Indietracks Festival Compilation

Yes yes yes, I know you get sick of RB going on about Indietracks. But for the last time; it’s with good reason! And talking of reasons, here is another one. Indietracks has put together a 40 track compilation featuring bands playing at this years festival. It’s available for download and contains tracks from some of the more well known bands (Herman Dune, Crystal Stilts, an unreleased demo from Jeffery Lewis) as well as lesser known but equally brilliant acts. Of course, the idea is to download it and pop it on in the car on the way. But if you can’t make it to Indietracks for whatever reason (I’ve yet to hear a good one) it’s still well worth a listen.

The Comp is just another of the brilliant little touches that Indietracks excel at and that attention to detail is what makes the festival for me. You can download it from the make do and mend bandcamp

http://makedoandmendrecords.bandcamp.com/

and you can pay what you like. Before you head off and pay nowt for it, bare in mind that all the money goes to the Midland Railway Centre who allow use of their site every year. They need a few pounds to keep themselves going, so give em something… And there is still time to get your tickets: a bargain £65 for the whole weekend. Hope to see you at Indietracks!

Dean Freeman

Indietracks Interview

With just one month to go until Indietracks, the Indiepop Festival that takes places at Midland Railway Centre, we had a quick chat with Organiser Stuart Mackay about how the festival came to be...

What was the inspiration for creating Indietracks?

There wasn't really any inspiration, it was something that happened by chance, and if anything it was born out of laziness. After endless travelling around the country to shows I thought why not have the bands come to me?

What is your background; are you a musical type branching into business or a business man branching into music festivals?

Just a railway enthusiast who enjoys music!

With so many festivals taking place, especially smaller, niche festivals, how important is it for a festival to have a USP?

Don't know if we have a USP anywhere, is it something we should have? I guess I should investigate. Is it something that connects to a computer like a USB?

Indietracks has carved itself a rather ‘Twee / Indiepop’ space in the market. Do you think smaller niche festivals are the future, as opposed to massive events like Leeds Festival that try to please all the people all the time?

But we all have different tastes, the majority of the population have a broader musical taste and so bigger festivals suit them. There's always been niche events, blues festivals, country and western shows etc so we're not really starting anything new really.


It may seem a strange question, but how important is the actual music at a music festival? It seems that Indietracks works as hard to provide an exciting and comfortable atmosphere as it does on its lineup.

We don't really work hard to provide that atmosphere, it just happens. The audience brings it with them, it's just the nature of indiepop people. The music is important to us and we work hard to provide a balanced bill of old and new, big and small from home and abroad. But I know what you mean, the music isn't that important to some of the audience who'll spend a lot of the time not watching bands but just enjoy being there with so many like minded people.

Is previous business / organisational experience essential in organising a festival?

Seems not since I didn't have any, common sense should be all you need, you can seek out all the info you need quite easily. I tackled it by thinking what would I like/expect if I was to turn up at an event like this?

This year I have organised my first large scale festival. Is it normal to have sleepless nights worrying about the tiniest of details?!

Yep. All part of the fun!


With the current economic situation I am treating festivals such as Indietracks as my ‘holidays’ this year. Do you think that is a common view and has it helped you ride the financial storm at all?

Well it'd be a pleasing thought if people thought it was more important to give up proper holidays in favour of indietracks, but not sure how widespread it is.

Do you find the pressure of selling X amount of tickets, signing contracts and negotiating fees diminishes your love of the music and festivals in general?

Yes, dealing with booking agents and the commercialisation of the industry sucks, all they're interested in is how much money they can screw out of you. We have a capacity smaller (1,000) than regular touring venues, yet mention the word festival and all they see is pound signs in front of their eyes.

What has your proudest moment thus far been?

