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London Calling Festival 2000
Another edition of the famed London Calling festival was held recently at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. TKMYL was there and the results are in. Who was hot, who was not and who should've stayed at home, read on for BEULAH, TOCOTRONIC, TERRIS, AUTOPULVER, SEAFRUIT and much, much more...
Tekst: Ariën Rasmijn
Publicatiedatum: 03 mei 2000
Finally, after two very disappointing editions, a new London Calling
festival with somewhat of a new direction. No longer a showcase
exclusively for up-and-coming British bands (even though the emphasis on
this category remained), the lineup also included one Norwegian, one
German and one American band. In the blazing heat of the upstairs hall and
the blazing, more often than not just awful sounding, sound system (earache!),
we endured performances by some 14 bands, from promising newcomers like
Terris to old hands like the Bluetones. London Calling is still unique in
the sense that it is the only opportunity to see so many relatively unknown acts in one weekend.
But both the strength and the weakness of the festival are to be found in
just that diversity. All bands played for approximately 40 minutes, which means that
after every performance you had to clear your mind and immerse yourself in
yet another totally new musical experience, which is quite exhausting.
Whoever said this job is easy, huh? Sometimes it's difficult to truly
appreciate bands upon seeing and hearing them for the very first time. Especially when there are so many to
digest in one night.
Yet, true quality usually has a way of rising above mediocrity. Our
impressions of the gigs prove just that...
SEAFOOD
Opening a festival in front of a critical crowd isn't easy. Still,
Seafood gave it their best shot. Very British yes. Very young, very
Indie. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. So much so that your
reviewer doesn't even know what else to say about this band, except
that they have a female drummer. Unless these guys come up with
anything more interesting and imaginative I don't foresee a bright
musical future for them. Oh, how many times before have I been wrong? (mm)
BEN CHRISTOPHERS
Despite posters requesting silence, there was a lot of chatting going
on in the back of the main hall. But as soon as you let yourself be
grabbed by this frail man's powerful voice and lyrics, you could hear
nothing else. Impressive how a lone man, accompanying himself on
guitar sometimes interspersed with strange samples and loops, can
capture the essence of music and make an audience mostly unfamiliar
with his music hold their breath only to burst out in cheers and
rapturous applause after each song. Respect.
Personally I felt that the lack of a band made me lose interest in
the music after a few songs, only to be dragged back into it by Mr.
Christophers' beautiful voice time and time again.
The only act on this festival to do a spontaneous encore. Need I say
more? (mm)
ECHOBOY
How wonderful to see a band that is not 'dance' who dare perform
long-winded, almost rhythmic instrumentals on synthesizers. An
intriguing mix of eighties sounds (sometimes I was pleasantly
reminded of John Foxx) and nineties Indie (when the singer grabbed
his guitar). Yes, you can dance to this music. I didn't because it
simply was too hot to dance, but I'll certainly keep an eye out for
this band's tunes for future parties. (mm)
VELVET BELLY
Atmospheric Nordic popsters. At least that is what I imagine they
would like to be described as.
Unfortunately in the year copyright, you cannot get away with doing bad
cover versions of Kate Bush's 'The Man With the Child in his Eyes',
unless you posess that true mystical quality like Ms. Bush, and that is
what Velvet Belly's singer sorely lacked. Gracefully waving her arms
about, reaching out to the audience, she wiggled her way through tunes
that can only be described as yawn-inducing. Totally out of place at
this festival. (mm)
FEEDER
How can I say this without hurting Rivka's feelings (she wrote a glowing
review of this performance in the LIVE-section of our beloved zine)? Fuck
it - I'll do it anyway and hope she'll understand. In my humble opinion
this band is as dated as a Betamax VCR. I mean for christsakes, you've been
out there for ten years making music and you're still stuck in the grunge
era?! OK, given, they do the grunge thing to a t, and the folks up front
were really having a good time, and that's what it's all about, right?
