In the week before Glastonbury takes over our screens and indeed lives, it’s easy to forget that other festivals are available. And not all are on the same scale as the 900 acres of Worthy Farm.
However, this doesn’t mean that they need to lack big names, as Let’s Rock Scotland – situated in a country park in Midlothian – certainly shows. (Included in the ticket price is a scenic 20 minute hike to the festival site – let’s say signposting could be better).
The premise is rather different to many other events of a similar nature – while most contain their fair share of nostalgia (the appearance of Paul McCartney in Pilton – no, not that one – being a case in point), this one-day shindig in Dalkeith is unashamedly a celebration of all things 1980s – a seeming conveyor belt of names music fans of a certain age had almost forgotten, unearthed for one night (or day) only.
There’s just the one stage as well, meaning the only wandering around the site necessary is to the bar (or the loo) with most revellers pitching their picnic tables and waiting to be entertained, cabaret-style – except the fare of choice is chicken wrap in a basket.
The day’s entertainment starts early, and it seems that we have missed Tiffany’s short set – presumably she has another engagement at a shopping mall. Instead we’re just in time to see disco semi-legends Ottowan – who? – depart the stage, having been serenaded by ‘D.I.S.C.O’ and ‘Hands Up’ – ah, Ottowan! – as we passed through security.
The single-stage setup means that there are gaps between the acts, but for such an ’80s-themed party, what better host than Pat Sharpe, adding that extra piece of kitsch to an event that actively encourages time travel via the medium of fancy dress. On our travels around the site we spot assorted George Michaels, a Keith out of the Prodigy, some Barry/Gary and/or Terry Scousers, and a whole gaggle of uniformed Maplins holiday camp staff (that’s Hi-de-Hi! for anyone young / lucky enough to have missed that very of-its-time sitcom). Later, we witness the emotional moment when two Freddie Mercurys meet up and embrace.
It’s not a festival for any po-faced street cred, with perhaps the biggest surprise on the bill the appearance of Scritti Politti. So rather than digging back into the iconic indie release ‘Skank Bloc Bologna’, Green Gartside instead draws largely from album ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’, which, according to its main creator is “thirty… five… six years old?” No, keep going, clue’s in the title… it’s 37. Years. Old.
The band’s only original member, Green, is heavily bearded and, shockingly, 66, but wearing well visually and vocally. His trademark soaring falsetto-ish vocal still sounds tremendous, as they open with ‘The Sweetest Girl’, the sole track lifted from ‘Songs To Remember’ before playing The Hits – a theme which will run through every set.
Sterling takes on ‘Word Girl’, ‘Absolute’, ‘Wood Beez’, and ‘Hypnotize’ follow, as well as ‘Oh Patti’, from third long-player ‘Provision’. Gartside has already been gigging in his own right before joining up with the revival circuit and a ‘regular’ Scritti show, with a longer and broader set, would on this evidence come highly recommended .
We may possibly have also missed appearances from Five Star, Tenpole Tudor, and Musical Youth – Let’s Rock moves around the country with an ever-changing lineup and anyone from their talent pool, it seems, could show up – this weekend coming, Green, along with Tom Bailey and Nick Heyward, will meet up with Billy Ocean and Wet Wet Wet at Let’s Rock Leeds.
‘Always leave them wanting more’ is the maxim for any successful live act, and The Selecter do just that. At the end of their set we’re left asking “is that it”? It’s gone in a flash (too soon even for a decent photo) – Pauline Black and co. leading the crowd through a hi-nrg skank with ‘Three Minute Hero’, ‘Missing Words’ – “the closest we got to a love song” – and ‘James Bond’ – featuring the band’s “own” Idris Elba, Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson. There’s ‘On My Radio’ – just as relevant today as it was in 1979, Black suggests – and a mash-up of ‘Too Much Pressure’ that segues into a lovely take on Toots’ ‘Pressure Drop’. In fact the band cover all their own hit singles, and chuck in a version of ‘Last Train To Skaville’ to boot, so perhaps they actually played a full half-hour after all. However, with the sun out and the dancing truly kicked off, another 30 minutes would have gone down a treat.
