Full A-Z
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Brittle, timid acoustic folk songs sung in a falsetto style which conjures up thoughts of Jimmy Somerville. If there's a loud burp in the crowd it will drown this out.
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Yikes. It's ramrod street punk, twatting you in the ears whether you like it or not. At first I thought I was playing it at double speed, but that's just how fast they have to go to get all their anger out.
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Maudlin, introspective singer-songwriter fodder. Lovely voice, but I've seen glaciers move at a quicker pace than most of her songs.
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Asian DJ.
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Sounds like early Kate Tempest, i.e., London-bred politicised hip hop and soul. Supported Public Enemy, no less.
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Comedian.
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Clean, hygienic soul-pop not too dissimilar to Olivia Dean. She chucks in a few of the vocal gymnastics from Beyonce et al, but to be fair, she can clearly sing.
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Female trio from the Lakes dishing up pop covers (Olivia Rodrigo, First Aid Kit) mixed in with some originals which are unlikley to trouble the charts to the same extent.
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Metal band, mixing their own stuff with Pantera covers. Not one for a quiet pint and a sit down, that's for sure.
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Nirvana. Just Nirvana. That's the review. It's so Nirvana that they'd better hope they're not served with a plagiarism writ if these songs ever get big.
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Arctic Monkeys tribute act.
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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.
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Best known for Dookie-era Green Day power pop anthems.
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Jam tribute act.
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A rootsy Janelle Monae. Great voice delivering sassy soul and R&B.
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DJs churning out the big Manc anthems into the wee hours.
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Karaoke but with a live band.
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Adam and the Ants original drummer, now doing stuff that's got hints of Fat Boy Slim and Transglobal Underground. Rhythmic, beats-driven funky dub and soul, if that makes any sense.
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DJ, beatboxer and live looper. Doesn't appear to have a beard.
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The musical lovechild of Sam Fender and Gary Barlow. Neat and tidy toe-tappers with an extra thick coating of pop varnish. Like so many acts in this review, you kinda wish they'd just experiment a bit more.
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An alt-country artist from Manchester. Like a C&W Jake Bugg I suppose. Worth a watch in Tim Peaks if Americana and Nashville stuff tickles your doodah.
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Big rocky anthems from this girl-fronted outfit. For fans of Garbage and Paramore.
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Full fat Riot Grrrl punk that'll give your ears a proper seeing to.
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30-year veterans who've stayed committed to meaty, if unfailingly commercial, rock all the way through. The British Foo Fighters, you might say.
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Jazz-electronica fusion stuff. It's part Dj-ing and part saxophone playing.
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Britpop bag carriers who robbed from Parklife-era Blur, Sleeper and others, giving each tune a 'school talent contest' reworking. You can tell I'm a fan, right?
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Theatrical goth rock. Kate Bush mixed with PJ Harvey and the Rocky Horror Show.
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Pop-grunge, not dissimilar to L7 in some places and Wolf Alice in others. There's some Pixies-do-goth happening as well.
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Fiery Irish four-piece channelling Deftones, Fontaines, Nirvana and the heavier bits of Radiohead to create accessible noise-pop. You can easily imagine them getting big.
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DJ
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Dark ambient, lo-fi dance stuff. He does the live looping and layering thing, rather than just hitting 'play' on his phone.
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Folk-punk with a strong Scottish accent. It's the Pogues, The Jam, Gerry Cinnamon and the Mary Wallopers all in one scruffy package.
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Melodic gloom-pop, mixing bits of Radiohead with Jeff Buckley and Florence.
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Handsome, sensible balladeer emptying the cupboard marked "pop-rock cliches". Big choruses, Gary Barlow pained expressions, the lot. Somewhere between Springsteen and a tackier Benjamin Francis Leftwich.
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For fans of Bilk and the fusing of spoken word with punky backing tracks. It's a bit tacky and has a 'youth club band' feel to it, but it looks like it'll be a lively set.
Click to listen:
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Ryan Adams and a bit of Springsteen in this Sunderland mob's grown-up guitar-pop numbers. Feels like they're playing within themselves, but it's tidy and well-articulated nonetheless.
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They seem to do two types of songs: ones that sound like Keane and ones that sound like The Kooks. Decide for yourself if that's a good thing.
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Lake District folky singer with nods to Sarah McLachlan. Songs are on the slower side, but she's got a nice voice.
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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.
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Gothy, harp-laden ballads from a singer who's schtick seems to be 'Florence on downers'.