Getting Team Indietracks to tackle all the organisation, leaving me with just interviews to do :)


Indietracks was Rhubarb Bomb's festival of 2010:

(http://rhubarbbomb.blogspot.com/2010/09/summer-festival-roundup-pt-1.html)

More info on this years lineup (including Edwyn Collins!) can be found here:

http://www.indietracks.co.uk/

Dean Freeman

Summer Festival Roundup Pt 1

Where once the festival season consisted of 2 or 3 huge, high profile events, it now seems there is an event worth going to every weekend from May to September. Whilst the larger festivals has stretched themselves to bursting point in order to squeeze a few more consumers through the turnstile, these smaller festivals have been left to fill the spaces in between, often catering to more niche tastes. But also, without the pressure of having to pay Guns & Roses to fuck about for 2 hours, they are able to offer a more unique experience, something different, something special. Here, we take a look at the festivals we’ve been lucky enough to experience this summer and mark them on SETTING, LINE-UP, VIBE, STAGES, ORGANISATION, FOOD & DRINK, CAMPING, FACILITIES, VALUE FOR MONEY + PERSONAL ENJOYMENT, giving a final total at the end. Bare in mind that 75% means the festival is ¾ absolutely brilliant. Anything above that is well worth a look we reckon.

LIVE @ LEEDS – One day, multi venue festival in the city of Leeds


As a setting for a festival, Leeds is a pretty good choice of city. It’s big, there’s lots going on and it’s a fun place to be. Though there’s no real sense of being at a festival, and with the general public walking with you between venues, it feels fun, exciting and familiar, despite the occasional long walks involved (7). The line-up this year, as ever, is fantastic, offering real diversity – quality as well as quantity – and it’s often difficult to decide between which bands to see (9). The vibes are pretty good in the venues, certainly a strong buzz, with excited crowds and busy venues. But some of that is lost outside the venues, especially as you wonder around the city centre, sometimes making it feel like just another night out in Leeds (7). The variety and quality of the stages for Live @ Leeds is pretty unbeatable. From large venues at Leeds Uni to the tiny upstairs of The Packhorse, its all good (10).

The event as a whole is very well organised and well staffed. Exchanging your ticket is easy and the programmes provided are very useful (9). You couldn’t really ask for much more choice in terms of food and drink – the choice is near endless and you can spend as much or as little as you like (9). Camping is not something you do at Live @ Leeds and as such it’s a little unfair to judge it as such. Perhaps they could organise something with local hotels, offer cheap rooms to people who do want to stay over in the city. After a long day out, it would certainly beat train / bus home (5). As with Food & Drink, facilities are wide spread, meaning you are never too far form a toilet (9). At £15 a ticket, Live @ Leeds is unbelievable value for money (10). Personally, I always really enjoy Live @ Leeds. This year was great, with a superb range of bands to enjoy. Some people moan about the walking involved, but personally I think that is all part of the fun, kind of like a pub crawl, with one of your favourite bands waiting for you in each bar. I guess the only reason I don’t rate it any higher is that it’s a festival in Leeds, a place I go to anyway, so it lacks that ‘special’ element of it feeling like an adventure / holiday. But otherwise, it’s fantastic (8)

OVERALL 83%
www.liveatleeds.com


Rough Beats – A weekend in the field of a farm in Beautiful North Yorkshire


Rough Beats is a family run festival on a farm close to Settle. The scenery is fantastic, the tents held in by dry stonewalls, the desolate hilly plains of North Yorkshire stretching out beyond. It’s isolated, meaning you really get into the festival and forget about the outside world (10). The Line-up of the festival is a little different each year, this year seeing what I would describe as a more ‘family friendly’ set of acts. Much of it was acoustic folk and similarly inoffensive stuff, nice to listen to on a sunny day, though naturally it mainly washes straight over you. Hot Club De Paris headlined one night, but the event lacked many, even slightly, big names across the weekend (6). The general vibes, however, more than make up for this. It’s very peaceful, but everyone there is chatty and interested and there are a much greater percentage of people dancing to bands, which is great. Despite the few hundred people walking around, it still retains a family run atmosphere. It’s just seriously chilled out (9). Rough Beats has a couple of stages that are actually really professional, with top quality sound and light setups, all under relatively huge canopies, ensuring you can at least enjoy then bands, whatever the weather (8). The event is pretty well organised, with parking provided and people checking wrist bands as expected. Its not overbearing, which is nice, but they were confident enough to boot someone out for playing a drum all chuffin night, so it’s always nice to know someone is paying attention (8).

