Saturday's weather was much improved and armed with a pair of walking boots I made my way to Cheshire for the 2nd day of Blue Dot after picking my youngest son Ben en route from leafy Sale. Despite the walkways at the site resembling canals of mud, or what the Somme might have looked like if hippies rather than soldiers had participated, this is much more my type of festival, with the beautiful verdant surroundings and cool breezes. Due to arriving on the 2nd day we had a hellish walk to the furthest camping field, dragging and struggling with all our gear. Ben is a seasoned music festival veteran now as he started his odyssey aged 9 when I took him to Glastonbury. Since then he's been to Kendall Calling, a short lived festival in Cheshire called Friends of Mine and plans to go to Download next year. We started this festival by heading to the Roots Stage to see Barney Artist, mainly because she shares the same name as my eldest son (he's called Barney not Artist). He was great fun and had the small crown singing along and at one point everyone started chanting 'Barney Barney' back at him. My Barney was pleased about this when I informed him by text, probably because normally the only time people shout Barney is when they want their Golden Retriever to return before it runs on the road.
As it's the 50th anniversary of the moon landing Blue Dot is going over board with the lunar themes and you can even use a phone line that records a message before beaming it to the moon from a satellite dish in Holland. Back in Cheshire the dish collects the moon messages as they bounce off the moon and play them to the festival audience. Jarvis Cocker unsurprisingly gets into the spirit of things by making some moon landing related monologue before appearing on stage. Jarvis is pretty good and the lack of Pulp songs is no concern but his eccentricity does begin to chafe after a while. I've always had a bias towards Manchester artists which makes it fortunate that the city consistently produces great music. Ben and I checked out TVAM in one of the tents and it was packed to the rafters: we could barley squeeze in. TVAM are a multi-media onslaught of electronic pulses, raging guitars and epilepsy inducing visuals, I was spellbound. We managed to catch a couple of songs by Working Men's Club but as they were clashing with Kraftwerk it was a bit of a tough gig for them. Ben and I liked what we heard though. Kraftwerk seem like an ideal headliner for this event with their, still, futuristic mindset but I didn't enjoy them as much as when Steve and I saw them at the Bridgewater Hall a couple of years ago. The acoustics are unbeatable in that venue to be fair and Johnny Marr was sat in front of us providing a warm VIP glow. Ben was not overly impressed with Kraftwerk but conceded they might have been good if you were around in the 70s. He headed back to the tent as Tour De France reached the 15 minute mark expressing his annoyance at me for pulling him out of the Working Men's Club set. Can't please kids these days! I did go and see 808 State but found the lasers and volume a bit much near the front but it did sound better near the back of the packed tent.
Sunday:
Sunday does as Sunday says and the mud miraculously disappears. this I mistakenly think of as the New Order effect. As the rain starts pelting down when they come on for the weekend's finale it's obvious that despite being the best band in the world©, they have no supernatural weather altering powers. We have a day's full of great music before New Order though. We saw some really good sets today with The Lucid Dream licking off the day's entertainment. I've got one of their albums which I think is eponymously titled and has a great dub track on it. No dub from them today but loads of psychedelic rock. She Drew The Gun are very political and sloganeering but with the music to back it up. Thankfully Ben is giving a thumbs up to all the bands which is making my life easier. I continue my one-sided, unrequited, from a distance love affair with the singer from The Orielles who are on much better form than when I saw them at Rockaway Beach. I've definitely got them on my mental wishlist and will try and get one of their albums.
As soon as I saw the line-up for Blue Dot I listened to John Grant's Queen of Denmark album and fell in love with it despite the Elton John tendencies. There are songs on that LP that would perfectly fit in with the theme of this festival such as Marz or Outer Space but instead he serenades the family orientated audience with a song about kids with cancer. The parents have barely spat the quinoa out of their mouths before he starts trying to get the crowd to sing along to a chorus with the word 'motherfucker' in it. John Grant certainly doesn't play to the crowd but does alternate from heartbreak acoustic/piano ballads to thunderous techno outbursts. He is absolutely amazing and the only thing that could possibly better this is the best band in the world©. And it just so happens...….
I've been obsessed with New Order for over 30 years and they are the type of band you have to obsess about. The first time I saw them live was in 1993 at the Reading Festival and I've lost count of how many times I've seen them since. Memorable gigs include the aforementioned Reading, Lancashire Cricket Ground, Festival Number 6 and performing with students from the Northern Royal College of Music in Turin. My test to prove how good New Order are is to put any great song on and then follow it with a NO classic: never even a competition! They have great visuals at their gigs these days which is, possibly, to compensate for Barney's fading voice. The songs from their last album Music Complete sound great live, and Sub-Culture was worthy of a mention but in all honesty it was classic after classic. Ben told me that it was the best live experience of his life which is high praise as he's been going to music festivals since he was aged 9. Temptation remains my favourite live song and the crowd don't seem to care that the site is once more turning into a mud bath after a brief respite. I really enjoyed Blue Dot and it's exactly what was needed after the Lisbon debacle.
John Grant
Kraftwerk
The Orielles
Ben starring in Shit Star Wars
Barney Artist
TVAM
808 State
She Drew The Gun
