Inside Summer Sundae

The Summer Sundae Weekender has become an established part of the Leicester Music Calendar; it is a major event both nationally and in the Midlands. Over 15,000 people came from all parts of the UK and other parts of Europe to attend the event. The main festival took place in the De Montfort Hall and Gardens and spilled out on to part of Victoria Park. In the run up to the weekend, a busy schedule of warm-up gigs and fringe events added to the general importance and significance of the festival.

A feature of the SSW was its close promixity to the city centre and its being on the edge of a large park and residential area. Not that all local residents were equally fond of the noise impact on their peace and quiet. Whilst most national festivals are held in the middle of no where, this one was only 10 minutes walk from the train station and was within easy reach of shops, banks and other live music venues. Paralled only by Reading and to some extent Leeds, Leicester offered the convenience of an uban festival with a huge potential for growth. Read more about this in our Editorial.

BBC Radio 6 partnered up with summer Sundae, to create a whole mini-web site of their own on the show. Stages on the site included the main stage, a festival-sized sound stage set in the natural amphitheatre of De Montfort Gardens, the De Montfort Hall itself and four tents and marquees.

The Rising Stage, sponsored by The Firebug, The Musician Stage, the e-festivals Tent and the new Phrased and Confused tent offered a wide range of musical talent. Unlike many of the big festivals, the main stage did not run continuous acts. Slots were organised so that the audience could move between the outdoor area and the major tents or the indoor arena.

The headline slots on the main stage this year included veteran rockers Supergrass, American singer Macy Gray, the Merseyside band The Coral, Mystery Jets and Revered and the Makers. Added to this were Lightspeed Champion, Joan as Police Woman, Swagger and sets from much loved bands such as Noah and the Whale.

But what stood out for me over the weekend was the inclusion of leading local acts - The Heroes, The Chairman, The Screening, Kyte, M48, Ictus, The Codes, Project Notion and Tired Irae.

Some festivals are rough, both as regards the site and the crowd. But first impression of the the SSW was that it was neat and tidy. There was a strong emphasis on all things Green and Organic. Food stalls offered organic snacks. I opted for a a burger of organically grown pork and Stilton topped with a free-range fried egg. Later I decided to try the Japanese Noodle bar. Instead of the usual rubbish bins for rubbish food waste, there were colour-coded and labeled wheelie's where you could sort and dispose of rubbish by type of material: wood, bio-degradable plastic, paper and recyclable plastic cups. The crowd all looked rather 'macro-biotic' too. The inevitable real ale tent offered a staggering variety of organic beers and ciders.

Both the main stage, the DMH main hall and the tents were well equipped with quality sound systems and production lighting effects. Hence we heard some of the best sounds in Leicester. Bands we had half heard at the venues in town, could now be properly heard on high quality sound systems. It was a rare treat.

This is not just a local derby: as with most festivals, the site include two large campsites for people who headed down to Leicester from all over the UK, Europe and further afield.

Cold War Kids are from Long Beach USA and they played the main stage on Sunday

The Heroes open the Summer Sundae Festival

Leicester band The Heroes opened the main stage at Summer Sundae and got the event off to a flying start. Playing to a crowd of well over 1000, the young indie band delighted the audience with their set of catchy indie dance songs. The band won their place on the main stage as a result of a competition organised by BBC's The Beat programme.

The crowd certainly got into the swing of the set, with a few rows of people down at the pit barriers and most of the grass disappearing under an army of people who sat themselves down in the warm sunshine to enjoy the show. A band that had only ever played to a couple of hundred people, now found themselves in front of well over a 1000 music fans. The band members loved it - you could see the radiant excitement in their faces. It certainly well made up for them not getting through to the finals of the OBS a few months earlier. You would think they would be frozen with stage fright. Far from it! Their confident set made them seem like a band that was used to playing major festival stages. They took to it like ducks to water.

They also got the full works from the production team. When they launched into their song "Blue Rave ", the stage light up with an array of deep blue search-light beams. The Heroes set consisted of memorable, dance-paced songs, which many of those in the pit crowd clearly knew, because they were singing along to them. "Wake Up Radio" had already received air-play from the BBC. It's catchy intro, riffs and phrases gave it that hit-like quality which suggests that this is a band that could well get into the charts. Thier closing song "Along Came Max" also had that x-factor quality and brought their set to a rousing finale.

Far from offering only nice pop songs, The Heroes can put a bit of edge and aggression into their set. They give out passion and energy but without the posing attitude of some other bands. The Heroes opening of the main stage was a great way to kick off a festival. A young rising band, opening a major international festival in its own home town, delighting the largest crowd they had ever played to, The Heroes pulled it off magnificently.

The Heroes | Listen to the Heroes on Radio Leicester

The Chairmen - far from rained off!

A very wet Saturday morning did not dampen the spirits of Jonny and his crew when they took to the main stage. The Chairmen played a storming set to a a large audience who were not going to let a few rain clouds make them miss one of Leicester's top bands. A posse of loyal Chairmen fans had gathered in front of the pit half an hour before the start of the set. The Chairmen played their hit songs: Kiss and Run, Lip Smack Heart attack, Confusion Reigns, Week Long Romance, Guerilla Weekend and ended with thier smash hit Twenty Twenty Vision. You had the feeling that you were at Glastonbury listening to one of the UK's top bands. The crowd loved it; as soon as Jonny announced Twenty Twent Vision, a cheer went up from the throng of fans in front of the stage. This is clearly a song that captured the spirits of their fan base and probably won them some new admirers.

