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As ever, the bill for the stage is a mix styles and genres with one defining characteristic, they are all bands and artists that you have read about this year and are the talk of any discerning music fan.
Across the three days the stage will play host to US rock bands, English Indie types, Northern social commentators and Deep South scuzz poppers. If you have been told to look out for a band this year then the betting is that somewhere amongst the bill you will find them.
The resurgence of British music has plenty of representatives this year of all shades and styles. THE BIG PINK have been acclaimed by the NME, who handed them the prestigious Philip Hall Radar Award for Best New Band at the start of the year and Steve Lamacq, who has nailed his colours firmly to their debut single for 4AD, ‘Velvet’.
Scots and Big Pink labelmates BROKEN RECORDS, have been touted by The Guardian as ‘the UK’s answer to Arcade Fire’ with good cause amidst rave reviews for their Until The Earth Begins To Part debut album whilst BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB have finished their studies and retained the critical acclaim that greeted their debut single, The Hill in 2007 leaving them free to pursue their music full time with debut album, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, due on July 6th.
Marina And The Diamonds will be brightening up the stage as Marina Diamond and her band bring what Popjustice arrestingly described as a ‘Siouxsie-fueled cross between Personal Jesus and [Girls Aloud's] Biology’ to the twin sites whilst Wakefield’s Skint And Demoralised are sure of a hearty welcome for their ‘Streets style blend of poetry and grooves’ (THE INDEPENDENT).
Outside of the UK the hotly tipped THE TEMPER TRAP, one of the BBC Sound of 2009 acts are already making great strides prior to the release of debut album with their NME approved ‘big brash guitars and anthemic songs’ and the US’s Hockey arrive with similar plaudits for their ‘Witty, literate songs you can dance to’ (THE GUARDIAN).
THE SOFT PACK are another NME approved US band who, according to the title ‘are a band who are secure in their talent and prowess’ and look all set to light up the remainder of 2009 whilst WHITE DENIM have already gained a deserved reputation for their almost unhinged live shows, in the words of one NME reviewer, nothing short of a ‘muddle of caustic chaos that’s totally captivating’.
With a sound that incorporates ‘psych, folk, prog, funk and pop elements without it being a horrible mish-mash of opposites’ (THE GUARDIAN) AMAZING BABY are more Americans getting the UK hot under the collar and more Wesleyan University graduates will be alongside them in the shape of BEAR HANDS, proving that MGMT were no one off from this seemingly endless font of musical talent. All will have fierce competition from Brooklynites A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS, renowned for their ear splitting performances and sonically over driven sound which made them one of NME’s highlights of 2008’s South By South West.
The volume will no doubt be raised for a clutch of bands bringing a hard edged sound to the stage. Regarded by ABSOLUTE PUNK as ‘Victory’s next big band’, Florida’s A DAY TO REMEMBER are gaining fans in all the right places whilst the return of former Queens Of The Stone Age guitarist Tory Van Leeuwen with singer Serrina Sims with SWEETHEAD is already getting US tipsters hot under the collar and has all the hallmarks of a big moment on the Festival Republic Stage.
Ireland’s FIGHT LIKE APES are sure to create a storm as the band that US Mag Spin accurately described as ‘a deliriously combustible post-punk outfit Courtney Love may well wish to adopt’ continue to gain notices either side of the Atlantic. Back on the US side of the Atlantic, TITUS ANDRONICUS are there for all that may have “Forgotten what it feels like to be thrilled and beaten up by music at the same time? This New Jersey pop-punk will remind you” according to THE SUNDAY TIMES but will be pushed all the way by the ‘epic noise alchemists’ (NME) that are MIDDLE CLASS RUT and newcomers SINGLE FILE.
JACK’S MANNEQUIN have so far played a solitary London show in the UK but are already all over radio with their single ‘Swim’, ‘magical stuff’, according to THE FLY, and are another one to watch for this year.
Local Leeds lads PULLED APART BY HORSES and GRAMMATICS can look forward to a hero’s welcome at their home site but don’t be surprised at similar sized crowds in Reading whilst the likes of THE CHAPMAN FAMILY and DETROIT SOCIAL CLUB will be cheered on by sizeable contingents from their North East homeland.
The eccentricities of GOLDEN SILVERS are well documented but it is live where the column inches really translate into a gloriously bizarre sense whilst both BADDIES and GO AUDIO will be providing more straightforward, but no less compelling, choruses to holler along to.
Extremes return with the loud / quiet dynamics of THE JOY FORMIDABLE whilst the hotly tipped MAGISTRATES come to the stage fresh from the NME New Noise Tour with headliner La Roux and great reviews. A special moment on the stage will be the performances of THE HOT RATS, the duo that consist of Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey, better known to all as two thirds of Supergrass.