran out entirely and flogged their tonic water to one of the main bars that had run out, then did a supermarket run to restock. Only place that didn't have a problem was the cider bus, because this year's cider was shit. The medium had a vinegary tang and the dry was so harsh. In previous years I've loved the cider bus, so I don't know what's going on beyond a really bad harvest.
Music-wise: British Sea Power were pretty boring, as were Wild Beasts. Good year for concept albums: Gruff Rhys's American Interior was a lot of fun (we missed the showing of the film sadly) and the Gene Clark No Other Band was great. tUnE-yArDs have got a bit more mainstream since last time they were there, which was a good thing (it's more musical now, rather than just playing with sounds) and a good summer afternoon sound. Jenny Lewis was good too, and Rosie Lowe was a glimpse of groundroots pop (she was mixing her own vocal track as she sang, but not in a tUnE-yArDs way). There were two post Low Anthem bands, of which I preferred Arc Iris and J preferred Futur Primitif. My favourites of the weekend were The Wave Pictures, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and St Paul and the Broken Bones. I wanted to buy St Paul's album pretty much as soon as I heard the track on EotR's website, so that was no surprise. The BBC Radiophonic stuff was really cool; experimental 60s electronica, AKA the soundtracks to a lot of BBC Sci Fi. We missed Dr Who, but saw a bit of H2G2, and a whole bit of music to watch nuclear testing too.
Best discovery of the weekend was the Crump Monsieur, courtesy of @goodpropertea. Crumpet, mustard butter, ham and melted cheese. Going to be making a lot of those.
End of the Road was nice. Bit chilly during the day - three days of solid wind and constantly changing weather - but gorgeous on the last day. Bands were a bit variable, but the food was lovely as always and for the first time I finally found the woodland disco. The gardens are gorgeous after dark; all these light installations and interesting places to explore. All the teenagers perched in the trees and pretend to be peacocks (there's a ton of peacocks on the site) like another extra installation. There was a karaoke shower cubicle and a photobooth with an artist inside and a bear made of straw. Popped down to the comedy stage a couple of times. We saw Sarah Bennetto and Ryan Coffey during the day, as well as Knightmare Live after midnight (and got told off for being too loud). What else? Oh, a Q&A with Ben Wheatley and Andy Starke in the cinema, which was in a building this year, which was weird. Looked like it was built for weddings.
I think it was busier this year, though the camping seemed about the same the stages were much busier from much earlier on and the bars kept running out of booze, which was odd. The local cider was limited to one barrel per bar per day, so was usually gone by lunch, while the ales were running out by about nine. The gin and tonic bar ran out entirely and flogged their tonic water to one of the main bars that had run out, then did a supermarket run to restock. Only place that didn't have a problem was the cider bus, because this year's cider was shit. The medium had a vinegary tang and the dry was so harsh. In previous years I've loved the cider bus, so I don't know what's going on beyond a really bad harvest.
Music-wise: British Sea Power were pretty boring, as were Wild Beasts. Good year for concept albums: Gruff Rhys's American Interior was a lot of fun (we missed the showing of the film sadly) and the Gene Clark No Other Band was great. tUnE-yArDs have got a bit more mainstream since last time they were there, which was a good thing (it's more musical now, rather than just playing with sounds) and a good summer afternoon sound. Jenny Lewis was good too, and Rosie Lowe was a glimpse of groundroots pop (she was mixing her own vocal track as she sang, but not in a tUnE-yArDs way). There were two post Low Anthem bands, of which I preferred Arc Iris and J preferred Futur Primitif. My favourites of the weekend were The Wave Pictures, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and St Paul and the Broken Bones. I wanted to buy St Paul's album pretty much as soon as I heard the track on EotR's website, so that was no surprise. The BBC Radiophonic stuff was really cool; experimental 60s electronica, AKA the soundtracks to a lot of BBC Sci Fi. We missed Dr Who, but saw a bit of H2G2, and a whole bit of music to watch nuclear testing too.
Best discovery of the weekend was the Crump Monsieur, courtesy of @goodpropertea. Crumpet, mustard butter, ham and melted cheese. Going to be making a lot of those.
