Thursday
There's a pyrotechnic display going on above and the
sound of thunder rolls in. I can't see what's going on in the campsite, but I'm
guessing those that are set up have a sense of superiority. Hopefully they're
also providing shelter for those that aren't set up yet.
Greek dancing has
broken out in the beer tent. The lightning has got decidedly closer, judging by
the short distance between that and the thunder. The rain is intense there's
going to be a clean up operation required.
It eases back and it's virtually
stopped by the time the music's due to start.
The rain is going to dictate the first band I
see. I was going to catch Emily
Barker, but there's too much of rain and I don't want to risk the cameras on
a dash across the site.
The Radio Two stage starts in style, Quebec style,
with energy, passion and verve as Mauvis Sort (the name means Bad Spell) deliver
an opening set that really sets everything buzzing.
The band kicks off with
an up-tempo opening number that probably hasn't been since the Barely Works were
at their best.
The earlier rain meant they came out to pretty much a full
tent, which doesn't always happen on the Thursday. It really works.
Even
though they claim to have bad English, they communicate with the audience well,
both verbally and with lots of waving and clapping.
It's their Cambridge
debut, but Mauvis Sort will also be playing again later this weekend and
hopefully in the future.
They sustain their drive right through the set,
showing fitness levels as high as their musical ability.
The six piece manage
to steal themselves an extra five minutes and it's time well spent. They produce
a video camera to film the audience reaction and what a reaction it is. Then
they're off and the stage is set for Lau.
Between sets there's time to get
around the site to see how much damage the rain has done. All in all it's not
too bad. There's some serious water near the Club Tent and a few very large
puddles elsewhere, but it's not exactly Cambridge the New Orleans Year. (I'm
sure that if your tent was full of water, you probably wouldn't
agree)
Cambridge's excellent organisation, honed by years of experience kicks
in. Power is quickly restored where it had been lost. A gully truck has been
deployed to suck away the worst of the water. We would subsequently discover
that elsewhere the storm had taken out whole houses.
Lau win out over Mawkin
for the next choice of band to see. They're another act making their festival
debut, but with a membership of Martin Green, Aidan O'Rourke and Kris Drever
they've got oodles of experience at this sort of thing.
The sound draws on
the traditional music of vast tracks of the UK and then manages to flick a
contemporary twist over the top.
There's a couple of sound glitches in the
first set of tunes, but that settles down quickly and the whole set really
starts to fire up.
Whilst the tent is too crowded for the audience to really
move to the infectious sound of Lau, there's plenty of movement.
All too soon
Lau's forty minutes have come to an end and it's time for the lads to leave the
stage.