‘END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL’ – LARMER TREE GARDENS, WILTSHIRE 30.8.23 – 3.9.23
Along with the ‘Green Man Festival’, the ‘End Of The Road Festival’ is one of my current favourites. It reminds me of how ‘Glastonbury’ was about thirty-five years ago, before it was televised. It was an event that was attended by like-minded people rather than by people who wanted to go because they’d seen the festival on TV. Also the bill didn’t include pop megastars drafted in to satisfy the TV audience.
This is part two of our ‘End Of The Road’ reports. If you missed Part One it can be found HERE and part three can be found HERE.
End Of The Road Festival – Saturday 2nd September
Saturday at ‘End Of The Road’ dawns blazingly hot and sunny. Although to be fair, I didn’t come anywhere close to seeing the dawn, as it was approaching lunchtime when I eventually emerged from my tent.
PERSONAL TRAINER
The music for me starts at the Woods stage with Personal Trainer, from Amsterdam. According to the internet, they are the brainchild of vocalist Willem Smit, and have an ever changing line-up. I must confess that over the last couple of times that I’ve seen them in Brighton, their line-up seems to have been pretty solid, which must surely be a good thing. A cacophonous beginning leads into the more lilting ‘Big Love Blanket’, the title track of their first album, so as good a place as any to start today’s set. As a frontman, Willem is insane, but clearly in a good way. It should be remembered that he is also the mastermind behind all of this, so perhaps he isn’t so insane after all! This is another band which is home to one or two multi-instrumentalists. The keyboard player also plays trumpet and kazoo. The kazoo is a much underrated instrument in rock ‘n’ roll history, in my humble opinion.
They play a new song which is apparently called ‘Intangible’, although no song of that name appears on their set list. Willem pulls his shirt up. He has a definite predilection for showing off his body. Meanwhile, guitarist Franti Maresova plays a most impressive slide guitar solo, doubtless to distract attention from Willem’s torso. At one point Willem straps on a bass. He doesn’t appear to actually play it though. In case there should be any doubt, Personal Trainer are a superb live band. They have live dates in the UK in November, headlining Lewes Con Club on 2nd November, and Highbury Garage on the 3rd. Both of these dates appear to be sold out though. However, they also support BC Camplight at Chalk in Brighton on 22nd November, and Shepherds Bush Empire on the 23rd.
Personal Trainer setlist:
1. ‘Big Love Blanket’
2. ‘The Lazer’
3. ‘1,000,000’
4. ‘Politics’
5. ‘Rug Busters’
6. ‘Muscle Memory’
7. ‘Feel Round’
8. ‘Key Of Ego’
9. ‘The Loozer’
10. ‘You Better Start Scrubbing’
11. ‘Babyolifantjes’
CVC
The somewhat unenviable task of following Personal Trainer falls to CVC, although it has to be said that they don’t appear to display any lack of confidence in the slightest. CVC are a six piece from Cardiff who play funk rock with a dash of blues thrown in, and look and sound as if they originate from the streets of New York circa 1975. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of them was called Huggy Bear. Both guitarists turn in some very impressive solos. They both sing lead vocals too. They repeatedly say “thank you Wembley”, after songs. So they’ve got a sense of humour too! At the end of final song ‘Sophie’, they finish with a very creditable snippet of The Beatles ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’. This is a band who actually could take it all the way. My only concern for them is that their music has a somewhat antiquated feel. On the other hand, that could prove to be a major selling point!!
7EBRA
After my trip back in time to the 1970s, I head to the Boat stage for 7ebra, who are from Sweden. Whilst this is undeniably a small stage, it is the most rammed that I’ve seen in the three years that I’ve been coming here. The band are 25 year old twin sisters from Malmo. Inez plays electric guitar and sings, whilst Ella plays keyboards and mellotron, and plays drum samples with her feet. The music is both ethereal and hypnotic. It reminds me to a degree of The Smoke Fairies. They play their first single ‘If I Ask Her’, which is from their debut album ‘Bird Hour’, featuring a beautifully lyrical guitar solo. They’re certainly a very interesting and unusual band. They have no further live dates planned at present, but when they venture over to these shores again, they’re certainly worth catching.
This really isn’t very rock ‘n’ roll, but I’m very much suffering with the heat, and need to have a lie down. Now I understand why the schedule at Primavera in Spain runs from late afternoon until the early hours of the morning. Spaniards are very sensible, you know.
