Sunday

  • Maudlin, introspecitve singer-songwriter fodder. Lovely voice, but I've seen glaciers move at a quicker pace than most of her songs.

  • Metal band, mixing their own stuff with Pantera covers. Not one for a quiet pint and a sit down, that's for sure.

  • The only Asbestos I could find (that's a going concern) is a death metal band, which isn't really in Kendal's wheelhouse. If whoever this is turns out to be the greatest band of all time, I apologise.

  • Karaoke but with a live band.

  • Full fat Riot Grrrl punk that'll give your ears a proper seeing to.

  • Jazz-electronica fusion stuff. It's part Dj-ing and part saxophone playing. 

  • Dark ambient, lo-fi dance stuff. He does the live looping and layering thing, rather than just hitting 'play' on his phone.

  • Lake District folky singer with nods to Sarah McLachlan. Songs are on the slower side, but she's got a nice voice.

  • Uncomplicated indie jangle, leaning heavily on The Vaccines and The Wombats. They'll never have their own twig, nevermind their own branch, on rock's family tree, but as decent smiley indie goes, it's fine.

  • Gothy, harp-laden ballads from a singer who's schtick seems to be 'Florence on downers'.

  • Blues rock n roll that's unashamedly proud of its roots. Think Guns N' Roses and those 80s poodle rock bands doing the lick-heavy anthems in leather trousers.

  • DJs

  • It has a catchy, loose alt-country feel combined with bits of Haim and Big Moon. Not half bad.

    Click to listen:

    All My Freaks

    Jet Show

  • Hip hop DJ.

  • Discovered by Gerry Cinnamon, who presumably thought, "he sounds just like me". Catchy, working class acoustic folk with an accent as thick as fog.

  • Big Norah Jones influences, but without the swing and pop notes, meaning it all ends up feeling a bit aimless. Exceptionally slow songs. She'll probably only have time for two in her set.

  • DJ. 

  • Local young 'uns doing inoffensive and straightforward DIY indie-folk. A few seedlings of good ideas in there, but it all needs more time in the musical grow bag.

  • Accessible, well-worked grunge pop, summoning up bits of Alanis Morrissette, The Cranberries and Wolf Alice.

    Click to listen:

    Break the Girl

    Hanging Out to Dry

  • Afrobeat and house come together to serve up a rootsy-dance concoction that gets your toes tapping.

  • Chirpy, Cardigans-ish lightweight pop. Well put together toe-tappers, but you'll find more angst in an episode of Teletubbies.

  • Big Joni Mitchell influences in these mainly slow, heartfelt pop strollers. Gets a bit more interesting when they up the pace.

    Click to listen:

    Mama, My Heart Is Achin'

  • They describe their sound as 'Chilli Heatwave Dorito' (no, really). Not sure what Kurt Cobain would make of that, given the efforts they make to sound like Nirvana, topped up with some spritely punk-pop.

  • As it says on the tin.

  • Swirly psych-pop that sits somewhere between a toned down version of The Music and Mogwai.

  • DJ set.

  • Afrobeat, latin pop. I don't know much about Jennifer Lopez, but she's about the best I've got in terms of comparisons. 

  • Kendal Calling resident DJ.

  • Asian DJ.

  • Had whopping hits in the form of Let Me Show You and Rhythm is a Mystery which are dancefloor staples to this day.

  • Afrobeat, dub and soul offerings, all done pretty convincingly as far as my untrained ears can tell.

  • As synonymous with Kendal Calling as warm beer, rain and overflowing shitters.

  • An indie singer-songwriter doing fairly sickly sweet numbers that draw on Jay Kay's delivery style, but….. but..... they're pretty bloody catchy. I'll feel dirty going, but I think I'll enjoy it (I just won't admit it).

    Click to listen:

    Nothing We Can Do

  • Straight off the conveyor belt of jovial, chorus-heavy indie pop, served up by a bunch of young Geordies. Faint echoes of Maximo Park, Futureheads and latter day outfits like The Snuts.

  • This lands somewhere between Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash and Laura Marling. Great voice when she finally decides to open up the pipes.

  • DJ

  • Touches of Belle and Sebastian, Lightning Seeds and Tim Burgess solo stuff in these indie-lite offerings. It won't hurt your ears but nor will it raise your pulse.

  • Asian DJ.

  • Lancaster rockers serving up tunes straight from the Thunder, Wildhearts and Ugly Kid Joe songbooks. There's a lot of hair and I imagine they all own at least one pair of concerningly tight leather trousers.

  • If it's the guy I've listened to (one of the founders of Brian Jonestown Massacre) then it's lo-fi desert rock, with notes of Neil Young, Beck and psychedelia.

  • Grime and dubstep DJ.

  • Drum and bass fused with vaudeville jazz and ragtime. For anyone who's visited the Chai Wallah tent, this kind of stuff has been their bread and butter for years.

