‘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 three of our ‘End Of The Road’ reports. If you missed Part One it can be found HERE and Part Two can be found HERE.
End Of The Road Festival – Sunday 3rd September
And so Sunday at the ‘End Of The Road Festival’ arrives. It’s another very hot day as I crawl out of my tent to join the other visibly wilting festival goers. Today Wiltshire could probably give Arizona a run for its money.
DIVORCE
My first assignment today is to review Divorce, a four piece alt-country / grunge band from Nottingham. Bassist and vocalist Tiger Cohen-Towell says that she will never wear leather trousers to a warm festival again. Tiger: It’s not warm. It’s bloody hot!!! I must confess that whilst I can hear the grunge influences in their music, I’m struggling to hear any alt-country. Still, at least they’re not describing themselves as “p*st-p*nk”, as just about every guitar band in the UK seems to be doing at the moment.
What I can detect however, are large hints of a folk influence. They do one particularly quiet song, accompanied only by one guitar, which to me sounds for all the world like Fairport Convention! So folk-rock rather than alt-country. That might just be me though. What I would say is that they’re a great way to start the day, and are worthy of further investigation, leather trousers or no leather trousers (bet they’re really PVC!). Divorce are on tour during November and December. They support Willie J Healey at Brighton Chalk on 9th November (Tickets HERE), and have their own headline show at London Social on the 22nd November.
Divorce setlist:
1. ‘Services’
2. ‘Right On Time’
3. ‘Sex And The Millennium Bridge’
4. ‘Chip’
5. ‘Birds’
6. ‘That Hill’
7. ‘Eat My Words’
8. ‘Pretty’
9. ‘Checking Out’
INDIGO SPARKE
Indigo Sparke at the Folly is next on my hit list. Indigo is an Australian singer/songwriter from Sydney. She accompanies herself on her Epiphone semi-acoustic. This is quiet delicate music that deserves to be listened to properly, and by and large the audience (The Folly is pretty busy today) is quiet and respectful. Indigo seems to almost effortlessly hold the audience in her hands. She has a beautiful crystalline voice reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, and has material to match. She has already released two albums: ‘Echo’ (2021) and ‘Hysteria’ (2022) so already has a substantial body of work behind her. Having said that, she closes her set with a Cat Power cover. Today is her last live date of 2023. Hopefully she’ll be back in the UK before too long.
Indigo Sparke setlist:
1. ‘Pluto’
2. ‘Sad Is Love’
3. ‘Why Do You Lie?’
4. ‘Carnival’
5. ‘Burn’
6. ‘Golden Ribbons’
7. ‘Everything Everything’
8. ‘Cross Bones Style’
PICTURE PARLOUR
After a short break I return to The Folly for Picture Parlour, a four piece formed in Manchester but now based in London. They comprise Katherine Parlour on guitar and vocals, Sian Lynch on bass, Ella Risi on guitar and Michael Nash on drums. They’ve been creating some considerable waves in recent months, and for very good reason – they’re a very exciting new band! They have some excellent material and appear to come up with new songs all the time. For example, ‘Dial Up’ was only performed for the first time at the ‘All Points East Festival’ at the end of August. They’re quite unusual in that they are an indie band with overt classic rock influences. Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ is very much a touchstone.
Today’s performance is effortlessly vibrant. They sound like they’ve been together for years. They finish their set with their first single, and indeed the first song that they wrote: ‘Norwegian Wood’ (no – not that one). This has an element of grunge to it – what’s not to like?! Picture Parlour are powerful and tuneful, and well worth checking out. Considering they’ve only been together a little over six months, they are very impressive indeed. They headline BBC Introducing at Kings Cross Lexington on 5th October, and then support The Last Dinner Party on their UK tour, also in October.
Picture Parlour setlist:
1. ‘Moon Tonic’
2. ‘Gala Day’
3. ‘Sawmill Sink Hole’
4. ‘Judgement Day’
5. ‘Dial Up’
6. ‘Neptune 66’
7. ‘Ronnie’
8. ‘Norwegian Wood’
PANIC SHACK
I remain at The Folly for the gloriously effervescent Panic Shack. I’ve seen them a few times now, and they’re an absolutely wild live band. They start with ‘Baby’, which includes the delightful line “there’ll be a baby-shaped hole in the wall”. ‘Mannequin Man’ follows, where they hold mannequin type poses during the middle eight. ‘I Don’t Really Like It’ is brooding, insistent and rightfully serious. All is going swimmingly until the power fails during ‘Jiu Jits You’. David Bassey carries on playing the drums, and the band do a little dance, which they later describe as a “panic dance”. However, it soon becomes clear that the restoration of power isn’t going to happen imminently, so the band leave the stage, saying they’ll be back in five minutes.