Yeah, but they still suck anyway... But who am I to be critical anyway? After
all. I went downstairs to go see the Chicks On Speed! (ar)
CHICKS ON SPEED
Still trying to figure what exactly pissed me off about this show.
Was it the headache-inducing gabberesque bass frequency? I did have to flee
to the balcony in order to keep watching. Or the sorry excuse for a
presentation (Steps on L&K with a DAT on has more oomph than this, the
Chick in the middle actually looked like a horny 46-year-old hag cutting the rug
for the first time since Limahl hit the charts, and what's with that other
chick trying to look really laborious behind that groovebox?!). Or could
it have been the projections in the background, which somehow were supposed
to suggest that the Chicks On Speed were some sort of artist collective (to
me it rather suggested that they hired someone to do it who used to fill
coffee and fetch donuts at the art department of THE FACE no less than three years
ago)? No, no, noooo. Now I know. It was the fact that I, like everybody
else in the room, actually went out of my way to go see this. Let this be a
lesson for all of us as we once again put that much beloved anthem 'Glamour
Girl' under the needle. You cannot escape a hype. Not one this size.
All together now: "Five times a day! Five times a day!". (ar)
TOCOTRONIC
German band Tocotronic was certainly the most British-looking band of
the festival. All of the Indie-look cliches perfectly executed to the great
delight of their many - mostly very young - German fans present.
Still their music does not have that essential British feel to
warrant their presence on this festival. The only comparison I could
come up with is American band Pavement. And their lyrics being in
German didn't help either ("No, I don't vant to zpeak German" said
the singer when a fan shouted "Sprech' Deutsch!"). Like so many bands
on the first night of this London Calling, Tocotronic is a sound
Indie rockband, gründlich working their way through promising
material, but in my opinion they lack that certain something that
could make them special. (mm)
SEAFRUIT
I bet programming this band as the second night's opening act was the
organizer's idea of a name joke. But what a surprise they were. How
refreshing to see a band that did not look and sound as if they had
just finished their A-levels. A singer with stage presence, a true
performer. A guitarist with cigarette dangling from his mouth in true
Keith Richard-style. A bass player fishing for sympathy because they
were so tired from their trip from Sheffield to Amsterdam. Totally
unnecessary - this band had energy and guts. Their music is very much
in the tradition of seventies and eighties New Wave/Punk/Pop bands (I
thought I heard some Buzzcocks influences), combined with modern
Indie and lyrics that actually tell a story. A lot happier than I
had left the night before and Seafruit's single in my bag, I was
ready for another evening of London Calling. (mm)
JJ72
So you're a kid megalomaniac who can play two or three chords on a guitar,
and you've got a knack for drama and producing an adequate, generic
early-Radiohead/late-Manics rip-off. What do you do? Well if you're Mark
Greany, frontman of the band JJ72, you just get the most blindingly
gorgeous blonde female bass player on the face of the earth (Hillary Woods, if
you'll ever read this: YOU ROCK MY WORLD!), a drummer, some good
old-fashioned guts, and you go out and play.
Such importance! Such drama! Too bad it's every milked and regurgitated-to-death
nineties million-seller altrock-cliché you've ever heard of, rolled
into one set. I'm not even going to start about that toe-curling
frontman-alone-getting-emotional-with-his-guitar bit young Mark embarked
on halfway through the set. This band should've kept on playing at school
functions and nothing else beyond that. (ar)
AUTOPULVER
So you like Pop, huh? Real unadulterated sing-a-long, infectuous,
feelgood, doe-eyed yet kickass Popular Music? Well, then you've probably already
heard of the Norwegian band Autopulver. If you haven't then get
from under that rock and take a shower, kid. These bastard sons of ABBA
and Burt Bacharach are worth your trouble because they know how to build a
catchy tune without spilling the sweetness all over the place. Just a
millisecond before you say "Ok, so when's Britney going to grab the
mic here?!", they pull a surprise out of their bag of breaks to keep even the most
discerning audience member (no, not me!;-) interested. Quite a feat if you
ask me. So there they were, playing songs off of their new album 'Vapor
Trails' in the small hall at the Paradiso. Good show. These guys should've been
collecting MTV and TMF awards for quite some time now. (ar)
DOVES
You may have seen this band perform on Jools Holland's Later this
weekend, so I guess there is no need to describe their music.
