Warwick Summer Party 2013

Drawn by the promise of the odd chart-botherer, some ‘up-and-perhapsers’, and the novelty of having pints of purple served to you in a gazebo with ideas above its station (only to then pour it over an unfortunate neighbour when your “jam” is played),  a generally sodden expanse of grass and mud suddenly becomes a bustling, integral hub of campus life. This year’s edition was certainly one to remember, with both the main and secret stages delivering bounteous doses of fun to the ever-expanding crowds attending the event.

Nurse Joy

Undeniably, a variety of fairly clear influences sprang to mind: the shared vocals and gorgeous harmonies of Lewis Gardner and Joseph O’Brien recalled the likes of Local Natives, Grizzly Bear and Wild Beasts, whilst the arpeggios and lush, soporific tones of ‘Beech’ and ‘Hacienda’ rang bells regarding latter-day Maccabees. Nevertheless, for what they may lack in a completely distinctive sound (as well as the occasional under-baked lyric), they more than make up for with proficiency and promise. For a town somewhat lacking a music scene (a situation being increasingly remedied by the Zephyr Lounge), acts such as Post War Years, Coves, and Cowboy themselves are more than worthy figureheads.

Mikill Pane

A change of pace was perhaps in order to get the people bouncing, and the man tasked with the job was up-and-coming rapper Mikill Pane. He immediately set about doing so, working at his level best to drum up a bit of noise from a slowly filling crowd, with “I want a couple more decibels!” serving as a recurring battle-cry.

Contrarily though, it is when Pane is at his least extroverted that his talent is strongest. His background in spoken-word undeniably seems a double-sided coin: his lyrics are often tight, offering worthy insights into areas such as the music business, racial politics, and his personal life. But, by that same token (or coin – pick a metaphor), his flow can feel restricted to the extent that it’s the total opposite, instead resembling a staccato lecture set to bro-step backing, exemplified on tracks like ‘Make You Say (Fuck)’. This track in particular captures the Mikill Pane conundrum: the chorus affords a somewhat angst-ridden but easily-translatable crowd chant, contrasting with the well-crafted but ultimately drama-free verses. It’ll be interesting to see how (and if) he resolves the entanglement between his roots and the apparent pressures of a pop framework.

Increasingly though, the crowd filled up, the beats got bigger, and on a purely experiential level, Pane proved an astute booking. He eventually proved himself capable of setting a mood appropriate to his spectacular shorts, with his most radio-friendly release – ‘Sun Shines On The Big City’ – conjuring a highly receptive bounce-along.

Secret Stage

For the dazed, post-dodgems denizens and those otherwise drawn to the lure of the bouncy castle, stumbling upon the adjacent Secret Stage this year was a particular treat. This new rejig was a definite improvement on previous alternative offerings, with this year’s grander setting offering a real opportunity for student acts and local DJs to make their mark on proceedings.

Particular highlights were Jordan And The Sketcheads, whose gorgeous cover of ‘Forrest Gump’ gave Jordan Charles’ soulful vocals a chance to shine, and Rootless, who alternated between indie-folk, reggae, and even rap, via a violin-led version of ‘Thrift Shop’.

For the dazed, post-dodgems denizens and those otherwise drawn to the lure of the bouncy castle, stumbling upon the adjacent Secret Stage this year was a particular treat.

Coves

Another downpour soured the reception of the opening of Coves’ afternoon set, although one song into their performance, the clouds were rent apart, and the fields bathed in gloriously warm sunshine. Hundreds of sodden individuals crowded up to the main stage to watch the day’s second Leamington Spa-based group, who responded to the attendees’ enthusiasm by delivering a spectacular show.

Each song exhibited by John Ridgard, Beth Wood, and their touring drummer was strikingly elemental, providing the festival with some of its loudest, crunchiest moments. With the bass tones from Ridgard’s distorted Epiphone shuddering through ribcages and kneecaps up and down the field, Wood worked the crowd wonderfully. Enticing listeners in with her sultry, smoky vocals, and waving her arms above her head in a witchlike fashion, it was almost as if behind every song lurked a ritual made for keeping the adverse weather at bay.

The likes of ‘Cast A Shadow’ and the excellent ‘Wicked Game’ were all built around simple core elements: hazy swells of blissfully heavy guitar, and bruising thumps from the upright drumkit. A clear chemistry between the two leads was marvellous to behold, and by the time Coves took their bows, it felt as if for everyone present the Summer Party’s fuse had finally been ignited, and the atmosphere became wholesomely jubilant.

By The Rivers

For every second of their set at last year’s Summer Party, By The Rivers had done their darnedest to get everyone grinning and skanking along to their sprightly, upbeat amalgamation of ska, reggae and indie. The SU had clearly taken notes from the Leicester-based sextet’s rapturous reception last year, and congruently, there was a strikingly warm buzz surrounding the band’s return to these Purple-flecked fields.

With spirits high, the group took the stage. Of course, those of us with high expectations had nothing to fear. Picking up where they left off in 2012 (and presumably every night they tour), the band dived into tracks like ‘One Word’, ‘Run Home’ and ‘You Got It Wrong’ with bucket-loads of summery aplomb, despite the similar quantities of water pouring off the stage-roof.

