These days, it feels like you have to take out a small mortgage to attend large gigs and festivals. After expensive tickets, £8 pints and £20 burgers, you often find yourself watching your favourite bands on a video screen. There’s an antidote to this, though, in the many small but perfectly formed festivals dotted around the country – like the two-day Weekend Rumble, in the beautiful Monmouthshire countryside.
There was a warm welcome from the volunteer staff at the gate as we arrived, and over 20 eclectically-programmed acts featuring on the first day. With the festival taking place on a farm, its two stages are both in large barns, situated around a large quadrangle with tables and seating; a smaller barn houses a succession of DJs to keep the weekend ravers happy, and a well-stocked bar has beer and cider for a respectable £4 a can.
Weekend Rumble festivalgoers needed no excuse to dress up, and though this wasn’t quite followed to the extent of Bestival’s halcyon days, highlights included a couple dressed as Fred and Wilma Flintstone and a group of boys in skinhead attire. Even Benji from Skindred, fresh off a ferry from a French festival, couldn’t resist joining in with a pirate titfer.
The festival largely concentrates on up-and-coming bands, with a strong emphasis on Welsh talent; for me, part of the attraction of events like this is seeing bands before they go onto greater success, something which Weekend Rumble prides itself on. As a relative newcomer to south Wales’ music scene, and with so many bands playing, I decided on checking out bands with the best names – not for me Dry Cleaning or Lottery Winners, thank you.
So, then, to the wonderfully named Lady Garden: a young, all-girl punk band from Cardiff who, in true riot grrrl fashion, have plenty to say with enough expletives to put Gordon Ramsay in the shade. Very close to Lady Garden in the band name stakes are Carsick, four young lads from Salisbury playing the main stage barn. Initially finding it tough to persuade the crowd to leave the evening sunshine outside, once an inquisitive crowd make their way in they’re not disappointed. Carsick’s Joe Richardson is a consummate frontman – he also plays guitar, but he’s more effective without it – and as he prowls the stage, mic in hand, the crowd are geed up soon enough. It Is What It Is and its glorious Mike Skinner-inspired vocal delivery is the set’s highlight.
The weekend’s most chaotic set comes from the curiously named Lacross Club, from west Wales and now based in Bristol. With lead singer Cai Barry pairing a skirt with a Buddy Holly t-shirt and Buddy-esque thick-rimmed specs, there’s lots of leaping around and songs about drinking; Barry, who may have had too many lemonades, asks the crowd of someone can call his mum to pick him up. Soon enough, all the band are shirtless and an exuberant crowd join in the fun to generate the biggest moshpit of the day.
Best band of the day, then? It might just have been Newport sensations The NaNaz; they certainly drew the biggest crowd, and early in the day too. An array of NaNaz band shirts are apparent in the crowd, with plenty more sold after their set. Having formed just over a year ago, with just over a dozen live shows to date, this group of women of a certain age have something to say. Evoking the punk rock era of 1977-1980, the band write about what they know and make for a distinctive live experience – with one-night-only stand-in Wayne Tadman ably stepping up to the plate after only one rehearsal. With a half-hour BBC documentary due to air on Mon 13 July, the NaNaz have further summer festival spots lined up at Green Gathering, Rebellion and Beautiful Days.
Weekend Rumble is a wonderful festival: extremely well run, cheerfully-staffed and great value for money. See you next year for sure.
The Weekend Rumble, Great House Farm, Llansoy, Fri 3 + Sat 4 July
words and photos PAUL WINDSOR
