Set to take place on the first May Bank Holiday weekend of the year, Gaymers Camden Crawl has revealed that amongst the first set of acts confirmed to play this year’s festival will be Saint Etienne, Those Dancing Days, Banjo or Freakout and Visions of Trees.

The line-up announced so far includes
Saint Etienne
Frankie & The Heartstrings
Those Dancing Days
Banjo or Freakout
Visions of Trees
Marques Toliver
Villagers
Dinosaur Pile Up
Beth Jeans Houghton
Dry The River
CocknBullKid
Dananananaykroyd
Cate Le Bon
Comanechi
Hudson Mohwake
MNDR
PVT
Becoming Real
Eagulls
D/R/U/G/S
Dam Mantle
The Chapman Family
Lulu & The Lampshades
Peggy Sue
Rainbow Arabia
Polar Bear
Spectrals
Teeth
Two Wounded Birds
Veronica Falls
Wild Palms

For more information on tickets, dates and the full-line up visit Camden Crawl’s official website.

All photographs by Steve Asenjo

Bleary eyed and craving coffee, electricity pylons zip past my window as the car cruises down the motorway towards Belle & Sebastian’s second stint as All Tomorrow’s Parties curators. Eleven years ago the original Camber Sands based Bowlie Weekender that “started it all” saw performances from The Flaming Lips and Mogwai, not to mention those who have made it back this year such as Teenage Fanclub and Camera Obscura. Since that weekend in 1999, ATP has played host to just about every important, experimental and alternative musician around from classic staples like Shellac, Sonic Youth and The Fall to Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Avi Buffalo and Wild Beasts. And so it is with great excitement and a slight air of shame that I have to admit this will be my first chalet staying, real ale drinking, failed junk food avoiding ATP.

Scanning the line-up times as my co-revellers and I wander around in an effort to find our chalet it looks likely that Best Coast are going to be the first order of the day, if you discount the arcade games and the extensive sound check we caught Foals doing as we explored the site. Everything is still pretty quiet as we head upstairs to see the LA based chill-wave infused, surf rock inspired trio. Bethany Cosentino and co pretty much follow the same formula as their Scala show a few weeks back, only this time it’s almost entirely lacklustre. Ripping through hazy, distorted romantic pop numbers such as ‘Boyfriend’ and ‘Summerville’, Bobb Bruno’s pounding bass lines and fuzzy riffs do inject some much-needed electricity into the performance but on the whole they all just seem exhausted.

Technically on form, Cosentino looks bored as she listlessly hums into the microphone, quietly sipping water without so much as a word to the crowd that has gathered to catch songs from their much loved, beautifully infectious debut. Jostling from side to side the audience seem happy enough and who knows perhaps things picked up in the second half of the set, but with Teenage Fanclub due to take to the stage any minute I decided not to stick around to find out: give me champagne swigging, slightly clumsy, overly excited and nervous Best Coast anytime over today’s Best Coast.

Under pink lights and the vast expanse of the Pavilion’s white ceiling, the instantly recognisable and intrinsically indie twangs of Teenage Fanclub’s Songs from Northern Britain era ‘Start Again’ ring out. Famed for falling just short of outstanding but managing to remain a constantly good output, the Scottish quartet’s humble and soft vocal harmonies crack with the maturity of their years. Something in the simplicity and honesty of their C86 associated melodies instils a sense of sighing nostalgia in the gently swaying crowd. Disappointingly though the set list seems to work against the ebb and flow of this evening’s misty-eyed audience, focusing largely on more recent material. They do thankfully touch upon 1990s A Catholic Education with a blistering rendition of ‘Everything Flows’ whilst finishing off their set with the howling guitar and harsh, smoky vocals of Bandwagonesque classic ‘The Concept.’

Classic sixties psychedelic five-piece The Zombies were up next. Rapidly approaching their fiftieth birthday, the band are, as ever, led by Rod Argent’s epic keyboard solo’s and Colin Blunstone’s smooth, charming vocal refrains. Effortlessly sweeping through pop hits from ‘She’s Not There’ to ‘Time of the Season’, their set sticks to familiar, sing-a-long numbers from Odessey and Oracle.

Now for a change of pace, it’s Foals’ real turn to step up to the plate. Since carving themselves an incredibly ferocious and challenging math-rock niche back in 2007 with their early declamatory tracks and sensibility, the Oxonian five-piece have released not one but two critically acclaimed albums. There is something about Yannis Philippakis and co that either attracts over active hyperbole or hostility from those who tend to ignore their musical offerings and hate them for their hipster associated image. Having not seen the oblique instrumentation and intelligently plotted melodies of the band’s swirling and steadily maturing oeuvre live in at least two years I don’t really know what to expect.

Trilling high pitched guitar strings underpin Yannis’ cold, echoing vocals against Walter Gerver’s pale muted bass lines before the melody of ‘Blue Blood’ begins to sparkle with flourishes of percussion and synths. The gentle undercurrents of melancholy and pensive tones that populate Total Life Forever really emphasise how far Foals have come from seeing themselves as “just a pop band, a really retarded, stupid, weird pop band.” Keeping the tempo ramped up the strained angular shrills of Antidotes epic ‘Balloons’ are interspersed with more relaxed numbers like ‘After Glow’ and ‘Olympic Airwaves’ to allow a stronger pop element to infect the band’s frenetic performance. Surrounded by twinkling lights and silhouetted by a misty green light ‘Spanish Sahara’ is nothing short of breath taking, it’s tension building with soft vocals and incredibly infectious rolling synths. With an incredible frenzy the climactic cacophony of instruments and reverb jolts forth from the speakers before I regrettably drag myself away to catch Saint Etienne.

