Malvern Rocks
Friday, August 2nd to Sunday, August 4th, 2024
I suppose it could be something to do with advancing age, but to be honest I never really have got on too well with ‘Festivals in Fields’ and in recent years, I’ve been turning more and more to urban music festivals.
Of course, we’re exceptionally fortunate to have the Big Kahuna of urban festivals in this area, the mighty Worcester Music Festival, but if you look a little deeper into the local music scene, you’ll find festivals like Tewkesbury Live, Coleford Music Festival and the recently revived and fast-growing Malvern Rocks which I had the pleasure of visiting last weekend.
You don’t have to dig too far down to find a rich seam of musical talent in and around this leafy spa town, and in the second year of its revival, under the guiding hand of Ralph Tittley and his organising committee there’s almost 80 acts playing in twelve different venues over three days, with a strong emphasis on original music.
I decide on a gentle, acoustic (mostly) intro on the Friday and head to Bar Limon, a Spanish themed tapas eatery – yes, I did eat there and it was delicious – it was a really good choice. Kurisu, the performance name of Christopher Johnston is first up and this is distinctly a performance of two halves. The first is a conventional and highly competent guitar-based set with streamed beats and live vocals and then, there is a complete transformation as he brings out a sitar, sits cross-legged on an elaborately decorated rug and plays a self-penned raga of satisfying length and great beauty. A most unusual start to the Festival.
Next up is an artist I’ve wanted to see for a long time, Cardiff’s Milly Mason (Pictured at Bar Limon Friday) still only sixteen years old, her progress has been remarkable as she only started playing and composing four years ago but already has three singles, several festival appearances and a handful of support slots under her belt. Her guitar technique is solid – it needs to be, as the background hubbub is rising steadily – her voice pitch perfect and the depth of the lyrics belies her youth. She finishes with her latest single, “Stuck Here at the Crossroad” which for me was the highlight of an excellent set – definitely well worth the wait. A bright future beckons.
Now, Sienna Lily is something of an enigma, as my pre-festival homework has turned up precious little about her, except that she is ‘new to the industry’ – how new, I don’t find out until later… She looks somewhat hesitant and suddenly, without an introduction launches into the first song of what is to be a vigorous, somewhat disjointed but highly intriguing set. Her piano technique is extremely fluent and driven by a thunderous left hand – I doubt if she reaches above Middle C for the entire first half – and the voice, oh goodness, the voice. She is a young woman of very slight build, so where her voice, a rich booming mezzo flirting frequently with contralto comes from is anyone’s guess – it is absolutely astonishing. The whole atmosphere of the set is broodingly Gothic, raised up a notch mood-wise with what proves to be her final song and new single, ‘F.O.R.E.V.E.R.’ Speaking to her afterwards, I find that it’s her first gig. One to watch, and no mistake.
Connie Gordon will need no introduction to music fans in the Malverns and wider afield and she gives an immaculate display of why she’s been a stalwart of the local scene for close to ten years. The clarity of her voice, allied to her assured guitar technique and considerable songwriting skills make for an absolutely glorious sound. But the nuances of her performance, which includes an an absolute nailing of Chris Isaak’s, ‘Wicked Game’ is being lost in the noise of a packed restaurant. I hope to see her again in much more peaceful surroundings.
It’s just a very short walk down Church Road to The Water Cure, a distinguished palladian-fronted building and for a moment, I think I’ve walked in to the wrong place, the lush chandeliers, the chaises longues, the elegant cocktails being sipped… But it turns out we’re upstairs, and there we are treated to a set of exceptional power and visual splendour from Worcester’s duo, The Arboretum (Pictured The Arboretum at The Water Cure Friday). And as if to celebrate their name, there’s a damned great artificial tree in the middle of the room, against which I lean, taking pictures through gaps in the leaves and smacking my head frequently on the low branches. If you’ve not seen The Arboretum play, it is an extraordinarily immersive experience in which your eyes and ears vie to work out which of them is having the better time. The music is a rich amalgam of psych, rock and trance and even though there’s only two of them, brothers Chris and Keith Trim, it sounds like the proverbial cast of thousands on stage. The ‘Metropolis’ inspired backdrop visuals are absolutely stunning, organic buildings rise up out of the earth, flying machines and rockets whizz across the screen, which fills and refills with nightmarish piles of skulls. One young woman who wanders in late looks like she’s walked into a brick wall – an absolutely priceless moment… A fabulous end to the first day!