WET LEG
However, I re-emerge for the very special mystery guests who are due on at the Woods stage at 7:15pm. These guests are strongly rumoured to be Wet Leg, the rumours strongly assisted by flyers appearing all over the sight bearing the legend “pissed yourself?” and showing a man with wet trousers, and thus, wet legs. Simples! Cometh the hour, cometh Wet Leg.
Wet Leg seem to have been on the road for ever, visiting every corner of the globe and many places in between, and must surely by now be heartily sick of their debut album, let alone each other. However, if that is the case, it certainly doesn’t show. Both their enthusiasm and their good humour seems mercifully intact. They’ve achieved success way beyond their wildest dreams, and are clearly still enjoying it. As Rhian Teasdale puts it: “we got more than we bargained for”.
Rhian says that she’s going to “come clean” with us, and tells us that she’s feeling “pretty ill” and her voice isn’t at it’s best, and that she can’t give us her all as she normally would. It’s nice of her to tell us and she gets a burst of sympathetic applause. However, apart from the odd very minor croak, her vocals are fine. This only goes to emphasise how high the band’s standards are. In order to give her voice a rest Rhian tells us a story about cows, and how one particular cow thinks it’s a penguin because it’s black and white. Well….maybe they do!!!
Apparently Rhian and guitarist Hester Chambers had the idea to form a band at this very festival, with the aim of maybe playing here one day. Well they achieved that one all right!!! Apparently also keyboardist and guitarist Joshua Omead Mobaraki is from Salisbury, so this is his local festival! Getting back to the music, the set is from their debut album, so apart from the band appearing at all there are no real surprises, although it’s a tribute to the quality of the material that it still sounds so goddamn fresh!!! The band have no further dates planned at present, other than supporting Foo Fighters on their UK stadium tour next June. Maybe Wet Leg will have some new music by then. I’ve heard reports of new songs being played. Watch this space…
Wet Leg setlist:
1. ‘Being In Love’
2. ‘Wet Dream’
3. ‘Supermarket’
4. ‘Convincing’
5. ‘Oh No’
6.’ Piece Of Sh*t’
7. ‘Ur Mum’
8. ‘Too Late Now’
9. ‘Angelica’
10. ‘Chaise Longue’
LIME GARDEN
So after the excitement of Wet Leg I head over to The Folly for more excitement in the shape of Brighton’s very own Lime Garden. Having seen the band four times last year, it’s been over a year since I last saw them (at last year’s ‘Great Escape’) so I’m keen to see how they’ve progressed. Unfortunately I’m not able to see their whole set as I have to review headliners Future Islands, but I’m really impressed with what I do see. They start with what appears to be a new song. At least – I don’t recognise it. ‘Mother’ certainly is a new song. It starts with a drum solo from Annabel Whittle as there appears to be a technical fault with Leila Deeley’s guitar pedals. When Leila is able to join in, the song has some nice sustained guitar licks.
In general, their performance seems to be somehow more mature than when I last saw them. Doubtless this is down to having played a lot more gigs since then and being more experienced, but you get the impression that they could play the biggest venues or festivals and not bat an eyelid. As it is, The Folly is absolutely rammed. Hopefully they’re now getting the attention that they deserve. Vocalist Chloe Howard tells us that they’re excited to be playing so late, although it is only 9pm….. ‘Pop Star’ is another newie. It’s about having to work and not being arsed to. Chloe asks for any sugar daddies to meet her after the show. Doesn’t she realise that there’s a cost of living crisis!!! I have to abandon them for Future Islands. I silently offer my apologies. Lime Garden have literally just announced a 9-date UK tour for next Spring, with the Brighton date being the 8th March, when they will be performing at Chalk in Pool Valley.
Lime Garden setlist:
‘Bitter’
‘Mother’
‘Marbles’
‘Sick & Tired’
‘Nepotism (Baby)’
‘Pine’
‘Surf N Turf’
Love Song’
‘Clockwork’
‘Pulp’
FUTURE ISLANDS
So having deserted Brighton’s finest I head back to the Woods stage for Future Islands. They’d better be good!! Having seen (and reviewed) them last year, I really have no doubts about the quality of their impending performance. Future Islands are perhaps unusual as they have no guitarist. As something of a rabid guitar fan this is not something that I would normally approve of. However, as they have such a unique and engaging frontman in the shape of the very theatrically named Samuel T Herring, they really don’t need one. He is such a superb showman that he completely holds your attention from the get-go. Samuel presents himself onstage in a manner unlike anything I have seen before. You very much get the impression that he is very earnestly trying to impart something of great value to the audience in general, and to you as an audience member in particular. It is as if what he is doing is communication rather than merely (and I don’t use that word lightly) performing.
