Kid Carpet

Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival reviews

By Matthew Shaw | Published: Mon 14th Aug 2006

Friday 11th to Saturday 12th August 2006
Belladrum Estate, by Beauly, Inverness-shire IV4 7BA, Scotland MAP
£60 in advance (under 12s free)
Last updated: Sat 29th Apr 2006

Kid Carpet holds his little toy aloft in front of the full Venus Flytrap Palais: "Can we get the lights down, do we have the power to do that? You can tell that this is a proper axe, look...-f**king flashing lights! Look...flashing lights!"

Certainly not the sort of scenes you’d expect from Kraftwerk certainly, but Kid Carpet brings his own different style of sample heavy electro-dance to the north of Scotland, and for a deceptively early slot, he draws a huge crowd.

To start with, his mid-song banter is extremely irritating (mostly consisting of alternating “Woo!” and “Yeah!”), but as the crowd react more, he seems to relax, dance about, play toy guitars, and even find the time to add a little bit of Furby into the mix, and it’s certainly an enthralling set, if managing to lack in any sort of depth whatsoever.

Songs such as "Carrier Bag" and "Boob Job" have the entire tent dancing and clapping along, and although not an entirely talented vocalist, he’s enigmatic enough to get the party started. His dancing is fantastic, one local newspaper describe him as "a mix of Grandmaster Flash and Joe Pasquale".

Finishing off with new song "Can’t Stop The Pop" (about the demise of Top of the Pops, apparently), the crowd are mesmerised, with a mix of people chanting "Car-pet! Car-pet!" and "One More Tune!". Thankfully, he obliges, and treats the crowd to one last song before departing.

It’s amazing how many people pick out the performance as a highlight of the festival afterwards, as although he’s maybe not the most meaningful artist on the bill, he certainly manages to be the most fun, and that’s just as good a reason to go and see him than any other.
review by: Matthew Shaw


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