  • DJ with a difference. He plays a massive electronic drumkit (25+ pads) to get loops and samples, essentially resulting in covers of big well known bangers. Clever guy.

  • Fontaines DC influences, straying into a kind of edgy electro-punk.

    Click to listen:

    Man of Ill Repute

    The Kids Are

  • Asian DJ.

  • Digestible and sincere soulful pop. Hints of Sheryl Crow and Joni Mitchell. Seems happy to stay firmly in the middle of the road, but you'll hear far worse. 

  • Lovely voice, but it's set to lightweight R&B originals that would be a bit on the dreary side for Smooth FM.

  • Fontaines tribute act.

  • Aussie surf slacker rock from these childhood friends. Been done umpteen times before, but there's an unpolished, natural, 'for the love of it' feel that can't help but draw me in.

    Click to listen:

    Heavy in the Morning

    She Said

  • These reviews get hard to write when it's yet another bunch of clean cut lads with guitars who can write a big radio-friendly chorus and sing about girls. Just sounds a bit middle class and sales driven.

  • Grunge-pop band number #96 of this year's review. The usual suspects are all identifiable - Garbage, Skunk Anansie, Cranberries, all tempered with a bit of pop sweetener. Fine and clearly a la mode.

  • Legends of the game who'll no doubt have the crowd loving it with Movin' On Up, Loaded, Country Girl, Jailbird et al.

  • Scouse jangly guitar popsters who've beefed up their sound over the years. Now it sits somewhere between Humbug-era Arctic Monkeys, early Kasabian and spaghetti western.

    Click to listen:

    Crush

    Wild

  • Slow, pop ballady numbers. In trying to sound deep and ethereal, they end up being the musical equivalent of a general anaesthetic.

  • Electronic, dance-driven Africana. Not my usual go-to, but this is pretty interesting stuff.

    Click to listen:

    Humanity

  • Lovely rich voice on these jazz meets neo-soul numbers. Close your eyes and the whole thing could be someone on Stars in Their Eyes saying "tonight Matthew, I'm going to be Amy Winehouse".

  • Drum and bass DJ.

  • Wants to be all ballsy rock like Led Zep, but ends up somewhere much nearer to Bon Jovi and Deff Leppard. 

  • Jazzy, rootsy, African-improv stuff. Concerningly long trumpet and saxophone solos feature all too prominently.

  • Rapper/MC dropping his lines over 90s-sounding dance-infused backing tracks.  

    Click to listen:

    Jessica

  • Stetson wearing rootin' tootin' country and western singer from….. Lancaster. She introduces the songs in the queen's English and then sings like Dolly Parton.

  • Here we go again. Libertines, first edition Arctic Monkeys, Milburn, The Rifles. If you're a young 'un oblivious to those bands, this will sound fresh and urgent. To the more jaded, it does not.

  • Not sure if this is a band or a bar. If it's the former then it's Irish fiddly jig music.

  • Energetic acoustic outfit dishing up crowd-friendly covers.

  • Wigan's own indie darlings, serving up a tasting plate that offers a bit of The Housemartins, a bit of The Smiths and (more recently) a sturdier Editors sound.

  • See The Cases. They've taken the very same influences (early Arctic Monkeys, Libertines, Milburn) but then some helmet has leant them a Jamiroquai record and they've started ripping off his vocals. 

  • Cross-genre novelty act best suited to kids parties and as a warm-up act for Orvil the Duck.

  • Manchester-based orchestra giving pop hits the upbeat classical treatment.

  • Milburn founder and member of Arctic Monkeys' touring band. But his solo stuff is such a rip-off of The Car era Arctic Monkeys (and his voice so Turner-like) that it almost sounds like he's taking the piss. 

  • Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Pearl Jam. They're all here in spades in these straightforward but inoffensive pop-grunge numbers. Indistinct but fine.

  • Bits of Kate Nash and Lily Allen here and there, and in parts they have a go at being All Saints, but it's all a bit twee and prep school-ish from these sisters local to the Kendal area.

  • It's hard to know what to say about stuff like this. It's nice, it's polite, it draws on Jack Johnson, David Gray, Badly Drawn Boy, but it's just…. jangly nothingness. The songs come and go like a fart in a gale.  

  • Folky stuff, from sea shanties to Levellers-esque pop to Baltic hoedowns.  

  • Now four albums in, it's a pretty comfortable formula: Two Door Cinema Club meets The K's, creating guitar-driven pop ditties that you could take home and introduce to your mum.

  • Doom punk. Gloomy heavy metal ballads fused with bits of hardcore punk. And quite a lot of shouting.

  • Dreamy pop, shoegaze, occasionally into a bit of grunge from this well-loved outfit. It's all gone a bit poppy recently - like the Spice Girls covering Fleetwood Mac - but they're still doing huge numbers.