Food & Drink is pretty decent; there was a fantastic vegetarian stall which served lovely egg and (vegi) sausage butties all day. Strangely the non meat sausage was a million times nicer than the ‘real’ meat provided at the other van. For the first time Rough Beats had got in a ‘proper’ burger type van and it produced overpriced unrelentingly crap food, as well as staff uncaringly scalding my girlfriends hand with chip grease (and not saying sorry). Rough Beats need to keep it local in future. On top of all that though, there is a great, covered bar and there was even a sweets stall. So all in all, pretty decent (7). Camping is fine, though it was close to bursting point this year and we were stuck on some pretty uneven ground. A little more thought into distributing the camping space or the opening of another field would help, as it ended up a little cramped. But, on the plus side, you are literally a 30 second walk from the stages (8). The facilities are ok, your standard porta-loos which do end up a little messy at the end of the weekend – but are cleaned every day. There’s a sink with running water and that’s about it. Serve their purpose (7). Rough Beats is good value for money at around £50 for the weekend (cheaper if you buy your tickets early), though again, I wouldn’t mind one ‘big’ band for that price (8). Rough Beats to me is all about the atmosphere – a relaxed friendly place to spend a weekend with friends. Making more friends there is easy enough; there is a nice bohemian element to the crowd, mixed in with a family friendly approach. Previous years have had better line-ups, but that is secondary to the on site vibes (8)

Total 79%
www.roughbeatsfestival.co.uk


IndieTracks – A Weekend of Indiepop fun in Derbyshire


Indietracks takes place in the grounds of a Railway Museum, out in the countryside. There’s an old railway platform and station, a signal box, level crossing, old rail sheds and sidings, full of rusting trucks and carriages. It’s completely self-contained and you are free to wonder round as you wish. Its quirky and interesting, giving that slightly other world feel I like at a festival. It’s old, quaint but post industrial too – I really like it; a great, unique place to spend a weekend (10). The Line-up is pretty awesome too, with sets this year from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Slow Club, The Primitives etc plus loads of other lesser known bands. It’s the best festival I’ve ever been to in terms of thinking ‘oh, I’ll check out this band I’ve never heard of’ and them being excellent. It kept happening over and over again and it made it even more of a pleasure to explore the site. The only criticism would be a slight lack of variety – its all very Indiepop, which for me was fine. Others might be less pleased. But overall I think it treads the line between ‘niche’ and ‘variation’ with great success (8). There is a really positive vibe around site, its very relaxed and if you want you can grab a seat on one of the railway carriages and sit in peace with a couple of friends… or you can wonder the grounds and get talking to a variety of interesting people. The organisers manage to create a very inclusive environment; a free mixtape / cd exchange, loads of merch stalls, workshops and talks from record labels / bands, Indie quizzes all combine to make sure there is always something worth seeing and doing (10).

The variety of stages helps with this too. From the large main stage on a slight, open grass hill, and the large echo chamber-esqe train shed to the smaller and more intimate setting of an iron chapel and a carriage on a moving steam train, the festival offers excellent variety. The latter of those two stages were very crowded at times, meaning you often had to start queuing for a band in the chapel up to an hour beforehand. But, if you were patient, it was worth it. Bands also played impromptu sets in the march tent. All bar the main stage are under cover too, so if there weather turns nasty, you still have options. Excellent (9). Organisation was top draw, lots of friendly stewards around to show you where to go and help out (9) and the food and drink options were surprisingly varied and all excellent. The food vans were of a high quality, and not overly priced. There was also the on site museum café, which looked really old skool but actually knocked out some lovely ‘meat pie’ type meals which were a welcome change. The bars also served a wide range of local ales. (9). The camping was excellent. The festival site does not have its own camping – instead you need to camp at a private campsite, which is about 15 minutes walk down the road (or catch the bus that is put on). As a full time campsite, it contains decent toilets, a shower that’s probably better than yours at home, as well as a proper shop, that serves breakfasts and food. It’s all set in lovely woodland and overcrowding is not a problem. It was so far from the horror of some large scale campsites; it truly felt like a holiday (9).

