Now that we have all recovered and feel human once more, here’s a selection of pics for you to enjoy – all courtesy of the amazing Sophia Schorr-Korn – www.sskphotography.co.uk. A Massive thank you to everyone involved in the Dirty Boots Stage at Glasto 09…

xx

Somehow we’ve made it to Saturday and, as legions of Springsteen fans are still getting on-site this morning, we’re wading into the mire of the 4th full day of the Dirty Boots stage. It feels like we might never leave this place.

While The Broken Family Band are waking up most of the site from the lofty heights of the Other Stage we crack on with sinister-named newcomers Stickman Cartel taking the breakfast slot. We’re still blinking at the daylight and checking each other’s breath (in general; surprisingly fresh) when Wolf Gang become the 34th band to grace our festival stage – eat that, Boss fans. Wolf Gang bring an 80s pop-soul-disco vibe to a stage that has completely neglected the opportunity to stay on-genre for more than a band at a time and feels great for it.

Then we get Wave Machines who are great for two reasons. First, they make proper epic slabs of music that are the right side of prog – much like their near-namesakes Secret Machines their songs can go anywhere but always seem to be building to the next great melody. There’s constant swings of pace and style but it’s all coherent – they start off with small crowd still taking advantage of the venue’s deckchairs and shade in the early afternoon heat, and they end up with a group of oompa-loompas throwing shapes front and centre of the venue. The second reason to love them is that they wear masks of their own faces. Awesome.

Will & The People then return and they’ve already done enough to win us over. Will tells the people (in the crowd, not ‘The People’ in his band) about a 6am sauna experience and we’re guessing by this, his oversized sunglasses and the fact it’s not quite as raucous as their Thursday night showing, that they might have been celebrating ever since that first set.

Another return visitor is Jersey Budd who this time brings a full band with him after the acoustic showing on Wednesday. The lad’s definitely got some pipes on him and it’s like having our own Midlands Springsteen in the tent. Who needs all that Pyramid Stage nonsense anyway?

I might have imagined it but it seems like General Fiasco are our first ‘proper’ 3 piece rock band of the festival? Surely not? I’m not going to go and re-count everyone so I’m going to pass that off as fact. They’re also pretty good – they’d been opening the John Peel stage yesterday and, seeing as they’re a young 3 piece from Belfast who seem to sing about getting wasted a lot I’ll go for another great lazy comparison and say there’s a bit of Ash in their sound.

Then we get The Broken Family Band – yes the same Broken Family Band who woke us up from The Other Stage only this morning. It feels slightly like they’ve brought the PA with them too, because they’re brilliantly loud. And God bless them for doing a different setlist from their earlier gig too; their current album is called ‘Please and Thank You’ and we see changing the set around for little ol’ us as the height of politeness. Oh, and they’re awesome. There’s a slow-burning warmth and humour wrapped up in simple songwriting that makes TBFB feel like a folk band that have allowed themselves to get over-excited by the possibilities of Stadium Rock moments; not in a horrible pretentious ‘concept’ way, but in a way that means they’re not afraid to throw in big choruses and the odd blistering guitar section. Another highlight of the festival for us, and the small but hugely appreciative crowd gathered at our stage at 5pm on a Saturday afternoon.

This being DirtyBoots though we had to swing it in an entirely different direction for previous db (back in the ‘real world’) appearers Ou Est Le Swimming Pool – 3 electro-sorts from Camden with a penchant for vaguely ridiculous Euro-inspired alter-egos and great 80′s-inspired pop tunes. Which led us on nicely to…an female acoustic folk singer songwriter? Alright, it doesn’t sound like it should work but Rokhsan led us into the Saturday evening perfectly – a really distinctive and unique voice, easy kind of stage presence and our first Michael Jackson cover version meant most of the db folks just stopped to have a little sit down and listen to her for half an hour. Other than a shower, a flushing toilet, or a meal that didn’t arrive in a bun, she was just about the best thing we could have asked for at that moment.

Rumspringa stepped back into the fray and just continue to impress new people as they go, they get a little more bewitching each time you see them. Then Theoretical Girl went and got all practical on us (by actually, as opposed to just ideologically, playing a set). She turned out to be another new act who’s charming, tuneful and original – more substance than any of her perceived peers that are around this year, and with nice little nod to the melancholy, probably worth a good few listens when the mud has dried and life is back to normal.

Anyway, it’s Saturday night so it’s definitely time to find a band who have been described as ‘the future of dance music’ – there must be a few around, right? Enter Heartbreak. Turns out the future of dance music is Italo-disco. Still, Heartbreak are bona-fide gold at what they do and all of a sudden it feels like the weekend. Dance Villages are a bit pointless when you can follow up Heartbreak with MPHO. Another great set by a new artist who defies genre boundaries and is surely set to get their tunes all over your world by the end of the year? Yeah, we know; we’ve had a few of them round here in the last couple of days, but MPHO’s definitely one to look out for.

