“Take a pew”, joked Sarah Blasko’s guitarist as we listened intently in St. Stephen’s Church, Shepherds Bush.

All Communion and religious jokes aside, Bushstock was Communion Records’ inagural festival which saw 30 bands play across 4 West London venues on Saturday 4th June. Perfect beer garden weather had the punters in a great mood and the line-up included Guillemots, Peggy Sue and Kill It Kid for West London’s very own Camden Crawl-style day.

Communion has become some kind of folk machine, having initially started as a club night in Notting Hill. These days they’re more occupied with artists akin to Mumford & Sons (the band’s Ben Lovett co-owns the label) and putting out records from the likes of Treetop Flyers and Matthew And The Atlas.

I started Bushstock at Shepherds Bar keenly awaiting six-piece  Tom Williams And The Boat after enjoying their Camden Crawl show MUCH. Alt-folk meets shouty storytelling as frontman Tom recounts tales of instant messaging and other random subject matter. A bit mundane in places, but on the whole with a bit of work, TWATB are set to be awesome – even if it’s just on the back of their power and passion.

Dark Moon have a mysterious online presence with not much available about them and only recorded track in existence so naturally I popped along to The Goldhawk to see what they had to offer. Singer Lola Ulalume ported some kind of strange tassely scarecrow ensemble complete with hat that shadowed her face.

Dark Moon were an unusual pick for Bushstock but The Goldhawk’s line-up held the key to the bands that might rock out, even just a little bit, and that they did.

There’s a free download of their track Blackbird right here:
Dark Moon – Blackbird

And back it was across Shepherds Bush to Shepherds Bar for Scots Laki Mera. Their electronic setlist included several tracks from album The Proximity Effect and plenty of Bushstockers rocked up to see them. Staying on for the quietly-spoken pop-folk Lucy Rose was a good choice afterwards. Lucy receives plenty of Laura Marling comparisons in her reviews and rightly-so – in our opinion, she’s much better. Lucy’s voice is delicate and pale, and she’s itching to be discovered. She was accompanied by a backing band but her acoustic sets are the stuff of bittersweet dreams.

The very underrated Australian-born Sarah Blasko graced the stage at St. Stephen’s Church for her set accompanied by guitar. Tracks in the intimate and wiredrawn set included the hypnotic opener from album What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have, ‘For You’ with its hymnal keys, and Sarah led our attention like some kind of indie sermon.

Flashguns are a curious band. The last time I saw them, I walked out of the show halfway through. The lead singer oozed too much I LOVE MYSELF YEAH and his underage drunken fans were lapping it up when they weren’t knocking the crowd over. The Bushstock clientele were more of a legal drinking age, so I popped back to The Goldhawk to see if I could hack the entire live show – I really like their recorded material.

So the band played to a less-than-half-full room at 10pm because their entire fanbase was probably at home revising for their GCSEs – but this band are not to be discredited. The audience were really enjoying the tunes – including ‘Come And See The Lights’ and ‘Passions Of A Different Kind. A talented threesome, Flashguns are naturals to the stage and were one of the best bands I saw all day. I just can’t fathom how their egos fit into The Goldhawk with enough space for the sparse scattering of spectators. Shame really, it’s definitely going to hold them back. Flashguns’ leading tracks are anthems in the making.

Proceedings continued into the early morning with Peggy Sue and Guillemots, Mystery Jets and Propaganda DJ sets – an absolute bargain for just under £30.

Bushstock wasn’t as busy as other sold-out festivals but for a first-timer there was a great turnout. Abit of space here and there added to the quaint charm of the day.

There’s nothing quite like nursing a plastic pint in a church pew.

8/10