Due to the camping situation, the facilities available are excellent, toilets within the site itself are also plentiful and pleasant (9). At around £50, Indietracks is fantastic value for money. Note, however, that the private camping does not come as part of the price and needs to be booked separate. Personally, I didn’t mind this, as it was worth it for the quality of the campsite (8). Indietracks this year was one of the most enjoyable festivals I've ever been to. It’s a perfect balance between the cosiness of a low key festival, with the communal excitement you find at larger events. I enjoyed the whole weekend and cant think of any negatives whatsoever! (9)

Total 90%
www.indietracks.co.uk

Dean Freeman

Shrag Interview- Indietracks Festival 2010

Melissa Greaves Interviews the exceptional SHRAG at Indietracks:

MG: So to begin, what are your general feelings about this weekend so far, how’s it been for you?
Steph: Really fun
Helen: It’s been amazing, I’ve sat on a fake horse at 4am and had arguments about Joy Division and stuff in the campsite. Yeah, and we arrived just in time to see ‘Allo Darlin’ playing as the sun was going down, and it was kind of, incredibly emotional and lovely . It’s just been great, it’s a really nice atmosphere and we’ve got a lot of friends here.
Andy: I’ve enjoyed the twenty minutes that I’ve been here, it’s been fantastic so far.
S: Has it been emotional for you so far?
Andy: Oh, it has.
MG: And how would you rate that emotion on a scale of one to ten?
A: An eleven.
MG: And are you guys big train fans, or are you just here for the music?
H: Massive train fan, no seriously I am actually because I can’t drive.
S: You’ve got every episode of Thomas the tank engine on blue ray.
R: No one in the band drives so it’s an appropriate festival for us.
H: Yeah, we spend a lot of time on trains as well because we rehearse in Brighton but two of us live in London.
S: Actually, we’re sick of trains! At least we don’t have to pay for these ones.
R: We can’t afford a van, so we often go to gigs on the train.
A: Can we do a non train festival.
MG: I saw you play here two years ago, since then you’ve jumped up the line-up. Would you say that as the festival has progressed, so have you?
H: Well, we were just saying, it’s lucky for us the way this has happened because we’ve just got the new album coming out, so it’s good timing. Yeah of course over two years we’ve progressed.
S: Hopefully we’ve got a bit better.
H: The proof will be in the pudding tonight.
R: You’re not allowed to get too good for this crowd, or you won’t fit in. If there’s not enough mistakes, it’s not lo-fi enough.
S: People get angry if you don’t fuck up enough.
MG: Do you think you might headline this festival at some point?
H: I doubt it, we tend to plateau don’t we.
S: We’re splitting up after this gig actually, that’s our surprise.
R: People reform especially for festivals, we disband.
H: No, we’re not splitting up. Are we…
MG: Have you been doing any other festivals this year?
S: No just this one, we don’t really get asked to do festivals. We did Off Set last year.
R: Yeah, it’s only one festival at a time isn’t it?
S: One per season
A: We’re really milking the festival season.
MG: You’ve got a new album out, can we be expecting a tour at some point?
H: Yeah in October, it’s meant to be coming out on the 4th of October, so we’re planning a UK tour around then. Then hopefully we’re going to America, just applying for visas at the moment. So potentially October should be busy.
MG: And will you be playing Leeds/Wakefield on that Tour?
H: Yeah we like playing Leeds.
S: Yeah Leeds is great.
A: I used to live in Leeds, and I haven’t been back, I spent years playing in bands there, but since I’ve been playing in Shrag, we haven’t played there.
S: We can expect a big Andy following when we play there.
R: We used to play there a lot.
H: Yeah the Brudenelle Social Club
R: Joseph Wells, the Lady Fest thing.
H: Yeah, we’ve always loved playing in Leeds.
R: We played Wakefield on a Monday night, that was a highlight
S: I think people actually left before we came on, it was a school night and a lot of the people their we’re really young. I think they had to go home, to go to bed and get ready for school.

