BM and AM - Summer Sundae 2009 treats (Sunday)

Before Monotonix there had been another leisurely pace of getting up with a sausage and egg breakfast, followed by the fun of watching a SatNav being set for Leicester city centre. Music wise we were just aware of the sunshine which we expected to be the highlight of the day.

Ah how wrong could we have been?! Monotonix dominated once they arrived... And it seems to have been the chief topic of conversation on the net since the appearance: BBC Leicester capture the Monotonix experience well in their photographs. Ours will be forthcoming...

Anyway, before M were even a crossing thought, we caught a bit of Megadub (entertaining) and then moved to take up the sun watching MaybeSheWill on the main stage.

Sounding rather like Explosions in the Sky, Maybeshewill are pretty darn good actually and certainly I'll keep an eye on their releases.

I then moved inside to catch Woodpigeon (see the Monotonix post for more on Woodpigeon) and really enjoyed the chance to see live a band I had been listening to for some time.


We also, BM, caught Devon Sproule on the main stage: very charming and dry country performer who seemed thrilled with the response she got on that hot sunny afternoon.

Of course, being caught up in the Monotonix experience did mean we missed out on Port O'Brien (hence my delight when they turned up in session on Marc Riley's 6Music show the next day!) but we did venture back to the Indoor Stage for Micachu and the Shapes.

Unfortunately, by this point the George had to depart so we had hugs and stuff and then Neil and I delighted in the sunny delights of some reggae covers by the Easy Star All-Stars.

Neil and I then moved back to the Rising Stage to catch First Aid Kit, two young (and I mean young) Swedish sisters doing country songs.


They really were incredibly lovely, and tremendously talented, doing full justice not only to their own songs but also to covers of Fleet Foxes' Tiger Mountain Peasant Song and also of Buffy Sainte-Marie's classic Universal Soldier (suitably adapted for these troubled times).

That the youngest sister from First Aid Kit is only 16 just highlighted how old I am getting!

After that, I was winding down and had only one more act I really wanted to see: Bon Iver.

On the final stop before leaving UK shores for some time (presumably to gather stock for the next release), Bon Iver could easily have been weary of their ultra successful word-of-mouth album 'For Emma, Forever Ago'. As it was, they were on fine form, engaging well with a large but wildly variably attentive crowd.

Personally, I was juts happy to be able to have seen them at last and to relish especially the culminating loveliness of Flume and Wolves (with its crescendo chorus of "what might have been lost").


A wonderful end to a great festival.