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Southbound 2012 - Day One

Wed 11th Jan, 2012 in Gig Reviews

The good folk at Sunset Events set out to create a music, camping and arts festival this year with an emphasis on a chilled out vibe, and a stress free time. To this end, they chose the line up to ensure the participation of the hippie contingent, priced it low, and avoided all of the security agro that comes as a result of the increased duty of care in an all ages event.

Gates opening at 8am on Saturday for campers meant a staggered arrival, some stayed in town the night before, some left home at 5am to arrive on time, and others rolled in later. This meant the entry queue was less of an exercise in dirt, sunburn and crowded boredom than in previous years, and guaranteed a modest crowd for the two opening acts at 11am. Sonpsilo Circus hit the main stage and did their rock thang whilst Arts Martial warmed up the tent stage.

An Horse on the main stage played a bland and seemingly interminable set which could have been a single 30 minute song, and the punters sat patiently and waited for the bar to open, or wandered around to see what else was on offer at the market stalls. Josh Pyke attracted an apparently eager crowd, but didn’t inspire any dancing or singing, and punters soon wandered over to the tent to see what all the fuss over Miles Kane was about. For their part, they did their best to get the people up and involved and a good number were drawn into the action taking place at the barrier.

Between the two main stages, the audience response thus far seemed rather ambivalent towards the bands none of whom offered much new, though they were all competent examples of their genre – competent in the manner of a TV theme or commercial. The first real response of the day came during Kimbra’s set. She was the first artist to make an obvious effort with her appearance and really worked the crowd. The lady has a stunning vocal range, and whilst her tunes were not particularly engaging, her delivery was breathtaking. Later, The Head and the Heart kept the nu-hippys happy with some rock-folk fusion in the tent, and Beirut impressed on the main stage with a profusion of horns. Seeing someone play a tuba live is always amazing.

Southbound has been experimenting with comedy acts for a few years now, but 2012 saw Arj Barker positioned in the line up as a main act. It is possible that his popularity should have seen him on the main stage as people crammed into the tent and spilled out the sides to hear his comedy set. Unfortunately, they had quite a long wait ahead of them since Barker had brought with him two other acts to warm up the crowd, and only spoke for a quarter of an hour.. still, it left the crowd wanting more, and that’s the idea, right?

Rumours of interesting and new things going on in base camp at the coconut lounge sent a goodly portion of punters over to take a look. DJ Shannon Fox was just finishing her set which was full of old time classics including the Smiths and The Cure, successfully releasing inhibitions in time for recent sensation Dub FX to arrive. His crowd too, spilled out of the tent onto the surrounding grassy areas and people could be spotted flailing and dancing wildly as he looped his vocals live and revved up the crowd with assistance from an elfin lady with a huge voice.

Meanwhile, The Jim Jones Revue had the lights turned up to spectacular as they played an entertaining set of classic rock ‘n’ roll complete with rock poses and attitude. Out on the main stage as the sun set, The Grates pulled the first real festival sized crowd of the day, and as always, Patience Hodgson had them eating out of her palm by the end of the first song. They played a good mix of classics and new material, Hodgson made several attempts to surf the crowd, and got a shout along going during 19-20-20

Apologies to the Arctic Monkeys, but the Regurgitator performance of Unit in full was the highlight of day one, partly because all of the songs were familiar, encouraging full audience participation, (Hearing thousands of people shouting “I will lick your arsehole” – priceless.) Partly because everyone always forgets what a great album it is, and partly due to the energy and enthusiasm of the band in their lycra onesies.

For their part, the Arctic Monkeys looked good, and sounded good, and attracted an attentive, if subdued crowd. Even front man Alex Turner noted it, saying; “…don’t ever let it get that quiet Southbound”. Perhaps people were just tuckered out from going absolutely wild during the Gurge, or perhaps the song selection wasn’t quite right for a festival crowd. Begrudgingly it seemed, Turner said “ok, we’ll play some old stuff for you” which rallied the fans briefly, until the next new song. They did oblige when they were called back for an encore, and seemed to get some extra energy after the punters actually demonstrated their appreciation, and the set closed on a high note.

Zelimur and Charlie Bucket were on hand in the coconut lounge at the tail end to rile up the kids and get them well and truly danced out. They apparently did a good job, since most of the campers were sleeping quietly in their tents by 2am, rather than out stealing golf carts and provoking security into ever ridiculous feats of ineffective crowd control.

At the conclusion of day one the Sunset folk must have been very pleased with themselves, there had been no agro, punters were relaxed and enjoying the ride. Amenities were clean, queues, if they ever formed, were short, the festival grounds were still in good nick, and there were smiles on faces all round.