Evolution Festival Newcastle 2010

The biggest musical event of the North Eastern calendar Evolution festival which straddles the Tyne is now more expensive and more full of pre-pubescent drunkards than ever before due its strategic occurrence right in the middle of university exams...still don’t let that put you off, the line up was varied to say the least with fantastic dance heavy acts dominating the Blatic stage on the Sunday and chilled folk on Monday up at the Ballast hill stage. In case you were forced into confinement due to exam guilt or couldn’t face the possibility of having to listen to Tynchy Strider, here’s what you missed:

How to sum up the initial atmosphere of Evolution 2010....well, the ticket queues were a mile long, full of underdressed underage girls/overdressed orange women with stilettos (yes at a festival) and hyped up boys determined to smoke as much as possible to convince everyone around them they were actually old enough to do so. By 4pm the younger festival goers were mainly covered in the own vomit, passed out on the way back to the Baltic stage, or whirling around in mosh pits, formed regardless of the musical genre of the performers.

But enough moaning, Beardyman was his usual ingenious and charismatic self, mixing and beatboxing tracks completely new tracks live with irreverent comments on the Newcastle sun thrown in for good measure. Filthy Dukes provided a decent DJ set with remixes and old favourites, though certain tracks did seem to crop up all too often across the artists who played the Baltic stage...Scratch Perverts provided a refreshing change of tone with their dub style remixes and Doorly’s set was dancey and fun, but it was Fake Blood that most people were waiting for. Despite the man himself (Theo Keating) being typically elusive and refusing to give NSR a mini interview/vox pop as he just doesn’t do interviews, photos and all that jazz he played a crowd pleasing set of heavy electro/house, getting everyone bopping up and down in frenzy as really how many people can actually dance properly to house? Stand out track was “I Think I Like It” though sadly Theo ignored requests for the incredible “Mars”. All in all an energetic day.

Monday: Ahh the Ballast Hill stage, an oasis of calm, circus skills, ice cream and actual grass. This is where I spent most of my day to watch the folky acts perform inside their red and yellow tent. Arrived part way through talented Illinois singer Lissie’s set, I’d never heard her stuff before but her powerful husky voice successfully carried her band’s mix of slightly country infused rock, acoustic balladry and soul. If the small crowd of newly converted fans clustering around the backstage fence are anything to go by good things are going to happen for Lissie this year- like supporting the incredible Local Natives on their current tour.

I was slightly worried at the severe lack of people in the tent before Slow Club’s set and their ridiculously early time slot- they really should’ve been headlining the day. The lovable Sheffield duo blustered on to the stage to a suddenly bustling tent, and their first song collapsed into giggles as drum fell over and beer was spilt much to the consternation of Rebecca, apparently poor old artists performing at Evolution are only entitled to one free pint! They pulled it all together though and delivered a heart warming, beautiful performance, showcasing many new tracks from the upcoming (and yet to be recorded) second album, all with characteristically poignant lyrics though often with a darker underside and more driving percussion. Rebecca asked for requests then rejected the ones she deemed naff before making every male audience member’s heart leap when she professed that if she thought the Geordie accent the best for a boyfriend! Old favourites like “Because We’re Dead”, “It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful” and “Giving Up On Love” were rapturously received and the haunting “Wild Blue Milk” was an apt set closer.

Caught some of local band Brilliant Mind’s enthusiastic set at the Unsigned stage, enjoyable indie pop at its best, a blast of noise from Dananananaykroyd’s final song at Spiller’s stage then back up to Ballast Hill for Danny and the Champions of the World. The folky troupe completely filled the stage with a total of eight members toting anything from a bango to a fiddle to a harmonica. The songs were lovely laid back old fashioned country/folk but got gradually more repetitious as their set went on, my musician friend with me at the time declared that they needed “better arrangement”. Briefly saw De La Soul for a bit of old school hip hop, though apparently their set was a tad disappointing including none of their most famous tracks. Then it was gothy London outfit The Horrors turn to impress, something they failed miserably to do. The band assembled themselves in their twiggy-legged way, but what was that I could see? Colour?? Oh yes one of the Horrors had decided to break the mould of conformity and was brazenly sporting a patterned shirt! They started up a murky dirge of looped chords as the crowd eagerly anticipated Faris’s arrival. Ten minutes later, the music was still the same boring fuzz and when the frontman finally decided to make his not so fashionably late entrance he couldn’t even sing! His voice was cracked and could barely be heard over the guitars, which some wise sound engineer when hearing his wrecked vocals had turned up. What can I say? Yes the second album is pretty good but CD rather than live listening is advisable.

Oh dear, another let down was the rather tragic self-important performance of Donovan, allegedly a great singer from the 60s/70s, though judging by the quality of his twee poppy songs it was hard to see why. He enlightened his audience with gems of name dropping crap (“The Beach Boys, Beatles, oh yes I knew all of them”), constantly trying to enhance his own prestige but failing to back it up with any credibility. *disclaimer- this seems to be an entirely subjective opinion as he had a large audience of attentive fans old and young, I just discovered I really wasn’t one of them!*
Evolution headliners Delphic just couldn’t compete with the noise restrictions hampering the Baltic stage and gave a bit of a lack lustre set, but the festival was an entertaining mix of artists, styles and events, at times very very good and at others very very bad.

3.5/5