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Truck 11 Festival: Saturday: Lemonheads/ Okkervil River/ Milk Kan/ Wishing Stones/ Television Personalities/ Fonda 500 and more
Steventon, Oxfordshire
Article written by
Ged M - Jul 24, 2008
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Fonda 500
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“This is a song by the Beatles – that I wrote”. Simon Stone’s wit, his crazy beatboxing, the cheap and cheerful props and Fonda 500’s pulsing electro-pop party tunes are one of the dependably great features of Truck, but why put them on at 1.40pm on Saturday afternoon (especially when the main stage has some very weak offerings later in the day)? It’s odd programming decisions like this that makes Saturday at Truck this year feel like the weakest it’s been (in my memory). The festival’s village fete charm usually grants it immunity from criticisms made of more commercially minded festivals but this Saturday at least Truck feels like any bog-standard festival (and the standard of the bogs this year is worth criticising). There have been changes to the Truck organisation, which seem to be reflected front-of-stage including more stalls (many more New Agey ones), smaller stages and more programming of those stages sub-contracted to smaller promoters. There’s a complacency and even indulgence about the organisation now, which is inexcusable when there are other boutique festivals with a similar vision but better planning. The Market Stage was frequently overflowing because people inside the tent refused to stand up when it became crowded, so why not have someone in charge to manage that? There’s also a slight trouble-in-paradise vibe: we witness people being asked to leave the site, someone reports a group of people handcuffed by the police and there are fewer “happy drunks” than usual.
Television Personalities
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Holton’s Opulent Oog are fiddly-diddley UK alt-country, with their soothing Sunday-morning tunes, which are a bit too soporific for Saturday afternoon. Much better are the Television Personalities. Dan Tracey says “I swear to God we’ve not rehearsed” and you believe him when you hear their creaky version of The Creation’s ‘Painter Man’ or when ‘Part Time Punks’ sounds more shambolic than it did 30 years ago. It all threatens to be a car-crash when, in their second song, ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’, the rest of the band go into ‘I’m A Believer’ without telling Dan, but he keeps going, throwing in some rambling medley that includes David Essex’s ‘Gonna Make You A Star’ and somehow makes it to a happy ending with good grace. But it’s another odd choice of venue: they would have been much better playing in a sweaty tent than the main stage.
“Welcome to 1986” says Bill Prince of the reformed Wishing Stones. Even their new song sounds vintage. Their twin guitar approach runs out of steam, in part because they kick off with the stone classic ‘Beat Girl’ and things can only go downhill from there. We see guitarist John Niven later in the evening reading from his book ‘Kill Your Friends’; the extract sounds so nastily funny that we want to buy it right away (but it’s not on sale at the site...)
The children of Chas and Dave (not literally), Milk Kan seem inspired in equal parts by punk rock and hip-hop. They keep you entertained with their comedy rap songs and Dylanish speed-folk but their style loses its novelty value after a short time and then it just gets irritating. But when they go for more than a cheap pun or a quick win, as on ‘I’m Only Islamic’, there are signs of something more interesting.
The blues-boogie of the grizzled old vet Ian McLagan and the Bump Band isn’t my bag but he’s a great organ player, a fine storyteller and an all-round survivor of some serious excess. He plays a rousing version of the Faces’ ‘Cindy Incidentally’ and his tribute to fallen comrade Ronnie Lane in his version of ‘Kushty Rye’ is moving. After that, and typical of the day, there’s much waiting around for something to happen and Danny and the Champions of the World aren’t really it. There’s not enough Danny Wilson and too many Champions for a start: as well as most of Goldrush, Romeo Stoddart and what I believe is The Gruffalo, there are all sorts of random figures making random contributions. On a better day, I’d say it was celebration rather than indulgence…More focus on Danny next time please.
Okkervil River
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Okkervil River play as the sky turns from blue rinse to deep purple. It’s not the most satisfying show that I’ve even seen them play but it’s easily today’s highpoint. There are slight band changes: Brian Cassidy, who was meant to be giving up touring, is still there on keyboards and guitar but there’s a new female guitarist/mandolin player, not introduced, while the grinning Travis Nelsen retains the title of world’s happiest drummer. They seem to have consciously adopted a festival set, focusing mostly on The Stage Names but with some songs from Black Sheep Boy, starting in fire and sound with ‘The President’s Dead’, dropping it down apace with ‘So Come Back, I Am Waiting’, and building to a big finish with highlights ‘John Allyn Smith Sails’ and ‘Our Life Is Not A Movie or Maybe’ as they approach their stage endtime. Will Sheff adopts some charmingly naïve rock moves, from dropping to his knees in broken hearted angst, Otis Redding style, to standing on the lip of the stage, guitar rifle-slung on his back, declaiming like Dylan. It’s showboating, but in the most entertaining style.
Lemonheads
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July nights are very cold in Oxfordshire and Evan Dando does nothing to warm them up. The Lemonheads’ perfunctory and charmless run through of the songs from It’s A Shame About Ray undercuts its supposedly classic status. In truth, unless you were an impressionable 17 when the album came out, it doesn’t stand up as a major work, despite the odd good song. And Dando does have some decent tunes, as he demonstrates when he returns but his lack of communication is striking. ‘The Outdoor Type’ is the one flash of humour that acknowledges his location tonight. Last year’s Truck was a literal washout but tonight’s headliner is just a musical one.
The good photos are courtesy of Bob Stuart at Underexposed The bad ones are by J Anarchy.
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