Turning up, at what I expect to be about the halfway point of their set, the stage is empty: Sarah Cracknell is stuck in traffic. Adorned in a shimmering white sequin dress she finally steps up to the microphone, shortly followed by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs. Born of the so-called ‘Second Summer of Love’ the dance pop trio exude the pure, euphoric atmosphere of the early acid-house inspired nineties. Hazy, creeping synths and hushed whispered lyrics soar over soft drum beats and smooth rhythms from Foxbase Alpha era ‘Spring’ and ‘Girl VII.’ The snare drum rattles as the low synth dub warps in time with the keys on ‘Nothing Can Stop Us Now’: “the first song [Cracknell] ever sung with Saint Etienne.” Slightly hampered by poor sound issues I left things at the classic key driven, Balearic infused ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart.’

Entirely too saturated with nineties synths I had to take a break before catching the Swedish five-piece Those Dancing Days round off the evenings live music. Fronted by Linnea Jönsson, gently infectious vocal harmonies simmer below unadulterated pop synths and sixties influenced, indie riffs. Taken from 2008’s In Our Space Hero Suits much blogged about tracks like ‘Run Run’ and ‘Hitten’ are incredibly contagious: the girls flirtatious, layered vocals are aching and brimming with smooth soul harmonies. With saccharine sweet pop and dizzying, kaleidoscopic Nordic synths it is impossible not to get caught up dancing until my feet hurt and until I realise I’ve been awake for around 24 hours.

The Zombies

Best Coast

Foals

St Etienne

Those Dancing Days

Saint Etienne are indie dance’s answer to Dame Judi Dench. They’re a self-consciously British institution; they’re charming, they’re talented, and they’re difficult to dislike. Their songs have roots in quintessentially British sounds and places, like the pop music of the swinging sixties and the slightly awkward dance music which developed out of acid house. They exude an unusual niceness; this is a band you could go for a pint with, or hang around with at a gig. This sense of niceness is only reinforced by their steady stream of fan club only releases, of which A Glimpse Of Stocking is the latest example, and by the special editions of the record, which come with a Christmas card signed by the band and, in some cases, an extra track written just for you. Okay, so this niceness comes at a price – £150 in the latter case – but as ever at this time of year, it’s the thought that counts.

A Glimpse Of Stocking collects eight previously released songs, many of which fans will be familiar with from previous fan club releases, and seven new compositions, all of them Christmas themed. It transpires that the band are unafraid to revel in the cheesier side of Christmas: several songs are cover versions of positively painful seasonal tracks by the likes of Cliff Richard, Chris Rea and Claudine Longet. Thankfully, they manage to improve all of these. Their version of Rea’s ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ is especially impressive; the forgettable original is softened, prettified, and turned into something genuinely touching, Sarah Cracknell’s delicate voice accompanied only by an acoustic guitar and (in a winningly ridiculous move) the occasional car-based sound effect.

While the cover versions are worth a listen, the album’s main draw will presumably be the new and exclusive original material. These songs are a mixed bag, both stylistically and in terms of quality. The dramatic, driving ‘No Cure For A Common Christmas’ is further evidence of the group’s talent for crafting lovelorn dance music; of all the songs compiled here, it’s the one you’re most likely to listen to in mid-July. Some of the other tracks aren’t as memorable, and the regrettable euro-dance folly ‘Have a Party’, a mess of eighties synth sounds and faux-naive lyrics, is memorable for the wrong reasons; it’s the one moment when the band push the festive cheesiness to far, the musical equivalent of a cheery but awful Christmas card. On balance though, the exclusive songs are good enough to make the purchase worthwhile if you’re a long-standing fan, especially given that the trio currently seem more interested in releasing expanded editions of old albums than recording a proper follow-up to Tales From Turnpike House.

The band’s Dame Judi-ness, their niceness and consistency, has an unfortunate flip-side: their music can sometimes sound a little too inoffensive and undemanding. Luckily, a degree of inoffensiveness is acceptable on a Christmas record, and thirty minute noise experiments aren’t an especially appropriate soundtrack to seasonal parties. So, in a sense, this is a great way to experience Saint Etienne for the first time: you can enjoy their pop nous and ignore their weaknesses. Older fans will find some of the new material entertaining; recent converts should consider signing up to that mailing list.

After being locked away in deepest darkest Surrey for the past six weeks, Saint Etienne have finally released their long awaiting Christmas album, A Glimpse Of Stocking. Out on Foreign Office records, this limited edition CD mixes well-known and rare oldies with seven brand new tracks including a cover of the Doors ‘Wintertime Love.’

The 3000 copies only release is available this festive season via the band’s website and at live shows (see full list below), with a special deluxe edition on sale that includes a personally dedicated Christmas song from Sarah Cracknell.

December
2 – Brighton Centre, Brighton w/ Scissor Sisters
10 – ATP Bowlie Weekender, Minehead
11 – Set Thearte, Kilkenny
16 – ABC, Glasgow
17 – Ritz, Manchester
18 – Kentish Town Forum, London

Saint Etienne have recently completed their mammoth re-issue-a-thon with the deluxe release of both Good Humour and Tales From Turnpike House (TLOBF Review here). These are the final pair of original Saint Etienne albums to be given the deluxe re-issue treatment.

We’ve got one copy of each to give away to one lucky reader!

All you have to do is email competition@thelineofbestfit.com with “Saint Etienne Reissues” in the subject line and your name and contact details! Easy!