The lights come on and the band return, going straight back into ‘Jiu Jits You’ where they left off. The band tell us that they’re “f*ckin’ roasting”. Well yes, we are too. The Folly is not the coolest venue temperature-wise. During ‘Meal Deal’ the power goes off again. Unfortunately this time it’s a case of ‘game over’. The band deal with these power outages with humour, good grace and professionalism. Ultimately it’s no reflection on them. What we’ve heard this afternoon has been brilliant! They play the ‘Mutations Festival’ in Brighton on 3rd November – Tickets HERE.
Panic Shack proposed setlist:
1. ‘Baby’
2. ‘Mannequin Man’
3. ‘I Don’t Really Like It’
4. ‘Jiu Jits You’
5. ‘The Ick’
6. ‘Jelly Baby’
7. ‘Meal Deal’
8. ‘Who’s Got My Lighter?’
9. ‘Cash Piggy’
ALLAH-LAS
I wander over to the wonderfully bucolic Garden stage for Allah-Las. I’d seen them eight or nine years ago at a couple of festivals, and for some reason had found them a little disappointing. Well, whatever elicited that reaction from me then, it doesn’t happen today. Their classic American college rock really hits the spot. Guitarist Pedrum Siadatian plays a Steinberger guitar. The only other person I’ve seen using one in the last thirty-five years or so is Steve Hillage. They had a great reputation back in the day, but rapidly fell from favour. Pedrum does some fabulous slide work on this one.
Today they’re joined on keyboards by Frank Massey, who they describe as their “musical mentor”. Frank handles some lead vocals. It should be noted that lead vocal duties are shared pretty liberally around the band however. It’s quite unusual to find a band with two guitarists where there’s quite a firm line of demarcation between who plays lead and who plays rhythm. In the Allah-Las Pedrum Siadatian plays the bulk of the lead, whilst Miles Michaud mostly plays rhythm, although he does play some lead occasionally. Pedrum and bassist Spencer Dunham swap instruments at one point. The Allah-Las turn in a pretty good set, one which rather makes me change my previous opinion of them. I’m not entirely sure whether it’s them or just my ears that have improved!
KING GIZZARD & THE WIZARD LIZARD
I next head over to the Woods stage for what will be the final act of the festival for me: headliners King Gizzard And The Wizard Lizard. I saw them for the first time at Alexandra Palace in March, and they absolutely blew me away. They proceed to do exactly the same thing tonight. This isn’t just psychedelic rock, this is progressive psychedelic rock with plenty of other elements thrown in as well. This is music that an audience can become absolutely immersed in. The band only have an hour-and-a-half tonight. I could happily watch them for three or four hours.
I heard somebody criticising the band earlier today, saying that there was “too much noodling”. That’s kind of the point though. Whether this is rehearsed or whether it’s improvisation I’m not entirely sure (I suspect that it’s the latter), but it’s really awesome. This band will make time stand still if you allow them to. When they play it feels like nothing exists outside of the gig which you’re watching. You and the band are in the moment and nothing else really matters. Perhaps they are the true inheritors of The Grateful Dead’s freak flag. There’s plenty of other influences in there too: particularly Pink Floyd and Hawkwind. Perhaps a bit of Gong as well. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are so prolific that it’s unlikely that you’ll hear the same set twice. Likewise unless you’re an uber fan you’re unlikely to know everything that’s in the set. That doesn’t matter though, because their material is of such a high standard that as long as you like the band, you’re unlikely to hear anything that you won’t like.
It’s not like their material lacks variety either, far from it in fact. For example, one song is completely synth driven, with no guitars at all. Towards the end of the set they tell us that they’re going to turn the volume up “because it’s the last show of the tour, and we don’t give a sh*t!” Well, that’s perfectly fine by me! If you’ve never seen this band, then I can’t recommend them highly enough. Their live shows aren’t quite like religious experiences, but they’re not far off. Give them a try – they may end up being your new favourite band!
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard setlist:
1. ‘The Dripping Tap’
2. ‘Iron Lung’
3. ‘Hypertension’
4. ‘The Garden Goblin’
5. ‘Magenta Mountain’
6. ‘This Thing’
7. ‘Converge’
8. ‘Witchcraft’
9. ‘Gaia’
10. ‘Gila Monster’ (with ‘Gaia’ reprise)
kinggizzardandthelizardwizard.com
Thus, for me, the ‘End Of The Road Festival’ 2023 ends. There are a couple of surprise shows later on, but my tank is now empty. It’s been a superb festival: great music, nice people, good food, not to mention the Cider Bus. Roll on next year!!!
Book your ‘End Of The Road’ 2024 Festival tickets HERE.
