by Mary Stokes on September 3, 2010
And so ends another festival season.
Compared to last year, this year has been very tame re: festival going. Despite having somewhere near 10 events on my wish list, I only managed to do 3 all summer. But Greenbelt 2010 was a surprise addition to my schedule – I only knew 2 days before I left – I hadn’t really had time to study the running order & since I was working for the majority of the festival, it was probably best that I hadn’t.
Nonetheless is a very short roundup of the few acts I did mange to catch over the 3 days I was in Cheltenham.
Nikko Fir
Sunday night was very, very cold & I’m talking near freezing by the end of the night/ early morning – it’s the price you pay for clear skies at the end of August! Consequently it was far to cold to stand around Mainstage to catch the whole set of an artist I was non-committal about to start with (see below)! So I sought the relative warmth of the acoustic tent and got sidetracked en route. The distraction? Nikko Fir. A truly wonderful discovery.
Beverly Knight
It has been a long time since I’ve seen a conventional ‘pop’ act and it felt very weird to be watching someone who everyone else had heard of too! That said, you couldn’t fault the amount of energy she was putting into her set – it was clear she was working very hard to warm up the audience (see above for temperature reading), but still I didn’t stick around for the whole set. Nonetheless, it was nice to be transported back in time as she revisited some of her ‘older’ hits such as ‘Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda’ and ‘Come as You Are’ which actually sampled the 90s one-hit-wonder ‘Feel It’ by Maya [ft Tamperer]. Truly epic!
Megson
This time last year I saw Megson for the very first time at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival. And so how better to celebrate my ‘Megsoniversary’ than by catching their set at Greenbelt. The only act I actually wanted to see at the beginning of the weekend and I was not disappointed. Playing to a packed out Marquee, Stu and Debs put on a wonderful show. My highlights had to be ‘Smoke of Home’, ‘O Mary will you go’ and ‘Take Yourself a Wife’ – all of which I absolutely adore. But it was actually ‘The Longshot’ which stood out from previous gigs. It’s a truly beautiful song – loosely based on the ups and downs of being a Middlesboro’ fan (which, as a Quins RL fan myself, I fully understand the feeling) – and it’s got some delicious black humour woven into the lyrics. But their performance on Friday night was the first time I heard people actually laughing at the ‘punch lines’, which was strangely wonderful. It was just a shame that there was no time left for their traditional set closer ‘Tally-O the Grinder’
For more musical offerings from the festival feel free to check out the media site on their website (unfortunately the stuff I was filming isn’t up yet, but there’s still some amazing material there.)
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Mary Stokes - Meet MeLocated in the UK, music has been part of my life for a long time. I'm a classically trained violinist but have a wide range musical knowledge.
by Jillian on September 1, 2010
On the evening of Friday, August 13th, Something Corporate took to the stage in front of a sold-out crowd at Roseland Ballroom in New York City as part of their summer reunion tour. For me, this was one of the most nostalgic shows I ever attended. Despite being a fairly-dedicated Something Corporate fan since a very young age, I was never before awarded the opportunity to see the band perform live.
Something Corporate did not take any supporting bands out on the road with them. Instead, them played lengthy set lists each night all on their own. The lack of an opener confirmed a true, dedicated fan-base in the audience because everyone and anyone who came out to these shows most definitely came out to see Something Corporate after a nearly six-year-long hiatus.
Since Something Corporate is a close friend of mine’s all-time favorite band, a small group of us gathered early in the day to travel from our homes in New Jersey into New York City. After a quick lunch, we were sitting curbside in line at 3:30 in the afternoon for a concert at which the doors were expected to be opened at 7:30. We enjoyed our long wait though, hanging out with other fans, talking to passersby about the band and the reunion tour, eating cupcakes and browsing Facebook updates from our smart phones. Finally, at 8:00 the street-side crowd was allowed to make its way into the venue. It seemed as if half of the line rushed to the front of the stage to secure a good spot for the show while the other half hurried over to the merch. area to purchase some new Something Corporate materials. My friends and I made our way to the stage, where we then waited over an hour for the band to make there way out.
Our day was a long one filled with lots of waiting, but it was worth it on all accounts. The show was absolutely phenomenal. From the very first line, all the way through the final song I enjoy myself the same way I did when I would listen to these same songs in my headphones with a portable CD player during the bus rides to and from my middle school.
Appropriately, the band began the evening with a track titled “I Woke Up In a Car,” so, the very first words lead singer and pianist Andrew McMahon sang to the crowd at Roseland Ballroom that night were; “I woke up in New York City from my sleep behind the wheel.” I thought this was all too fitting and appropriate, and I appreciated it so much.
The evening was filled with fan favorite sing-alongs, each one better than the last. The band played a total of 21 tracks, 17 followed by a four-song encore. Click here to see Something Corporate’s set list from the show.
The icing on the cake was that my friends and I were lucky enough to meet all of the members of Something Corporate shortly following the show. It’s really nice to see a band taking the time to sign each and every last autograph and smile for pictures with the fans you can just tell it truly means so much to. They were all really great guys and they were as thankful for us being around as we were for them.
In a recent interview with Alternative Press, Something Corporate drummer Brian Ireland suggested that there is potential for a future release from Something Corporate.
Did you catch another Something Corporate show, or see any other band’s reunion show this summer? Feel free to discuss in the comments section.
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Jillian Polak - Meet MeA young aspiring writer who enjoys all kinds of music, most especially alternative rock.
This time last year I saw Megson for the very first time at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival. And so how better to celebrate my ‘Megsoniversary’ than by catching their set at Greenbelt. The only act I actually wanted to see at the beginning of the weekend and I was not disappointed. Playing to a packed out Marquee, Stu and Debs put on a wonderful show. My highlights had to be ‘Smoke of Home’, ‘O Mary will you go’ and ‘Take Yourself a Wife’ – all of which I absolutely adore. But it was actually ‘The Longshot’ which stood out from previous gigs. It’s a truly beautiful song – loosely based on the ups and downs of being a Middlesboro’ fan (which, as a Quins RL fan myself, I fully understand the feeling) – and it’s got some delicious black humour woven into the lyrics. But their performance on Friday night was the first time I heard people actually laughing at the ‘punch lines’, which was strangely wonderful. It was just a shame that there was no time left for their traditional set closer ‘Tally-O the Grinder’