If anything has changed, it’s that thanks to having their first full-length under their belt, By The Rivers are now incredibly tight as a group, transitioning seamlessly in tempo and tone, with Nile Barrow’s vocals being particularly immaculate. As a consequence of that, there’s an undeniable confidence, a ‘sexiness’ to their music which perhaps wasn’t wholly there before, evidenced by the more subdued ‘Rocksteady’ and ‘Take Control’. It translated through the ether into the consciousness of the masses, with the integral brass-section and addictive drum-rhythms inciting the instinctive pulling of all kinds of shapes.

What it boiled down to, though, was that By The Rivers make for thoroughly affable company, onstage and off. The crowd interaction was joyous, the music melodic and infectious, and even the band members were grinning and bopping along with the now-sizeable crowd. On this kind of form, a third appearance should not simply be on the cards, but an absolute requisite. Indeed, this is increasingly becoming less a review and more a petition for the SU budget to accommodate By The Rivers as a house-band. It’s an attractive prospect, and certainly, all the league tables we seem to be falling down would be easily amended within days: student morale, feedback, and even our exceptionally middling position on Student Beans’ ever-so-slightly perverted Uni Sex League. Think about it, Sabbs.

King Charles

In contrast to By The Rivers was King Charles, who arrived with the aura of having fallen victim to the sense of stigma some acts feel towards student events. Whilst he’s certainly no Wiley, there was – at least initially – a mode of complacency; that of a group fulfilling a booking rather than seizing the opportunity to trip the light fantastic.

Increasingly though, any pre-conceptions of apathy were set aside, facilitated by the compendium of festival giraffes and piggy-backs popping up amidst the crowd. There was an inescapable perkiness to tracks such as ‘Mississippi Isabel’, and a tactile variety was afforded to proceedings by the transitions between different lenses of surf-rock, folk-pop, and even some arena-worthy Gibson Explorer solo-noodling. The outcome was that this was a set that proved increasingly worthwhile, if not especially exhilarating, with the band and audience feeding off each other’s energy to elevate that which might otherwise have been stagnant.

Rudimental

As the light began to dwindle, Rudimental took to the stage, greeted by a fully-fledged crowd whooping and cheering their brass-based opening fanfare. From the offset, DJ Locksmith got to work rousing the crowd, indulging in a pun about “spooning” as he introduced the clackety ‘Spoons’, and the chemistry between the band members was clearly tangible as they locked into a chain of synth-heavy anthems.

However, for whatever reason, the performance felt somewhat subdued in terms of spectacle, and indeed, the opening salvo of Rudimental’s set felt surprisingly mellow. In terms of musical content, it was fine, with brass-led melodies and some tremendous vocals from Becky Hall, but the first few offerings from the Hackney quartet didn’t quite deliver on the fireworks some of us had perhaps been expecting.

Yet it was in the set’s latter half that Rudimental really flexed their muscles and set the field alight – perhaps thanks to the placing of successful singles in the tail-end of their setlist. ‘Not Giving In’ – dedicated to the child of one of the band members – went down a storm, with Locksmith’s bellows of “make some noise” eliciting a rapturous response, before ‘Waiting All Night’ peaked their set with its colossal, hyper-charged refrain. Closing with a crashing drum solo and an extended version of the feel-good anthem ‘Feel The Love’, Rudimental bounded offstage to much applause, with the SU’s headline choice vindicated for any of the sceptics among those in attendance.

Katy B

As twilight settled in, the crowds returned to the main stage for Katy B, allured by the promise of big things from her headline slot as an inarguably superior replacement for eleventh-hour absentee Labrinth. With DJ and friend Shakira swaying at the tastefully-stencilled desks, Katy pranced onstage in a glorious tie-dye t-shirt fitting to her exuberant stage chatter, and proceeded to kick off her set with a graceful – if slightly polite – vigour.

Making great use of call-and-response chorus patterns, Katy B’s voice rang crystal-clear out across the grass, and singles such as ‘Katy On A Mission’ and ‘Lights On’ set in motion a delighted hollering mass of mud-spattered bodies. With lavender lighting and dry ice cascading all around her, much of Katy B’s performance went down very nicely indeed. With her two backing dancers wiggling away, her cover of Aaliyah’s ‘More Than A Woman’ was a heavy, slinkily choreographed treat, and new single ‘What Love Is Made Of’ boasted enough immediacy to ensure sing-alongs during its final refrain. Although there was a suspicion that parts of her set involved the use of miming, in terms of spectacle and the ability to move a crowd, Katy B lived up to her headline status, proving to be yet another shrewd booking by the SU in what turned out to be a very well-paced line-up.

Zane Lowe

At last, darkness fell upon Warwick campus, and Zane Lowe arrived with his usual frenzied excitement to keep the energy levels in the green with a skronking, throbbingly noisy DJ set. The crowd size remained substantial as Lowe injected his show with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy: bounding around the stage, prompting widespread fist-pumps and generally shrieking encouragement and euphoric swearwords for the whole duration of his set. A particular highlight came in the form of a Jack White / White Stripes remix, which blended a modified opening of ‘Seven Nation Army’ into the blistering riffs of ‘Sixteen Saltines’. Lowe’s bombastic sounds echoed all across campus, and ensured that the Summer Party remained well-packed right up until his departure, leaving the wee hours’ entertainment in the hands of a number of less riotous DJ sets.

All in, then, this year’s Summer Party delivered on everything which was promised. From showcasing smaller, more local talents to delivering bigger thrills with more well-known artists, the musical tiering of the day proved to be a large success, offering a well-paced day of musical delights to those of us who braved the elements. Some minor niggles aside, it ensured a fittingly euphoric end to the academic year, while catering to numerous tastes. Until next year, then, and keep on skanking…