Rise Festival: Finsbury Park, London - 13/07/2008

Jul 16, 2008

This year shorn of its usual tagline of "London United Against Racism" (nice work, Boris), the Rise Festival nonetheless promised much. A beautiful, almost summery day, Jimmy Cliff, Terry Hall, Rodney P, The Aliens, fairground rides, beers in the sun, and the first ever post launch Flashlight excursion. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for a start, the buses. With an estimated 100,000 people (nearly twice the capacity of the nearby Emirates Stadium, and approximately 768 times the atmosphere, the transport into the area was a nightmare). I arrived to be told that The Aliens, the post Beta Band excursion from Gordon Anderson, John Maclean and Robin Jones, and the band that wasn't Jimmy Cliff that Flashlight most wanted to see, was almost over. From the little we heard, they were a revelation: harder and more dubby than their records suggest. Friends who saw the entire set were divided. One said that "they were ace, like a properly good 90s baggy band". Another, however, said that "they were a bit too bassy". So there you go.

Compere for the day was Beardyman, who essentially does exactly what it says on the tin: he's a man, and he most certainly has a beard. The tin omits to mention that he is an at times quite extraordinary human beatbox, capable of singing samples from classic tracks at the same time as dextrous, lavish breaks. I'd call him Freakyman.

Next up were Terry Hall, UK hip hop pioneer Rodney P, and members of the Dub Pistols, whom the irritating alternative compere squealed "have been together over 10 years!" like it was the single most profound thing she had ever had to read without rehearsing. While Rodney P and Hall were great to see, they were somewhat let down by the pedestrian Pistols.

Unfortunately, after some more beatboxing from Beardyman which appeared to blow the sound system came the 'hilariously quirky' and unutterably shit CSS. So annoying was their brand of sub Shonen Knife racket, that we left our first ever live assignment to retreat to the pub, mostly to talk about how we really should have stayed for Jimmy Cliff. He was apparently very good, but very short. I mean short in set length (the organisers pulled the plug mid set as they had broken curfew) rather than short in stature. How would I know how short he is, I've still never seen him. We will get better at this, you know.

Oliver W J Rock

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