Westmorland Rocks! - The Nine Standards
Charles Paxton November 12th, 2007
Gwyneth Herbert and Kieretsu Headline August 31 at Nine Standards
Named after the mysterious array of stone cairns on the 2,172 ft moorland heights overlooking the town, the annual Nine Standards music festival in Kirkby Stephen was an extravaganza of sound and light … and sexy fairies on stilts.
Adrian Ingham and Phil Littlefair of Amber 292 hard at it.
Really. Yes, I do believe in fairies. I seen ‘em meself. You see, my wife and I, along with a few hundred other people were gathered in a pretty green meadow, overlooked by a picturesque castle just outside this pretty Olde Worlde Eden Valley market town. I remember it all very vividly; it’s indelibly imprinted on my memory. It all started the night that summer ended - Friday, August 31, 2007. A weekend during which I lost my innocence (more on that later.)
There were the scrummy aromas of fresh stone-baked pizza, hot dogs and burgers dancing in the air accompanied by about 100 decibels of sweet music! On the ground it was the revelers that were dancing and amongst us music-loving mortals, glittering and gossamer-winged, the fairies mingled.
Now, opinions may differ about the existence of the supernatural, but I think I’m safe in saying that this year’s Nine Standards line-up wasfantastic. Billed as “a great way to end your summer” the festival brochure promised a combination of “the cream of the emerging local talent with national and international acts alongside more classic and obscure performers.” The brochure was right, darn it, and there was The WebCat with 256 MB memory cards and a pitifully inadequate supply of DV video tapes and physical stamina. Lucky Kimmie brought along the lap-top, otherwise we’d have been totally overwhelmed, as it was we were just well and truly ‘whelmed’. We’re new to this. Enough excuses, we’ll be better prepared next year.
These nice ladies lubricated the events
The Electronic Pimp - shows what can be done with a bass
The festival kicked off with a blazing performance from The Electronic Pimp, he’s the man who puts the bass up front. It’s not arson actually, technically, if you burn your own stuff and if it risks no other hurt. Not that we’re advocating that you strike a match to your kit, I’m just saying that no laws were broken - some hearts perhaps; that Pimp cuts a dashing figure.
The Electronic Pimp Opens Nine Standards 07
We grabbed an interview with him before he wowed the crowd with the most dynamic opening act that we’ve yet seen. The Pimp knows how to warm up the audience!
The Electronic Pimp opened with a blazing bass performance
It wasn’t just the flaming guitar whirling towards our impromptu press desk that set my pulse racing, that was just part of a stylish act that kept us guessing where best to site the cameras and fumbling desperately with the zoom lever. The Pimp rocked our socks off with an electronically supported Funk Bass act that he describes as “agricultural power pop, the bass being my tractor”. For more on this man and his mission see his artist’s profile.Then followed some “proper funking melodic power metal” from the fresh and feisty Down and Out in Vegas. Don’t be deceived by that fresh faced innocent look though - these guys are hard core.
They’ve played in Barrow, Kendal, Glasgow, Manchester and various points in between! With an image encapsulated in the words “different” and “denim”, they showed us some real gusto.
Down and Out in Vegas’s instrumental rocks the Nine Standards
We were able to chat with the band earlier in the warm afternoon sunshine about their music. In the group portrait below, from left to right Jake’s on drums, Ryan’s on bass, Kyle’s on guitar and vocals and Chris is on guitar and vocals. They describe their live act as “Energetic, bouncy, exciting, sexy and spontaneous.” They didn’t set out to sound like anybody else particularly, their style just evolved naturally. See their forthcoming artist profile for more.
Down and Out in Vegas’s rocking the Nine Standards with their funking melodic power metal.
Next we were chilled and thrilled by The Witch and the Robot (TWATR). This is the band to book for your Halloween bash, folks, or your wedding party or funeral for that matter.
