Summer Sundae
I love Summer Sundae its one of the highlights of my year here in sunny Leicester. People don’t think of Leicester as the place to go for musical joy but this festival really does shine and should be a bigger part of the festival season. Although small in comparison to most events that happen across the country at this time of year it still has three outdoor music stages and one inside De Montfort Hall itself, a cabaret tent ran by Leicester Comedy Festival and a spoken word tent as well as a market.
I have to say this year I spent most of Summer Sundae in the Cabaret Tent as there was an awesome line up of comedians. Robin Ince was an incredible act and I would happily watch him for hours as he talked about the world around him and read passages from Mills and Boon, ‘If we had been together any longer that night I would have raped you’ being my favourite qoute and ‘What God does when Women Pray’ being my favourite title. He also introduced Martin White who has a magical skill of playing any tune shouted at him and had the whole tent singing ‘Like a Prayer’ an experience I hope to keep till my dying day. There was also a man who will remain nameless (as I have forgotten his name) who told us stories that he wrote as a child which were….well..interesting, I think is probably the best word to use. Sadly this Summer Sundae also marked the end of Bachman Turner improvised comedy troupe, they will be missed.
On the music side of things there were some awesome bands on offer Newford Alcoholic Anxiety Attack not being one of them and when they announced ‘WE ARE DOING THIS TOGETHER’ I instantly hated them, sounds a little communist to me. They were alright, polished and sounded good, I just felt as though I heard it all before.
Project Nation (if some one could point me in the direction of their website that would be awesome) however were incredible, beautiful vocals with a hippy feel, beautifully textured and sounding a little like Sarah Mclachlan but more happy than moany. The High and Lo on The Musician stage were also awesome in a folksy way and I am now addicted to Camera Obscura. Zombie Zombie also played, they take a Rob Zombie appraoch to music making, sampling from other horror films to create an atmosphere but they didnt seem to go to the same extent as Rob would and created a glorified art piece rather than a musical set.
However nothing compares to Roisin Murphy. I love her from her time in Moloko and when I interviewed her (that sound you just heard was me name dropping) and I expected her to come out and be cool and sultry have a solid set and then toodle off into whatever world of coolness she lives in. But she burst forth, 8 costume changes live on stage, dance routines, interaction with her band, audience and backing singers. A tangible energy and love for each tune, which had been remixed and changed to make everything fresh for those who have listened to her albums over and over. If you ever get the chance to see her do it without hesitation.
The Saturday night ended with Macy Gray (remember her) who is larger than you can imagine and does resemble a drag queen. She was rather niffty but her band did all the work in making Victoria Park into a large jazz club, it was just an added bonus she was there. However Macy did call us all sexy people more than once so I’m not complaining.
There is only one thing I would like to see next year is more pop, not because I am shallow but because there seemed to be one too many indie boy bands singing about how crappy working is whilst strumming away on their guitar in front of crowds of hundreds of people.
