Student festival aims high for fifth year. A little too high
It’s not really been a great start, has it? Last weekend, Isle of Wight kicked off the festival season proper with what can only be described as a monsoon. And now a week before Glasto, Beach Break Live isn’t really helping the ominous feeling that we're not going to have a dry festival season 2011.
In the sunshine, Pembrey in South Wales is a stunning arena-endless beaches Philip Larkin wrote of to the south, towering hills to the north, but for three quarters of the 2011 vintage, a vast grey wet wash sits over proceedings. Not that anyone’s bothered- the young, drunk atmosphere starts from about midday Friday, as students leave the last year and tuition fee worries behind.
The first thing noticeable about this year is the sheer size of the thing. Only 20,000 of our nation’s youth are here, meaning early afternoon performances across the site feel like some vast unexplored chasm Lara Croft might find herself in (the brilliant Club Tropicana tent suffers most thanks to a core student audience uninterested in beyond the mainstream). First to get something resembling a gathering is Ed Sheeran on Friday- bright, young and ginger, and seemingly discovered by the mainstream the week before with his sudden chart success. It’s his first festival slot, so he’s clearly nervous at the start. But by the half way stage, the crowd are transfixed by his acoustic intensity.
Professor Green and Tinie Tempah bring a more urban flavour to the Friday night. The Professor’s “Just Be Good To Green” is the first sing-a-long, heard ringing around the site, while Tinie reminds the audience that this is his first headline slot. It shows too- his charm and interaction wins the day, but he doesn’t have all the required material to escape troughs during weaker album tracks. However the peaks outweigh this, and his live band gives him superb support.
On to Saturday, the more stable weather conditions seem to buoy the crowd, and festival-fixtures We Are Scientists are on fearsome form. They’re reunited with I Am Arrows man Andy Burrows behind the kit, who still gives them something extra. Despite having fourth album Barbara with us for nearly two years now, it’s still the songs from 2005 breakthrough With Love and Squalor that get the biggest reaction.
Example, atop the charts that week, gets a huge response, yet he still needs to work on his pop star charisma, with his set failing to gel properly until near the conclusion; even he accepts he had to get his “shit songs” out the way first. White Lies do a better job: the big screens are set to monochrome, and songs from both of their albums just sound huge live. Nero, Shy FX and Subfocus provide the afterparty in the oft-cavernous Merlin tent with a hedonistic triple-header.
The ground beneath the young students’ feet was finally baked on Sunday with the appearance of a strange orange globe in the sky. Competition winner Charlotte Carpenter started the day, showcasing songwriting beyond her tender years, while blues band Milk blew any hangover cobwebs away.
Jamie Woon was the first to get a big response, despite the evening atmospherics of his music sounding odd in the blazing sun. More suited to the meteorological conditions was Newton Faulkner, still drawing much interest at these things despite dwindling album sales. Its obvious why: his audience skills are extraordinary, proving to be funny, warm and relaxed, helping to maintain intimacy. His slightly scary version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” needs to be heard to be believed.
From there, an evening of main stage dubstep-pop beckons with Katy B and Magnetic Man. Oddly, both headliners perform their dual hit “Passing Stranger” separately with no reference to the other artist. Ignoring this, Katy B is a huge disappointment. She’s clearly exhausted and her usual people skills are absent as she fails to get the crowd moving. That’s something Magnetic Man’s hype-man has no problem’s achieving, really bringing the set to life. Their show as a whole though doesn’t quite work, as the three DJ haven’t yet found a way to make the dance sub-genre work on this sort of scale. Mark Ronson provides the ice-cool after party DJ set in the Merlin.
Despite managing some big coups this year, Beach Break Live still has a lot to learn as a festival. After five years, organisers are still surfing a wave of student goodwill. The tiny (for a festival) attendance just can’t justify to huge number of tents, and scaling back would really help the atmosphere and help them become a major name. For now, here’s to sunnier climates in 2012.
3/5
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