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Riverside Festival @ Charlbury, 28/07/12

Charlbury’s Riverside Festival is busier than ever this year – after a weather-enforced shift in date to late July – and it’s a pretty impressive event for what might best be described as a local festival. A couple of stages, lots of food and drink vendors and a friendly and buzzing atmosphere with all kinds of people contribute to a feeling that it’d be churlish to say anything negative about Riverside. Combine that with the very reasonable entry price (precisely zero pence) and what’s not to love?

Riverside Saturday is for the most part sunny and warm, except for the onset of ominous dark clouds towards the early evening, and this makes it a struggle to get beyond simply enjoying the scene and to try to focus on some of the live music on offer. The Graceful Slicks, for example, have the nerve to time their set with my being caught in the queue for a burger, but from a slight distance they sound solid and reliably stern, their 60s psych/Spacemen 3 mix slightly jarring with the ‘family fun’ atmosphere but nonetheless carrying a wave of lysergia that’s most pleasing. If they’re jarring, then Agness Pike are positively off the scale – their boiler-suited frontman stomping and quipping his way around a set that combines the brutality of Slayer with the cheek of Oxes (ox cheek, anyone?) and the camp theatricality of prime NWOBHM. Weird and confrontational they certainly are; the youngsters of Riverside, however, seem to take it in their stride.

The Hawkhurst are a calm betwixt storms, and their fiddle-heavy, bouyant folk music is charming and super-melodic. They’re relaxed and chatty, and something of a sedative after Agness Pike’s mayhem. They don’t quite dampen down the sheer strangeness of The Cellar Family, who are gloriously wrong: they have brilliant songs and a confident performance, but their lyrics speak of all kinds of dark sides. Mix that up with tortured, trebly guitar lines that bring to mind The Birthday Party and The Cramps, and it doesn’t seem surprising that they seem to go down best with what seem to be the more substance-altered elements of the crowd.

Like The Cellar Family, Black Hats pop up all over the place these days – an Oxfordshire festival would seem lacking without their presence – and they too aren’t in danger of becoming routine. Whilst their Jam-meets-Young-Knives sound isn’t as confrontational as The Cellar Family, they pull off a powerful show, demonstrating that at the core of music, a good song will always win out. Hot Hooves approach things in a similar fashion, albeit one that seems to pull oddly in two directions – tipping their collective hat to original punk and the buzzsaw indie-pop of the mid-to-late-1980s. They too are fearlessly confident in their songs, and provide a neatly-wrapped musical gift of a show – just enough self-deprecating humour to seem real; just enough heads-down focus to seem real.

Finally – for this reviewer at least (although I did later hear of Smilex’s supreme set later in the evening), Listing Ships nod to their nautical obsessions with a pirate flag tied to a microphone stand, but beyond that are quirk-free, focussing their attentions on a combination of instrumental bluster and post-Krautrock solidity. To paraphrase (or steal from) a greater wit, they sound like Quickspace Supersport glumly dancing about modernist architecture. Whilst not the most engaging or confident performance, what’s lacking in stage presence is made up for several times over by an increasingly direct and powerful sense of what works.

Read our review of Sunday at Riverside here.

  • leesmilex

    wow! can’t say i’m not dissapointed! who does not bother reviewing the headline act?! thanks so much for sticking round! :-(x

