After the usual delays as in common for most festivals) things kicked off at about 7.30 pm with The Resonance Association. Not too convincing a live act, a  bassist and drummer was sorely missed. The mix didn't do their brand of space infused rock any favours either. Fans of space rock tinged outings in raw form will have enjoyed them though, with a partially Hawkwind inspired energetic romp towards the end as a nice finale.

 

Tinyfish upped the quality scale quite a bit, especially after some initial mix problems were mostly sorted out. Jokes and audience interaction is always a good thing, and they have a number of strong tunes. Mutterings of "they were better last year" was overheard though, and I suspect the mix is mostly to blame in that respect.

 

The Defence of the Realm project band seemed to defend the realm by way of bashing Phil Collins. First one was fun, but I thought the follow-ups were needlessly cruel. Apart from that, lots of material by Kino and some by Frost* if I remember correctly, a halfways played through 40's/WW2 theme that could have been expanded more thoroughly into the show instead of the Phil jokes, a nice and very cliched English tea break and skilled and at times gutsy performance of the chosen tunes, with keys man Godfrey in a generally jolly good mood dominating this event. Interesting act, but not the headliner event I expected myself. Or rather not quite headliner quality as far as my perception go.

 

Hopefully the mix will sit better for today, but all in all Friday was a good start I think. Not a great one, not a bad one but nice and mostly pleasant.

Just got back from the festival myself, great weekend with lots of good drink, music and company.

 

Glad to see I'm not the only one who didnt find the Phil Collins jokes funny, I thought they were predictable and pointless. I found the sound to be excellent this year, a big improvement over the last two years where they've had real trouble with the sound of the bass getting very muddy and reverbarating through the hall. I guess getting it perfecct isnt really on since this isnt a purpose built venue but the town hall.

 

I saw Tinyfish the last time they played Summers End in 2007, they've improved quite a bit since then and are an excellent live act.

i'll put my 5 pennyworth in.. Got there late (as i did all 3 days!) so caught Tinyfish (hah, a unintentional and rather rubbish fishing pun there..) & defenders of the realm. tinyfish got better as their set went on. DOTR were Jolly enough- i'm not familiar with Frost or Kino so didnt know any of the songs but found the general (neo-Prog) sound and set entertaining enough; the Phil Collins stuff was a bit lame but mildly amusing (and he's a big boy so i'm sure it won't worry him..) & generally i left feeling tired (it was friday night..) but suitably entertained. Maybe i'm easily pleased  some might say..