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Soul-poppy numbers which trot along just fine, but don't do a right lot. There's a trail of breadcrumbs to Bloc Party, maybe, and occasional tiptoes towards grime sounds, but it's pretty mainstream fodder.
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Smooth, easy going disco-dance numbers. Imagine M People if they didn't have Heather Small and only wrote songs when they were feeling tired.
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These guys live in the 70s and only own records by Led Zeppelin and T Rex. Cliched, balls-out rock.
Click to listen:
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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.
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DJ
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See Ellur. Like that but more moody. Sings a bit like Suzanne Vega, which is a plus, but the music smacks of when a member of a boy/girl band leaves and tries their hand at diet-rock, i.e., pish.
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Biffy Clyro and You Me At Six mixed with a Radio 1 Roadshow. Solid, occasionally powerful-ish guitar pop, but heavily sweetened to the point of being a bit on the yucky side.
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Melancholy gloom which sits there sulking in between grunge and metal. See you there, yeah?
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Emphasis on the dick.
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DJs
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Noisy grunge-punk. Bits of melody here and there but it's mainly face-punching angst.
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It has a catchy, loose alt-country feel combined with bits of Haim and Big Moon. Not half bad.
Click to listen:
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Hip hop DJ.
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DJ
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Smooth jazz pop instrumentals. Not quite the wanky noodling of fully-fledged jazz, but in that general "oooh, look at me, I'm really good at this" ballpark.
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They've come a long way since they were Sub Sub doing Ain't No Love. Personally I don't get it, but they're adored by many and can pull out a few tubthumpers to get the masses bouncing.
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DJs dressed as Nintendo characters knocking out partytime crowd pleasers.
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It's dance music at its core, but they give it the big-band jazz treatment. It's happy stuff: lots of audience interaction, "let me see those hands" and all that carry on.
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Discovered by Gerry Cinnamon, who presumably thought, "he sounds just like me". Catchy, working class acoustic folk with an accent as thick as fog.
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Most of it is Morcheeba-sounding chill, but then they share a can of Monster, get all ratty and turn into Siouxsie and the Banshees. I just hope they warn the crowd before that happens. Well, I say 'crowd'…
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Seems to be loads of this stuff around. Could-easily-be-AI sensible guitar pop. Song writing by numbers, but perfectly pleasant all the same. CMAT, Kacey Musgraves, that sort of thing. Her dad plays in Embrace.
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A coming together of jazz, funk and indie. Energetic and a bit cheesy (or maybe that's just me not being mad into funk), but respect to them for trying something a bit different.
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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.
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Cumbrian girl-fronted indie-rockers, but they're only just out of the starting gate in terms of musical tekkers and togetherness. It's all a bit demo-ish and shy at the moment.
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DJ
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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.
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Not the straightforward tribute act you might expect, but remixers/DJs giving Fleetwood Mac biggees the dancefloor treatment.
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Hmmm, hard to categorise this mob. Some songs are a like a heavier Fleet Foxes, some are Foo Fighters rip-offs and some are a sort of pared back Prodigy. Fair play for not being one trick ponies, I'll say that.
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Accessible, well-worked grunge pop, summoning up bits of Alanis Morrissette, The Cranberries and Wolf Alice.
Click to listen:
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Ed Sheeran in Stone Island (sartorially and musically). Major chord radio-friendly fodder which more able reviewers would probably call something like "infectious pop".
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DJ
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Pop royalty with a silky smooth voice.
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It's like Idles meets Depeche Mode. Industrial and cranky, but with a pop side that smooths the edges a bit.
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Dubwise, D&B full throttle numbers with south London-style rapping over the top (except they're from Bristol).
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Afrobeat and house come together to serve up a rootsy-dance concoction that gets your toes tapping.
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Chirpy, Cardigans-ish lightweight pop. Well put together toe-tappers, but you'll find more angst in an episode of Teletubbies.
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Big Joni Mitchell influences in these mainly slow, heartfelt pop strollers. Gets a bit more interesting when they up the pace.
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Same as Park View, i.e., Aldi middle aisle version of DMAs, Catfish and Sam Fender. Dot-to-dot indie. Beige emulsion of music.
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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.
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As it says on the tin.
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Another (yes, another) shoegaze-grunge-pop wannabe harking back to the 90s with driven guitars and droning vocals. Garbage, I paid you no mind at the time, but my goodness you have a lot to answer for now.
