Truck's opening day is blessed by blue, cloudless skies

Truck 12's opening day is blessed by blue, cloudless skies and unbroken sunshine and the first band on the Truck Stage, Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring encapsulate those meteorological qualities perfectly with their dreamy, twee pop.

Mic stands and instruments have been embellished with bouquets of flowers and there are cardigans, skinny ties and floral headbands aplenty on stage for a gentle, heart-warming start to the weekend at a festival evocative of a lazy, mid-summer, middle England village fete.

With universal politeness around the site, catering courtesy of the Rotary Club, banana smoothies and peanut butter and jam sandwiches on offer and an audience largely consisting of teenagers and families from nearby Oxford, Truck has a gentile, moderate and relaxed feel for the most part. The stages run on time, food and drink are affordable, if limited, and the portaloos are still bearable and stocked with toilet roll by the Monday morning.

Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring bring to mind The Smiths and Teenage Fanclub, with pretty and delicate moments, laced with a passing air of melancholy.

A 'Question Of Trust' is a pretty little slice of summer with tinkling piano, upbeat chord changes and hand claps and 'New Favourite Band', with its cheery invitation to: "Come on into my airspace, I love the way you make my heart race" sounds about as much like Belle & Sebastian as is humanly possible.

Belfast's Panama Kings look and at times sound as if they should come from small-town America. They also display a fascinating and diverse range of influences, sounding often very close to Modest Mouse's gleeful, multi-directional work and singer Niall Kennedy straying into more fraught, even emo territory.

Looking like he's escaped from a US prison and rode to Truck on the Greyhound, Kennedy is flanked by two synth players, one topless, the other in low-fi checked shirt and both hiding their eyes behind black sunglasses. Together they build an epic, emotive wall of sound that collides awkwardly with the raucous dance party being whipped up from the drum kit.

'Mobilise The Kids' typifies a band difficult to pigeon hole, with an undulating Muse-like bassline, scuzzy guitars and a pleading, pained vocal melody which sounds not unlike The Smashing Pumpkins.

'Your Children Are Screaming' nods to The Pixies and in turn Modest Mouse, with its bouncy shuffle and angular guitar lines, but the vocals are again yelped and awkward.

Kennedy pauses before new single 'Golden Recruit' to wish drummer Richard McAuley a happy birthday and he replies by opening the song with dancing hi-hat and snare, which powers the song’s funky, disco feel and insistent "We can't be Trusted" chorus line. Interesting stuff.

The early sets are all refreshingly short – between 20-30 minutes – and the changeovers between bands are sharp. Staying under the afternoon sun in front of the Truck Stage, next up are Swiss five-piece Manana, bringing with them an epic sound, lashings of tremolo-heavy Rickenbacker guitar and more emotive vocals.

In polite, central European, fashion they apologise for 'the delay', beginning their first song less than 20 minutes after Panama Kings finished, and explain they will have to cut their appearance short.

Singer Manuel Burkli is not aided by a stiff breeze, which has started to whip around the site, and against the backdrop of his band’s pretty formidable sound his voice is a little thin, is picked up by the wind, and is as a result a little lost in the mix.

Final song Berlinner Blau is the highlight of their set, floating in delicately on swathes of moody synths, with big, imposing floor toms and dreamy, ethereal vocals, with shades of Sigur Ros and U2.

It builds through a lengthy instrumental section, with walls of rising, shimmering guitar chords, a euphoric snare beat and a chiming, delay-heavy riff that The Edge would not have turned his nose up at 20 years ago.

It amounts to a beautiful, epic composition, faultlessly performed, but the sound problems and resultant lack of power and clarity in the vocals is a slight disappointment.

Detroit Social Club amble on stage next, in low-key fashion, and singer David Burn declares in a strong Geordie accent "a'reet? I don't even know what song we're playing first". Rock and, indeed, Roll.

They choose, subsequently to start with 'Soldiers', and there's all the thumping kick drum, plodding basslines, indie guitars, tambourine bashing and swagger of lad rock at it's most bland and uninspiring.

Second song 'Sunshine People' opens with snarled "nah-nah-nah" vocals, sounds heavily like Oasis and is pretty mundane, pedestrian fare.

Burn marches on the spot and waves his microphone back and forth, in unbuttoned shirt and big sunglasses, in the style of Richard Ashcroft and sounds not unlike Kelly Jones.

Despite his posturing and cajoling of the crowd, there's a largely indifferent response, with the majority electing not to rise to their feet.

'Rivers and Rainbows' has an Oasis-via-The-Beatles, sitar-infused opening and by the song's conclusion The Detroit Social Club have three guitars on stage, yet it's rendered pointless by the fact that they all sound largely the same.

Their performance is committed and obviously heartfelt, but lacks light, shade and subtlety and is, for the most part, pretty dour, unchallenging stuff. A bit like a Coca-Cola League One Kasabian, perhaps.

All the way from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canadians Wintersleep are one of the finds of the festival for the previously uninitiated.

'Archaeologists' floats along on with delicious, dreamy harmonies, carried by insistent, ringing guitars and then bursts through a series of joyous, bittersweet peaks, whilst 'Weighty Ghosts' has a lilting country feel, pinned down by military snare drumming and its finish is a gentle, multi-harmonied delight.

'Search Party' is built, delicately and patiently from tender, mournful beginnings to an epic climax, while their best known song to date 'Oblivion', with its angular lead guitar opening, is a sugary rush of brilliance and their set gains a fair degree of interest from a slowly-building crowd.

London's Red Light Company arrive on the Truck Stage looking very well-styled and aesthetically pleasing, with their sharp fringes and box-fresh white T-shirts.

Their songs are equally well polished and their debut album, 'Fine Fascination', hit the top 20 in its first week of release earlier this year.

'Meccano', released as a single last year, is extremely radio-friendly with a chugging bassline, layers of chiming, swelling trebly guitar and perfect pop choruses - evoking a sense of a more mainstream Arcade Fire.

They play another single 'Scheme Eugene' and it sounds a little like a soundtrack to an American summertime college movie, with dreamy "oooh" harmonies and infectious, radio-friendly guitar riffs.

After a gentle piano opening, latest release 'Arts and Crafts' breaks into another hook-heavy chorus, not massively dissimilar to previous Truck favourites Editors.

Red Light Company's set is certainly enjoyable, undeniably catchy, but perhaps a little light on substance and invention.

Meanwhile, the dark, cool confines of The Barn have been turned over to Fresh Out The Box for an evening mash-up, and we start with DJ Food's cut and paste turntablism and video mixing.

Set up with a big screen behind them, the DJ and VJ unload a jolting array of visual imagery and pounding beats from somewhere in their matching Apple iBooks, mixing hard house into latin rhythms and stirring up a sizeable dancing mass a world away from the prevailing gentile, village fete feel outside.

As the dynamic duo twist their set into a late drum n bass onslaught, the barn's murky, stark surroundings, complete with asbestos panelled walls, concrete floor and lingering reek of cow shit, bear witness to a sweaty, reckless party and it's easy to believe you're in a grimy back-street club or at a rave in the middle of nowhere. The act and venue seem perfectly suited for the moment.

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