Another year, another HYGOMP, but rater than occupying solely the titular ‘Pavement’ outside Glasgow’s favourite veggie cafe-restaurant-record shop, it’s a 2-stage setup this year, adding a full-blown indoor stage. Happily, though dark skies threaten to drench the clientele, the second stage is never completely necessary - apart from, of course, providing twice the number of bands to see, with stage timings carefully arranged to avoid (much) overlap.
Proceedings are kicked off by Sparkling Shadazz - basically Shadowy Man on a Shadowy Planet, or Man or Astroman, without the setting-fire to heads and stuff. For the uninitiated, it’s surfy Dick Dale-style surf guitar with a space rock vibe. It’s a decent start to the day, though perhaps more suited to a beach party on the sands of Mars than a blowy Glasgow street.
Following last year’s appearance by Franz, it’s up to the Pictish Trail to provide the special mystery guest element this time round. Sadly James Yorkston decided that a holiday in Spain would be of more benefit than a stint in Johnny Lynch’s backing band. Apart from the obvious celebrity cachet however, he isn’t missed - well, with MC Quake, onthefly (I think) and King Creosote of course present the stage is pretty well off for moderately well-known musical Fifers. Pictish (as he’s known to his friends) has a distinct Fence sound but also there are hints of electro offshoot De-fence. And despite his vaguely KC-like song song structures - alt.folk, in other words - it’s these extra nuances, with little electronic interludes and whirring rhthms, which make the difference.
Stevie Jackson’s set is also one for the Indie I-spy crowd - well, to be exact there’s half of dayjob bandmates Belle and Sebastian onstage with him, though no sign of either Mick or Richard - but Belfast Bob and Sarah on flute join with Roy Moller, plus Nigel out of Camera Obscura on trumpet. Musically it will come as no surprise that Stevie’s songs aren’t dissimilar to B&S - well, he does contribute to that band’s sound considerably, though his sharp-suited appearance ties in with a more straightforward, 60s beat. Lyrically he’s less complex than Stuart Mudoch’s often involving stories-as-songs, Jackson instead preferring a more jocular approach with ‘Lorries Are Splendiferous’ a tune jaunty enough to match its title.
Jacob Yates and the Pealy Gate Lock Pickers are the first act we somehow miss, but their name and their history are enough to fill in the blanks - Jacob is your former Uncle John (of Whitelock fame). Reports suggest similarities between his new and former bands, but we can see that the quiff has gone.
It’s often said that players at these Mono shows feature bands comprised from barstaff from the pub, but European Union are entitled to take the stage on 2 counts. First, the band’s mainman is one Paul Ranter so apart from his tenure in The Ranters (Scottish rock’n’roll royalty) his recent stint in the at-times highly impressive Summer of Mars means that his place in Scottish indie legend is assured. Plus, he’s in charge of bookings up at sister venue Stereo. Ok, thirdly, EU sound pretty darn good even if we miss a chunk of their set. They’re less rock than any of his previously-mentioned previous bands, but that’s no bad thing, fitting nicely into the slightly slacker lineup of the day.
Foxface are for some the day’s top attraction. Scratchy folk music with hints of the lusty harmonies of Sons and Daughters, they are the ideal rock-folk crossover. Expanded to a 4-piece it seems, there are now two foxheads at the back, making for a twice-as-scary event for those who fear strange men in masks. For the rest of us the sound is beefier, meaning that stompalongs like ‘Monster Seas’ are twice as impressive.
The Week That Was - abbreviated from now on to TW2, 60s comedy reference fans - get off to a good start, the most straightforward rock/pop of the day as you might expect from members of lauded act Field Music. However, there’s an unfortunate deviation towards prog which leads me to kill time in a discussion on how one applauds and stroke one’s chin at the same time, and would such one-hand-clapping actually make a sound if there was no band there to hear it.
School of Language have been kind of described as variously the ‘Curators’ of the event, and “who”? depending on your knowledge of Sunderland’s underground scene. The first of two Field Music-related acts on the lineup, they along with their chums make for perhaps the most chart-friendly sound of the day. A hint of Pavement is no bad thing after all, though the crowd at this mid-afternoon slot is quieter than those experienced by the more local acts. Though they can now boast to having played to a bigger audience than Franz Ferdinand in the same slot last year.
Speaking of bands from the bar (which we were earlier), Gummy Stumps‘ members look very familiar, though in one case it’s Park Attack’s mainman, spotted here last year. But instead of screaming from the frontman (who is still in fine voice on backing vocals), it’s instead a Fall-like rant in a thick Scottish accent from singer Spicy Colin (not the name given at birth we’re sure, but that’s what it says on myspace, so who are we to dispute this fact?). We also glean the fact that one of the band was in Lummox. It’s all making sense.
Felix Kubin is a self-described dadaist, so detractors in the audience should not be surprised that a lime-green shirt and electronic wibbling are the most distinctive arts of his act. That and the pretty unusual (round these parts) scarily danceable fairground music, around halfway between Robert Rental and the Normal Live at West Runton Pavilion, and the opening credits for Tales of the Unexpected. That said, those getting most out of his set have, I’m told, ‘imbibed’.
Plaaydoh are a band being namedropped by just about everyone this past few months (see Colin Jackson’s first-on-the-case review). Guided By Voices crossed with bis might sound like a cloning experiment gone too far, but it’s the way the Glasgow 4-piece pack in a shedload of shifting changing tunes into 30 seconds that reminds us of Bob Pollard’s songsmithery. Stylistically it’s a predictable comparison to make but shouty female-fronted pop with a synth edge will always hark back to Manda Rin and pals even if there is much more to the band. Expect to hear even more references to this lot in the coming months.
What’s good about HYGOMP is its talent for suddenly bringing in the unexpected. This year it’s Derek the magician who appears for some close-up magic stage front. Despite the awkward envronment he’s quick to capture the audience with some comedy. The tricks themselves are fairly standard, which is to be expected given the unusual setting, but his finale of concealing some sizeable apples and oranges under some very small cups is impressive.
John B McKenna, recently spotted on the Sauchiehall Crawl with his band El Padre, is probably better known as a solo artist, and tonight he is solo and acoustic, armed only with a moothie and guitar. In fact he opened last year to virtually no audience owing to the weather difficulties. This year he’s indoors on the second stage but his headline status owes as much to his rising stock as it is any sort of payback for last year’s event. It’s easy to see why - strong vocals and intriguing lyrics show that he’s not just another of the ten-a-penny singer-songwriters around.
Camera Obscura headline and have a nice full sound which sees them capture the more produced feel of their third album, with ‘Let’s Get Out Of This Country’ and ‘Hey Lloyd’, inevitably, standouts. Big brassy choruses and an appearance by Fanclub drummer and manager Francis Macdonald on backing vocals and shaky eggs makes for a resounding end to the night, curtailed only by the local noise regulations. Camera Obscura too loud? That, I suppose is one of the drawbacks of city-centre festivals, but the comfort, ease of access and decent food and drink along with a decent lineup make HYGOMP one that hopefully will be around for some time.
more photos from HYGOMP on Flickr
and James Cadden’s gallery from the day on Flickr
//Stuart McHugh