Woodstock: sex, drugs and scattered showers
There is a certain inevitability about the fact that the one day on the calendar when good weather is required, it’s drizzly and unseasonably cold. And so, on Saturday, the day of York Woodstock, the only thing that logically could happen was for York students to wake up to grey diagonal flecks of rain on their windows. The poor weather bore obvious effects upon the mood and size of the crowd for much the day, although as it dried up in the later hours and people discovered the location of the bar, the event started to “rock”.
After the awkward site of last year’s Vanbrugh Paradise, Woodstock returned to the more expansive Vanbrugh Bowl as the SU excelled themselves in their organisation of the event. The stage was magnificent; the PA was crystal clear and the lighting rig impressive. Early on, Peter Dancemove treated their cult following, headed by SU president Chris Jones, to a typically flamboyant and camp set as Dan Searle, guitarist and lady boy, appeared to malfunction in a cloud of smoke on the last song of the set. Tragically for indie favourites The Confessions of Windy Miller, with frontman Chris Jones making his swansong, the rain got heavier. As the crowd ran for cover, many missed out on what was a slick and entertaining set of well-written songs that would have evoked comparisons to godheads Belle and Sebastian, and no doubt the envy of Stuart Murdoch had he been present.
As hard as the courageous Robbie Dale tried with his stage banter to make the rain stay away from his jokes and Beat the Nation references, the liquid sky arrows of doom would not relent. Meanwhile, Vanbrugh dining hall was beginning to look like a makeshift emergency hostel as refugees from the wet outdoors came to listen to something a little more chilled out on the acoustic stage. Expanded from last year’s relatively low-key affair, the acoustic stage gave some of the University’s guitar-playing chanteuses a chance to ply their trade in a more subdued and warm atmosphere. Mortimer, Owen Baker, The Ellis Lee band, Hey Noddinovski, Jess Lambert and Rob Yarnell all played accomplished sets. Yarnell in particular displayed impressive talent and composure in this intense and difficult of genres, with two sets, the latter including covers of Green Day’s ‘Good Riddance’ and Oasis’ ‘Half the World Away’, together with a host of original tracks. Flotsam then took the stage, fronted by the enigmatic, handsome and supremely talented Rob Taylor, who also just-so-happens to be nouse’s music co-editor. Perhaps York is not quite ready for his unique mixture of ironic faux non-talent and fancy dress, but the drummer, Martin Kemp, and bassist, Mark Newton, both displayed considerable talent, adaptability and cool. Up next were the ever-popular George Foreman Select, who played another great gig with their bizarre dreamlike ensemble of irish folk instruments, blue trousers and a chef. It seems that the most colossal of genius can divide opinion, even disgust, and in the provocative spirit of Marcel Duchamp, The Marquis De Sade, Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, Rap World certainly did both. The two brothers, Dr Stryker Emergency and Industrial Accident, who were separated at birth (one raised by wolves, the other by Daley Thompson), reworked pop classics like Earth Song and Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble, and mixed it with insane performance art and partial nudity.
Back on the main stage, a true festival atmosphere was beginning to materialise, as a steel drum band, complete with tamborine and cow bells intermingled with the crowd, a phenomena that would not have been out of place in Leftfield, Glastonbury. The rain was relenting and Broken Dolls, runners-up in the Radio 1 unsigned bands competition had begun, displaying the professional sheen and equipment of a signed band, but they were taught a lesson in originality and performance by York’s own acts. One such act was Skatesian, who followed them on stage. Fronted by the ubiquitous rock-icon, Phil Jeffs, the slick ska act played an impressive show as their brass rasped through the drizzle. The Scassa Monakee Synth Quartet, whilst disappointing only for the fact that their line-up doesn’t consist of four prog veterans on Moogs, made a return to the form that saw them win last year’s Battle of the Bands with a frenetic and captivating performance. Scassa’s new MC, although perhaps a little underused in the set, is likely to be the only person in the whole of York capable of rapping, and that he did with aplomb.
This year’s triumphant Battle of the Bands winners, Bugalee, capped a fantastic night with their usual swagger. Their ostentatious stage set brought a little of 1930’s New York to old York and there was an appearance of the now customary trad-jazz mosh pit, featuring disenfranchised kids in hoodies doing the charleston. Unfortunately, a complaint from an unknown Badger Hill pedant about noise pollution apparently resulted in the mix being turned down and a foreshortening of the Bugalee set. The crowd had far more dancing left in it at midnight, and perhaps it was this excess of energy that lead to a fight breaking out in Vanbrugh, resulting in three arrests. Maybe that wouldn’t have happened at the original Woodstock, just as it wouldn’t have rained, but this festival was a triumphant end to York’s own summer of love.
A View from the Stage
This year, nouse were able to view the Woodstock production process from the inside; not because the music editors had made the effort to organise any journalistic access to the backstage, but because they were both playing at the festival. The resultant view was, therefore, a genuine insight into how the event was run, blurred only by the rain and Vodka Mudshakes.
It didn’t take a backstage pass to notice the first problem Woodstock 2004 encountered; the music started an hour later than planned, and as a result each band had to cut their set short by five minutes. This did nothing to lessen the nerves in the darkened tent which covered the equipment and acted as a waiting area for each following act, and, presumably as with all of the bands, sparked a brief debate over which of the songs would have to be jettisoned.
The quality of the sound engineering befitted the effort put into Woodstock, and the crowd were treated to a sound crew who mixed the levels perfectly throughout the day, reflecting the impressive stage – complete with big screens and smoke machines. For the first few moments of our opening song, the sound levels on stage were slightly unequal, which led to confusion over quite what we all should have been playing. However, this was quickly rectified, and the blame for any mistakes made in the rest of the set was applicable only to ourselves. Not that we did make any. Obviously.
The acoustic stage this year took place in Vanbrugh Dining Hall, which was a huge improvement from last year’s rather less impressive ‘JCR steps’ stage. With less acts playing, there was less pressure on the bands to move on and off the stage as quickly as outside, and this resulted in a more relaxed mood and perhaps more assured performances from the line-up of lesser-known acts. Certainly there was more time to check the sound levels, and boththe on-stage monitoring and the output levels were just as good as those on the main stage. A huge diversity of instruments – including Rap World’s Argos-bought toy keyboard and a rather risqué placement of a microphone intended for vocals – were all sonically transferred through the speakers successfully, and those who retreated from the weather were treated to a very professionally put-together indoor addition to the festival.
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