The running order for any multi-band event is always a bone of contention. We must assume that some sort of ‘status’ leads to an artist’s place on the bill. So, and let’s be quite clear – I love Pigbag – might this embodiment of the term “one hit wonder” perhaps have taken the stage a little earlier?
To be fair, the band had a handful of minor, sub-Top 30 hits, but have no illusions about their place in the rock pantheon – indeed, they ‘start’ with The Hit – well, a tongue-in-cheek snippet of it – before delivering a couple of tracks from ‘Dr Heckle and Mr Jive’, off-kilter pop which is perfectly danceable, if unfamiliar to the majority of the audience. There’s then a fairly inexplicable cover of A-ha ‘s ‘Take On Me’, followed by a more relevant version of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ – as mainman Chris Lee (I presume) recalls the band’s appearance at the first-ever WOMAD in 1982.
And to close an energetic set, “the reason we’re here” – a stomping, brassy take on ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag’ which is worthy of a slot on any bill.
Back before there were boybands, there was Haircut 100. Ok, that’s not strictly true on just about every level. Well, first came the Rollers – manufactured and something of a blueprint for what would come decades later. The Osmonds might be a better example – wrote most of their hits, impeccable teeth… Nick Heyward still has the teeth, and the hair, but what was probably forgotten during their time as darlings of the less credible pop press – a mainstay of Smash Hits it seemed – they sported some excellent, indie(ish) pop tunes.
‘Love Plus One’ is a swoonsome piece of perfect pop with its sax solo just on the right side of cheesy, while ‘Favourite Shirts’ probably outfunks Pigbag.
Heyward also delivers a few solo hits including ‘Take That Situation’, before he, somewhat unexpectedly, proclaims that 1983’s ‘Blue Hat For a Blue Day’ was about the referendum – surely not the indyref in 1979? Well, he goes on to declare that Scotland should be independent, to a chorus of cheers from part of the audience (and probably flat-out surprised silence from the rest). Either way, as the breeze gets up cooling our sunburn, ‘Fantastic Day’ is our new national anthem.
Rather than just have Pat Sharpe and colleagues entertain us, instead we get a one-song cameo from Nathan More of Brother Beyond. No, me neither, but yes, ‘The Harder I Try’ does sound awfully familiar…
Knowing the tales of The Drifters or The Sweet, we pause to muse over what the rest of The Thompson Twins are doing right now (yes, there were at least two others, and sometimes more). Tom Bailey doesn’t appear to be embroiled in any copyright wrangles over his right to take the band’s back catalogue on tour, and to be fair he is billed under his own name (with heavy references to his former band, just in case anyone’s forgotten). Today’s show is clearly not a family affair – his all-female backing band is possibly also all-French, and each is, like their leader, clad in white. Bailey himself, with headset mic, looks like he’s either doing a Ted Talk or working as a TV evangelist, and he quickly has the audience following his every move.
Which is, with his back catalogue, a pretty simple task. It’s still surprising how many tracks are familiar, and expertly delivered. ‘Doctor Doctor’, ‘Hold Me Now’, ‘You Take Me Up’, all present and correct – as is a take on ‘Psycho Killer’ possibly inspired by its Scottish songwriter. Bailey will apparently be playing all of ‘Into The Gap’ in September, showing that despite his solo career, there’s a such demand for The Hits that, for an 80s popster in his position, why bother working on anything else?
