40 Is Dangerous Linkage, Cynthia
And so, Parallax View awakes from its slumbers to give you the rundown on last weekend's Summer Sundae, where Dead Kenny braved Leicester (think Nottingham minus the history and personality) for the first time in over 30 years to catch up with 40 bands; 30 real ales and three 6music DJs in the grounds of DeMontford Hall. For the sake of brevity, Dead Kenny has excised the puns; prevarications; clumsy flirting; bar altercations and celebrity stalking that normally turn his gig reviews into spiteful, rambling dissertations and instead condensed his views into some not altogether serious six-word soundbites plus a mark out of 10.
So from 40 winks to 40 links, then:
Acoustic Ladyland: Crazy jazz dudes get things started (7 out of 10)
Sons And Daughters: Short summer dresses raise the temperature (7.5)
Malcolm Middleton: Bought the album as a result (8)
British Sea Power: Next time more passion, less bears (7)
Infadels: Acid house revival, smiley faces everywhere (8)
Idlewild: Birthday boy Woomble leads crowdpleasing set (8)
Four Tet: Only caught one tune, good though (7)
Sara Spade Band: Cheeky Northampton girl with fantastic voice (7)
The Traces: If you like Starsailor, seek out (6)
Hot Chip: Cool tunes hampered by monotonous singing (6.5)
Editors: Dark rock to match the clouds (8)
Clor: Love + Pain sparks technical outage (7)
Art Brut: Probably relieved Bloc Party were elsewhere (7)
Emiliana Torrini: Tunes were charming, anecdotes were funny (7.5)
Tom Vek: Prompted mildly amusing umbrella dance sequence (7.5)
Engineers: Not on for nearly long enough (8)
The Magic Numbers: Draw biggest outside crowd of day (7.5)
Devendra Banhart: Played with band, prefer him solo (7)
Thirteen Senses: Erm, what is the point again? (4)
Amusement Parks On Fire: Lead singer needs his fringe cutting (7)
The Bees: Really really really really really dull (3)
K T Tunstall: Better than you might think, actually (6.5)
South San Gabriel: Baby hating altrockers really rather good (7.5)
Lemon Jelly: Combined with cider provides intoxicating finale (7)
Auburn: Summer Sundae gentlemen clearly prefer blondes (5)
Bellowhead: Eleven lively folkers keep crew busy (6)
The Havenots: Girl singer looks like Abi Titmuss (7.5)
Sondre Lerche: Probably now regrets playing Dead Passengers (7)
Alasdair Roberts: Heard enough folk by this point (5)
Jill Sobule: Poppy songs about sex and drugs (7)
Sierra Maestra: Cuban veterans provide entertaining musical diversion (6)
Patrick Wolf: Can't see what the fuss about (5)
Love Ends Disaster: Nothing special here, move along please (4)
The Earlies: Epic rock tunage, breakthrough hit elusive (7)
Battle: Short arse boys deliver big tunes (8)
The Duke Spirit: Mission to liven things up accomplished (8)
Luke Haines: Big talent cramped by small tent (7)
Yo La Tengo: Pleasant enough but hardly essential nowadays (7)
The Wedding Present: Good balanced set, oldies and newies (8.5)
Patti Smith And Her Band: Crowdpleasing selection sends everyone home happy (8)
In summary, a friendly, civilised event where you could move around freely and get served quickly but still enjoy a lively atmosphere for the popular acts. A terrific bill, which contained by my reckoning about 80% of the best new bands in Britain, made for even better value, and Dead Kenny is certainly planning on going back next year.
And so, Parallax View awakes from its slumbers to give you the rundown on last weekend's Summer Sundae, where Dead Kenny braved Leicester (think Nottingham minus the history and personality) for the first time in over 30 years to catch up with 40 bands; 30 real ales and three 6music DJs in the grounds of DeMontford Hall. For the sake of brevity, Dead Kenny has excised the puns; prevarications; clumsy flirting; bar altercations and celebrity stalking that normally turn his gig reviews into spiteful, rambling dissertations and instead condensed his views into some not altogether serious six-word soundbites plus a mark out of 10.
So from 40 winks to 40 links, then:
Acoustic Ladyland: Crazy jazz dudes get things started (7 out of 10)
Sons And Daughters: Short summer dresses raise the temperature (7.5)
Malcolm Middleton: Bought the album as a result (8)
British Sea Power: Next time more passion, less bears (7)
Infadels: Acid house revival, smiley faces everywhere (8)
Idlewild: Birthday boy Woomble leads crowdpleasing set (8)
Four Tet: Only caught one tune, good though (7)
Sara Spade Band: Cheeky Northampton girl with fantastic voice (7)
The Traces: If you like Starsailor, seek out (6)
Hot Chip: Cool tunes hampered by monotonous singing (6.5)
Editors: Dark rock to match the clouds (8)
Clor: Love + Pain sparks technical outage (7)
Art Brut: Probably relieved Bloc Party were elsewhere (7)
Emiliana Torrini: Tunes were charming, anecdotes were funny (7.5)
Tom Vek: Prompted mildly amusing umbrella dance sequence (7.5)
Engineers: Not on for nearly long enough (8)
The Magic Numbers: Draw biggest outside crowd of day (7.5)
Devendra Banhart: Played with band, prefer him solo (7)
Thirteen Senses: Erm, what is the point again? (4)
Amusement Parks On Fire: Lead singer needs his fringe cutting (7)
The Bees: Really really really really really dull (3)
K T Tunstall: Better than you might think, actually (6.5)
South San Gabriel: Baby hating altrockers really rather good (7.5)
Lemon Jelly: Combined with cider provides intoxicating finale (7)
Auburn: Summer Sundae gentlemen clearly prefer blondes (5)
Bellowhead: Eleven lively folkers keep crew busy (6)
The Havenots: Girl singer looks like Abi Titmuss (7.5)
Sondre Lerche: Probably now regrets playing Dead Passengers (7)
Alasdair Roberts: Heard enough folk by this point (5)
Jill Sobule: Poppy songs about sex and drugs (7)
Sierra Maestra: Cuban veterans provide entertaining musical diversion (6)
Patrick Wolf: Can't see what the fuss about (5)
Love Ends Disaster: Nothing special here, move along please (4)
The Earlies: Epic rock tunage, breakthrough hit elusive (7)
Battle: Short arse boys deliver big tunes (8)
The Duke Spirit: Mission to liven things up accomplished (8)
Luke Haines: Big talent cramped by small tent (7)
Yo La Tengo: Pleasant enough but hardly essential nowadays (7)
The Wedding Present: Good balanced set, oldies and newies (8.5)
Patti Smith And Her Band: Crowdpleasing selection sends everyone home happy (8)
In summary, a friendly, civilised event where you could move around freely and get served quickly but still enjoy a lively atmosphere for the popular acts. A terrific bill, which contained by my reckoning about 80% of the best new bands in Britain, made for even better value, and Dead Kenny is certainly planning on going back next year.
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