Putting the projectors to their best use, these masters of mood control conjour a heck of an atmosphere. Described as “Bizarre, compelling, always entertaining” their music is powerful, technically superb, and frankly speaking if they hadn’t assaulted each other with cream pies periodically for light relief, the atmosphere of menace might have become too intense for my comfort.
Hen of TWATR - masters of mood generation
Sex and death are the recurrent themes in their music. See these fellows and you won’t forget them in a hurry.
The Witch and the Robot’s outre and compelling gothic rock operatics entertain with ‘Dying Mancake’ at The Nine Standards
As the words from their song Cattle Call, “Everyone the Farmer’s dead, bring me down the farmer’s head and we’ll all dance together” reverbed through the grand marquee, I couldn’t help turning around to sneak a peek at the audience reaction. How many farmers were there in the audience, I wondered? How many wives or first sons willing to risk all in order to inherit early? Would the livestock in neighboring fields be inspired to dark deeds? I gulped uneasily and afterwards checked the local papers the next week for news of a spate of unexplained homicides in the agricultural community, but thankfully reality didn’t imitate art in this instance, and none featured.
The Witch and The Robot spreading the word about “sex and death” in Cattle Call
TWATR are a unique and amazing band. Watch the video clips and you’ll see what I mean. These skilled musicians tap something dark and atavistic in your psyche and when you glance at your neighbours and your eyes meet, you see your emotions reflected.
Venice and Mr. Goodnight of The Witch and The Robot
They are strong medicine. Whether you personally want to be moved in this way or not, you will find it happening and I think few would deny that generation of a strong shared mood is an excellent festival ingredient and a fine primer for the following acts.TWATR are ideal material for a music festival, gig or indeed any event from which you want memorable impact. See their forthcoming Artists’ profile for some more background info.By now the atmosphere was charged, the crowd was warmed up, encouraged by the services of the good ladies on the bar. In short, we were ready for the Runkie rumble that was to come from the Man Bites Dog party animals. Man Bites Dog (MBD) followed TWATR with a high energy Runkie set that’s the hallmark of this Penrith band. In case you didn’t know, Runkie’s a vibrant fusion of rock and funk with Mod undertones and a punk edge (that’s punk reminiscent of classic Clash, not The Sex Pistols variety). MBD’s lead singer Richard Metcalfe has something of the raw masculinity of Jim Morrison about him, Tim Shaw (a.k.a. DJ 4 Shaw) excelled on guitar and backing vocals, Tim McVicar makes his mark on bass, Smokey P carried us all along with great verve with his electronic percussion and ‘stage frolics’ and Mark Park hit us with his characteristic drum wizardry. For more on MBD, check out their artists’ profile. As you can see from the video they were in sizzling good form and put some serious ‘Bwaap’ into the festival!
When MBD play, it’s time to party!
Amber 292 followed the MBD phenomenon with a powerful set of their own. Describing themselves as a rock electro crossover act Amber 292 rocked the throng with poise, polish and a great deal of verve.
Kieran Harris is principal vocalist in Amber 292
They are a cool crew and I like their brand of throbbing hard rock, it has earned them nomination for the Tough Guy Music Awards (TGM) and it went down really well with the crowd.
Boone Robinson’s on bass and alternate vocals for Amber 292
They are a very well integrated act, impressive. The music makes full use of the very complementary voices of Kieran Harris and Boone Robinson. Kieran was fantastic as the lead vocalist, Adrian Ingham brilliant on guitar, Boone brilliant on Bass and alternate/backing vocals, and Phil Littlefair very powerful on the drums.
Amber 292 laying down some tough electro rock
Note from the video how much they’re enjoying performing? That was quite contagious, I can tell you! We shot off a lot of megapixels.
This is my favourite Amber 292 song, Blood At The Disco Door
After that I had to go walk-about, see the DJ’s in action and stuff my face with some excellent Pizza, followed rapidly by a sausage & onion roll.
Then, just when I thought I was musically sated, … there was Digitalis. Named after the Fox-glove that will send your heart’s BPM soaring, this local live electronic breakbeat phenomenon unleashed the trance demons within us and took us to the very frenzied edge. They were hugely popular.