I wake up on Saturday feeling ghastly and end up in Malvern too late to get a place to see Connie Gordon’s second set in the tiny Dirty D’s doughnut shop – a real shame, but there will be other times… After a serious coffee and a lush toastie, I climb the Church Street hill, which appears suddenly to have a 1-in-3 gradient to The Unicorn, a pub with an enormous literary history to see Phwoar (and I bet some of you said that in Sid James’ voice, didn’t you?) a garage and post punk duo from Birmingham. I don’t know what it is about bands of this makeup but I could watch the likes of Leisure Tank and Liars at the Witch Trial all day – now I’m adding Phwoar to that list. This is a superbly played set, hugely energetic, crisp, punchy three-minute-or-under gems delivered with great good humour. Highly recommended.
Energised but still feeling far from great, I walk down the hill to meet my friend Andrew at Priory Park Bandstand for my only alfresco gig of the weekend, to see the mighty Capas from Worcester. Fresh from their brilliant set at Tewkesbury Live the previous weekend, they pack out the bandstand and pretty much most of the park’s gentle slopes and seriously deliver for a very enthusiastic crowd in the bright sunshine. They’ve got a couple of subs in today, including a fourteen year old baritone sax player – a band this big must take some getting together in one place – but there’s absolutely no loss of quality as they power through their beautifully arranged and highly diverse set. They’re joined midway through by the glorious voice of Polly Edwards, adding another layer to an already multi-tiered performance. Superb.
Can I manage another set? Go on then, just one more… And for me, this is an unusual one as dance music isn’t normally on my agenda, but the credentials of AudioGenika (Pictured AudioGenika at The Unicorn Saturday), including support slots with The South, Go West and China Crisis swing the balance. And my word, what a good decision this proves to be. This is a technically gifted and perfectly balanced act with Dan Armstrong on keys/samples/beats providing a perfect foil/counterpoint to SarahB Ladybnow’s glorious vocals. This is a one-woman psychedelic explosion – animated, highly amusing, totally at one with the music and the audience and with a voice that would grace any genre she chose to apply it to. There’s a mixture of originals and reworked covers all presented with skill and consummate stagecraft in the rather sparse performance area. Hugely entertaining. Go and see them!
I had one mission on the final day and that was to get seriously rocked.
In the enormously welcoming surroundings of The Three Horseshoes on the outskirts of Malvern, I watched three exceptional bands go through their paces, aided in no little measure by a superb sound tech – an outstanding feature of the whole festival.
There’s a hiatus at the start as we wait for Blanco Negra from Birmingham but sadly, they’ve broken down on the motorway, so after a very nice pint and a packet of Walker’s, I’m more than ready for Bristol’s Sorry Park who deliver an absolutely no-holds-barred set of highly energetic pop-punk, precisely delivered with a great flourish. A highly committed and very entertaining outfit.
Even though it’s been great to see the youngsters bringing their energy to the stages this weekend, there’s also great satisfaction seeing artists ‘d’un certain âge’ strutting their stuff. Trash Flower from Gloucestershire pack a real punch with a mixture of alt rock and driving hard rock – it’s an absolutely modern sound, fronted by the powerful vocals of Aimee Flatt and with the added bonus of a splendid display of guitar playing by Charlie Paxford. Can’t wait to see them play again.
A familiar face greets me – Scott Ewins from the excellent White Noise Cinema – but he’s also a member of the band who several people had told me not to miss – Jiksaw from Worcester. After a couple of wonderful songs, it’s clear that this is an outfit who have everything I need in a band – glorious lead vocals, tighter than tight rhythm section, seriously good backing vocals, topped with face-melting guitar and coiled heaviness in one jaw-dropping package. A brilliant finish to my weekend!
Thanks to all who helped set this Festival up, provided the venues, played the music and delivered the sound – it was an absolute blast!
By: Review and photography: Geoffrey Head