Victorious Festival

[SDM-SOUTHSEA]

I have noticed BSP have been added to the line up at the Victorious Festival in sunny Southsea.
Can this be confirmed?

[bancroftboy]

I wouldn't be surprised, they have a long history of playing festivals where there isn't another act you would watch if someone was paying you.
Menswear?

[SPT]

Christ on a bike, I see what you mean Jim. Thin, thin gruel.

[Blackout]

I wouldn't be surprised, they have a long history of playing festivals where there isn't another act you would watch if someone was paying you.
Menswear?

I spotted them listed on the festival website a couple of days ago courtesy of it being posted by a mate who is in one of the reheated Britpop acts on the bill. He wasn't an original member of said act and he's a really nice bloke whose "regular" band is pretty good, thus since his employment as such over the past year I've had to bite my tongue a lot...

Words actually fucking fail me as to why British Sea Power are getting booked onto dismal shit like this - of which this might actually be the most appalling yet. It might be a payday and I fully appreciate that bands need to make a living, but every time I see them on a bill like this a part of my soul dies, it is an insult to them and to people who enjoy watching them.

They do of course also seem to get on a lot of indie and folky type bills which is fine, great, but there are whole swatches of BSP's fan base (by which I do not simply refer to the multiple gig going "regulars", but at least as much to the people who like to see them every now and then, the people I don't know in BSP T-shirts I see at gigs and festivals) who basically have to choose between going to a festival they're playing, and going to one where the bill in general bears some resemblance to our music taste. I think the general perception of them as "that indie band who did 'Remember Me'" means they're often overlooked by the ATP/Primavera type bills (not just those festivals in particular - they did do Primavera in 08 - but others with similar musical outlook). I'd love to see them at something like one of the "psychfest" things or Supernormal/Arctangent/Fell Foot Sound/etc etc; they'd certainly be no more out of place there than at a folk-flavoured festival or sharing a bill with lad-rock / chart crap at V, or the sort of half-baked NME schmindie that comprises most of the "slightly alternative ish" tent at ReadingLeeds - all of which they do or have done. And considerably less out of place than they are on this steaming turd of a bill.

August Bank Holiday weekend though isn't it, hopefully they might get another booking at something half decent, and to be honest I am actually coming round to the idea of spending an afternoon pointing and laughing at people who like Shed Seven....

[pomfob]

Here's a link for anyone brave enough..,

http://www.victoriousfestival.co.uk/

Cheap - £16 a day, which is fair do I suppose. 2 unannounced headliners and 'lots more acts to be confirmed'. Hardest working men in showbiz Public Service Broadcasting also on the bill. And Slow Club, I like them too. Naff all else and...


FUCKING RAZORLIGHT - AND! Johnny Borrell and Zazou, his solo 364 LP selling solo project. Is there no end to his hubris?

Stick this one on the 'maybe, let's see what else comes up' pile.

[Hirsute Joseph]

A friend is trying to convince me to go.

I dunno. Most of it is shit. But I'd maybe pay £15 to see BSP, PSB, Terry Hall, 2manyDJs...

And look! former Wolves and current West Ham winger Matt Jarvis is bringing along his guitar for an acoustic sing along.

[avocetboy]

Sounds like a bit of musical snobbery going on. To my ears its a bit of a shit line up, but to many, a mix of new indie, old indie, new pop, old pop, a few DJ's, kids under six free...if that's what rocks your boat, then I am sure it will a good day out

[pomfob]

Sounds like a bit of musical snobbery going on. To my ears its a bit of a shit line up, but to many, a mix of new indie, old indie, new pop, old pop, a few DJ's, kids under six free...if that's what rocks your boat, then I am sure it will a good day out

Come now, the last thing we need here is someone being reasonable.

[Blackout]

You say "snobbery" like it's a bad thing - the word implies a bad thing, certainly, but the general preference towards a better quality of [whatever] certainly is not. Is it snobbery when people's taste means they usually (though not by any means always) prefer literary novels to Nuts magazine, broadsheet news to the tits'n'tattle tabloids, or a well-crafted meal to Farmfoods burgers and oven chips? Music is no different. I don't think anyone would disagree that that bill is probably OK for the cheap generic family day out it is (though it still smacks of the same old reheated second-stream Britpop and tribute troupes that populate such things tiresomely across the land when any number of great emerging bands would play their hearts out for such a booking) and fair enough, it's not the sort of do that would even blip on most of our radars were BSP not on it, but there's no denying it is a pile of shit by the standards of most people who identify as music fans, even you admit that. Not that that was the point I was making anyway.

The thrust of my post was that I find it slightly annoying that BSP seem to be frequently overlooked by the bookers of festivals that are not either generic or "folk" / "indie" (in the 21st century sense) oriented, possibly because they arrived on the scene in the early-00s indie band flurry and some people probably just think of them as some sort of Kaiser-Chiefs-but-not-as-famous or something - that's not snobbery, it's just mild frustration.......

[pomfob]

Did anyone from round here go? A friend of mine is on holiday in the area, so she & her family went. According to her, 30 minute set, the kids were singing along so I guess that means they did the 'hits' (as you would with a stupidly short time on stage) & one of them has decided to take up the violin after seeing Abi. Sounds like a good show, but not enough of it. No comments about the rest of the festival, though.

[boom]

Did anyone from round here go? A friend of mine is on holiday in the area, so she & her family went. According to her, 30 minute set, the kids were singing along so I guess that means they did the 'hits' (as you would with a stupidly short time on stage) & one of them has decided to take up the violin after seeing Abi. Sounds like a good show, but not enough of it. No comments about the rest of the festival, though.

Yes it was a short one...about 35 minutes

The 'Sea Stage' arena was amphitheatre'esque, set adjacent to the sea and accessed by ascending several stone steps.

There must have been a few thousand there for the set which was preceded by Scroobius Pip and followed by Ocean Colour Scene.

Sound was excellent by festival standards..Abi's No Lucifer intro and Phil's cornet on Carrion outro sounding especially good.

Machineries of Joy
Remember Me
No Lucifer
Waving Flags
Great Skua
Carrion
Rock in A

[SebFlyte]

Gotta say, I was a bit peeved at only a 30 minute set. I bought a ticket just for BSP and was quite chuffed with a scheduled hour set. Why BSP aren't given a bigger slot is beyond me (and most of the crowd around me at that Seaside Stage as well, I might add!) Grrrrrrr - frustrated.