On a side note, if you head to the Social next Wednesday (20th October) you’ll be able to catch Saint Etienne DJing as part of their Some Kind of Wonderful night. Doors are 6pm – 1am and it’s free entry!

The Saint Etienne reissue campaign has been a godsend; while the band’s albums have remained fortuitously in print since their release, the earlier records sounded washed out, while the mid-period dabbles with straight-up electronics have been in need of a reappraisal, and the bonus tracks and sleevenotes have been nothing short of revelatory. These two reissues bring the series to a close with seemingly more of a whimper than a bang; while each previous set has coupled one true classic (ie: an early album) with a more recent offering, Good Humor and Tales from Turnpike House are more of the runts of the Saint Etienne litter – neither of which work too well as first stops to Saint Etienne fandom – but the hindsight provided by these remasters reveals only one more diamond in the rough.

Their first record after three-year hiatus, 1998′s Good Humor sees the band attempting to find their feet again in the post-Britpop musical climate in the most roundabout way possible – by turning in their most exotic-sounding album, recorded in Sweden with Cardigans producer Tore Johansson and a bevy of session musicians, and with a lyrical eye cast across the Atlantic. It’s a consistent listen, but that coherence isn’t as engaging as it thinks it is and, unlike the band’s previous three efforts, Good Humor lacks a proper stand-out; lead single ‘Sylvie’ comes close, filtering classic Abba-roque pop through pounding arms-aloft Italo-house, but its chorus (“Over and over and over and over agaaaaain…”) seems phoned-in, especially after some niftily complex verses. In fact, Sarah Cracknell just sounds plain bored as she’s singing, with her vocals coming across as indifferent all over the record – and not in a detached Jarvis way – while the band’s musical brain trust, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, are reduced to backroom boys, struggling to make their voices heard through the lounge-leaning inclinations of their producer, and sacrificing emotion for pure craft. ‘Postman’ stands out by virtue of its weird arrangement, as gossamer pianos fight for space with waves of piercing cymbalwork, and ‘Lose That Girl’ is one of the few things here to sound as cool as their earlier stuff, but the rest is unremarkable fluff, especially the Ride-quoting pseudo-Britpop jangle of ‘The Bad Photographer’ – no doubt a tribute to their then-new paymasters Creation Records. It simply sounds like a band trying to grow up too quickly.

In stark contrast, Tales from Turnpike House arguably remains the band’s most domestic-sounding LP, and an underrated classic. It’s one of their most versatile records – there are excursions into pure Kylie-in-hotpants pop (‘Stars Above Us’, produced by the fine folks at Xenomania), sumptuous Beach Boys harmonies and even a return to Good Humored lounge pop on the sumptuous ‘Side Streets’ – but somehow it never sounds like anyone but Saint Etienne. There’s only really one poor moment here, but it’s a true stinker; ‘Relocate’, an execrable duet with David Essex, not only rates as the worst thing on the album, but possibly as the most awful three minutes the band have ever recorded. A turgid two-chord vamp, Essex and Cracknell play the role of a couple, having an extremely unconvincing argument about the merits of moving out of London, with Essex adopting his best I’m-a-cockernee accent for the job. Sample lyric – Cracknell: “We can grow vegetables.” Essex: “Sounds like a load of balls!” Quite. Luckily, hot in its heels is ‘Teenage Winter’, a world-weary Cracknell monologue about the modernisation of all the things that make the suburbs special – flats built on football pitches, charity shops being phased out by Ebay, pub jukeboxes being replaced by “the Aussie bar staff playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers”. Coupled with some mournful harpsichord and swelling strings in the chorus, it’s archetypal Etienne, while its relatable sentiment – that quintessentially British nostalgia of “holding on to something and not knowing exactly what you’re waiting for” – could well be a veiled comment on their own place in a rapidly modernising music industry. Either way, it sits pretty as their most impressive song in a decade, and one of their all-time best.

As with the other reissues, the bonus discs are a mixed bag; two thirds of Good Humor‘s bonuses have already cropped up on the America-only b-sides compilation Fairfax High. However, these self-produced tracks, particularly the compelling Motown stomp of ‘Hit the Breaks’ and Kid Loco’s hypnotically downbeat remix of ’4:35 in the Morning’ are shorn of fussy, overthought arrangements and consequently work as a far more compelling listen than their parent album. Turnpike‘s extra disc is littered with interesting instrumental interludes which didn’t make the album proper (most notably, the cute ‘School Run’), and perky tracks from an unfinished childrens’ album Up the Wooden Hills; it suggests that Turnpike could have been a very different album indeed, but provides precious few highlights. The aching ‘Missing Persons Bureau’ sounds like a jazzed up ‘Hobart Paving’, and there are two gloriously austere slices of vintage St. Et synthpop – ‘Must Be More’ and ‘Another Cup of Coffee’ – the latter being, of all things, a Mike and the Mechanics cover. Still, while both discs have their moments, neither is overly essential to anyone but completists. However, they do make for a welcome bonus to two lovingly-packaged collections of damn fine British pop music. All the band needs to do now is get on with their next album.

Saint Etienne complete their mammoth re-issue-a-thon today with the deluxe release of both Good Humour and Tales From Turnpike House (TLOBF Review coming soon). These are the final pair of original Saint Etienne albums to be given the deluxe re-issue treatment. The set will be rounded out in Spring 2011 with the release of Casino Classics a comprehensive collection of Saint Etienne club remixes.

To celebrate the release, here’s a message from the one and only Bob Stanley.