  • leesmilex

    sorry! just re-read it! it’s a classic one word review! thanks! :-)x
    su·preme (s-prm)adj.1. Greatest in power, authority, or rank; paramount or dominant.2. Greatest in importance, degree, significance, character, or achievement.3. Ultimate; final: the supreme sacrifice.[Latin suprmus, superlative of superus, upper, from super, over; see uper in Indo-European roots.]su·premely adv.su·premeness n.The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.supreme [sʊˈpriːm sjʊ-]adj1. of highest status or power a supreme tribunal2. (usually prenominal) of highest quality, importance, etc. supreme endeavour3. greatest in degree; extreme supreme folly4. (prenominal) final or last, esp being last in one’s life or progress; ultimate the supreme judgment[from Latin suprēmus highest, from superus that is above, from super above]supremely advsupremeness nCollins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003supreme – Ultimately from Latin supra, “above,” which begat supremus, “highest.”See also related terms for highest.Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words AntonymsAdj.1.supreme – final or last in your life or progress; “the supreme sacrifice”; “the supreme judgment”ultimate – furthest or highest in degree or order; utmost or extreme; “the ultimate achievement”; “the ultimate question”; “man’s ultimate destiny”; “the ultimate insult”; “one’s ultimate goal in life”2.supreme – greatest in status or authority or power; “a supreme tribunal”sovereigndominant – exercising influence or control; “television plays a dominant role in molding public opinion”; “the dominant partner in the marriage”3.supreme – highest in excellence or achievement; “supreme among musicians”; “a supreme endxxeavor”; “supreme courage”superior – of high or superior quality or performance; “superior wisdom derived from experience”; “superior math students”4.supreme – greatest or maximal in degree; extreme; “supreme folly”maximal, maximum – the greatest or most complete or best possible; “maximal expansion”; “maximum pressure”Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.supremeadjective1. paramount, surpassing, superlative, prevailing, sovereign, predominant, incomparable, mother of all (informal), unsurpassed,matchless The lady conspired to seize supreme power.
    paramount lowest, least, poorest, most trivial, worst2. chief, leading, principal, first, highest, head, top, prime, cardinal, foremost, pre-eminent, peerless He proposes to make himself the supreme overlord.
    chief lowest, most minor, most inferior, most subordinate3. ultimate, highest, greatest, utmost, final, crowning, extreme, culminating My oldest son made the supreme sacrifice in VietnamCollins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002 TranslationsSelect a language: ———————–
    supremeadj supreme [suˈpriːm]1 the highest, greatest, or most powerful the supreme ruler.2 the greatest possible an act of supreme courage.adv suˈpremelyn supremacy [suˈpreməsi]the state of being the greatest or most powerful How did Rome maintain her supremacy over the rest of the world for so long?n the Supreme Courtthe highest court of law in (a state of) the USA and many other countries.

  • lukey theo

    Why would u review a festival and not stick around for the headline act? this is pretty pointless..

  • leesmilex

    i think there are some people who would rather i did not dignify your comment with an answer david and i certainly don’t want a long argument but i have to reply to make a few things clear:

    1. it was a ‘headline’ set both in name (i.e. top of the bill with no other act on at same time) and in nature (i.e. no expense or amount of thought spared with set design, costumes, lighting, sound, pyrotechnics etc to make sure riverside got a set they knew smilex had put a lot into, in every way we could). you seem to make out i am trying to say ‘only important’, which is twisting it somewhat.the last band at any festival is the one the organisers thought had the goods to end the party with a bang or be the big climax that sends everyone out on a high etc. no shame in that is there?
    2. if your point were to be argued it should be backed up with a review of a band before 5pm on the sat (which started at 2pm). or past 5.30 on the sunday. i understand as much as any of u (with my experience doing local radio and writing for mags like the fly, nightshift, oxmusic etc and even this site in it’s previous oxfordbands.com guise) that everyone works for free and so it could be argued we the bands are lucky to get whatever people spare time to do. however, one could just as easily say that as smilex and all the other bands played for free, that a substandard level of performance was due! i have never subscribed to this ideology and believe that pride in one’s craft is not any burden. sorry you think it’s pretty reasonable to not review the ‘final act on the bill’ as you put it, i’m afraid i expected more and better. if our bands are striving to be on a par with the best, then our local media/infrastructure should be as well. it is hard to imagine this happening in national press with reading or such, or even in local press with truck fest for example.as an aside, if someone reported back about our set, maybe they could have reviewed it?
    i am already over it, personally speaking, new week and all, plus would hasten to point out all my posts were said with varying amounts of humour and therefore hardly in need of such a concentrated ‘return fire’ from yourself and feel your reply was just an ill conceived quick defense.
    we have and always will play for playing’s sake, not reviews and it’s not like we would have felt any more or less satisfied with what we felt was a landmark set for our band – but it is always nice/interesting to see what someone thought (favourable or unfavourable) as we ourselves will never know what its like to be in our audience (well i do, but i’m too busy performing then!). our band and crew are far less concerned about matters like this than i, their ties to the ‘local scene media’ less deep, so i doubt they care a whole lot. however, as longtime supporters of the riverside we do feel it is given far to little importance in the local calendar, seeing as it is the only professionally run free local music festival in oxfordshire and i would have been just as outspoken, if not as outraged, if it had been any headline act. (i watched alphabet backwards play a very uplifting headline set on the sunday that i thought worthy of review too!). rather than a precursory ‘it’s free so who can say much bad about it?’, why not treat it with the respect it deserves as a musical event and make sure between a team you get a representative spread (which in my opinion is only fulfilled if the headliner is covered, with obvious exceptions being a stylistic variation from the publication’s ethos etc – say, kerrang not reviewing 50 cent in their reading coverage)?
    lastly, anyone who sees how quick the time between the review being posted and my comment will realise i am a fan and keen follower of the site (living in bath, i somewhat rely on mio, nightshift, bbc intro etc etc for my oxford music coverage) and therefore ‘disappointed’ is the key word there. still, life is full of little disappointments, it’s not the first and probably won’t be the last! i’ll live! ;-)x

    p.s. anyone who trooped through that, thanks, i know i’m not the most succinct person at times! :-)

  • guest

    lee smilex in bitching about a review shock.