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Hard to Beat, Living for the Weekend etc. Still knocking out stuff that sounds like that to this day, just a bit more middle aged.
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All sorts happening here. Noah and the Whale, lightweight Chilli Peppers and smooth 70s-era Hollies. Harmonies aplenty in each tune. Has the potential to the weekend's wildcard.
Click to listen:
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If slow motion acoustic grunge was a genre, this would be it. Not particularly unpleasant per se, but it's music that sounds like it's in need of a good feed.
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Swirly psych-pop that sits somewhere between a toned down version of The Music and Mogwai.
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Angry space-rockers. The Fall meets Joy Division meets The Sugarcubes and they all have a massive bar fight.
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60s soul, Motown, R&B DJs.
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Influences from The Streets and Scroobius Pip. Political commentary set to fast-paced beats and breaks.
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90s-influenced dance DJs.
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DJ set.
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Abba tribute act.
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Poppy D&B mixed with happy hardcore. Best known for sampling the signature string line from Bittersweet Symphony for her hit Bittersweet Goodbye.
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YouTuber famous for…. I'm not sure what.
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The scouse Gerry Cinnamon, doing the whole 'fist-pumping folk for the people' thing to great effect, it seems.
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For the record, this is the final act I've listened to for this year's review. And it's a sad way to end. Pretty limp, introspective folky pop, a bit like Damien Rice. I'm off to listen to Love Spreads to recover. See ya!
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Afrobeat, latin pop. I don't know much about Jennifer Lopez, but she's about the best I've got in terms of comparisons.
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DJ
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Club/house DJ.
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Fluffy pop. Feel-good Spice Girls type tunes infused with chart-friendly dance beats.
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Kendal Calling resident DJ.
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I'm calling this Hindu psych rock or Bhangra meets the Grateful Dead. Hard to know if they're taking it seriously or just taking the piss. Either way, I don't think I'll be there to find out.
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DJ.
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Enormous Wunderhorse influences with this lot, and when they're not doing that, they're being Jeff Buckley. Easy to imagine them being huge for a while.
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COPY
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Asian DJ.
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Had whopping hits in the form of Let Me Show You and Rhythm is a Mystery which are dancefloor staples to this day.
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Toe-tapping African roots-inspired beats and bass grooves, overlaid with brass instruments being blown as hard as the human lungs can manage.
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Afrobeat, dub and soul offerings, all done pretty convincingly as far as my untrained ears can tell.
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Soulful lounge jazz crossed with a bit of R&B and roots.
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As synonymous with Kendal Calling as warm beer, rain and overflowing shitters.
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COPY
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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.
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A male Lily Allen (same accent, same delivery, same ska/pop backbeats) fused with a bit of Jamie T. And if that's not enough to lure you in, he plays a ukulele.
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Sheryl Crow on valium. Nicely put together acoustic pop ditties, lovely voice, but about as much energy as an afternoon snooze.
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This lands somewhere between Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash and Laura Marling. Great voice when she finally decides to open up the pipes.
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A very rough around the edges attempt at a Fleetwood Mac sound, but it's pretty shaky and embryonic in all departments. Hard to see how they got the call for Kendal, but good luck to them.
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Now a lethargic old man with a knackered voice, he was once Morrissey's contemporary and a pop poet held in high regard by the music press. Eloquent guitar pop with nods to The Smiths and Prefab Sprout.
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Rock DJ.
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Trippy swirling pop numbers. Imagine Stevie Nicks on downers. Playing in Tim Peaks (which would be the perfect location if Burgess was selling hash cakes in there).
Click to listen:
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DJ
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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.
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Asian DJ.
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DJ/broadcaster.
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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.
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You can hear bits of the Verve, Leonard Cohen and Snow Patrol. The problem is, all those bits are incredibly slow, meaning that each song plods along like an old nanna with knackered knees.
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Battle of the Bands type competition winner (his prize is to play here) who sounds a bit like Dodgy if they were trying to sound a bit like The Libertines.
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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.
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Grime and dubstep DJ.
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They make The Wiggles sound like Led Zeppelin. Powder puff, CBeebies smiley pop. Next!
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Early 90s also-rans serving up carefully crafted jangly guitar pop. They never pushed the envelope, but they were a staple on my Matsui stereo as a 16 year-old so I'll be there for nostalgic reasons.
Click to listen:
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Not entirely sure, but I think she's a sassy singer/MC taking inspiration from Lauryn Hill, Amy Winehouse and Little Simz.
Click to listen:
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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.
