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Brentwood Festival 2013 – The Brentwood Centre, Brentwood

Bands seen: Funky Voices, Lobster, Navacross, Chas and Dave, Tomorrow Men, Guns vs Roses, Late Twos, Any Colour You Like, Graham Okey, States of Emotion, Mannequins, From The Jam, Rajiv, Undercover, No More Heroes, Dualers

I was at this year’s Brentwood Festival a lot more this year than last year – involved in a lot of recording and photographing. It was more casually called the Brentwood Festival this year too, having sort of dropped the Beer bit, although there was still a lot of beer. Not that I had a chance to drink much.

Highlights included meeting and chatting with Tom Hingley – ex-Inspiral Carpets front man – who was one of the nicest guys in music I’d ever met. If I ever set up a team for a talking competition, he is my no 1 pick. On the music front it was great to hear From The Jam – I’d never seen the Jam and let’s face it. I’m not going to, am I. But the lead singer, Russell Hastings, sounds very much like Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton is there so it’s no tribute group.

Of the tribute groups. I enjoyed Any Colour You Like, who made a fantastic fist of sounding like Pink Floyd, and unlike watching the real Pink Floyd didn’t trouble with too much stuff from the 80s and 90s. Guns vs Roses sounded great too – although I don’t like the original GNR, this lot looked like the real deal too..

For some reason Chas and Dave are natural treasures, and you’re not allowed to say anything nasty about them. So I won’t say that they turned up as late as possible, sat in the car until the last possible minute before their set, and did everything they could to avoid talking to everyone there. What do you expect from Tottenham icons though?

This festival could be so much better – it’s really just a glorified beer festival with cover bands and a couple of original artists, and despite its size it just seems to be going downhill.










Friday 5 July 2013, 431 views


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