Field Day London - Live Report (Matthew Dear, James Blake, Born Ruffians, more)

Live Report of Field Day London - by Linda Wijlaars

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that we are no fans of the type of festival that requires one to bring their own roof to sleep under at night. Not to mention the sleeping bag, air mattress and pump – though I can safely say, following a rather disastrous encounter at a recent Lowlands festival, that our hate versus pumps is wholly reciprocated. Luckily, there is another type of festival in existence that doesn’t require one to queue to shower (and if you are not an avid reader of this blog, you might be able to take a wild guess at which we prefer at this point).

London’s Field Day is definitely a festival from the latter category. It is held in the beautiful Victoria Park, located in Hipster Central, better known as East London. If you approach it right, it’s really a sight to be seen. The park is situated right next to the newly constructed Olympic Park, so if you’re one of the estimated 1,5 million people that missed out on tickets for the opening next year, you now know where you’ll need to be to not miss out on the fireworks. When you come at the park from a different angle, you’ll get to see a whole different kind of fireworks. As the ‘Lympics are still a year away, things aren’t entirely up to speed yet in the area surrounding the stadium. For one thing, there’s Hackney, a lovely neighbourhood as long as you know where to be, and maybe more importantly, where not to be. Hackney Wick station, which is closest to the entrance to the Field Day site is definitely a place not to be. It’s the kind of place where you have a can of pepper spray at the ready and your finger on your phone with the alarm number under speed dial (a feat which I told the main writer of this blog last Sunday – and boy, how true did those words turn out to be less than 24 hours later).

But the riots have been written about enough, so I’ll just get back to Field Day. With a start at noon on a Saturday, and a preference for sleeping late on my side, I’ve already missed 36 bands (yes, I counted them) by the time I finally managed to make my way to the East End, through the masses, and onto the festival site. But I’m still right on time for Matthew Dear and his live band. As it is for me, it’s also a tiny bit too early for Matthew and his men as the early hour, and abundance of sunshine, seem to castrate his stage presence. Dear’s electro might not be resistant to direct sunlight but he manages to steer clear from total disaster on character (and the fact that ‘Slowdance’ is just an amazing track might also have helped a bit).

Villagers are next up on what is officially known as the main stage, though the crowds gather en masse for James Blake. A rather unfortunate mistake by the organisers is that they’ve put Blake up in too small a tent with. A mistake as the tent has an awesome sound system, with the only setback being that it stops being awesome exactly where the tent ends (and who would have thought that tents could actually influence sound levels – no one who’s ever tried to sleep in one at a festival, I can tell ya). The set-up of the festival and the remarkably low sound levels at the main stage allow the few people, or picnickers rather, at the main stage to observe all of this mayhem while enjoying a surprisingly good set by Villagers.

From there it is onwards and upwards as next on the bill are the recently reformed Electrelane. The all girl outfit seem to have some trouble setting up, delaying the already surprisingly tight schedule. However, they are worth the wait – be it the delay at the festival or the years after they initially split up. Their set has the perfect build-up: they’re really easing their audience into their back catalogue, though ‘The Power Out’, perhaps their best album, gets the most air time. A look at their set list might reveal a rather surprising addition in their Bronski Beat cover. However, the live version of ‘Small Town Boy’ is as Electrelane as it gets and even gets the crowds moving (a notoriously hard thing to achieve in Top Man land).

As the time schedule and the delays are running all out of hand at this point, Twin Shadow is already playing his last notes by the time Electrelane have finished, while the stage where Actress is supposed to appear is running so far behind that no one has a clue anymore what time he will be one. So main stage it is again, for Warpaint this time. ‘Undertow’ is a really great track, but for me personally, that’s all they have to offer. Frankly, they are a tad bit boring live.

Then it’s on to find another band to see, which is turning out to be a real quest as each and every stage seems to be running at a different schedule. The tent where Jamie XX is playing is filled to the brim, and the second James Blake set of the day befalls the same faith. So on it is to the smallest tent of the festival where Born Ruffians are due to make an appearance. And I’m just in time as a short but heavy downpour precedes their set. Everyone in the vicinity flees towards the shelter, making sure the tent is packed to capacity for the Canadians. And what do you know, everyone, even the part of the audience who are just there because of the rain, can sing along to the band. ‘I need a life’ is met with a massive sing-along and after just three seconds of ‘Hummingbird’ the crowd is turned into more of mess than Hackney High Street would be the next Monday. The band does try and play a track from their second album, but realise only too soon that it’s not what the audience is after. Thus they return to more of the indie goodness of ‘Red, Yellow & Blue’. If anything, their set is too short, but that seems to be the trend at Field Day.

It’s up to the ‘headliners’ after this, but with names like Wild Beasts, The Horrors, and Gruff Rhys, (all of whom have played more London venues this summer than I’ve counted riot vans down my street this) I went for Born Ruffians as my personal headliner and left for the hills – or maybe speed bumps would be more accurate as we are talking London here. Field Day is still a relatively new festival, with its fifth and largest rendition this year. But despite its great line-up (certainly when taking the tiny price tag that goes with it into account), it still suffers from quite some problems. There are huge lines everywhere, the stages are either too big or too small for the bands that are playing them, and the sound is abysmal at times. The great atmosphere and the guy who makes a falafel wrap faster than you can say ‘Field Day’ (seriously) make the day a success though. Let’s just hope the co-occurrence of a certain other East London event doesn’t thwart the festival’s existence next year.