Tag Archives: Field Day

Field Day, Victoria Park; June 2016

16 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by in London, Music

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The day after Neil Young at the O2 started out damp and got wetter; by late morning we were actively putting off going over to Hackney for Field Day. Fortunately, friends who’d attended the first day sent warnings to wear walking boots… In the end, though the ground was heavy going in the busiest places, it wasn’t too bad. We didn’t get to do much lying around on the grass listening to music this year, though: standing pretty much all day.

A huge downpour arrived while were in a tent watching Blossoms (who could probably count themselves lucky to have a captive audience for a while), but otherwise somehow we stayed dry. Steve Mason was a bit disappointing, I thought, but maybe I wasn’t really in the right mood for that kind of swagger at that time of day – and maybe any act would have seemed underwhelming after Neil Young the previous evening; Ben Watt and band (inc. Bernard Butler) were really good, even if I’m not sure the songs would stand up to much listening in the long run; Moon Duo were great, and PJ Harvey delivered something very different and pretty special to close it out.

It’s a really good event – the food and drinks work – and I was struck by just how excellent the sound was, particularly for PJ Harvey (helped no doubt, but the absence of any breeze for most of the day).

Field Day 2015 – a very short review

11 Thursday Jun 2015

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After a Saturday spent making more merry than I intended at Plumstead Make Merry, I went to Field Day festival in Victoria Park on Sunday, and found it had improved immensely in the 8(?) years since I was last there: bigger, more stages, and no more huge queues for bar and toilets. Craft ale and camper vans selling pulled pork burgers may be increasingly over-familiar sites around London, but they improve the logistics of this kind of event no end (and – somewhat surprisingly – much of the craft ale was cheaper than the cans of Default Lager on sale). Plus, the weather was pretty much perfect.
A not-exactly comprehensive review of the acts I saw:
Mac De Marco – entertainingly daft; some excellent tunes, some not-so-excellent tunes; strong potential for the joke to wear very thin.
Happyness – noisily entertaining enough, but seem unlikely to set the world on fire
Gaz Coombes – a bit sad: sludgy-sounding, with occasional hints of sweet melody; felt like a man looking for musical direction.
Matthew E White – should have brought his band. Those tunes really didn’t suit the transition from lush studio arrangement to ‘two blokes with electric guitars’. Pretty sure we weren’t the only ones to wander off, baffled, after a couple of songs
Hookworms – excellent stuff: tight and clear and full of, erm, hooks; a welcome contrast to Coombes and White.
Patti Smith – top marks for singing and sounding like it was still the 70’s; shame her band sounded so conservative, like an accomplished but complacent pub band playing classic rock.
Savages – intense and punk and dynamic. Another level from from everything else I saw away from the main stage. Properly brilliant drumming.
Ride – slick and entertaining; way above my expectations.

At £35 a ticket it was good value compared to many medium-sized gigs (though handing over £20 for 4 cans of Beck’s Vier will never seem like a good transaction). Back next year, I hope.