Here we are again then in the heart of the Derbyshire peak for Y Not – a festival which remains stubbornly independent and still manages to attract a brilliant line-up and a good crowd…including pirates, superheroes, the Incredible Hulk and…my personal favourites the flowerpot men. Check out those stubby coolers!
With an eye on the weather me and my mate Amanda hooked up with the film crew who fortunately remembered us from last year. Their van makes a useful refuge plus we get to piggy back on all the back-stage interviews. More on that later…first our general rundown on some of the
best bits of Y Not 2013.
65daysofstatic or 65dos are an instrumental band from Sheffield…post rock and math rock apparently. Either way we enjoyed them and also Public Service Broadcasting, “a pseudonymous duo” who arrived on stage complete with vintage TVs and a mission to “teach the lessons of the past through the music of the future”. If I’m honest I’m not sure we learnt anything but the combination of quality music and archive broadcasts was certainly entertaining.
Also delivering quality performances, old favourites Ash and alternative rockers 1975.
Recognised in last year’s NME awards for their ‘Outstanding contribution to music’ The Cribs were in good form although I hardly recognised the lead Jarman he’s lost so much weight. With a band of three Jarman brothers, including twins I would probably have struggled anyway.
Special guests were the ever popular Reverend and the Makers…
..but Kids in Glass Houses were the first ones to really get in amongst the audience..
..closely followed by the Enemy. By now though the weather had taken a serious turn for the worse so I steered clear of the pit and stuck to the side of the stage.
Sadly, we missed the Horrors on Friday night, watching from the car as the rain poured down. A bolt of lightening headed for the main stage and everything was shut down for a while, cutting Mystery Jets short and leaving only a stalwart but skeleton audience to hang in there for the goth rockers.
We enjoyed two behind the scenes encounters. The first, with Electric Six, took place in a Portakabin with abandoned office desks and resembled some kind of police interrogation. The second was with headliners The Darkness and for them we had to vacate their space, with its complete chaos of dressing up clothes and rather lovely fruity teas. I got to meet Justin’s brother, guitarist Dan – see the resemblance – with bass player Frankie Poullain.
And then we got to watch the show which was spectacular and included a foray into the crowd on the shoulders of several security guards who did well to deliver them back to the stage.
Final highlight…getting spotted by Carl on camera as we sneaked round to the main stage and ending up on the big screen. Happy days and hope we’re back for another Y Not next year.
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