best of the best for day 1 of IÂ’ll Be Your Mirror Festival

As part of the All Tommorrow's Parties festivals, 2011 sees Portishead curate their favourite artists of the past, present and future in the beautiful locale of north London's Alexandra Palace for two days.

Standing high atop the hill at Wood Green, the Alexandra Palace is a great venue to hold this gig, combining the historical Victorian palace and grounds to hold several music stages and a cinema room, giving attendees something different to see. Despite the overcast sky, the weather remained dry and the location afforded some amazing views across London to enjoy in between bands. Speaking of bands, the line up for the first day was intelligently organised so that the two main stages alternated acts that came on, so you could enjoy all of the assembled artists without missing others, which was made even easier as the West Hall and Great Hall stages were right next to each other. Smart move!

After milling around, marvelling at the interior, reggae heavyweights Black Roots took to the West Hall stage to deliver their hour long set. Having been around since the late 70s, it was a surprise to see such a wizened bunch on stage who were super keen to get cracking on with their music, much to the dismay of the sound crew who were still adjusting their gear in the opening numbers.

Either way, theirs was a friendly and upbeat reggae set and loud in the bass department and the crowd enjoyed skanking along. Their lyrics or music aren't going to set standards for innovation, but with songs like 'Juvenile Delinquents' it wasn't difficult to like them. Perhaps theirs was a better act for an outside rather than an inside stage, but an enjoyable set nonetheless and left you with the feeling that Notting Hill had somehow come early.

Moving over to the Great Hall, mask-wearing rapper Doom took to the stage soon after and complete with a backup MC played his blend of catchy hip hop tracks and intelligent rhymes. Perhaps this is the only time that I've heard a rap that included "Hadron Collider" in the lyrics, and the music he played with was littered with unusual sounds and samples - even using the sound of spray cans at one point - Doom demonstrated his abilities in fine form by producing something recognisable as rap while evolving his music to be more interesting and distinctive than the more commercial fare heard these days and well worth looking out for at a later date.

Later in the day saw P J Harvey take to the main stage, her striking figure of black dress and harp instrument making her look like some kind of music harpy as she went through her selection of hits old and new, much to the delight of the crowd.

Hers was an impressive feat of playing to quite a large crowd, although her voice did trail off at the back of the hall and problems with volume were a dampener on the set but didn't make it any less enjoyable judging from the crowd response and I felt that her addition to the line up suited the headliners who would play thereafter, and not just because both acts feature female vocalists.

In the adjacent room, however, another well established group were taking to the West Hall stage shortly in the form of Company Flow, a classic hip hop crew much in vein of Run DMC. Having recently reformed and were looking to reconnect with the fans they had left behind in the UK and were well received by the assembled crowd. Despite numerous initial technical difficulties, they kicked off in fine fashion with energetic rapping from the two frontmen over live scratching from the DJ.

Unafraid to interact with the audience, Company Flow jumped all over the stage and on speakers, apologising for their absence and making up for it in the same breath by treating the crowd to a selection of their hits, with catchy, funky breaks and cheeky lyrics. From listening to their musical style, it's not difficult to imagine why Portishead would have invited them along and they are well worth checking out for a better example of hip hop.

As darkness moved in on the Alexandra Palace and the Great Hall filled up, it was clear who everyone had come to see as Portishead took to the stage, filling up the space with an array of drums, sample machines, keyboards, guitars and even turntables for live scratching. Theirs was a one and a half hour set, combining live playing of their formally sample-driven tracks with a variety of killer visuals, with frontwoman Beth Gibbons' solid vocal performance leading the way. Tracks like 'Machine Gun' pounded out a staccato rhythm whilst a creeping video played out in slow motion, with favourites Glory Box and Over taking centre stage alongside a selection of their back catalogue of hits, with the audience singing along. Quite simply, their tracks are transformed into something even greater when seen live, with the melancholic vocals against amazing guitar solos playing a large part into doing this. Naysayers who bemoan the lack of material they have produced in the last 10 years need to see them in concert; Portishead are still more than capable of putting on a great show.

After escaping the venue following the end of the first day, I'll Be Your Mirror had succeeded in getting a great combination of acts together. This was clearly the hip hop side of Portishead's musical tastes satisfied and was a great opportunity to see artists that rarely come to the UK. With such a great day of music, day two of the festival would have a tough job to compete.

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