Recent gigs ( Part Three ) - Wychwood Festival 2023 Day Two

 

After a fantastic first day at Wychwood, we went home for a rest, then headed back to Cheltenham on the Saturday for day two. Gluttons for punishment or committed gig-goers? A bit of both I suppose. The 3rd of June was just as hot and sunny as the previous day and the site was much, much busier. We rocked up a bit later this time, as we'd already sussed the place out. The first band we saw on the main stage were the pop-tastic Scouting For Girls at a crazily early 15:00 pm...

The familiar, twangy sound of the James Bond theme rang out as the band took to the stage to play, inevitably, I Wish I Was James Bond. ( Just for a day. Not "Heroes", but Bond. Very specific. ) I kind of remembered SFG from their chart days of a few years ago and thought they would be fun but I'd underestimated just how much grinning, bouncing, sun-kissed fun their material would be. More pop fireworks whizzed over our heads in the form of Elvis Ain't Dead and Heartbeat, before singer Roy Stride introduced "the most inappropriate song of the day" in the form of Posh Girls. It may have been inappropriate but it was a guilty ( not that guilty ) pleasure which prompted a huge singalong from the crowd. 

They played their song Bad Superman which they said was basically a rip-off of Stacy's Mom by Fountains Of Wayne, which itself was apparently a rip-off of Busted's Year 3000. To prove the point they mashed all three into a musical medley for our entertainment and education. Which was nice. Roy embarrassed himself in front of thousands by ringing his wife and daughter from the stage and getting us to sing to them. He wanted to prove to them how many people were there as, apparently, "nobody goes to festivals to watch Scouting For Girls". His wife was having none of it, so he's got some making up to do. Hopefully not in front of thousands. They finished ( of course ) with their biggest hit, She's So Lovely, yet another Summery pop classic, and then they were gone. SFC were a delight, a band I probably wouldn't have gone to see otherwise but definitely enjoyed on this gorgeous June afternoon. They're touring later in the year, so who knows, I might see them again... stranger things have happened...

Next up was some proper pop royalty in the shape of Heather Small. Or "THE Heather Small???" as my daughter exclaimed when I mentioned she was playing. Singing along to a backing track and only performing six songs (!), Heather Small still gave her all, and then some. Strutting sassily across the stage ( I mean, how else would she do it? ), Heather ran through a greatest hits selection of mostly M People songs like One Night In Heaven, Search For The Hero and How Can I Love You More? as well as her signature solo anthem Proud  -  and there were obviously some Miranda fans in the crowd as a bunch of people were wearing cardboard Heather Small masks for this one. You had to be there. Heather was quite the diva on stage, in a light-hearted but totally authentic way, and her voice was as rich and powerful as ever as she led the crowd through a closing rendition of female-empowerment classic Moving On Up. 

An uplifting, if short, set which made me decide I'd like to see more of Heather ( steady! ), but with a full set and an actual band...

From pop to Britpop next, as the stupendous Sleeper rocked up at Dave's Stage ( that's the main stage to you ) to bring us their own brand of indie wizardry. The strains of You Only Live Twice rang out around the arena ( what was it with all the Bond references? ) and then Sleeper kicked into a rousing Cellophane to start their set.

 Their set was basically a greatest hits compilation but this first song, from 2018 comeback album The Modern Age, easily held its own against the familiar songs. And what songs! The impish Nice Guy Eddie, power-pop banger Statuesque and the achingly sad What Do I Do Now? were all outstanding and showed that the underrated Sleeper were easily on a par with the more populist, blokey bands of the Britpop era. The gorgeous Louise Wener, resplendent in a frilly skirt and green "Rock Hag" T-shirt, looked like she was having the time of her life, a permanent smile playing on her lips. The medley of Blondie's Atomic and Joy Division's Love Will tear Us Apart paid fine tribute to their heroes ( and gave the crowd yet another singalong ) before they concluded the excellent set with the one-two punch of Inbetweener ( of course! ) and Sale Of The Century. This is the second time I've seen Sleeper and both times they've been fantastic, easily one of the best live bands around at the moment.

I think we did another dash out of the main arena to find some grub at this point, and then headed back to catch Caledonian folk/rock duo The Proclaimers. 

Although Craig and Charlie Reid have been doing their thing since the late '80s I only own their first album so wasn't familiar with a lot of their songs. I also wasn't sure if they would have a full band or just play as a duo ( do they even do that any more? ) but, as it turned out, they had a shit-hot backing band, who rocked like muthas. ( Technical term. ) I didn't know the first song, Dentures Out, but they followed it with the strident, autobiographical Over And Done With which sounded great, especially the "I washed my hands and went for ma dinnerrrr" line. Another early highlight of the set was the unashamedly romantic Let's Get Married, a heart-on-the-sleeve love song that could have been sung by the Everly Brothers, instead of two spotty guys from Fife. And I think a lot of the group's appeal is this old-fashioned approach to song-writing, with no room for irony but plenty of room for sincerity. A beautiful Sunshine On Leith had everyone singing and possibly evoked a few tears in their fanbase. ( I was surprised how many people, and how many young people at that, knew all the words to all their songs. They're clearly more popular than I'd thought. ) Although the Reids were relatively taciturn on stage, their songs really said it all with their passion and gorgeous shared vocals. They finished, of course, with a crowd-pleasing rendition of their biggest hit, I'm Gonna Be ( 500 Miles ), which was a perfect way to end the set. I'll definitely have to buy more of The Proclaimers' music and hopefully catch them live again some day.

And then it was time for the last band we saw at Wychwood, yet another Scottish act, indie Radio 2 stalwarts, Travis. Sarah was always a big fan of this band back in the day and we had seen them before, many years ago at the Birmingham International Arena. I'd never been too bothered about their easy-listening indie and have been guilty of taking the piss out of them in the past but, to be honest they were great at Wychwood. Starting with two of their most well-known songs, Sing and Writing To Reach You, they instantly got the crowd fully engaged and singing along. Similarly to the Reid brothers, Travis are another band who come across as very sincere and down to earth  -  they may be lacking in weirdness or rock 'n' roll attitude, but they make up for this with their warmth and smoothly lovely melodies.

 

Driftwood was a mid-set anthem that had everyone singing and swaying along, while more recent song A Ghost was a (yes) haunting Country lament about not letting life pass you by. Singer Fran Healey announced they'd come to the "busking" part of the set and they all gathered around one mike to play a beautiful a cappella version of Flowers In The Window.

 After finishing the main set with a massive version of Turn, they encored with a couple of heavier songs in All I Wanna Do Is Rock ( "If Travis were a country, this would be our national anthem" ) and the Motown beat of Selfish Jean, before bringing the house down ( no mean feat without a roof! ) with the inevitable Why Does It Always Rain On Me? Luckily it hadn't rained on us or the band, and Travis had been a ( surprisingly for me ) fine way to end a cracking weekend. Same again next year? Let's hope so.