O2 Wireless Festival Diary: Day 4 [06/07/08]

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Mariam from Wildbirds and Peacedrums. On board the Bella Union bus.

The final day. Bella Union have done a fantastic job of providing a little bubble in the midst of the madness – a haven of interesting performances from fantastic bands and not a market research questionnaire or corporate sponsor in sight. Incredible.

Pete has been raving about Kaki King for days now. He’s lucky not to miss her set as he turns up half an hour late. Arriving flustered, hot and bothered he’s obviously relieved to see her sitting on a nearby table and not playing. He quickly launches into a passionate rant about Sunday train services. Rich buys him a cider – partly because he looks like he needs it, partly to shut him up.

Kaki King

The sky is soon filled with heavy looking rain clouds and the wind is picking up. Kaki takes to the stage and begins to tap her way through ‘Bone Chaos in the Castle’ Dan Brantigan accompanies her on an EVI – basically a handheld synthesizer controlled with the tongue. Pete, being a pathetic Kaki fanboy is obviously enthralled from the get go, but Kaki also wins over the rest of the crowd- most of whom have probably never heard of her before. By the time she’s worked her way through some fantastic avante garde improv and into ‘Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers’ people are applauding enthusiastically and Pete is raving to Simon and Dave about which albums they should buy first.

There’s barely time to sink another cider and hear Dave and Rich rave about how excited they are about Loney, Dear (again) before it’s time for Wildbirds and Peacedrums. Wildbirds and Peacedrums are singer Mariam and drummer Andreas and they are actually amazing. Their performance draws possibly the biggest crowd of the entire weekend, Mariam’s, bluesy freestyle vocals are genuinely exciting. The crowd is gripped to the end. Pete encounters three different men who claim to have fallen in love. Chatting to the guys after their set, they told us the follow-up to Heartcore was complete and they will be back in the UK for some club shows in September. Seriously, if you catch only one live band this year – make sure it’s Wildbirds. Truly incredible.

Wildbirds and Peacedrums

Pete and Rich discuss the day’s music so far. Pete is adamant that Sunday has been his absolute highlight even after only two sets. He mentions that with these two acts there has been no compromise, while other bands have had to re-work sets to fit the broken down set-up, Wildbirds and Kaki were both in their element. “That’s true, man. You should put that in the blog.” says Rich.

You have to feel sorry for the next two acts. Eugene McGuinness and Laura Veirs have got to pull really something special out of the bag to top those first two acts. Although neither are as gob smackingly brilliant they both do a grand job of keeping the audience entertained. Unfortunately for us, we missed most of Eugene’s set due to an American girl blabbing in our ears about….er….well, just blabbing in our ears. So to come to a conclusion of whether he was actually any good or not would be pretty impossible. Laura Veirs was an act Rich was keen to see. A fan since first hearing her guest on The Decemberists track ‘Yankee Bayonet’, she didn’t fail to disappoint. Kicking off her gorgeous set with ‘Pink Light’ from her most recent Saltbreakers album, she then proceeded to trawl through various gems from her lengthy back catalogue. Like most acts throughout the weekend, she made a point of thanking Simon and the rest of the Bella Union team – for not only putting on the great weekend of music but also for releasing her first album in the UK. She was a real delight, pure and simple.

Eugene McGuinness

Laura Veirs

Earlier in the day, Simon and Rich were having an animated conversation how, when you see a show so incredible and moving – sometimes the only thing you can say is: well, nothing. Just stand there with your mouth wide open in total disbelief. At the time, they were talking about a recent Fleet Foxes show but the same tactic could be applied to the set Emil Svanängen, aka Loney, Dear treated us to. Starting off with a track from new album Dear John, (due out February-ish, apparently) ‘Titan’ was a perfect introduction not only to the set but to also to the album that has been kept under close guard by Emil – notorious for being a perfectionist with his work. The lyrics in ‘Titan’ perhaps suggest his frustration with the constant touring schedule from last year, leaving it almost impossible to work on the album he jokingly refers to as his Chinese Democracy. Perhaps talking about himself in the third person – “I always used to make your song so easily / But things have turned so different from now / And I’m always sad and I always miss the goal”. If interested, watch a video of Emil performing ‘Titan’ plus another new song in Germany here. His set was mixed with old and new songs, and he purposely missed out the ‘hits’. There was no ‘ The City, The Airport’, no ‘I Am John’ and no ‘Saturday Waits’. Instead we were treated to a rousing ‘Carrying A Stone’ – where Emil was joined by Andreas and Mariam from Wildbirds and Peacedrums. Plus one of the most beautiful readings of ‘In With The Arms’ ever heard. So beautiful in fact, that it literally reduced certain members of the audience to tears. My mouth, literally hit the floor.

Loney, Dear

We spend the rest of the evening chatting to Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Emil and Emil’s dad Morgan. Topics covered include cultural signifiers of Sweden and Britain and how terrible Cadbury’s chocolate is. Sunday is by far the highlight by a long, long way. Emil also asked TLOBF if they would be interested in writing a weekly diary on the progress of Loney, Dear’s new album. We of course jumped at the chance. Whether it will happen or not is any ones guess, but if you’re reading this Emil – we are ready and waiting! Before this particular conversation Emil asked Rich what he wanted from the new album. Rich then proceeded to tell him in great detail – we think Emil listened. Rich’s jaw literally hits the floor. Again.

Protracted goodbyes with the Bella Union staff. Thanks for having us, guys! We hope you’ve enjoyed our little blog as much we’ve enjoyed the week. xx

As a side note: On Friday we told you all about Bare Foot In The Park, a fantastic compilation that was made especially for Wireless. It features pretty much all the acts who appeared on the Bella Union stage over the weekend. What’s more – £3.50 from every purchase goes direct to Oxfam. So not only will you be enhancing your music collection, you’ll be doing your thing for charidee to boot! So why not buy one today, hell – why not buy five!? Contact Bella Union here for more info.

Read the other diaries: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3