At Indietracks, Charles and Rebecca kindly invited us to see them when they returned from Japan and Sweden at the Summer Sundae festival in Leicester. We jumped at the chance!Summer Sundae is a sweet (pardon the pun) little festival in the grounds of De Montfort Hall in the centre of Leicester and runs from Friday to Sunday in mid-August. I have been a couple of times before and saw Belle & Sebastian, The Divine Comedy, Buzzcocks and Camera Obscura, amongst others, and enjoyed it very much. It's small enough to have a wander and find things to do, but not so big that you get lost (I have a terrible sense of direction) or so corporate that it is full of wankers. However, if you do decide to go, prepare yourself for being surrounded by middle-class mums and dads in their Boden rainmacs and 'fun' wellies. Also we noticed a change since we last went (3 years ago) in the food provision - be prepared for mostly pricey and high-street chain food options, e.g. small and soggy Pizza Express pizza for £10. Needless to say I avoided it, having a raspberry tea and a piece of cake from a lovely little tea tent near the indoor stage.
We were also slightly disappointed this year by the weather, as it was rainy and disgusting, but actually being based around De Montfort Hall means that you can find shelter and a proper seat to sit on for a while to escape the rain, so that helped. We were more disappointed by Fanfarlo not turning up - they cancelled Summer Sundae last year due to swine flu, dropped out of this year's Indietracks, and then on Friday were apparently thwarted in their efforts to actually play a show by the traffic on the M1...
Summer Sundae has always previously seemed to be very organised and efficient, but a number of drop-outs from the line-up this year seemed to confuse and bewilder a lot of the stewards who were pretty unaware of what was going on (however, to the middle-aged 'weekend hippy' who saw fit to shout, rant and rave at the poor guy on the reception desk - shame on you) and rather than announcing the Fanfarlo weren't going to be playing, the (unnecessary) MC came on to the main stage to announce the replacement act as if nothing was up - coward!
This year's line-up on Friday for us also included Fionn Regan (who replaced Fanfarlo on the main stage), Teenage Fanclub, plus Seasick Steve and Roots Manuva (who clashed so we saw a bit of both). Teenage Fanclub had been seriously disappointing when we saw them previously, but thought we'd give them another chance and I'm so glad we did - they were great, harmonies were tight and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. But for us, of course, the highlight was Slow Club...
Slow Club played one of the best sets I have seen them play, and although they were great at Indietracks, this blew it out of the water. They played in De Montfort Hall, which is a really nice space, and the 1970s TV-special visuals on screen behind them (which you can see in the photo of Charles, above) really added something to their sound and the whole experience. It was a bit freaky when they came on stage as I had earlier suggested to my companion that I thought Charles would be clean-shaven, and he was - he still had the beard in Japan (as we watched one of their shows live online - yay for technology) so it had obviously disappeared somewhere en route from Japan to Sweden to Leicester. Slightly concerned that I now sound like I have a facial hair fetish. Their whisker-free set included several tracks from Yeah So, as well as a few new songs, which they'll now be off to add to in order to begin the second album. Awesome.
Can't wait for the Christmas show at the Union Chapel - only 4 months to go!
