music overview - Sunday

The rain and cloud mean a nice quiet Sunday lie in but we’ve still got the tent and kit stowed away in the car before the conclusion of the first act the Trailer Trash Orchestra so it's a Los Albertos sing along with a festie breakfast. Shortly followed by cheers for the sun as we don our dresses for ladies’ day.

First up a wander over to Abbot Aida and Father Flounder's Sunday Service replete with well known tunes, a communion of cheesy biscuits and cider, kids all getting kazoos and... well and me, singing ‘Knees up Mother Brown!’

Slightly dazed by my unscheduled appearance on stage I head over to Subgiant! I think they kick more in the sun as there’s less lights to distract me from the thumping rhythms! The crowd are a frenzy up the front as the sun bleaches us and we grin as they drop beats repeatedly sending us into bliss.



Talking of bliss, if bliss had a voice it would sound like Fil’s from Back To The Planet. It’s been a very long time, yet all the words flowed from us oldsters, we grinned at each other and bounced as we went hurtling back to the early nineties – ahhhhh! The sound was full and rich and just as I remembered it - floating harmonies and repeat to infinity. ‘I Blame the Turtles’, ‘Clearest Blue Sea’, ‘Girl Who is also a Boy’, ‘London City’, ‘Misunderstood’, ‘Human Error’ and it’s just like falling into the arms of a long lost lover. I’m also a fan of RDF but this was the best reunion at Endorse It ever. They leave the stage and I wander up the arena grinning and feeling like I’m in a soft bubble and my mind has been hugged by BTTP – oh why did they ever go away?

Next up The Ukrainians and if you know your punk songs this band are for you. Singing classic songs in their native tongue or their own songs with hectic arrangements, it takes us a few bars to spot Velvet Underground’s ‘Venus In Furs’ however we’re fast on all the other tunes.



Then it’s time for tea, naked tea – with The Girls, there’s a nude alabaster skinned lady with an afternoon tea spread over her and a crowd around the gazebo shading her and the two attendant vicars. There’s a few young boys agog and all the jam tarts are making me hungry. The gazebo isn’t protecting her from the sun so I offer to apply sun lotion and the security guy suggests clotted cream.

After watching a cucumber chopping and some magic tricks with the guys in Fezs (sorry I forget their names). I head back around to the arena – even more people are dressed up, lots of men in dresses and weird costumes. The beer is still flowing and the toilets are still clean, amazing indeed!

SpaceWasters and Gadjo meanwhile have been entertaining in the DD Stage before Hobo Jones make a return but I’m stuck in the kids field considering whether to go on the swingboats and wondering if I can afford a massage – the earlier excesses are taking their toll.



The arena looks relaxed, people are shopping in the brightly decorated stalls, there are numerous colourful flags and kites fluttering in the sun, kids run about, cycles meander around, and there’s lots of punk hair styles and great old T-shirts like Culture Shock (next year, please?)

Babyhead (jump, jump) and Mad Professor (tunes) are thumping up through the ground and drawing me like a pied piper of reggae. Ok I don't completely understand the draw of a bloke playing records but it's agreeable and I know some of the songs.

The stage for The Toretz is empty one minute and then it’s bouncing the next. Blimey, EIID have quoted my review of them in the programme, hope they are first-rate and fortunately they get a huge round of applause come the end and an encore of ‘Spank The Monkey.’

Sun’s dropped but it’s a barmy night and there’s still beer available! Result! Tragic Roundabout and comedy and Goldblade (classic punk, lovely) - my legs are a bit knackered now!



Zion Train and a bit of Tofu Love Frogs and we're off on the road again! Missing Temple Hedz and Phil Hartnoll - must remember to stay Monday next year! Sunkissed and cowpunked! Yee haw! What a festival, it just keeps getting better. Get your tickets early next year pardners, cos I reckon it’ll be all sold out, early.

To all those who worked there or spent their time organising this little gem of a festival – thanks your hard work paid off, it was a lovely treat made all the more enjoyable having sun and green grass. Thank you, see you next year.

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