MG: Right now let’s talk about your songs and the lyrics. The song ‘pregnancy scene’ isn’t a very common topic for a song, what inspired the lyrics to that song?
H: Steph had just joined the band, and it was around that time a lot of our friends seemed to be getting pregnant. Both of our friends did that, so I think we were just moaning about it.
S: I’d just bumped into someone who told me their girlfriend was pregnant, and we had a practice and I just remember walking off like “Everybody’s fucking pregnant”.
H: We thought we’d write a song about it.
S: We couldn’t say it to their faces.
Bob: It would’ve been a bit harsh to express our disgust to their faces like “errrr disgusting”
S: “What you doing that for”
MG: Have these people heard this song then?
S: Yeah, I don’t think they’re aware of it.
B: “This is to all the mothers in the house”
MG: Okay you’re video for ‘Talk to the Left’ features a pretty impressive dance routine, who choreographed that dance?
B: I’d like to claim the choreography credit for that, if I may.
S: We were all round Helen and Russell’s the night before, and we had to do this video the next day. We had no idea what to do, so Bob was like “ Why don’t we do a little dance routine for that”, that’s as far as we got. We all thought it would be hilarious if we all had black t-shirts with an arrow actually pointing to the left.
H: Just to ram it home.

MG: So where does the name ‘Shrag’ come from?
H: We used to live in, well we all met each other in Brighton. There’s a big apartment block called Sussex Heights, Bob had a flat more or less right at the top, well it was, but just not the pent house, so yes the name emerged the ‘Sussex Heights Roving Artist Group’.
R: Was it roving because you had to move?
H: No we just put that in there.
B: It would’ve been Shag otherwise.
S: A lot of people think it’s Shag anyway.
R: I do worry about t-shirt sales, I think we need to come up with an image, or something, and make the word slightly smaller, because not many people would want Shrag on their chest from a distance.
H: There wasn’t really much thought into it
R: We didn’t really think we’d last more than two years
H: We didn’t think we were gonna make a record
S: Never thought it was gonna be on a t-shirt that’s for sure.
B: We never thought we’d have to explain it to anyone either.
R: Least of all my Mum, that didn’t go well
MG: Why, how did she react?
R: I think she just mentioned my age and tutted, or it was probably just worse actually, just humouring me like ‘oh right!’

MG: If you could any song by any band, what would it be?
R: ‘I’ll do anything for love, but I won’t do that’
S: Anything by Meatloaf
H: Me an Leigh-Anne the old drummer always wanted to do ‘Walk of life’ by Dire Straits, but the others wouldn’t do it. Odd Box records are putting together a Prolapse covers record, they’ve asked us to do it, so I’m hoping we can get that together at some point.
R: We’ve had failed attempts at a few Orange Juice songs.
H: We covered a Bright Eyes song
B: The Manics did that as well, I think of a cover and either The Manics or Placebo have done it.
MG: What would you’re dream festival line up be?
B: Can they be dead?
S: Seems a bit mean just to wake them up for my pleasure.
B: I don’t know, I’ve seen some of my favourite bands reform, I saw the Velvet Underground reform, and I thought they were terrible, I mean, they’re my absolute favourite band ever and when I saw them I was just so disappointed.
S: I think ESG, they’re always good
R: I’d get Michael Rother in, I saw him in Spain and that was well good.
H: Suede
S: Sonic Youth
B: The Fall
A: Boredoms, Jeff Mills
B: Yeah yours is more ATP isn’t it
S: Maybe Alvin Stardust and some fella from the 60s
MG: Would you be on that line-up as well?
H: Oh yeah definitely, we’d have to headline

MG: You’ve supported bands like: The Cribs, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, who’s been your favorite band to support?
H: I’d probably say The Cribs, we’ve done two full tours with them, and like we got to play London Astoria before it got closed down.
S: It’s all about what we get in return really isn’t it?
H: But they’re just really very sweet, funny people and we always have a good time.
R: And we get to see a world that the likes of us shouldn’t be allowed in.
H: The first time we did it we didn’t have a clue like, how to be professional or anything and they still invited us back.
R: A hidden joy is being able to start really early like half seven. It was good because you did your stuff, and then walk off and get drunk for the rest of the evening.
H: Pretend to be famous
R: Every time we’re like an hour later on the bill, and you’d want that, but we’re like ‘Aw I wish we we’re playing at seven, I’m too drunk.’
S: Seven seems to be our perfect time to play. We’re just drunk enough, but not overboard.
MG: Are you looking forward to your set tonight?
H: Yeah, really excited, we’ve never played on a outdoor stage before, bit nervous but yeah just mainly really really excited.

photos: www.neatephotos.com