I was most excited about Darren Hayman's set, although I felt like I was the only one who really appreciated the presence of Jack Hayter, pedal steel guitarist and Ex-Hefner member. They played "We love the City", the lyrics of which always pop into my head when it takes two hours to get home to someone's house in London in the evening - "This is London, not Antarctica, so why don't the tubes run all night?" - I mean, even Hamburg can do it.
The Go Away Birds were lovely and had a pretty singer, Mariner's Children brought their entire families (including grandma), Jeremy Warmsley has grown a beard and started a new Band, Summercamp, with his girlfriend Elizabeth, Pete Roe sang some nice traditional folk/country.
The second half of the gig was somehow less convincing for me. Maybe I was getting tired, but the Blue Roses were sailing slightly too close to Enya territory for me, and Aidan Moffat was just plain offensive. I don't disapprove of songs about double penetration in principle (I am a big fan of the Hidden Cameras, after all), but when the lyrics are sexist and badly written Daily Mail style rants and the "songs" consist of sense- and tuneless autoharp strumming, I'd rather go off to have a drink for a bit, thanks.
I may have missed the point of Mount Eerie to some extent, but the stripped-down set (guy & guitar) of songs about wind (really, each one of them mentioned the wind) didn't excite me much. A lot of people seem to like them a lot though, so maybe I need to listen to the full band versions.
Headliner Emmy the Great didn't disappoint and delivered her sweet songs about Love & Death, as well as a slightly awkward Cover of Fight for this Love by "Cheryl Tweedy" with a very uncomfortable looking Darren Hayman - clip below.
In further twee news, we spotted Josie Long in the pub where we went for a drink after! She was doing a work-in-progress show.