Hullo

To celebrate the last two official Saint Etienne albums (Good Humor and Tales From Turnpike House) being given the deluxe treatment, we’re having a RE-ISSUE ROUSTABOUT next friday (October 8th) at St Aloysius Church Hall, just round the back of Euston station, a splendid venue straight out of Up The Junction. Me and Pete will be playing records along with special guest and Foxbase Beta mastermind Richard X. The date is next Friday, October 8th, and it’ll be on from 8 til 12.30.

There will be a raffle and a small, ebay-friendly souvenir of the evening available for one and all.

Forget the recession for three and a half hours. Dance the pain away! We’d love to see you there.

Bob xx

The group continue to record and play live and last year performed their debut album, Foxbase Alpha, in its entirety over 2 sold-out nights at London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom (with DJ support from Air France – possibly the best night ever). They have recently announced a trio of Christmas shows. The dates are as follows:

December
16 – Glasgow, ABC
17 – Manchester, Ritz
18t – London, Forum

Tickets for the shows are available via www.seetickets.com and are priced at £16.50 in Glasgow, £17.50 in Manchester and £22.50 in London

Saint Etienne released Fox Base Alpha in 1991, when I was aged 5. And I’m sad to say, that for the rest of my life the album passed me by. However, this does, in a way, make me the prime target audience for Richard X’s remix of the album –updating a classic album with a new lease of knob-twiddling life.

So when it comes to what’s been added, taken away, nipped, tucked, surgically enhanced or simply desecrated, I really couldn’t tell you. Judging the calibre of the artists involved though, I can’t imagine that there’s any kind of defilement going on.

Sarah Cracknell is the proud owner of one of those effortlessly alluring voices that turn men folk into gibbering wrecks and give girls someone decent to aspire to (step back Cheryl Cole, Lily Allen et al). On the ethereal ‘London Belongs To Me’, Sarahs sweeping multi-layered vocals wash over perfectly like a summer breeze, and on ‘Spring’ she’s the perfect pop princess.

From the glorious ramshackle ramblings of Countdown, sweets, buses, and gangster films in ‘Wilson’ and ‘Etienne Gonna Die’ to the moody Massive Attack-esque ‘Carn’t Sleep’ to the city shuffle of ‘Spring’ , the influences on Fox Base Beta wander across genres and decades. But from all of them, there’s a definitive Saint Etienne sound carved out from it, which Richard X has added to rather than distracted from.

At 13 tracks it’s the perfect length for an album that literally does take you on a journey (a rather cheap taxi ride, in fact) in a meandering sort of way – you’ll giggle at the film and tv samples, float away on a sea of synths, and be moved by heartbreaking lyrics and scratch your head at others.. It’s chill-out music when chill-out music meant trip-hop and lo-fi, not Zero 7, and an album that paves the way for the indie-dance genre.

If you’ve never heard this album before, or indeed Saint Etienne, this is a perfect starting place. And if you have, no doubt that this will bring a classic album into a whole new light thanks to Richard X.

Saint Etienne on MySpace

Air France

In conjunction with the release of Foxbase Beta (Richard X’s fantastic re-working of Saint Etienne’s legendary 1992 debut Foxbase Alpha), Heavenly Records have also released a limited edition 12″ entitled the Foxbase Beta EP which features an extended mix of ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’. The main event on the EP though is the remix of ‘Spring’ by Gothenburg based production duo and friends of TLOBF: Air France.

Never to shy away from their love for Etienne, with the sound and influence of the seminal London trio strewn across AF’s recordings and infamous DJ sets, Joel and Henrik were asked to remix ‘Spring’ after Saint Etienne personally invited them to DJ for them at their Bloomsbury Ballroom shows back in May. What they came up with can only be described as a balearic masterpiece, which is why we’re thrilled to be able to offer the track exclusively on TLOBF. The only catch – you can only grab it for the next 48 hours… so act fast before you miss out! The mp3 has now been removed from our server… Told you to act fast! You can still stream the song in full below, though.

I got in touch with Joel and Henrik earlier today to ask them what the original song meant to them. Their response: “This is the answer to our prayers. ‘Spring’ is the song we fucked to when we were eleven and took rohypnol raw”.

Thanks chaps.

Air France are currently holed up in their Gothenburg studio recording the follow up to last years triumphant No Way Down EP.

In 1999 The Social opened in Little Portland Street – at the heart of London’s West End. Originally the brainchild of Heavenly Records whose offshoots included a highly successful underground club night (“The Heavenly Social Club”) held at The Albany pub (which launched the careers of The Chemical Brothers). The Social, named after the aforementioned club night was set up with a simple manifesto – to provide great music and better booze to anyone who fancied tripping through the doors.

Ten years later and still run by the original team who created it – Heavenly Recordings & The Breakfast Group – the bar is an award winning London institution. Designed back then by a partnership of David Adjaye and Will Russell (now of Pentagram) with the proviso of withstanding nuclear attack or – at the very least – the worst that people could chuck at it, The Social has launched over a million hugely successful hangovers. Including several here at TLOBF towers.

Throughout October, The Social is holding a month long party to celebrate its tenth birthday. Here, we’re thrilled to announce the full lineup which includes extra special performances from The Charlatans, Saint Etienne, Magic Numbers and Annie. Not to mention TLOBF’s club night ILL FIT – which moves from East London boozer the Old Blue Last to The Social on October 20th.

Full details on all events below, events likely to sell out quickly are highlighted in pink.:

October 8th
Joensuu 1685 plus Hyrst || 7pm – 1am || Free entry [more info]

October 9th
Social Club Classics || 6pm – 1am || Free entry
Jon Carter will DJ in the basement for a unique Heavenly influenced set. This is a rare chance to catch a DJ who has played at some of the world biggest clubs in such an intimate setting, and for free!