Then California’s Chief go and change it all round again – there’s a folk side to their rocking and they’re also on pretty good terms with the psyche territory that Rumspringa can venture into – so they win plenty of new friends round here. Somehow it’s after midnight now and as the main stages run out of steam Dirty Boots again becomes a kind of half-way house for the bewildered, over-stimulated temporary citizens of this part of Somerset to drag their music-crazed limbs into once other parties have given up the chase. Sound of Guns have returned to whip up a storm again, once more Andy’s speaker-climbing had most of us fearing the first serious db injury of the festival (somehow avoided by luck more than judgement), and Liverpool’s finest did us proud once more. Then it felt like we got hit-and-run by a 4-song set from fiN who seemed to be on while Sound Of Guns’ feedback was still wailing. Seems like word has got around about Dirty Boots being just about the finest late-night music, dancing and carousing venue this side of that massive bloody fence that’s all around us, so the good citizens of Glastonbury were still flocking in to catch the fiN lads storm it, before the djs came to do their thing…I’d love to say something amazingy cool went down at this point, but truth is the Ultimate Power djs belted out a relentless barrage of 80s power ballads and pretty much everyone in a very busy tent got caught out singing along – oh well, we’re deep into this now, no-one can have any secrets.

Ebony Bones photographed at Dirty Boots Glastonbury by Sophia Schorr-Kon - www.sskclick.blogspot.com

At 11am the Dirty Boots tent is all about people chilling out in the diner deckchairs, catching up with the daily paper and dealing with the best bacon sandwiches on site. And then a beautiful lady in shiny trousers and theatre mask sashays on the stage with three all-black-clad mysterious men and they make a dark and beguiling kind of electro-fuzz with sweet vocals that’s pretty engaging. They’re named Dimbleby and Capper for no reason that I can see but they might be worth another look – but an odd accompaniment to a brew and a bacon sandwich. Because it’s Friday morning and as the behemoth stages lumber into action db has been running headlong into the action for two full days already.

Day 3 sees a pretty diverse selection of styles and sizes of bands during the day – The Sunbirds play again and now everyone at db is waking up with their melodies welded to the inside of their minds like faces are welded to the inside of a really very hot and sticky tent in the morning. At midday Deathray Trebuchay put the morning haziness well and truly in the past with a raucous old set. Rogues continued the party before the first frighteningly young and talented singer-songwriter type of the day, Lisa Mitchell, came to bring a bit of polished folk-pop tranquility to proceedings. Broken Records changed the pace again with their ace take on the Arcade Fire-y epic thing – done really really well – worth checking out again so I can get a less lazy comparison…

So that’s all well and good, but the people demand a bit of pop music at a festival, right? Raygun are as pop as it gets if a tour supporting Pink is anything to go by, but here they still are showing up at our little place and doing their punky little thing. And then it’s like being in the presence of a pop princess when Gabriella Cilmi shows up – a white-robed vision of loveliness when everyone else is increasingly mud-covered. She’s probably not the first person you’d think of as being a big hit down at db towers, but she won everyone over with kind of effortless star quality – tunes that make you think about Natalie Imbruglia (and it’s now officially ok to admit you had a bit of a soft spot for Nat) with a much more awesome voice. And she’s so scarily young. And yes, being devastatingly photogenic doesn’t hurt her campaign for pop glory.

After all that excitement we went back to a band who’ve already played a couple of
sets for us here at Glasto, fiN. Each day they seem to be getting better and more comfortable…we’re not entirely sure they’re ever going to leave the site now – them and Sailorette may have to be dragged away and they too performed a set that we all have in our heads now permanently. A change of mood kicked in again with Ezra Bang & Hot Machine, before it all went a bit more nightime with Zarif and then Chipmunk came to us in advance of his BBC Introducing set the next day.

Somewhere across the day we’d got to grime from electro via country, pop, punk and epic rock. So we thought we’d drop Tommy Sparks into the mix to get some floor-filling done…and top the night off with the truly unique and awesome Ebony Bones. You should go and see them next time you get chance. Not in a ‘here’s a band worth seeing’ way, in a ’if you do one thing with the rest of your life go and see Ebony Bones’ way. It’s a visual feast as hard to describe as the audio experience – although ‘bespoke’ says a lot about both the handmade costumes the 11 piece band are draped in and the fusion of sounds they blend together. For most bands the minor technical hitch of losing all sound and light might put a dampener on – but Ebony just cranked up the brass section and the drums and got the whole band to shout out for all they were worth. 2 songs like this – lit by torchlight – meant Ebony gave us another one of our own ‘special’ Glastonbury moments. The crowd may have been a bit depleted by the charms of Neil Young but those who were at Dirty Boots last night probably walked away with a new favourite band. Not that everyone walked away when once again, db became the festival’s best late night drinking and dancing spot til 3am…Onwards!

