despite the mud the music flows at Strummer of Love on Saturday

Strummer of Love 2012 review

By Andrew Hogg | Published: Wed 22nd Aug 2012

Strummer of Love 2012

Friday 17th to Sunday 19th August 2012
secret location in Somerset, England
£175 weekend pass, or £50 for day tickets

Daily capacity: 5,000

On Saturday we woke up to a misty start of the day. We needn't have worried though as this soon burnt out to be replaced by the scorching sun and a beautiful blue sky. We hoped this would dry out the ground which had churned up badly in places due to the rain on Thursday night/Friday morning. Unfortunately this never happened and the site was still hard work in places. Some of the more badly affected areas were main thoroughfares which were treacherous to use and they should have been covered in straw or wood-chip for the safety of the festival-goers.

We trudged down to The Clash City Rockers stage first to catch Sex Pistols Bassist Glen Matlock perform. He gave the ageing and new young punks in the crowd a pleasing set which included the Sex Pistols' hits 'Pretty Vacant' and 'God Save the Queen'. After a bit of acoustic punk we wandered over to the Johnny Appleseed stage to watch anti-folk singer Beans on Toast. The tent was packed and there was only room outside to catch the second half of his well received set.

Jay McAllister's food related stage name must have given us an appetite as it was time to check out the festival food on offer. There wasn't a great deal of choice and the prices were a little high near the main stage, but if you went a little further into the site the prices were more reasonable. The main choices were Pizza, burger, organic BBQ, Pasta and crepes.

There was even a pop up cafe by the name of the Elderflower kitchen which was staffed by young people from the area around the site who were hired to help them gain experience, which served food to you while you sat on bales of hay as seats. Once our appetites were sated it was time to wash it down with a pint or two. The site had two main bars, one which sold lager, beer, Guinness, cider and shorts and another which was purely a Brothers cider bar. Both were reasonably priced for a festival with most drinks costing less than £4.

It was now time to head back to the main stage for some music. We managed to catch a bit of South London band Bastille who seemed quite melodic. They were then followed on by King Charles, a singer songwriter who plays several instruments. He had outstanding vocals and was Hendrix-esque in some of his guitar solos. He had an arrogance and charismatic stage presence that along with his talent will surely take him far.

Kitty Daisy & Lewis took to the stage next with their bouncy Jive/swing sound. The multi-instrumentalists managed to get the sweaty sunburnt crowd out of their camp chairs to dance along in the blazing heat. As the day wore on the dancing didn't stop as the ever popular Dreadzone got everyone going with their mix of reggae folk and rock. I had never seen them before but they had been recommended to me by quite a few people. Even though my expectations were high they didn't disappoint and I will definitely be going to see them again.

The day had at last started to cool slightly and after popping back to the tent for supplies we took our red sunburnt faces back down to catch Alabama 3, the British rock/country band. They entertained the crowd with a mix of popular songs and guest singers including Joe Strummer's daughter Jazz. The crowd was now really building up and the field seemed really busy for the band that Strummer fronted for a short while in the early nineties, The Pogues. The Celtic punk band were the Saturday headliners and they carried out the task with ease. Shane MacGowan was on top form and didn't even need many breaks between songs. His voice might not be the same as it once was but the crowd didn't care. They finished with 'Fiesta' which had the whole field dancing, and it ended with both MacGowan and Spider Stacy beating beer trays against their heads!

Another good day came to a close but there was still more to come on the Sunday which included some Clash hits to look forward to.

review by: Andrew Hogg

photos by: Andrew Hogg