Slyde – devizine.com

Images: Jess Worrow

Well my friends the time has come; Park Farm Music Festival sure went from zero to hero in one swift and fantastic Saturday……

Nestled between Fulltone and the Scooter Rally, two established events on the calendar at the same Devizes site, Park Farm, the self-titled music festival’s inaugural outing last year deserved more attention. Perhaps with Nirvana and AC/DC tributes its lineup greatly directed towards rock, but more so because it takes time for the worth of any new festival to become realised.

If I’ve waffled about how, despite it being a new venture in Devizes, the organisers have twenty-five plus years of experience hosting Mantonfest, a gorgeous family event adored in Marlborough, I could only hope folk took heed. The organisers this year went with more universal appeal for its lineup. For whatever reason, it worked, and I was delighted by the announcement that Park Farm Music Festival sold out this year.

Those who had cottoned on left impressed. I’m not here to flatter anyone, I say it like it is, you know this. But proof the organisers aimed to impress, particularly Devizes folk, use the example of the town’s most beloved blues legend Jon Amor and his drum and bass section Tom and Gerry, rocking the stage while I could still taste toothpaste. A brilliant beginning to what will be a mighty fine day.

The other Devizes favourite present, Ben Borrill and Pat Ward’s Matchbox Mutiny took twice to a side stage towards the end, and with their fun but proficiently delivered covers they absolutely rinsed any expectations the side stage was merely an interim whilst tribute acts soundchecked.

Knowing how amazing they are, I expected this much of Ben and Pat. My pleasant surprise on the alternative “Moonrakers” stage was a young Hungerford-based trio called Station. They’ve gone from gigging Marlborough’s Green Dragon to national tours, and it was easy to see why.

Feelgood and carefree songs of oceans, driving away and how fake gold jewellery makes your finger turn green, were joyfully delivered with zest in a unique eighties mod-Two Tone punkish come subtle Levellers-esque mesh. Though I love what I’ve heard of them, I’m not completely informed, but would liken Station to the Coral, and believe it’s an apt and deserved comparison. I went straight for the Instagram follow, because they delighted the crowd with natural flair.

Mantonfest wouldn’t be Mantonfest without veterans Barrelhouse, and equally they bring their vintage blues with a groove to its baby sister Park Farm. If it’s standard issue, it’s a deserved badge of honour. Following Jon Amor wasn’t going to be easy, being this is Devizes, and Devizes loves Jon. Yet, Barrelhouse’s show is so insatiable it’s catching on here, via memorable gigs at The Southgate and hey, didn’t I book them at Rowdefest for this very reason?! Ah, they did it, as they do each time, an explosion of jump blues mixing covers with originals which no one bothers to untangle, because it so absolutely rocks.

The remaining day at this brilliant communal and genial festival was vetted tributes. In chronological order, too hot for mirror-disc top hats, Slade tribute Slyde wonderfully homaged the seventies glam era, got elders worked into an early frenzy and younger onlookers mesmerised by the catchiness of those ostentatious anthems. I knew they would, I’ve seen them before, albeit it was a Mantonfest Christmas party, still, yeah, they had to encore with the unseasonal classic Slade yell, and with exceptional expertise.

The stage was ready for the second tribute to seventies/eighties pop, and undoubtedly the most invariably treasured, Abba. Abba Inferno hail from Swindon rather than Sweden and with Scandinavian accents intended to jest about this. The general banter and party-dance crowd encouragement of Inferno was second-to-none, and if Abba tributes are two-to-a-penny, with apt costumes and their dedication to the defining sound, this was the best one I’ve bore witness to.

With the evening still young I could criticise we peeked too soon with tribute acts, but with the crowds roused now, I remained confident the organisers know better, and know exactly what buttons to press. The penultimate act was ultimate for my personal tastes and seemingly the majority at Park Farm too. Self-styled Badness attributes Madness, Bad Manners and merges other Two-Tone acts into one of the most entertaining, lively and Northern humoured amusing tribute acts I’ve ever seen. It’s one of those who will force anyone younger and unaware of the music of the period into some dedicated after-study, while thoroughly skanking those in the know.

Fulltone may have had a great and energetic Madness tribute, but I wished those at Lower Park Farm last weekend were here once again, because Badness would have banged them to rights. This was the peak of the evening, not forgoing Matchbox Mutiny filled in the gap with another astounding second half.

While talking about badness, bad was my research for our preview of Park Farm, as the Queen tribute I had seen at a previous Mantonfest wasn’t the same one as here. They were The Boheniems, and they were the best Queen tribute I’ve ever seen, but, apologies for the assumption, that mistake; this Queen tribute was called One Vision, and unfortunately, while satisfactory, failed to deliver quite the same impact. Nevertheless, it was late, folk had had so much fun, and with sufficient alcohol in their system, it did not matter. One Vision was enjoyable, and a great end to an absolutely fantastic festival at Park Farm.

Just like glorious Mantonfests of yore, this festival was so carefree and friendly. With an adequate scattering of food and drink options, there may need to be more to entertain the kids, and we look forward to side-attractions blossoming here, but for the music lovers this is one mighty fine event, and one you should mark on next year’s calendar if you’ve not already. If I’m singing Abba songs all week, please excuse me!!

