As promised, photos from Blackburn’s Arts in the Park festival-

The first band we saw who were worthy of the name (there was a dire cover versions duo on the main stage when we arrived) were Story One. There should definitely be more fiddles in indie music. Their new album is being released online on 1st August. Well worth checking out.

Next up were Polytechnic who, I’m afraid, didn’t impress.

Tom Hingley and the Lovers, one of the three bands we came to see for nostalgia reasons. After an excellent opening with Saturn 5 they went on to play a great set of mostly Inspiral Carpets classics.

As noted earlier, there should definitely be more fiddles in indie music. When they’re played by Erica Nockalls- 9th and 10th legs of the Groove Machine- even the most guitar centred indie boy would agree. An excellent set of Wonderstuff nostalgia. I started out quite close to the front and edged ever closer as the area behind me became a drunken mosh pit. I spotted two young boys right by the barrier, one of them only just able to see over it, with no-one around to protect them. I did my best, but ended up being unable to resist one of the surges and the smaller kid got pushed against the barrier and burst his nose. Security helped me lift them over to safety after that, but I feel bad I couldn’t protect them better.

Finally, the headliners, the Lightning Seeds. I’ve always liked their music but for some reason not got round to buying any of their albums. Despite the songs beiong more laid back the mosh pit seemed to have grown. This may just have been an impression formed by being on the side of it, and able to see the chaos, rather than in front of it this time.

Apart from the idiots who kept trying to crush children, this was an excellent (and free, I like free) gig. There’ll be another one next year, so look out for that.

On Amazon-
Story One
Tom Hingley
Wonderstuff
Lightning Seeds

Technorati tag: Blackburn, Gig, Tom Hingley, Inspiral Carpets, Lightning Seeds, Story One