Never Enough Notes e-zine // reviews + interviews + music

The 13th Truck festival proved once and for all that superstition has no grounds in reality. The tiny, independent festival was blessed with decent weather and a pleasant, relaxed vibe spread throughout the site, as people made the most of a weekend away.

I admit that I wasn’t intimately acquainted with most of the artists on the line up, as I think was the case for many people. This was, as the organisers said, a festival at which to discover your new favourite band. And I certainly discovered mine. I’d heard their name batted around for the last few years, but I admit I had yet to listen to them until this weekend: Bellowhead. Glorious, decadent, dancefloor-destroying Bellowhead (myspace here). They brought the Truck Stage to life on Saturday evening, provoking the biggest and best audience response of the festival so far. Their inventive, high energy arrangements of traditional English dance tunes were performed with panache and exuberance as twilight began to fall in this idyllic corner of Oxfordshire.

There seemed to be a rather high proportion of GCSE age teens here; you’d regularly encounter them in groups, wide-eyed (on the rare occasion you saw their eyes from behind their ray bans), flocking from stage to stage, at what was probably their first ever festival. And as festivals go, I think Truck is a good one to go to as your first. Safe, not too overwhelming, and small enough not to get lost in. Although I’m not sure what the mid-teens thought of the utterly unique Thomas Truax (myspace here). A legend in my eyes, it took Truax a few songs before the audience could even begin to comprehend what corner of the musical universe he was coming from. But slowly but surely he started to generate more and more appreciation. Whether it was singing about a butterfly and an entomologist, performing a song totally a capella while running around the audience with guitar unplugged, or moaning into his self-made instrument, the ‘Hornicator’, something about him appealed to people. Truly eccentric, utterly lovable and actually a rather catchy songwriter when he wants to be, Truax baffled and delighted in equal measure.

Stornoway were another band well suited to perform during a hazy Oxfordshire afternoon, and they did not disappoint. With a quiet concentration they performed their folk pop gems to a grateful audience. Like a lizard on a hot rock, we bathed in their sun-kissed melodies, and when they left the stage they seemed to leave us all with a heightened sense of well being and good will – like the sort you get after a Charles Dickens novel or a Shepherd’s Pie! Or is that just me?

Other bands which stood out include 65 Days of Static, who were responsible for the huge bottleneck of people outside the Barn Stage, most of whom were unfortunately unable to see one of the best bands of the festival. Perhaps they were deemed too heavy for the main stage? But for the lucky ones inside the Barn, 65 Days exploded with their trademark energy and pure power, playing each song as if it was their last. Mew, who headlined on the Saturday night, would have been faultless, I think, if it wasn’t for the monumental lack of volume of the main vocals. I can’t believe their entire set went by without the problem being rectified. In between every song the front few rows shouted and screamed to the sound engineer to turn the vocals up, but nothing was done. Mew seemed oblivious to this, as well they may, as everything was probably hunky dory in their monitors. The live sound was the only thing that really let the festival down at times.

It was my first time being a Trucker at Truck 13, and perhaps not my last. The independent, non-commercial nature of the festival definitely appealed, and its small size made for a stress free weekend full of great music and good vibes. And now I have discovered the wonder that is Bellowhead! Thank you Truck!

Review by Greg Harradine. Photography by Laura Stimpson. (Laura, along with her friend Lucy, form the two-woman team who slaved away to create the charming Truck monsters you may have seen on sale in the merchandise tent. Check out their website here.)

Want to see more Truck photos? Check out a slideshow here.