In an attempt at a humorous Facebook status update a few years back I wrote a list headlined “it’s not Christmas until….” One option was “Hanz Gruber falls from the Nakatomi Plaza,” and another was “Noddy Holder calls it.” With Alan Rickman sadly passed, and a “will-they-won’t-they” Slade reform scenario apt for NME speculation clickbait, neither look likely. But the latter was as close as dammit last night in the glorious Marlborough College Memorial Hall, when, thanks to the MantonFest team, Slade tribute Slyde supremely tore down the impressively high ceiling with a retrospective seventies glam rock extravaganza. Yep, it’s now officially Christmas by my reckoning!

Though the Noddy-a-like frontman teased the audience he wouldn’t play Slade’s seasonal magnum opus, when they did, obviously for a finale, I was deep in conversation with purple goatee-bearded harmonica player, Nick Beere of supporting act Barrelhouse, about our dad’s make of cars in the seventies! The topic spurred by something the Noddy-alike (let’s call him by stage-name Nobby Boulder hereafter,) jested on stage, in true Black Country fashion, praising their attributing decade, “we all knew someone who drove a Ford Cortina!” Which coincidentally occurred just as I was contemplating the best method of assessing the value of a tribute act is to consider if a fan you know would appreciate them, and my dad loved Slade….and yeah, he drove a brown Cortina too!

For while uncannily looking and sounding akin to Slade to the point Nobby was mistaken for him in the street and actual band members endorse them, Slyde refrained from simply belting out their celebrated discography, opting to meld them with other sing-along classics of the glam era, only in the fashion Slade would’ve covered them in. This formed more a seventies nostalgia show than simply a tribute to one act, yet somehow retained the ambience of a Slade gig with silver disc top hats on. I mention this element now to answer the last paragraph’s question, would my dad have loved it? Undoubtedly, he would’ve, and been up doing his unique dad dancing, to the point I could envision his smirk through the crowds of bopping Marlborough folk. I was nailing “most definitely” prior to the icing on the cake, that being the final blast of Jeff Beck’s Hi Ho Silver Lining, as here is a tune which uncompromisingly dragged my dad to any dancefloor, to the point I parodied the lyrics into my eulogy to him.

But covers came thick, fast, and accomplished, much to the audience’s delight. Betwixt Slade’s greatest hits they were treated to Bowie’s Rebel Rebel, Sweet’s Fox on the Run and, Blockbuster in a medley with Gene Genie, Rod’s Maggie May, even Showaddywaddy’s Under the Moon of Love and Joan Jett’s I Love Rock n Roll, among others which included seasonal favourite Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. In YouTubing other Slade tributes, including the ingeniously named all-female one Slady, nothing appears to be of the calibre of Slyde, such is the ethos when MantonFest choose a tribute act, heralding two at this summer’s festival; Rolling Stones Now and Badness.

For me personally, I might, on another day, rant on a loathing of the glam rock genre, because I’m of the era just past this, when it was considered uncool to like what your parents liked. But hearing these seventies anthems, played so thoroughly loud and proudly, was pure and embracing nostalgia for me, and certainly too for the elders of the vast age demographic present.

As reminiscences flooded my neurons last night, of family parties, of driving to the tip with my dad, and so many others when these classics were embedded in my mind from the Cortina’s mono shortwave radio, I’m at the age when I can shake off trends, and proudly announce these were my songs of growing up, no matter how I’d never wear platform shoes with goldfish in, they were what shaped my eclectic tastes. In conclusion to this point, it is one thing for me to praise a Bob Marley tribute act, or other firmly of my darlings, but for something slightly out of my like bracket, like Slade, I might be a tad more critical, yet Slyde ticked every box for me, and were utterly fantastic.

One could deem Slade an easy target to tribute, on account as was the era, Noddy was a shouty vocalist and the band took themselves with a pinch of salt, but those memorable gritty choruses were performed in such a precise manner by Nobby, that this ranks topper-most on the tribute acts list I’ve borne witness to.

Of course, this was assisted by the astounding venue and its acoustics, something which took the support act, Barrelhouse to another level of professionalism. Ah, yeah, let’s not forget to mention, before all this, this vintage blues band stalwart of any MantonFest event was present, and typically performed a belter. A set change due to a broken string on Tim’s handmade cigar-box guitar didn’t falter their blinding performance, for if seeing a Springsteen gig in New Jersey is on another level from seeing a Springsteen gig elsewhere, it’s a similarity with Barrelhouse on their home turf of Marlborough.

It never ceases to amaze me how this band, their excellence in being united, can attract such a vast age demographic by both covering the old-timey jump blues classics of Bo Diddly and Howlin’ Wolf et al, and arranging their own original songs akin to this notion. It can only be these are timeless, as Barrelhouse knock out their regular setlist I never tire of hearing, of Hoochie Coochie Man, and You Can’t Judge a Book, alongside the 12-bar version of Ace of Spades, finale of Everybody Needs Somebody to Love and an added Shakey Christmas cover for seasonal effect.

Breathtakingly on form Barrelhouse looked last night in these impressive surroundings, and making full use of the circular extended stage. Wow, what a venue, and what a night; It’s Christmasssss at Marlborough College’s Memorial Hall!