Ashton Court Festival 2007

United Kingdom | by Henry Norman | 20 July 2007

Already reeling from constant criticisms over ticket prices (£10 a day in advance), the introduction of a ring of steel and a ban on bringing booze on site, the 2007 Ashton Court Festival came to a sticky end as torrential overnight rain forced the cancellation whole of the Sunday.

Such a scenario seemed an unlikely prospect on Saturday afternoon, as the sun shone down, crowds of punters searched through the bushes for booze they’d slung over the fence and loud cheers accompanied the gatecrashers who zig-zagged the site while repeatedly proving that a morning spent drinking scrumpy isn’t decent preparation for a 100 metre sprint versus a surprisingly committed team of security guards.

The first big crowd of the day amassed at the main stage for The She Creatures who give a whole new meaning to the phrase space rock. Dressed like the fembots from Austin Powers after a visit to Marj Simpson’s hairdresser, their claims to have beamed down from Venus were slightly undermined by the fact that the whole crowd had just watched them conduct their own soundcheck. Their brand of grunge-tinted 60s garage rock was a big hit regardless, and things were firmly underway by the time they’d cracked out the Bacofoil for an invasion of ‘robots’ during the climax.

Less successful on the novelty front was Kid Carpet, who has made his name by performing most of his repertoire on a variety of children’s toys. Vaguely amusing once, his sub-John Otway routine certainly doesn’t improve with repeated viewing and the one highlight of his set – a keyboard-heavy cover of Van Halen’s 'Jump' – being cut off in its prime was the final nail in a tedious half an hour.

Sandwiched in between were several visits to the dancey arts extravaganza that is the Black Out tent. Leaning towards the installation side of things were Staff Panic whose perpetual wall of ambient feedback recalled the tedious intros The Orb used to knock out before their tunes actually kicked in. Pretentiousness hit new levels when a man dressed as Jesus inexplicably covered in talcum powder took to the stage and mimed, hanging himself with a noose made of roses. Was it art? Possibly. Was it
shit? Definitely.

With said nappy sporting deity safely packed off to pay penance for our collective sins by standing on a box in Bath’s city centre for the rest of the weekend, their set was more than atoned for by the superb dance retrospective provided by Sid Fossil. He took the more straightforward step of playing some really good dance music extremely loudly, and by the time he closed with Pendulum’s breakbeat monster ‘Fasten Your Seatbelt’ it was reminiscent of the good old days before the demise of that hive of scum and villainy known as the dance stage.

Having decided that The Fall are probably at least two decades past their prime, the evening was rounded off with a live set from the Mad Professor and his army of collaborators on the Bigger Top. Quite what the legendary producer actually added to the mix from behind his sound desk was debatable but a masterclass in dub, reggae and ska was the perfect end to a sun-kissed day that presented one in the eye to the critics…

… And then it all went horribly wrong as the heavy rain that had been forecast for the best part of a week led to an under publicised cancelling of the second day. As easy as it is to criticise the lack of forward
planning, credit goes to the organisers for hastily relocating the bands to a network of venues around the city. Unsurprisingly the rumoured secret appearance by Damon Albarn never materialised at the one I attended (at club boat the Thekla), but there was something of the Dunkirk spirit about the festival refugees’ refusal to give up, as local favourites such as The Cedars, CCQ and the El Pato Band flourished in a venue perhaps a little better suited to their abilities.

The future of the already cash-strapped festival is currently unclear, but hopefully this format will provide a way forward for the organisers should this prove to be the end for the Ashton Court-based event itself.