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DJs
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Sigrid and Ellie Goulding tones from this Lancaster lass. Modern, well mannered pop that takes its shoes off before coming into your house and thanks you for having it when it leaves.
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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.
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Oldies who sound a bit like Echo and the Bunnymen (but sadly not the big catchy hits). Lead singer looks James May.
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Louis Armstrong vocals overlaid onto mid-tempo jazz-funk-lounge numbers. They seem to write a lot of songs about the sea (maybe because they're from Barrow).
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Young punkers whose favourite band is pretty obviously Yard Act. They can play a bit though. I'd look in.
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DJ
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Sounds like Five trying to do indie having listened to one Bloc Party album. It is to thoughtful music what Haribo Starmix is to fine dining.
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Fontaines DC influences, straying into a kind of edgy electro-punk.
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Neat and tidy, thoughtful pop reminiscent of Heather Nova. Doesn’t really go anywhere or dish up any surprises, but as carefully crafted pop fodder goes, it just about holds its own.
Click to listen:
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Asian DJ.
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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.
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There must be a lot of Nat Dempseys out there. Can sing, can write a half-decent, sincere-sounding indie-pop tune but just doesn’t have the earworm capabilities or all round x-factor. Unmemorable.
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For fans of Birdy, James Bay and Jensen McRae. Solid, soulful pop with good intentions, no bullshit or tricks, but a fairly low ceiling when it comes to invention.
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Lovely voice, but it's set to lightweight R&B originals that would be a bit on the dreary side for Smooth FM.
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Fontaines tribute act.
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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.
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Mid-paced jungle-reggae crossover tunes, often with snarly political lyrics.
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Shape-shifting pop that borrows from Status Quo, redneck yankee stuff, White Stripes and radio-friendly indie. Hard to characterise but probably fun to watch.
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Noisy alt-rockers channelling bits of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Pavement to create pretty forceful sludge-rock numbers.
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DJs
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Featherweight pop with echoes of Belle and Sebastian and Jack Johnson, but the singles sound like they recorded them during their first ever get-together. Crack on and come back in a couple of years.
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Paramore tribute act.
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Small town versions of DMAs, Catfish, Sam Fender. Hard to say it's shit but it's so predictable in its 'verse, big chorus, repeat' guitar-pop tendencies that you find yourself daydreaming while listening.
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Gritty shoegaze blues rock, pulling bits from early Verve, Ride and the wall-of-sound guitar attack that Oasis would later get credit for.
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Rapper from Preston. Not sure what else to say. He's not Rob Base or MC Tunes, put it that way, but he's using it as a way to channel his thoughts and feelings, so good on him.
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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.
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Long, veeery long, easy listening jazz numbers with spoken word over the top.
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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.
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Acoustic singer songwriter dude, hopping from soulful ballads to rootsy and then ska. His day job, though, is running Chai Wallahs.
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Legends of the game who'll no doubt have the crowd loving it with Movin' On Up, Loaded, Country Girl, Jailbird et al.
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DJs
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DJ mixing hip hop, house and Indian classical music.
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DJ
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Acoustic duo hawking out crowd-pleasing covers in a fairly perfunctory 'pub back room' fashion. What's Goin' On, Pink Pony Club, Keep On Movin'. We're not talking deep cuts here.
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Teenagers from Cleethorpes. Modern day Northern Uproar. Best seen at school fetes and U18 discos.
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Replacement/stand-in for Jacqui Abbott alongside Paul Heaton. Nice enough singer-songwriter tunes, in a KT Tunstall kind of way.
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It's the sort of poppy, boy band conveyor belt fodder they'd play at a kids disco in Tenerife. Huge choruses, zero depth. Would probably give Simon Cowell a boner.
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She's at the crossroads of alt-pop and jazz and seems to have one foot pointing in each direction. She sounds like Lucy Rose, i.e., nice voice, but naff all happening musically to stop your eyes getting heavy.
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Kate Bush meets Charlotte Church. A lot of high notes and warbling. Musically, it's mainly pretty sparse piano and bass.
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Slow, pop ballady numbers. In trying to sound deep and ethereal, they end up being the musical equivalent of a general anaesthetic.
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Super sedate, ballady stuff that occasionally shakes a leg and gets more poppy. It probably works as wine bar background music, but I doubt there'll be any shouts of 'moooore!' by the end.
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Electronic, dance-driven Africana. Not my usual go-to, but this is pretty interesting stuff.
Click to listen:
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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".