October 12th
Saint Etienne plus Richard X || 7pm – 1am || Tickets £20 with all proceeds going to Hendon FC
Tickets for this event will be strictly limitd and available as priority to Social Members, please email carl@thesocial.com for more info.

October 17th
Annie || 6pm – 1am || Tickets £10 with all proceeds going to charity [buy tickets]
A very special show from Norwegian cool cat, popster and all round sex kitten Annie who will be performing live with her band. Support comes from DJs The Loose Cannons & a DJ set by Annie as well.

October 19th
The Magic Numbers || 7pm – 1am || Tickets £20 with all proceeds going to the bands chosen charity
Tickets for this event will be strictly limitd and available as priority to Social Members, please email carl@thesocial.com for more info.

October 20th
Secret Special Guests, Holly Miranda and Curly Hair || 7pm – 12pm || Free entry
The Line Of Best Fit club night ILL FIT makes its debut at The Social. Do not miss it. DJ sets come from Banjo or Freakout and ILL FIT DJs.

October 22nd
The Social 10th Birthday Party || 6pm – 1am || Free entry
With DJ sets from Jazzie B (Soul II Soul), Dan Beaumont (Disco Bloodbath), Sean Rowley (Guilty Pleasures) + The Heavenly Jukebox. This event will be invite only but people can email carl@thesocial.com to get on the list.

October 26th
The Charlatans || 7pm – 12am || Tickets £20 with all proceeds going to charity [buy tickets]
Tickets for this event went on sale exclusively to Charlatans mailing list subscribers. 50 more have now just been released! Act quickly to avoid disappointment…

Latitude is routinely referred to as the middle-class festival. By which they mean there’s a poetry tent, Kasabian won’t be playing and nobody’s going to throw beer over you. Henham Park, a calf-shredding venue that enforces a 25 minute walk from entrance to main arena, has its own natural beauty that contributes to affairs. With a lake and wooded areas, as well as the little touches around all that (from artworks to orchestral performances on a lakeside stage to the celebrated coloured sheep) it gives Latitude a cosmopolitan touch. The weather had a go at spoiling proceedings with daily overnight rainstorms, but average temperatures remained high and even the most trampled on parts somehow remained merely spongy rather than outright muddy. Latitude has the air of an overgrown family-friendly event, and apart from the odd strain of Skins kids, there’s very little to fear from your surroundings, littered as they are with the artistically curious and the weekend day-tripper.

Friday
With a choice this big it’s best to start by merely wandering around for a while. Catching the odd bit whether it be The Late Greats, who haven’t really grown into their own skin yet as something of their own, Robyn Hitchcock‘s short and obtuse set as part of Robin Ince’s Book Club or Adam Buxton’s music video forum Bug. Eventually I alight on The Broken Family Band in raucuous, almost celebratory mood, Steven Adams as dry as ever between songs and only disloged from unflappability when he nearly gets stung by a wasp during the last song. Neil Hannon’s busman’s holiday The Duckworth Lewis Method proves a fascinating diversion before the usual electro-sensory overload that is Of Montreal live. Kevin Barnes, seemingly wearing two frock coats, and his theatrical company, give it their all but the audience seem slow to respond and they feel underpowered and not as all-encompassing as usual.

Which, even if the preferred darkness setting is compromised by being in a marquee bathed in sunlight, does not apply to Fever Ray. Karin Dreijer Andersson is sporting her native American monster-troll headgear and the rest of her band are in assorted hats and makeup. From behind a swathe of dry ice comes this somewhat unsettling but actually quite warm electronic retro-futurist pulse, replete with overhead laser show occasionally flickering in time with the music while Karin’s distorted vocals ramp up the intensity. Anyone who can turn this setting into a paganist electrical storm deserves to be lauded, and it remains one of the weekend’s defining moments.

The Sunrise Arena is well out in the woods, pretty much an ideal setting for earthier, woodier pleasures. Two such put in fine sets; Blue Roses‘ intimate folkspun charm makes a connection through Laura Groves’ delicate vocals and sparsely ethereal arrangements, while SXSW buzz band Local Natives suggest the cracked joy of The Acorn and Funeral Arcade Fire through their harmonies and percussive multi-instrumentalist nervous energy. They might fit in perfectly with recent trends, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make their own impact.

Mew have been touring with Nine Inch Nails recently, and on the basis of their new first song, it shows. It’s luckily the furthest they get away from the beating melodic pop heart at the centre of their awkward semi-prog approach in a set that only features the closing grandiosity of ‘Comforting Sounds’ from And The Glass Handed Kites. A forceful, electrifying set was followed by Mew’s polar opposites, the London-bound earthy pleasures of the reformed Squeeze. Sorry, Regina Spektor fans, but I really wasn’t going to pass them up just for TLOBF review purposes, and a joyful tight set. Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook exchanged timeless new wave riffs and trademark octave apart harmonies as if they’d never been apart.

Despite the unwelcome attentions of light showers throughout, you know not to turn away from a set by headliners the Pet Shop Boys. You know it’ll be big on theatrics, and so it proved with a box-based theme tonight – Tennant sings opener ‘Heart’ while wearing one on his head – plus dancers perform and videos shows in front of a great big wall of white boxes. It’s said of many, but you forget how many great songs the PSBs have. A setlist that veers from huge hits to new songs to album offcuts right across their near 25 years reinforces the notion. Neil Tennant works through various suits and sings with a very English clarity undimmed by the years. Chris Lowe looks unscrutable behind his Macbook. Of course he does. Night one finishes with Jeremy Warmsley and side project Little Words running through cuts from the back catalogues of Tom Waits and Daniel Johnston in Warmsley’s own style to good overall effect.

