As promised @Young_Marxist_at_Tescos 😆 a review from yesterday:
First time at Long Division and certainly won't be the last all being well. Great festival, all 9 venues within 5 minutes walking distance of one another and easy reach of Wakefield Westgate. Got talking to one of the performers - Hang Linton on the train across, the fact that he had his hair in bunches and was in full make up, lugging a huge instrument carrier box was the giveaway. Asked him where he was playing and said I'd go along.
First up was Fuzz Lightyear - great name but unfortunately not for me. Young lads, very accomplished but too heavy and 'metally' for me, they did that slow fast thing in their songs, the slow bit coinciding with the singer singing and the fast bits with him bawling, give me college projects with acoustic guitars all day long 😃 . The venue was the Vortex, which was clearly a heavy metal haunt 'by day' complete with Eddie from Iron Maiden mural covering an entire wall.
Low Hummer, a Hull band, in the main venue - Venue 23, were next. Group is made up 3 lads and 3 lasses, with vocals switching around various band members, so a bit of variation. Like these, seen them supporting WH Lung previously.
Then onto The Counting House to see my 'mate' from the train but with enough time to sample a local delicacy beforehand - a 'Wakey Parmo', which I won't be having ever again nor for that matter its cousin - 'Middlesbrough Parmo', based on this experience. My digestion wasn't helped by the fact that about four Hen parties had clearly eaten earlier, banished their hunger and were not well oiled enough to take to the dance floor to screech along Tina Turner's Simply The Best and Wham's Wake Me Up. Fortunately, we soon escaped upstairs to the venue to watch Hang Linton, who rapped angrily to a backdrop of his own compositions and was very theatrical. I wasn't expecting him to be that good so it was a pleasant surprise.
Then onto Westgate Chapel, more to check out the venue rather than the act - Ruby, who was playing. The venue didn't disappoint and was a great space. Ruby was a solo guitarist, who started nervously not helped by him breaking a string in his first song, rejigging his set list before then breaking another string. I think most people stayed until the end out of sympathy and not wanting to further diminish his evaporating confidence.
Back to Venue 23 for Life, another Hull act. Met @Young_Marxist_at_Tescos and had a good chat. Life put on a good and lively show, all sorts of influences were clear but not in a contrived way - The Fall, Shame, Spiders from Mars, T Rex.
'Across town' (10 minutes walk max) to The Town Hall to watch all girl power pop / punk band - Venus Grrrls, who played a great set. The Town Hall was superb, very similar to Leeds Town Hall. Straight next door to Mechanics Theatre, to watch Honeyglaze, who at the time I thought were alright but having listened to them on Spotify, decided they're not and the drink may have started influencing my judgement. My pal who I was with decided to bail as his feet and legs were hurting and absolutely nothing to do with the fact that since lunchtime he'd decided to have a sambucca with every pint...
Back to Venue 23 for Field Music, who started late and seemed to be experiencing a lot of sound problems. They are and were technically excellent and make lovely melodic songs but their set did nothing to dispel my opinion that it's just background music and nothing they do really grabs you.
I turned up at the Counting House (scene of the 'Wakey Parmo') to see Team Picture and bumped into a couple of @scootay's pals on their way out who told me that TP had been moved earlier and just finished, so that put paid to seeing them...
Back to the Town Hall to see LYR, Simon Armitage's spoken word with musical accompaniment 'band'. Steady but a bit samey. Saw @Young_Marxist_at_Tescos again for a quick chat before he hoofed it to Venue 23 to watch Sea Power. I was in two minds to do the same but decided to stick with seeing WH Lung. They didn't disappoint and played a great set and for me along with Working Mens Club are the best new bands of the last couple of years.
Once they were over, it was straight down the hill to the station, a five minute wait before the train arrived, 15 minutes later, back in Leeds.
Had a great day, festival had a really friendly and easy going vibe with everyone wanting to have a good time, no knob heads. Real mix of an audience, families together, young and old.