At the start of the set, the arena was looking a little bare and it all felt like it was going to be a repeat of the rain-soaked stage at Glastonbudget 2007. As they got into their set, more and people came and stood in front of the stage until, by the end of it, there was a crowd of over a 1000 on the field.

The Chairmen pumped out one massively good tune after another. Their ability to put together quality songs is a legend. Most of the hard-core audience down at the front were singing along to many of the songs and the crowd on the field stuck around, clearly enjoying a band that can hold its own against the likes of the Artic Monkeys.

A storming set from the Chairmen; a great set of hit songs - a huge crowd turned out to see them.

The Chairmen

M48 success

OBS winners M48 played the Musician Stage on Friday. They pulled a large crowd into their Marquee for their set of enjoyable foot-tapping, songs, pulsing rhythms and close-knit harmonies. The three vocalists - Jordan, Nile and Brydee - use their nicely complementary voices to add some rich harmonisation to their songs. Their closing song "Night on the Razz" is one of those classics that you can't get out of your head. Just the kind of song you want to join in with and play over and over when you're in need of a pick me up.

An all-age crowd of over 500 packed into the Musician tent to listen to their set and they certainly got an enthusiastic response from them.

M48 Band

Project Notion on the Rising Stage

Project Notion are a five member melodic band from Melton Mowbray whose appealing lead vocalist Tori Maries and backing guitarists have been making a considerable impact on the local venues. Skillful finger work from guitarists who played their instruments like keyboards and elaborate drumming, built up complex textures of sound. The melodies created a chilled mood of jazz infused with folk. This evoked an rapturous response from the crowd. They played a set that was both chilled and virtuosic, their songs including an appropriate Hows the Weather up There, Boheka, Heads and Tails/Hide and Seek, Castles in the Air, Within 50 Metres and closing with Constellate in Cubism. Full marks for the band with the most obscure song titles, but hey, what a great set of tunes. With it's artful and highly listenable songs, Project Notion has become a quality addition to the local live music scene.

Project Notion

Screeeeeening

Leicester indie stars the Screening played the main hall at De Montfort to a large crowd on Saturday. The popular Leicester band launched the indoor stage with a set of rousing songs inluding their well-known numbers and some new ones from their forthcoming EP.

The Screening

Jersey Budd

Folk rockers Jersey Budd don't play their home town of Leicester very often, so their appearance on the main stage was a treat for their local fans. The four member band played a set of classical rock n roll songs. Fast paced with some good stompy beats, they drew an enthusiastic response from the crowd. Pushed out a set of bouncey songs at an energetic pace, Jersey Budd added a wedge of good music to the artistic diversity of the main stage lineup.

Jersey Budd

Tired Irie - far from tired

Enjoying a respite from the mud and rain drenched fields, the crowd filed into the indoor stage for two of Leicester's most original and exhilarating bands: Tired Irae and Kyte. Settling down in a comfortable balcony seat, I watched and listened to Tired Irie, a band I had seen only once before when they played at the Pavilion, just across the park. At the start of their set about 800 people had gathered on the floor of the main hall. Singed to try Harder Records, Irae have a collection of top songs, backed by a battery of keyboard and synths. They are band that oozes atmosphere and modernity, fuzing electro-funk with indie. You can hear echoes of Hot Chip and Kings of Leon in there sometimes but always they craft their own unique style which I am sure other bands will be influenced by in the not too distant future.

Tired Irae

Kyte - truly amazing

Signed Leicestershire band Kyte are now a truly International act. Having returned from a recent tour of Japan, they are soon flying off to tour Germany, Poland and Scandanavia among other places. With their epic set of post-rock, electro-laden pieces, they are more of an orchestra than a band. They filled the De Montfort Hall and a posse of photographers flashed away busily in the pit. Strong on sound effects and percussion, they performed a chilled, atmospheric set, creating landscapes of colourful and complex sounds.

The show was a wonderful Son et Lumière of music and light, the stage being beautifully washed in deep reds, yellows and greens while the band members were often picked out in flouresent blues or white floods. The keyboard, Jamie Ward, player had his own set of snares and cymbals and an electronic gadget that played glockenspiel like notes and other kinds of percussive sounds.

The vocals were more like another instrument, blending the human voice into the shimmering walls of sound produced by the electronica wizards and the dummer. The keyboard player switched to a conventional guitar at one point and the vocalist highligted certain phrases by fervent beating of the snares and cymbals. An ethereal intro was broken by pounding drum beats, with the kind of sticks used by Timpani players. The vocals were enhanced with lashings of reverb and echo, while two big screens at the back of the stage played a series of animated graphics, interspered with images of the band and the audience from live cameras. Kyte produce expansive landscapes of music. It all worked well in the surroundings of Leicester's biggest theatre; will it work as well squeezed into a basement at Sumo on 6th September?

The songs played by Kyte were: Eyes Lose Their Fire, Secular Ventures, Each Life Critical, Stars on T.V. Screens, Boundaries and These Tales of Our Stay. Kyte are: Nick Moon - Vocals and Kaoss Pad, Tom Lowe - Guitar and drones, Jamie Ward - Guitar, Keys, Glock and percussion, Ben Cox - Bass, and Scott Hislop - Drums.

Kyte | News about Kyte's tour of Japan

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