Saturday
Having missed Regina for selfish purposes yesterday, I had to see Wildbirds & Peacedrums‘ tribal gathering open the following day’s action, if only to ensure a future on this site. Mariam Wallentin is a tireless frontwoman, either thrashing the life out of her own percussion or whirling around the stage, at one point singing without the mike. Her huge bluesy voice carried wherever she trod. Marnie Stern is affected by technical issues but her ridiculously technical shredding carries the day for as long as it stays the right side of mere hair metal bombast. St Vincent is off in her own world, an extended band featuring flute and clarinet bringing light and shade to the darker, more fragile parts of songs from Actress. Not an unquestioned triumph, but a reinforcement of the notion that Annie Clark has talent to spare.

Those of us who thought the promise of Broken Records‘ early recordings was compromised by the album’s bombast would find much to revive our hopes in their Obelisk Arena set. Heavy on the dramatic peaks and troughs with tumultuous Balkan-suggestive intensity before ‘Slow Parade’ brings everyone graciously back down to earth. Joe Gideon & The Shark, on the Huw Stephens curated Lake Stage, have their own take on intensity. Ramping up their primitively loud blues with loop pedals, darker than night literate storytelling – and with Joe it very much is spoken word storytelling, more or less – and Viva’s drumming theatrics. Emmy The Great knows her way round a lyric, if more gently, but her set is held up by what seems to be bad onstage sound, and, in her words not ours, “a shit guitar”. Still, there’s a promising new song and plenty of people willing her on.

Patrick Wolf… well, what are we to make of him these days? As someone who always fancied himself as a dandy, it’s perhaps not surprising that he’s now dressing more flamboyant than ever, and in more than one set of clothes too. The problem is that he wants to be a big outrageous glammed-up star while his fanbase, by and large, preferred it when he had some underground mystery to him. So a fine version of ‘The Libertine’ is followed by a ritual slaughtering of ‘Bloodbeat’, for which he brings on a mate whose purpose seems to be to jump about and shout “make some noise!” in a silver foil suit. “He’ll be number one soon!” Wolf admiringly comments afterwards. No, Patrick. No he won’t.

Pulled Apart By Horses‘ approach is simpler – play as if you’re at Download. So they pull the requisite rock shapes to go with their hardcore riffola and are all over in twenty minutes. They seem completely out of place with pretty much everything else on the bill. No worries though as, following them on Lake, The XX go the opposite route and barely move at all. Their droning, beat driven dub narcotic sound system nodding to R&B and dubstep, coming across better live than on record while very much remaining a London scene thing.

It’s said by many that Camera Obscura never look like a comfortable live band, especially at festivals, but getting Tracyann Campbell to look more cheerful would surely receive a similar reaction to that if you asked Terry Hall to do likewise. It is, at least, a confident set. Swooningly sophisticated while still nodding to the 60s girl pop and country they’re increasingly turning into their own sound. Campbell’s mike cuts out for a full verse of ‘French Navy’, apparently to her ignorance, but otherwise it seems they’re slowly taking to the big stages.

Doves made it to the big stages long ago, and by usual comparison Jimi Goodwin is in positively chipper mood – remarking on the surroundings and the number of kids and wigs in the audience. As such it’s a borderline euphoric set, where the songs from Kingdom Of Rust don’t sound out of place alongside the previous hits and the atmospheric touches of the latter pack a punch. The closing percussive salvo on ‘There Goes The Fear’ feels like a vindication. Out across the park Bombay Bicycle Club have picked up a huge audience for the Lake stage. When did they get so notable?

You also pretty much know what you’re going to get from Spiritualized. Jason Pierce will stand to one side in shades and say nothing, dry ice will envelop most of the set and everything will be set fair for the stratospheric. And that’s what happens, give or take the odd blistering wail of white noise and feedback. It’s full on from first to last, and quite draining just taking it all in. If there weren’t decibel limiters in place, I fear I’d never have got to sleep.

Sunday
But I did, and so did a lot of other people given how many had showed up well before the commencement of activities on the Obelisk stage at midday. You’d think someone important was on.

Thom Yorke, of course, playing his first proper solo set. It’s a twelve song set over about seventy minutes, featuring Thom in a pleasingly light mood, wondering whether he could pull off the look of Saturday headliner Grace Jones and suggesting we “go for a piss” during one of the three unreleased songs played. Using guitar, baby grand piano, analogue keyboard and loop pedals he pulls off fine versions of five tracks from The Eraser plus ‘There There’, ‘Everything In Its Right Place’, ‘Weird Fishes/Argpeggi’ and ‘Videotape’. The very least that can be said is I’ve had worse wake-up calls.

Helpfully, Sugar Crisis sound like you imagine they would from their name, and not always in a good way. They’re about to be completely blown out of the water regardless by a set that even by Fight Likes Apes‘ all-action standards takes some beating. Not least as keyboardist Pockets has helpfully brought a log commandeered from the woods with him and during the second song proceeds to smash it up on the crowd barrier to much localised bemusement and borderline terror. Meanwhile MayKay was her usual bundle of crowd invading, hirsute energy and with plenty of devotees at the front they can’t help but create a sizeable impression.