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A queasy-listening fusion of Abba, Bee Gees and Franz Ferdinand. They might just have the biggest crowd of the weekend (minus one middle-aged grump who'll be hiding by the perimeter fence in ear defenders).
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Sounds like the result of an experiment where someone accidentally mixed Mumford with Rag n Bone Man. I'll leave it, thanks.
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Badly Drawn Boy covering Married with Children, or something like that. Plod-along acoustic numbers from someone who's no doubt in love with those early Oasis b-sides.
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Drum and bass DJ.
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Good lord. Part London grime-rap outfit, part circus act, part elaborate fancy dress party. An all-round assault on the senses, that’s for sure.
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Bit like Lily Allen but without the cheeky fun side. Passable, open-hearted pop that's happy to stay in its lane.
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Wants to be all ballsy rock like Led Zep, but ends up somewhere much nearer to Bon Jovi and Deff Leppard.
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Drum and bass DJ.
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Slick, well-balanced, grown-up pop reminiscent of Deacon Blue and other pleasant but safe-as-houses bands of that ilk.
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Jazzy, rootsy, African-improv stuff. Concerningly long trumpet and saxophone solos feature all too prominently.
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Reytons, Pigeon Detectives and a tonne of other guitar bands singing about life on council estates, getting pissed and wanting something better. Fine, but been done a gazillion times before.
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Now we're talking. This is The Velvet Underground doing good quality drugs with The Libertines. Arty, bluesy rock n roll. Original? Nah, but if you like late 60s garage rock, this is for you.
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Crikey. Lightweight soul-pop straight from the rock n roll hotbed that is…... Norway. Wouldn't be out of place on a cruise ship. More bad moustaches in this band than a 70s porno.
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Rapper/MC dropping his lines over 90s-sounding dance-infused backing tracks.
Click to listen:
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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.
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Fairly standard grunge-pop. Sounds like Slowdive and lots of other shoegazers of that ilk. It's all a bit on the slow side, like when the batteries in your Walkman used to start running out.
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See Pentire. It's that same soulless, genetically cloned guitar pop, all built around massive choruses that are trying way too hard to be anthemic. This is the alcohol free beer version of indie music.
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Struggling here. Could be an indie outfit who sound like Hurricane #1, or a bunch of teens doing Early Years grunge, or a covers band from West Cumbria doing pop hits. Internet, you have failed me.
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There's about 35 of them on stage knocking out high energy afrobeat, jungle and hip-hop tunes.
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Ethereal, spindly alt-pop from an introspective guitar and keyboard two-piece. The songs never seem to get beyond about 25bpm. Must be boring as shit to rehearse.
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A 12-piece gaggle fusing heavy rock with big band brass and giving it all the beans on every number. One of a kind, I'll give them that. Could land well in a festival setting.
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Covers band knocking out the mega hits.
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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.
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Once madcap pop troubadours hopping from genre to genre, they seem happy being steady eddies these days, settling on a 'La's but quirkier' sound.
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Girl duo doing DIY post-punk two-minute pop numbers. Really basic and really catchy. Reckon they probably know four chords between them.
Click to listen:
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Clean-cut Manc lads who've been doing the polite indie singalong thing for years. Similar sound to The Sherlocks.
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Not sure if this is a band or a bar. If it's the former then it's Irish fiddly jig music.
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Now 20 years in (!), these Strokes coat-tailers do a solid line in high octane DIY guitar pop-rock. It never really gets multi-dimensional or layered, but I guess that's part of the appeal.
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Energetic acoustic outfit dishing up crowd-friendly covers.
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The singer loves Arctic Monkeys, the band loves the Foo Fighters. Not the most natural of chemical reactions, but it works pretty well.
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Beyond the Hounds of Love cover, their normal habitat is Maximo Park meets The Jam. Agit guitar pop.
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Big pop-rock numbers with a faint whiff of grunge. The driving guitars bring to mind Garbage, Ash and Skunk Anansie.
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Maybe the Lottery Winners in disguise (their last album was called Koko) or another surprise act. There doesn't seem to be a genuine band called The Kokos who'd be that high up the bill.
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One-time summer-pop indie b-listers, now hobnobbing with the big players on the arena circuit. Funny old world.
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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.
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Does the DIY indie chaos thing still work when they're in their late 40s and sober? Not for me, but they sure belong in the big print on the bill given the influence they've had on British guitar music.
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Landing somewhere between St Jude-era Courteeners and The K's, it's as predictable as it is listenable. A ready meal of modern day indie pop. Tasty but cheap.
