THE HARD STUFF REISSUES
Incident At A Free Festival ACE
Wot, no Gordon Giltrap?
Let’s face it, this rock festival malarkey has gotten way out of hand. Too corporate, too ginormous, too many bands, too many stages, too many people in rainbow wellies practising goat yoga in air-conditioned yurts…
This album is a reminder of simpler, more ramshackle times, when all you needed was a field (a meadow, for those of a prog inclination), an electricity generator, some scaffolding and Stack Waddy to make a happening happen. Forget tofu, let’s hear it for Snafu!
This writer assumed initially that Incident At A Free Festival was a collection of live recordings resurrected from long-ago Lollapaloozas. We expected to hear ‘Jesus’ rattling his tambourine and cries of “Wally!” Fact is, it’s a straightforward (if determinedly eclectic) compilation of studio cuts from the era, a Now That’s What I Call Music! for the loon-pant generation.
Masterminded by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne, Incident focuses on the mid-afternoon slots at Deeply Vale, Bickershaw, Krumlin, Weeley, Plumpton and the like, and features tracks from those halfway-house bands charged with getting a slumbering crowd up and groovin’ before the headliners. The vibe is summed up by the aforementioned Stack Waddy: Meat Pies Ave Come But Bands Not Ere Yet, a haphazard freak-out (think
Medicine Head-meets-Primal Screamvia-John Kongos) that reeks of patchouli oil and Bhutanese incense.
Still, we’d argue that some of the track inclusions are rather too obvious: Curved Air’s Back Street Luv; Edgar Broughton Band’s Out Demons Out; Atomic Rooster’s Tomorrow Night; Hawkwind’s Ejection. There’s also the questionable presence of Deep Purple’s Chasing Shadows, from the band’s self-titled third album.
The obscurities provide the delight: May Blitz’s pummelling For Mad Men Only (imagine Phil Mogg fronting Black Sabbath); James Hogg’s stoned Elvis impersonation on Lovely Lady Rock;
Paladin’s War-like Third World; Dave Richmond’s lumbering cosmic instrumental Confunktion; Slowload’s magnificently non-PC Big Boobs Boogie, produced by Vic Maile of Motörhead/ Girlschool notoriety. (As the press release points out: “One for the girls in knee-high boots who wanted to wiggle their hips.”)
This must surely be the start of a series. We fully expect Vol. 2 to include Nutz, Budgie, Aj Webber, Audience, Cochise, East Of Eden, Byzantium, Skin Alley and Hustler (formerly Flesh). This one could go on and on. Much like Third Ear Band at Hyde Park in 1970, in fact.
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Danko Jones
Toronto’s rock renegades beef up their latest.
Canada’s hardest-working power trio, Danko Jones have been a relentless force throughout t