A lot of bands playing sets mostly comprising songs from an unreleased album wouldn’t get away with it, but such is the quality of Wild Beasts‘ forthcoming material that, aided by a slowly brightening day, they can play five new songs in a seven song stint and draw people inexorably in. Hayden Thorpe’s newly grown mullet and stonewashed denim attire is probably a step too far regarding their hovering 1980s nods, but the new material heralds a singular pecularity and lushness that can’t help but suggest they’ve burrowed deep into their Smiths and Associates records to find the bits lesser minds cannot reach.

Back in the Sunrise Arena, something extraordinary happens. Not that it’s overrunning, as it’s a festival and that’s always bound to happen eventually, but right at the end of the set by Villagers - Irish anthemic indie, you needn’t concern yourselves – just as they launch into their big all-out finish the sky, bright only a couple of minutes before, erupts into a torrential downpour that demonstrates the folly of building a tent that has a gap in the roof between stage and fans. Not to mention one that springs a couple of leaks further back. The resultant visual would cost video directors thousands to pull off.

Luckily the worst has passed, and the sun even briefly emerges, during Sky Larkin‘s set. They’ve grown a certain amount of showmanship too. Growing into a confident live force, not least in drummer Nestor Matthews, whose legendary facial contortions are augmented by a playing power that sees him break both sticks during the first song before going on to crack a cymbal in half. Inevitably, he climaxes by falling through the kit. Back on the Obelisk main stage The Rumble Strips suffer from both the wetness and the fact their new songs aren’t as engaging as the old ones.

The Vaselines have been playing a mere handful of international shows since reforming just over a year ago. But it’s like they’d never been away. Doomed to go down in posterity as Kurt Cobain favourites, their lyrically frank fuzzbomb noise-over-melody indiepop is exactly where The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart got it all from. FFrances McKee wonders aloud whether anyone watching has an American accent before admitting “it’s not just the accent, you’ve got to have a really big dick as well”. Such potty mouthed behaviour would be unbecoming the likes of The Invisible – in fact, any banter is at a minimum – but they work the genre spanning experimentalism of their album into fuzzier shapes. They’ve been touted as the UK’s own TV On The Radio but a better comparison would be with Massive Attack circa Mezzanine when they started bringing their dark post-punk influences to the fore.

With a reliance on high budget pop and girly presence, Marina and the Diamonds seem less like the next big thing and more like a handy spare in case Florence & The Machine goes wrong. The real tips in sophisticated pop cool come from a singer nearly two decades Marina’s senior. The trouser suited Sarah Cracknell causes an involuntary reaction in a lot of thirtysomething men, and Saint Etienne prove that while trends come and go it’s possible for dance inflected music to remain timeless. It feels like the Foxbase Alpha heavy set has been tarted up, somehow brassier and bigger, so much so that recent single ‘Method Of Modern Love’ seems like their most stylistically aged track.

And the reformatted hits just keep on coming. Magazine still seem somewhat at odds even with their post-punk bretheren, given Editors are on the Obelisk while they’re in the Uncut Arena. Howard Devoto has chosen a pink jacket for the occasion, while bassist Barry Adamson appears to have come as a Dickensian character. Once someone’s remembered to turn Devoto’s mike on a verse late, their taut, ominous dystopian fantasies played out not as revivalism but just as fresh as they came. There’s no little talent either – Adamson and Noko, the guitarist replacing the late John McGeogh, played off each other superbly – and a charismatically in charge Devoto running the show. It’s as if nothing had ever come in the band’s way between then and now. Yet another triumph for the semi-mocked old guard of Latitude.

After that, the only way the festival could have finished, with apologies to Gossip in Uncut, was with Obelisk headliners (and one time Adamson employers) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This, the dirtiest rock’n'roll band in the world of many years’ standing, do not disappoint. Though they refuse to come back for an encore after playing a 70 minute set that finishes a couple of good song lengths before curfew. However, it’s an electrifying set at a tremendous volume, which even Cave complains about at one stage, and the Bad Seeds seem to be pretty much at the top of their game despite eighteen months touring Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!. Kicking off with the menacing ‘Tupelo’ and ending with an extended freakout on the spectacularly sweary (family friendly festival, remember) ‘Stagger Lee’. ‘The Ship Song’ breaks hearts, ‘We Call Upon The Author’ is all sorts of controlled chaos, and Newton Faulkner is observed singing and swaying along. There’s hope for him yet. It’s a dynamic way to end a festival full of surprises, coming good on both reputation and potential.

Much loved pop trio Saint Etienne returned earlier this year with their London Conversations album. It was a comprehensive anthology which tracked their career and hit home how revered and influential their melancholic Anglo electro-pop has been.

A deluxe reissue campaign of their whole back catalogue is now imminent, with each original album featuring a bonus cd of b-sides, rare tracks, and unreleased material. These will be released in pairs over the next few months.

First up are Foxbase Alpha – their genre-defining debut album of cut-ups, sampledelia, and hugely melodic pop – and Continental. This was the parent album to pan-European hit ‘He’s on the Phone’, but was only released in Japan, for dark and mysterious reasons, back in 1997. It gets its first domestic release (and its first Heavenly catalogue number) this year.

Saint Etienne will be playing Foxbase Alpha in its entirety at the following shows in May:
13 Glasgow ABC
14 Sheffield Leadmill
15 London Bloomsbury Ballroom
16 London Bloomsbury Ballroom

Following on from these inaugural re-issues will be So Tough and Sound of Water in the summer, Tiger Bay and Finisterre in the autumn, and Good Humour and Tales from Turnpike House in early 2010, along with all of their remixes on Casino Classics.