Digitalis were hugely popular at The Nine Standards
Robin Gibbons (aka The Karma Kanic) manned the computer, Ben Parkinson (aka Smokey P) is the excellent drummer, Mike Woodward (Miklos) excelled on guitar and bass and Gemma Webb is the dynamic dancer and principal vocalist. Together they produce amazing music that they describe as “live electronics, a dirty mixture of lots of different dance music; drum and dirt.”Though composed of accomplished local musicians Digitalis is really a very new band - they’ve exploded onto the local music scene - since June 2 of this year - and they’re taking Cumbria and Lancashire by storm. They’ve played Playhouse, Solfest, Summer Fiesta, Brickyard and the Beat-Herder festival. I think their future looks very bright - in fact, we think they’ll be huge. They’ll be playing Appleby’s Centre 67 with Euphoric Circus. I can’t wait to see that gig! See their forthcoming band profile for more info. Everyone danced to DigitalisDigitalis are a very lively, spritely foursome and they know how to build up the sound and atmosphere levels in such a way that the experience just seems to get better and better. Here’s their playlist for the event: Play, Bump, Figured it, Didle up, Karma Kanic, Playabout, Your Mind, Wum, High Gain, Schoolibon, Chucker and Amplify. Saluted by Jim of keiretsu as “a hard act to follow”, they were indeed awesome.Digitalis, Cumbria’s stunning new electronica, breakbeat and dance band, “making people bounce!”
Now the realities are dawning upon us, our 256 MB memory cards (for this read ‘two-bit’ ) WebCat operation is covering a five star show and finding itself a bit stretched. Oh, for a pair of HD cameras! It’ll happen. One day.Now, with innocence lost, Kimmie and I are cursing our lack of spare recording media and battery power while fumbling in the half-light behind the marquee, desperately uploading video and stills to the lap-top.Kieretsu are up next, an internationally renowned, mighty drumn’bass phenomenon. Will we make it in time, or will we screw the proverbial pooch and miss their start? Phew, we’re back at stage front, loaded, braced and ready to roll. The Electronic Pimp introduces Kieretsu and they hit us like a hurricane of raw, forceful, musical talent.There’s nothing forced about their music though, it flows from this band with a natural animal grace that makes a very complex interaction look deceptively easy. Theirs is a music that you feel within your chest, all your viscerae, and muscles too. Keiretsu is the red hot breakbeat and drum’n’bass ensemble that headlined the Friday night part of the festival. Their performance was fluid and complex, stirring, heady, rich and effervescent - the crowd loved them.The line-up that we saw included Rich on drums, Steve on the synths and alto sax, Jim on trumpet, sax and vocals, Russ on electric violin, Nick on bass, Jon on keyboards and synths, Tim on electric guitar. Two draftees for the show were Gwyn on vocals and Charlie on Sax and they suited perfectly. Anyone would think that they were regular band members they fit in so well.
Keiretsu makes a very complex interaction look deceptively easy
Keiretsu’s description of their music as “an incendiary infusion of dancefloor breakbeat and drum’n’bass with almost every global music style you can imagine” is spot-on. It’s a fusion phantasia of all musical styles, there’s jazz in there, arabesques, jungle, dirty blues, ska and all sorts. Yes, it’s very danceable! Check out theirArtists’ profile for more details.Back in the car, our heads still reeling with sensory overload, Kimmie and I look at each other and smile. What an amazing event. Fugative Sounds had pulled out all the stops - great lighting, incredible sound system.
Rapt Music fans enjoying The Nine Standards. A very good time was had by all.
It was a very enjoyable program, well balanced with varied acts that were strong in their own right, but in combination built up nicely to an excellent climax. Whatever else you plan to do next year, be sure to pencil The Nine Standards Festival dates into your diary. We can’t wait! Click Here for details of what happened in Saturday’s excellent acoustic tent!