Energetic, American-influenced rock. Very well executed.
Maybe it's because I'm not a teenager myself anymore, but I found
that at this festival I appreciated the older bands a lot more than
those really young, not-quite-teenage bands.
It seems a band like Doves has a lot more confidence and presence
and is more capable of communicating with the audience. Even though
their music isn't quite my taste, I was still impressed by their
performance. Which counts for something as well, doesn't it? (mm)
BEULAH
This was their last gig for the year (They had just done about 100 shows,
including a few as opening act for Gomez, plus they'd be off, back to
their homebase of San Fran, to cut a new album), but also their first in The
Netherlands as part of the London Calling Festival in Amsterdam. Much was
played off of their bare bones 1997 debut 'Handsome Western States' (You'd
better go listen to that record, as it is not only quite different than the much-
hallowed 'When Your Heartstrings Break' - it's also just as good.). The
opener 'Anna Blowgun's Last Stand' started somewhat hesitantly, but exploded
as soon as the shouty multiple vocals kicked in. They wouldn't look back. It
was amps on full-blast and fuzzboxes go from that point on, all the way to
the end. As if Built To Spill or a very angry Pavement were actually up
there, joyfully spiking up some crucial high-energy subversion into their
delicate, well-balanced repertoire. Raw? Yes! Brash too, but never sloppy,
and always on target. These five good-humoured maracas-slapping-on-the-guitar
Bay Area fellows (Zero posturing - so go tell it to that anxious poofter
lead singer of Terris, who played later on that night) know how to keep a
party going, albeit for 40 minutes. A very refreshing surprise, and a most
welcome wake-up kick in the ass for the festival. (ar)
BROADCAST
One of the unofficial headliners at the London Calling Festival.
Expectations were high because of the well-received album 'The Noise Made
By People'. Need a description? Think VU, add some recent influences like
Piano Magic and Tram and a slight dash of psychedelics to it, and you're
pretty much there. Add some very cool projections of scientific stock
footage and animated renderings of the human body, bloodstreams, nuclear
physics (lots of atoms!), and astrological phenomena (eclipses!). Like
watching those crappy, yet oh-so-entertaining - not to mention dated -
documentaries at school again. All in all a nice show with - finally - some
decent sound. Best enjoyed sitting quietly on the balcony while drinking a
nice cool plastic cup of vodka. Science always prevails. (ar)
TERRIS
"Don't believe the hype! But at least check it out" is my motto. And
that's why I hurried upstairs to catch latest NME darlings Terris.
Described as a modern-day Joy Division, they did not wholly convince.
Yes, the singer is an uncanny incarnation of the dancing Ian Curtis,
but their music is far less dark and looming than expected. The way
I would describe it is intruiging. Not music you'll like at first
hearing. That is why I will not say much more about this band until
I've heard more.
Hopefully the singer will be more audible on CD, because live his
somewhat squeaky voice mangled the lyrics so much I had no clue what
he was on about. (mm)
BLUETONES
Finally, a true Britpop band. And one with real songs, with real
lyrics and a singer that actually pronounces the words in such a way
that you can understand them.
Old fashioned? Yes, especially the new songs performed on standing
bass and piano.
Corny? Yes, especially the shirts and ties and that song played on a
little guitar (whatever it's called) and accordeon.
Classic? Yes, especially the old songs we all sang along to.
Happy? Yes, we left with a smile on our face.(mm)
http://www.kindamuzik.net/festival/london-calling-festival/london-calling-festival-2000/495/
Meer London Calling Festival op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/london-calling-festival
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