  • Grace

    Any intelligent person who read Lee’s comments properly would realise that far from ‘bitching about a review’ (‘guest’, shame you can’t attach a name to your snipe! At least Lee has the guts to attach his name to his opinions irrespective of what backlash he may receive for them) he is making a far larger point about the coverage of bands (he didn’t get a review to bitch about?!) that applies to anyone in the local music scene not in the privileged set of bands who will always be reviewed because of their perceived status or degree of success. As someone who helped organise Smilex’s set (David refers to it as a headline set himself in his review of King Terrible) I was disappointed to have helped them put together a set that would help show just how high quality a show you can see at riverside for free, only for it to be ignored in a review that has a feel of ‘we popped by Charlbury for a few hours to see our friends bands and decided we might as well write about what we saw for a short stay there’ (the Saturday review more than the Sunday one admittedly). Last year’s review did not cover TROT’s awesome headline set either which ultimately does that band and the festival a disservice as people hearing about the highlights of a festival is how the word spreads and t prospers. I too think the festival and Smilex deserved a better effort and whether you like Lee or Smilex is immaterial and is kind of missing the point.

  • Simon Minter

    Sorry that it’s thought my review didn’t cut the mustard: I had reasons that I’m not obliged to share here about why I couldn’t stay until the end. This might be a good time to remind readers that anybody who’d like to contribute reviews to the site would be very welcome indeed! I’d be really, really happy to have more.

  • Colin M

    It’s still a free country, right? If David and Simon decide to give the last hour a miss because they have lives outside of music, why should they apologise for it? For heaven’s sake,Lee, why does every little thing have to be a personal slight? When my bands didn’t get coverage I didn’t whinge online over days and weeks, I just made sure the reviewers got a friendly invite to the next gig. Not everyone is out to disrespect you, you know.

  • David

    Well, come on, let’s not fight about it – I think Lee’s response was perfectly reasonable (if blooming long), so I’m not up for a ruck. The two important comments to make are that nobody is more disappointed than I that I could only attend a pecentage of the fest this year. I normally make sure early in the year that my diary leaves room for a pretty full Riverside experience, because not only do I love it, but it’s one of the most interesting local events to review, and always inspires really enjoyable debates – as I said, the rescheduling scuppered that this year, but with any luck I’ll be back to normal next year.

    Secondly, however, I do reckon there are headline sets and headline sets. Go and review U2 and wander off after the support acts, and that’s pretty weird (although aesthetically probably quite advisable!), because that’s what every attendee wants to see and every reader wants to know about; review Riverside and not talk about the final act? Well, I don’t think it matters that much, plenty of people come for part of the weekend, and don’t feel the event is leading up to a final culminatory set. Nothing to do with the acts in question, just the nature of the event as a whole.

    Of course, the irony is that eye-witness accounts tell that Smilex were on top form on the Saturday, and we all know that means a great show, so I am sorry to have missed it. Lovely to see that people still feel strongly about Riverside festival and the writing on this site, anyway, which I think is the most important issue.

  • leesmilex

    ok, now this seems really old already so i’ll keep it brief:

    simon – apology accepted. writers please help – i live in bath or i would help out as u hopefully know.

    david – i understand your point about the charlbury headliner vs u2 thing but really aimed to prove it wrong this year. whilst entertaining (and important in the internet age) pictures and clips don’t tell the whole story. a review may have helped me know if we had acheived that. that’s all i was really saying.

    colin m – i was not suggesting simon and david covered it, only that someone did. no, it’s not a free country tho, sorry! 😉 musical should be personal or you’re probably doing it wrong but my point was not purely about smiex’s lack of review, as i thought i made clear? whinge? nah! anyway, i suggest u do u and i’ll do me and we won’t tell eachother how to do anything eh?! no, not everyone, but some!
    ‘just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean they’re not after you’ – kurt cobain from ‘territorial pissings’

    peace and love 2 the charlbury riverside festival and any smilex enthusiasts, if u exist! over & out. ;-)x

  • guest

    my apologies. I thought crushing inevitability was the theme so I read no further in deference

  • Simon Minter

    Hah, oops, have just been informed by one of The Hawkhurst that they don’t have a fiddle player, or ‘anyone playing anything that looks like a fiddle’! They do have a pipe player, however, so maybe my many-years-of-gig-going damaged ears were hearing this instead… Anyway, they were really good. Checkumout.