He’s also very good at explaining what songs are about before the band play them. ‘Hit The Coast’, for example, is about “putting everything you own in your car and getting the hell out of town.” Who hasn’t felt like that at least once in their life? ‘Walking Through That Door’ is about helping a friend who’s afraid. ‘Before The Bridge’ is about a long walk home all alone. ‘Like Us’ is about a person who saved his life a couple of times (he doesn’t go into details, but you get the impression that he was in a pretty bad place). ‘Ancient Water’ is about childhood. During this Samuel bounces about rather like a rabbit… ‘The King Of Sweden’ is about when things don’t go right, and during ‘Season’s Waiting On Him’ Samuel makes the kind of animal-like guttural growls that you might expect to hear from a death metal singer. He does this quite a bit, and apparently it’s one of his trademarks. I didn’t notice him do this when I saw Future Islands before though. Another of Samuel’s quirks is that he frequently punches himself in the chest over his heart. He does this so hard that it’s audible.
All too soon though Future Islands’ hour-and-a half is up. Samuel T Herring is very much the star of the show. That doesn’t mean however that bassist William Cashion, keyboardist Gerrit Welmers and drummer Michael Lowry are unimportant. Quite the opposite. They provide the framework over which Samuel performs (it seems somehow insufficient to describe what he does as mere ‘singing’). It is Samuel however who provides the show’s focus; who communicates to the audience what the band and their songs are all about. As a band they really are quite unique: once seen, never forgotten.
THE COURETTES
As always, when the headliners are finished, there is always more to do at the ‘End Of The Road Festival’. I think I have enough fuel left for one of tonight’s secret shows. As the late great Warren Zevon once said: “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”. So off to The Folly we go to see The Courettes, who I’d missed earlier in the day. The Courettes are a guitar and drums two-piece. Verily, The White Stripes have much to answer for. All over the world, bassists sit at bars crying into their beers as bands such as this are onstage. Redundancy is a terrible thing.
The Courettes are actually a married couple: Flavia Couri on guitar and vocals, and Martin Couri on drums and vocals. Flavia is originally from Brazil, but the band is based in Martin’s home country of Denmark. I have seen them once before, at Hackney Oslo, where they absolutely ripped the place apart, as they do here tonight. They’re like a two person Cramps. If anyone is unsure what rock ‘n’ roll is all about, go and see The Courettes. Then you’ll understand. They put on an amazing show which needs no bells and whistles. What you get is them and their songs, and that should be enough for anyone.
They have a song called ‘R.I.N.G.O’ which is all about Ringo Starr, or as they call him by his given name, Richard Starkey. Martin describes Ringo as “the best drummer in the world”. This is debatable. I’m not convinced that Ringo is the best drummer in the world, but I would say that he’s probably the most underrated. During the early 1970s, John Lennon once said that Ringo “wasn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles”. Okay, so Sir Paul McCartney can play drums, but he would be the first to admit that he’s nowhere near as good as Ringo.
Anyway, back to The Courettes. From the very start it’s constantly audience participation time, which is fine as they immediately have the audience with them. They play ‘Daydream’ which apparently got to No.4 in the UK in February. I can’t say that I noticed, but if Flavia says that’s the case then it must be true! Towards the end of the set, Flavia crowd surfs whilst still playing guitar, which I can’t fail to be impressed by. Flavia and Martin are both superb musicians, and I have to say that The Courettes are one of the best live bands that I’ve ever seen, and I can assure you, there’s a lot of competition!!! The band are currently on tour in the USA, and come back to Europe in October. There are no further UK dates planned at present, but when there are, you must promise me that you’ll go to see them. No excuses!!! If you don’t go, I shall expect a note from your mum explaining why.
The Courettes setlist:
‘Hoodoo Hop’
‘The Boy I Love’
‘Time Is Ticking’
‘R.I.N.G.O.’
‘Until You’re Mine’
‘Daydream’
‘Trash Can Honey’
‘Want You! Like A Cigarette’
‘Night Time (The Boy Of Mine)’
‘Tough Like That’
‘Boom! Dynamite’
‘Hop The Twig’
‘Shake!’
Book your ‘End Of The Road’ 2024 Festival tickets HERE.