Here’s another one I know. But this time, not exclaimed in gleeful recognition. Level 42, led by the man with the three-million pound thumb, Mark King, plus fellow founder Mike Lindup, take to the stage, to, it must be said, some considerable applause. It probably also has to be (grudgingly) said that when they are purely playing chart pop music – ‘Lessons In Love’, ‘Running In The Family’ – they are a great, brassy, party band. When they’re, in the words of the many George Michaels present, “a little too funky for me”, they are perhaps the less acceptable face of nostalgia. Many would disagree.
Given our proximity to midsummer, ‘Sun Goes Down’ isn’t quite apt, but the two acts who will take us into the dusk have even more Hits to spare than their predecessors. Probably a toss-up, it may be Squeeze who are more keen to get off and get their bedtime cocoa. For this reviewer this is proper nostalgia – both headliners being acts seen back in the day, but not since.
First ever gig: Eddie and the Hot Rods, Glasgow Apollo. Supports were The Radio Stars, and, first on and not yet the chart behemoths they would become, Squeeze. The Apollo’s velvet curtains opened to reveal Jools Holland on keys and Harri Kakoulli, perhaps, the memory is hazy – spitting his massive spiff into the front row. (I said it was hazy).
Fast forward 40-odd years and they, yes, open up with ‘Take Me I’m Yours’, all squelchy keyboards and Chris Difford’s Cockney growl, followed by ‘Up The Junction’ – in the space of two songs showing the contrast in delivery of the pair’s songs that has made them such an enduring fixture in British music. Tilbrook is still in very fine voice, though he has got to look a little like Piers Morgan (apologies Glenn) while his compadre out front – if that was an insult – now looks a bit like Matthew Broderick.
We should concentrate on the music but there’s not much to say apart from their delivering a ridiculous number of hits in their allotted time – ‘Pulling Mussels’, ‘Is That Love’, ‘Annie Get Your Gun’, all delivered apace and note-perfect. ‘Black Coffee In Bed’ is surprisingly long and rocking, indeed the instrumental ending is long enough to fit in not just ‘Bang Bang’ – not heard in four decades – but also the whole of ‘Packet of Three’. Call me picky…
It may be that the running order for such an event is simply determined by The Hits. If so, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark just about edge it over their compatriots. There’s been a dozen top 20 singles (with many more lesser chart entries) in the 42 or so years since the spotlight turned on Winston – the band’s trusty TEAC tape machine – on the Glasgow Apollo’s stage, before Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphries’ warm-up set for Gary Human. The OMD of today are a different proposition – they expanded to a four piece not long after and eventually (via the College of Building and Printing, possibly) graduated to headlining at the Apollo themselves in time for sophomore album ‘Organisation’.
That’s roughly where I left them, as they truly hit the charts, with ‘Enola Gaye’ – perhaps the chirpiest tune about nuclear holocaust – paving the way for superstardom. It’s tonight’s opener as the skies turn dark, showing what a rich vein of material they have to be able to open with a potential set closer. Their current tour is billed ‘Souvenir’, celebrating 40 years of ‘Architecture and Morality’ and with Martin Cooper and Stuart Kershaw making up the quartet, it’s, aside from original drummer Malcolm Holmes, as close as they’ll get to the ‘classic’ lineup.
McCluskey is enjoying himself, pulling semi-ironic bass hero poses, before discarding his instrument to take the mic and stalk the stage, but not taking himself too seriously – “I’m going to teach you to dance like me” is his invitation to the crowd, a reference to his geography teacher chic and the dad dancing he was frequently pilloried for. Humphries is relatively subdued, the back seat driver, but takes on vocal duties for ‘Forever Live & Die’.
Given that ‘Stanlow’ – the band’s six-minute doom rock epic about an oil refinery – is their career high point for me, these ears are too weary for the breezy chart fodder of ‘Locomotion and ‘Talking Loud and Clear’, but they round off nicely with debut single ‘Electricity’. Originally on Factory Records in 1979 and reaching 99 in the charts on its third attempt it’s possibly the least ‘Let’s Rock’ thing about the whole day.
But that’s the beauty of events like this one – full of surprises.