Frinds of Mine Festival // Capesthorne Hall // Cheshire
20 May 2011
Words By: James Murray
Photography: Oliver Stones
After much anticipation, Manchester’s most exciting new festival – Friends of Mine is finally underway. With a range of exciting new prospects on the bill from Manchester and beyond, the scenery of Capesthorne Hall acted as a stage for upcoming talent.
The first band of the day was The Cape Race, the indie four-piece experimenting into the realms of pop punk. Regardless of the crowd size struggling to hit the fifty person mark, The Cape Race powered through a selection of tracks – including some from their forthcoming album. Amongst the newer songs were Barcelona and their next single, due out in July.
The Cape Race concluded their set with They’re Young, They’re In Love – the band’s first single.
Meanwhile, over at the Bowl Stage a slightly more healthy looking crowd gathered for 12 Dirty Bullets. The band might not be quite as local as the majority of bands on the FOM lineup – hailing from London, however, there was no indication of crowd disengagement – as they pulled as big a crowd as many of the local bands that took to the stage later in the day.
The four-piece took to the stage in typical rock attire reminiscent of many of their predecessors, who are without a doubt their main influences. Flashbacks to an early Oasis sound was potent throughout their set – Loz Rushworth on drums maintaining an energetic backing to Jamieson’s vocals.
Third track, Fatman was the crowd-pleaser of the set, executed perfectly on-stage.
The Janice Graham Band took to the Lake Stage mid-afternoon, and were the most impressive band of the day. The youthful looking four-piece progressed through their set effortlessly, fusing elements of jazz and reggae to produce a truly innovative sound.
The secret ingredient to The Janice Graham Band was the trumpet – an instrument overlooked by many bands. It wasn’t just the brass instruments that separate The Janice Graham Band from others, the 90s rave whistle played a part in their set as did everybody’s favourite instrument – the cowbell.
The Janice Graham Band have recently signed to Acid Jazz Records, and the Manchester based lads are proving they have the potential to go far.
Manchester favourites Where’s Strutter? followed – and although the crowd size wasn’t quite as respectable as that of The Janice Graham Band, there were still a fair handful of hardcore fans singing along to every word. One fan was so ‘hardcore’ that he took the limelight for a song or two, crowd surfing his way over the barrier and refusing to move.
Ignoring the crowd’s actions, Where’s Strutter demonstrated to the Cheshire crowd that they’re one of the areas hottest prospects – as they often do in Manchester. The final track brought the set to an emphatic finale, lead singer Paddy Neville jumping down to the crowd as drummer Lee Broadbent and lead guitarist Danny Green burst into solos simultaneously.
The final artist that Sound-Revolution chose to check out was acoustic singer Danny Mahon. The local favourite was set up in the fitting, intimate venue of Capesthorne Arms. Armed with a microphone and his guitar Mahon played a variety of tracks including Twat and Beat Me Up.
Check back throughout the weekend for more updates.