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There's Bloc Party in there, Duran Duran, Kasabian. Confident, catchy enough modern funk(ish)-pop, but all a bit smooth and polished.
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A genre-hopping buffet of dub, krautrock, electronica and pop-noir. In the video I watched, the singer had put pineapple rings on his nipples and attached them with cellophane. Must try that.
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They've just chucked The Libertines, early Arctic Monkeys, early Courteeners and The Pigeon Detectives into a mixing bowl, given it a quick stir, baked it up and claimed it as their own. Yawn.
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Fresh from Whitehaven (David!), it's accessible indie-rock that's confident and ballsy. Familiar but keeps you interested at the same time.
Click to listen:
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Shrek tribute band. Yes, you read that correctly. They dress in Shrek costumes and knock out covers of pop mega-hits.
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Genre-shifting survivors who try their hands at disco funk, dreamy pop and electronica, all within the space of a few minutes. Requires concentration, but hats off for not playing by the usual pop rules.
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Big Catfish and the Bottlemen influences in these guitar-pop anthems. They stand apart from the crowd to some extent by way of the lead singer's really impressive vocal range.
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Big Vampire Weekend sounds in these skittish, up-tempo art college guitar pop numbers. To give these Barrow-in-Furness boys their dues, they can really play.
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Chorus-heavy lad rock from these one-time next big things. Borrows unashamedly from The Enemy, Kasabian and Reverend and the Makers, but they've also got a softer, more melodic side to keep it fresh.
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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.
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A sort of baggy Krautrock outfit. Eclectic and uncertain of its identity, but quite interesting. Fronted by the son of the late Craig Gill (Inspiral Carpets drummer).
Click to listen:
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Listenable, chorus-heavy guitar pop. Well constructed but doesn't really ignite or get interesting.
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Cross-genre novelty act best suited to kids parties and as a warm-up act for Orville the Duck.
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Lad-rock's last heroes, before all that stuff became uncool and passe. A one album wonder perhaps, but they've got big beery anthems and the drummer and guitarist can really play.
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Manchester-based orchestra giving pop hits the upbeat classical treatment.
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Posh boys who do a great line in Ramones-inspired indie shout-alongs, especially when drawing on their debut album.
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Indie's very own Andy Pandy (and a legend of the game) doing a DJ set.
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Pop video director extraordinaire.
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Young acoustic folk duo, but it's DIY-level stuff I'm afraid. The kid on guitar can do some nice fingerstyle work, but the songs have the feel of a Year 9 music project about them.
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A mix of the Bee Gees, Lionel Richie and the music from the 80s arcade game Out Run. It might be up there with the most painfully hipster things I've ever seen.
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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.
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Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Pearl Jam. They're all here in spades in these straightforward but inoffensive pop-grunge numbers. Indistinct but fine.
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Slacker alt-rock, somewhere between Grandaddy, Mazzy Star and the more melodic bits of The Pixies.
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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.
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Hardcore/happy house DJ.
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Personally I'd rather drink from the festival shitters, but that's just me. It's all a bit Timmy Mallett indie, making The Wombats sound like Iron Maiden.
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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.
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Foo Fighters tribute act.
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Asian DJ.
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Folky stuff, from sea shanties to Levellers-esque pop to Baltic hoedowns.
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Lake District teens having a bash at summery modern indie. More time in the rehearsal room needed.
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Multi-million selling pop songstress famous for Thousand Miles, now turning out stuff that I'd describe as lo-fi Bjork. I think it's safe to say Thousand Miles will be the highlight.
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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.
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Boy-girl power pop duo - she's on drums and vocals, he's on guitar. It's pretty basic 3-minute thrashing each time. The screechy agit vocals start to grate long before the first 3 minutes is up.
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Noughties survivors whose Strokes-with-happiness brand of guitar pop brought them comparisons with The Killers back in the day. Still a going concern and sure to land well with a festival crowd.
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Doom punk. Gloomy heavy metal ballads fused with bits of hardcore punk. And quite a lot of shouting.
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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.
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A bit like a jazz-infused ELO with a little bit of The Corrs. Pleasant and likeable lounge jazz pop.
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Metal/hard rock outfit from Morecambe. I don't think Metallica will be looking over their shoulders any time soon, put it that way.
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Ok, so we're talking Kraftwerk and Devo mixed with Kasabian. Arty, angular post-punk but with a groove to it. Definitely got something about it.
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