pants to poverty proves a hit at Ben & Jerrys Sundae On The Common

I thought that Ben & Jerrys Sundae On The Common was held on a small venue in comparison to other festivals I have been to in the past. The event had ice cream by the tonne loads, all free what a delight! Free ice cream… the arena was aimed towards the family, as could be seen by the RSPCA sack race, and mucky dips, and a funfair. There was a small farm provided by the Vauxhall City Farm, a place where people who want to know how to become a farmer. They had a coconut shy, air guitar competition, a few fair trade tents to promote ethical trade.

Not that the whole arena itself was aimed towards the family, there was plenty of places where beer and cider, let alone Pimms was available. The venue was kept clean to as much as possible by an army of cleaners, who were buzzing around picking up anything like discarded plastic bottles and cans.

They festival also had a first aid tent for those who were feeling the heat of the festival. In the arena, there were two stages, the main one and the acoustic stage. The first acts on Saturday and Sunday were winners of the unsigned band Moo Sessions, who were voted by the public.

On Saturday, Jay Serrao and the Juice kicked off the festival with a lively set on the main stage thought they were good, but just lacking in something I want from an indie rock group. Sunday was started off with The Riptide Movement, I thought they were good, with traditional rock pose, and Irish accents made me draw comparisons with U2.

On Saturday Jay Serrao and the Juice were followed by Alice Gold, personally didn’t like the music, but felt a breath of fresh air, as this woman plays guitar with angst. Alice stayed mainly rooted to the spot, with the odd times where she would wander beyond her microphone to play her guitar.

Then following her was Little Fish, a guitar, keyboard and drum trio, I really liked their performance on the main stage, lively good songs, lively performance where Juju, the lead vocalist would be at one end of the stage to another playing the guitar.

Due to an act pulling out on the acoustic stage, the audience were treated to their impromptu set, to which they admitted, that they had never done an acoustic set before. Due to the size of the stage, the festival goers at the stage were looking at a much subdued performance by Juju, no running around the stage etc, but the same lively songs with drums and keyboard to accompany her acoustic guitar.

Following them was Pearl and the Puppets on the main stage; they're from Scotland, seemingly very popular over there, I have to admit, I have not heard about them, but I just didn't like their music much.

Kitty Daisy & Lewis play old style 50s music, despite their young age they seem to be enjoying playing, and so did I.

Slow Club performed well, but again, I didn't particularly get along with their style of music. Idlewild, one of the main acts on Saturday who preceded Scouting for Girls, were just amazing, never heard of their music before, I was impressed.

Scouting For Girls were on next as headliners, not my type of music, and therefore I never enjoyed their songs. However hundreds of teens in the crowd did, and that's why they were chosen to headline.

Sunday was much the same, and started off with the Moo Sessions winners, The Riptide Movement. The first impression I had of Exit Calm, who followed was that they are a group that are heavily influenced by early to late Brit pop, an interview with the lead singer Nicky afterwards confirmed that this was the case. Though I am a person who doesn't like Brit pop, I did like their style. So did the crowd.

Cherry Ghost were on stage next, I loved their performance and stage presence, and loved their music as did the crowd. Frightened Rabbit followed, another band from Scotland, and indie genre music, again my ears loved the music they played.

Before Billy Bragg's appearance on the stage, there was a 'fashion' parade, where models appeared in undies, and obviously in the case of the ladies, they were wearing small tops.

This was to prove the catalyst for Bragg's tagline "Pants to poverty, and knickers to unemployment" when he eventually appeared, then promptly putting on undies Superman style, i.e. pants on the outside, on the band of the pants were the words "Pants to Poverty". Billy started off with songs that I am unfamiliar too, but then after the 3rd song, ripped into 'Sexuality', and 'New England' with the crowd singing the chorus like a live version of karaoke. The last song Billy sang was 'One Love', with the re-worked line "Let's get rid of the debt, and we will feel all right", the crowd loved his performance, and so did I.

Doves I have to admit are not one of my favourite bands at the moment, but after seeing them live, has kind of pushed them near to being one of my favourites. They sang 'Kingdom of Rust' which I have to say isn't one of the songs I like from their catalogue. At the end, they did polish up with 'There Goes The Fear' which thankfully I do like, the melodically guitar riff and heavy bass, and nicely timed drums, which left the crowd baying for an encore, which unfortunately never came.

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