email: [email protected] website: nightshift.oxfordmusic.net Free every month. NIGHTSHIFT Issue 153 April Oxford’s Music Magazine 2008 OfOf daffodilsdaffodils andand lionslions -- meetmeet Oxford’sOxford’s poppop naturalistsnaturalists JONQUILJONQUILJONQUILJONQUILJONQUILJONQUIL Plus - FESTIVAL MANIA All the line-up news from Truck, Cornbury, Wakestock, The Punt, Wood, Cropredy, Oxford Folk Festival - inside NIGHTSHIFT: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU. Phone: 01865 372255 NEWNEWSS Nightshift: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU Phone: 01865 372255 email: [email protected] Nightshift’s guide to the latest on this year’s local festivals THE OXFORD PUNT THE LINE-UP FOR THIS YEAR’S OXFORD PUNT has been announced. The annual showcase festival for the best local unsigned acts takes place on Wednesday 14th May and features 18 acts playing across five venues in Oxford city centre. The Punt kicks off at Borders at 6.15pm with nu-folk act Faceometer and finishes at midnight with one-man digital hardcore riot Clanky Robo Gobjobs. In between the Punt captures styles as diverse as Arabian dub reggae, garage rock, experimental noise, funk, blues, electro and CORNBURY violin-led indie rock. The full Punt line-up is: CROWDED HOUSE are set to headline this year’s Cornbury Festival. The BORDERS: Faceometer / Desmond Chancer & The Long Memories Australian pop favourites top the Sunday night bill at the festival which runs THE PURPLE TURTLE: International Jetsetters / Cat Matador / Elapse-O / over the weekend of the 5th / 6th July at Cornbury Park, near Charlbury. Raggasaurus Other acts confirmed to play include Beverley Knight, The Bangles, THE WHEATSHEAF: Tristan & The Troubadours / Non-Stop Tango / KT Tunstall and 10cc, while the second stage features headline sets from Alphabet Backwards / Rubber Duck Toots & The Maytals and Bellowhead as well as appearances from Salsa THIRST LODGE: Black Skies Burn / Little Fish / Sikorsky / King Furnace Celtica, Nick Lowe, Half Man, Half Biscuit and The Beat. Saturday night’s THE CELLAR: Eduard Sounding Block / David K Frampton / 50ft Panda / main stage headliner as yet to be announced. Clanky Robo Gobjobs. Cornbury Festival organiser Hugh Phillimore spoke to Nightshift about this Each act will play for thirty minutes with set times staggered so fans can try year’s event, which is expected to be the biggest in the festival’s history. and catch as many bands as possible. There will be a limited number (100 “I’m pretty excited about my Saturday headliner as he has a great live only) of all-venue Punt Passes, which are on sale now, priced £7 (plus reputation although I’ve never seen him. I’m sure you’ll share that booking fee) from Videosyncratic on Cowley Road, or online from excitement when we can reveal it! My personal favourite is Tift Merritt on the oxfordmusic.net. Alternatively, passes are available without booking fee direct Oxford Folk Festival Stage (2nd Stage) on Sunday – she’s a US new country from Nightshift – simply send a cheque, made payable to Nightshift, to PO star and fantastic live – I just pray I get a chance to see her on the day. Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU. Admission to individual gigs will be £4. Fingers crossed we’ll sell out this year – we got close last year and I think With the Punt having previously given early exposure to future local stars our bill is stronger.” such as The Young Knives, Goldrush, Fell City Girl and Winnebago Deal, as For updated news on the festival and tickets (weekend tickets start at £90 for well as early incarnations of Foals and Jonquil, it’s a great way of discovering adults and £55 for under-16s with under-5s free) visit the most exciting new music in the area. www.cornburyfestival.com or call the booking line on 0871 472 0420. Wakestock, which has been running CROPREDY in north Wales for the past eight years, takes place over the weekend SUPERGRASS AND THE of the 27th-29th June within the LEVELLERS will join Fairport picturesque 2,100-acre grounds of Convention in headlining this the palace and will feature displays year’s CROPREDY FESTIVAL. of the growing sport of The annual folk festival, now in wakeboarding alongside the live its fourth decade, has become an music. annual pilgrimage for folk fans Among the other acts already around the world with English folk- confirmed to perform across three rock pioneers Fairport traditionally topping the Saturday night bill. stages at the festival are The This year’s Cropredy Festival takes Streets, Supergrass, Funeral For place from Thursday 7th – Saturday A Friend, The Young Knives, 9th August. Other acts announced to Hadouken, Audiobullys, The play include former-Ultravox Futureheads, Metronomy, frontman Midge Ure, Julie Lightspeed Champion, Fowlis, Joe Brown, Paul Brady, Pendulum, Jazzy B, Brandon Stackridge and John Tams & Block, Calvin Harris, In Case Of Barry Coope. Fire and Royworld. Tickets for the event are on sale Wakestock will have a capacity of now, priced £72, for all three days, 15,000, making it the joint largest or £62 for Friday and Saturday festival in Oxfordshire, alongside only, online at Cornbury. Local promoters TCT www.fairportconvention.com Music are heavily involved in the organisation and booking of bands for the event. WAKESTOCK Weekend tickets for the festival are on sale now, from SS20 on Cowley GROOVE ARMADA have been Blenheim Palace in Woodstock Road, or Rapture in Witney as well confirmed as one of the headline this summer, featuring a host of big as from the festival credit card acts at the first WAKESTOCK names from the worlds of dance, hotline on 01758 710 000 or FESTIVAL to take place at indie and rock music. online from www.wakestock.co.uk needles in haystacks or whatever else somebody Ian McLagan TRUCK / WOOD needs.” ROBIN BENNETT has been speaking to This year also sees the first WOOD Festival, a Nightshift about this year’s TRUCK FESTIVAL, small-scale family-friendly festival that takes and about Truck’s new festival project, WOOD. places over the weekend of 16th-18th May at This year’s Truck Festival takes place over the Braziers Park in south Oxfordshire, a weekend of the 19th-20th July at Hill Farm in picturesque environmental educational Steventon. Acts announced so far include former establishment. Acts confirmed so far include Get Small Faces keyboard player Ian McLagan & Cape, Wear Cape, Fly, Ashley Hutchings, The Bump Band, punk legends The Television King Creosote, The Coal Porters and Danny Personalities, plus up and coming acts like & The Champions of the World. What was the Noah & The Whale, Camera Obscura, Maps idea behind Wood? and These New Puritans. It has also been “A combination of things: recent parenthood, announced that local promoters Vacuous Pop, and my interest in environmental causes and Abort, Retry, Fail? and Sonic Cathedral will concerns. Rather than being an ‘eco-festival’, be running different stages over the weekend. WOOD is an experiment into how we can Last year’s Truck Festival was washed out in entertain ourselves and our families all together in July’s floods and had to be re-scheduled for one place, just using simple natural things around September. Robin explained the impact that had us: campfires, tents, guitars and other things on the whole Truck organisation and what music mostly made of wood. We also want to do fans can expect from this year’s festival. something new in springtime to put last year’s “In terms of what this event will be like, last flood behind us. year’s flood will not have too much impact. Most “It will be much smaller scale to Truck. This elements of the festival will be the same or better. allows us to try out many new green measures not We managed to break even in the end last year, yet possible on the larger scale at Truck, such as though it was a mighty scare for us. all at the same time. This year’s Sixties keyboard composting toilets, stages powered by solar and “This year will be a more concentrated blast of legend is Ian McLagan of the Small Faces. Some bicycle power, catering with wood stoves, organic fun than ever before... a reaffirmation of the less-known favourites are Gabe Minnikin, a local food and drink. We are even building a spirit of Truck: turning the blitz spirit of last year Canadian singer once in The Guthries, with a very special permanent wooden stage!” into a joyful celebration. We’re involving some low and powerful voice like Johnny Cash, which is For ticket details for both Truck and Wood new local faces like Abort, Retry, Fail and Vacuous no small boast. I’m also excited that there’s a new Festivals, visit www.thisistruck.com. Tickets Pop, and of course the Disco Shed. We’ve got a band from Steventon, Alphabet Backwards, with a for Wood are on sale now online from whole day of shoegaze magic from Sonic release on Vacuous Pop. wegottickets.com. Truck tickets go on sale at Cathedral too, headlined by Maps. “What usually happens is I only see the bands 11am on Wednesday 2nd April from “There are lots of acts I’m really excited about I’m in, the rest of the time I’m running about or Videosyncratic, the Inner Bookshop and Scribbles seeing – if we can manage not to schedule them on one of our famous bicycles, trying to locate in Oxford and various outlets around Oxfordshire. THE FIFTH OXFORD FOLK FESTIVAL OXFORD PLAYS HOST TO ITS OWN th th takes place over the weekend of the 11 -13 LADYFEST on Saturday 24th May at the Port April, with headline acts including The Mahon, a non-profit event showcasing female Kathryn Tickell Band, Brass Monkey, musicians and artists from the area, following on Bellowhead, Martin Simpson and Danny from over 50 other Ladyfests in cities around the Thompson, Three Daft Monkeys and world.