Outside the main venue the usual suspects of the Socialist Worker's Party were out in force, with their usual rhetoric of 'Smash the BNP'. We chatted to a very engaging young chap about it for a while, but I still think that the most effective topic is simply to laugh at the racists and point out how self contradictory and empty their policies are. I suspect that the positive fun of the carnival will have persuaded more young people to make the effort to vote, and that those votes will be for anyone but the BNP.
We made our way into the car park where the event was being held and bagged a decent spot near to the front and centre stage. Unfortunately it wasn't long before the rain set in, but Jan had had the foresight to pack a couple of plastic ponchos which kept us mostly dry and also fended off some of the beer that started flying around later on.
Anyhoo, onto the music. There was a fine variety on offer, including two acts currently in the top ten - Roll Deep and Chipmunk - that I hadn't even heard of, but that's me getting old, I think. I enjoyed Roll Deep and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, but the two standouts were the Blackout and Reverend and the Makers. The Blackout were full of energy and great fun to watch, engaging the crowd with a very positive vibe and getting lots of people singing along and jumping up and down. Reverend and the Makers are a Sheffield band with a similar vocal style and themes to the Arctic Monkeys, but with a much richer musical style, including keyboard noodling that put me in mind of Muse in places. Excellent performance, only slightly marred by the sound cutting out a couple of times.
So, this morning I was aching and could barely croak above a whisper, but boy, was it worth it!
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