Foxbase Alpha Deluxe Edition:
CD1 – Orignial Album
This Is Radio Etienne
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Wilson
Carnt Sleep
Girl VII
Spring
She’s The One
Stoned To Say The Least
Nothing Can Stop Us Now
Etienne Gonna Die
London Belongs To Me
Like The Swallow
Dilworth’s Theme

CD2 – Bonus Material
Kiss & Make Up – 12″ Version
Filthy
Chase HQ *
Sally Space *
The Reckoning *
Speedwell
Parliment Hill
People Get Real
Sweet Pea *
Winter In America *
Fake 88
Studio Kinda Filthy
Kiss And Make Up – Sarah Version
Sky’s Dead
* previously unrelease

Continental Deluxe Edition:
CD1 – Orignial Album
Shad Times
Burnt Out Car
Sometimes In Winter
Winter Melody
Public Info Film
The Process
He’s On The Phone
Stormtrooper In Drag
Star
Down By The Sea
The Sea
Lonesome
Angel

CD2 – Bonus Material
Accident
Is It True?
Where Did Our Love Go – Demo *
Groveley Road
How I Learned To Love The Bomb
Postal Interlude *
Cant Stop Now
Under Her Spell *
Saturday Remixed
Suburban Autumn Lieutenant
We Could Have It All – Demo *
Lover Plays The Bass
Home – Demo
Burnt Out Car – Demo
* previously unreleased

Saint Etienne has occupied a particular niche in British indie, long flirting with the mainstream but never quite breaking into it, maintaining a certain fashionable credibility all the while. Marrying a 60s (French) pop sensibility to post-acid house dance beats, Saint Etienne were committed to the ideal of the 3-minute ‘pure pop’ song. London Conversations, their Best Of, is often a nostalgic listen, reflecting particular music fashions in the capital for more than a decade: from the fantastic, early 90s indie-dance ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ (a Neil Young cover) and the breezy electro-house of ‘Like A Motorway’, to flirtations with acid jazz, chamber pop, neo-soul, trip hop and Balearic. It’s a contemporaneous affair: the Italian-house of ‘He’s On the Phone’ – a style revisited periodically throughout their career - sounds most dated now, while ‘Filthy’ transports me to the Heavenly Social circa 1994, when the Chemical Brothers were the Dust Brothers and Big Beat provided a beery dancefloor alternative to Britpop.

Fronted by indie-kid pin-up Sarah Cracknell, Saint Etienne were essentially music journalists-turned-producers Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley. While the music journalism role may have been overstated, it is impossible to listen to Saint Etienne and not think of them as a rather contrived, esoteric amalgam of pop influences. Coupled with Cracknell’s breathy vocals and clever-clever lyrics, it is a charming pose that some listeners may find a little too precious, too saccharine. Pop scientists with an insouciant gift for melody, at best Saint Etienne sound like the Cocteau Twins reinvented for the indie-dance era, at their worst they sound like Madonna-lite.

As I’m not a long-term fan of the band I can’t comment on the track selection for this compilation suffice to say that at nearly 40 tracks I can’t imagine there are too many omissions. If anything, for the novice, this is too much – the tinny insistence on keyboards and garden variety breakbeats or 4/4 house rhythms quickly becomes repetitive: after a while I found myself yearning for some more substantial live percussion. As evident in the retrospective display of cover artwork in London Conversations, Saint Etienne are quite a design-conscious band, and it is hard not to think of their back catalogue as that of a rather trendy brand, more than band, that has moved with the times for reasons of fashion more than creativity. But for those in search of ‘pure pop’, whatever that means, should look no further than London Conversations.
75%

Saint Etienne on Myspace

Saint Etienne, the much-loved trio who soundtracked London in the nineties, will have their career, in all its multi-layered, multi-coloured glory reviewed on London Conversations – a Very Best Of collection out September 29th.

Leading off the album is a brand new Saint Etienne single, ‘Burnt Out Car’, produced by Brian Higgins of the Xenomania pop factory, responsible for the sound of Girls Aloud, Sugababes, and Gabriela Cilmi.

‘London Conversations’ marks the start of a Saint Etienne reissues campaign which will stretch into 2009. The band’s entire, 10-album back catalogue will be re-packaged as double CD’s (with rare and previously unreleased recordings added to each) and released in pairs, over the next year. More information to follow.

Tracklisting:-
Disc One
1. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
2. Nothing Can Stop Us
3. Join Our Club
4. Avenue
5. You’re In A Bad Way
6. Hobart Paving
7. Who Do You Think You Are
8. Pale Movie
9. Like A Motorway
10. Hug My Soul
11. He’s On The Phone
12. Sylvie
13. Heartfailed (in the back of a taxi)
14. Action
15. A Good Thing
16. Side Streets
17. Burnt Out Car – new track
18. This Is Tomorrow – new track

Disc Two
1. Kiss And Make Up
2. Filthy
3. Spring
4. People Get Real
5. Mario’s Cafe
6. Goodnight Jack
7. Bad Photographer
8. Lose That Girl
9. Lover Plays The Bass
10. How We Used To Live
11. Boy Is Crying
12. Finisterre
13. Soft Like Me
14. Shower Scene
15. Stars Above us
16. Teenage Winter
17. I Was Born On Christmas Day

New single ‘Burnt Out Car’ will be released September 22nd.

Saint Etienne will play a headline show as part of Heavenly Recordings’ Forever Heavenly 18th birthday celebrations, taking place over 3 days at the Queen Elizabeth Hall between Sept 12th and 14th.