Filthy Dukes on the Dirty Boots Glastonbury stage photographed by Sophia Schorr-Kon - www.sskclick.blogspot.com

How the hell are we going to beat day 2? From Newton Faulkner showing up and packing out the tent with mass singalong, Filthy Dukes blowing everyone away, hands in the air, on a big wave of bass, Thursday was one hell of a day for DirtyBoots.

The Sunbirds got us underway – ace sunshine music that made everything from the night before melt away. Momeraths came back and were even better than yesterday – just always a pleasure to see this band. Soft Toy Emergency joined in the party at 2pm, their frontlady rocking in like a disco-drenched Natasha Khan oozing pop tunes. Check them out if you get chance. Goldheart Assembly carried on the torch of general aceness just as we’d expect…a flame kept alive for the whole afternoon by The Alfonz, Two Door Cinema Club, Alessi’s Ark and the continuously lovely Sailorette. As we hit the evening our little corner of the festival was filling up and warming up nicely - My Toys Like Me brought a little touch of electro-glamour to the proceedings, fiN got the chance to crank it up a gear after their previous acoustic set…then the rains came. Will & The People grabbed a tent full of bedraggled passers-by and turned them into a heaving, dancing mass of new fans – a packed tent danced it’s collective soggy ass right off to the indie/ska 5-piece – the first time DirtyBoots has felt like a proper dancing tent so far and we loved it. First surprise arrival of the festival was Newton Faulkner who dropped in to get 600 people singing their little hearts out and getting a very first listen to some new material from his forthcoming album.  Sound Of Guns kicked things up a notch – our first bit of speaker climbing came in here as right around the tent the mood got a bit more raucous. If it’s a late night at DirtyBoots it means Rumspinga are never far away, and the boys from LA nailed it tonight. The midnight set sucked in the wanderers and gave them a pretty awesome start to Friday morning, which got even better when Filthy Dukes rocked onto stage blew a packed and sweaty tent away, Dance Village-style. We got shedloads of bass, hands thrown in the air, even the green lasers came out. It went pretty large for a while there. Apparently the ‘proper’ festival starts tomorrow. Bring it on, we’ll be ready.

fiN photographed by Sophia Schorr-Kon - www.sskclick.blogspot.com

We’re off! Yesterday saw 13 hour queues outside while half the country seemed to get on-site for the first day of Glastonbury 09. DirtyBoots kicked things off good and early with the stage opening at 3 yesterday afternoon – Phil O’Driscoll from The Shallow Call might have been the first act to play Glastonbury this year – he was certainly the first to play our venue and that’s what matters. Sets by Rod Thomas and then Steve Appleton meant those early-arrivers just kept streaming into the tent for their first glimpse of some live music. Big favourites of ours Sunbirds meant there was a bit of sunshine inside the tent as well as outside (check out today’s listen online for more on those boys) before Momeraths brought their impossible-not-to-love pop to the stage.

The Momeraths photographed by Sophia Schorr-Kon - www.sskclick.blogspot.com

Drumkits made of stools and a stage full of flowers, added to some pretty damn charming little pop songs meant we all fell just a little bit in love – just the right side of twee and totally effortless. Jersey Budd, followed by our very own Michael Devlin, kept the people flowing into the tent. As the sun dipped Sailorette took it outside and did a song in front of the DirtyBoots tape, and dragged half of the street back inside with them. The lucky people who stuck around once the light faded were treated to the backlit magnificence of fiN – who’s stripped-down acoustic set brooded all over the tent and gave us our first real rock moment. Rumspringa won some new fans over as the whole festival came out looking for live music on the first night – we’ve gone on about these guys plenty already and, yes, we’re putting their record out; but that’s because they’re awesome. Last night helped to prove it, once again 2 people managed to sound like about 15 guitarists playing together. That just left to finish our first day at Glastonbury – and they didn’t let us or the crowd who’d already taken up residence at DirtyBoots down – a pretty awesome finish to a first day so good we’re going to have to pull ourselves together, dust ourselves down, and do it better again today!

It has been such a whirlwind couple of weeks since SXSW and we have loads to report but thought I better let everyone know how the SXSW Party went first.

I honestly could not believe how much of a success the day was, every band seemed to play an absolute blinder of a set, the sun kept shining and the people kept on flowing in… by the end of the day you could not move in the venue!  This certainly puts DB’s in great shape for next year’s SXSW…  more about that later but firstly here’s a little bit about each band.

So the day started perfectly with the blissed out sunshine sounds of Skibunny, I love the way that this band can adapt to the setting and mood of their surroundings.  This was a very different set to the party jumping gig I had caught a few days before but somehow seemed to work just as well in the Texan midday sunshine. By now though I should expect this of Tanya and Mark as they seem to be able to turn their hands to anything, just check out their remixes and you will get a good idea.

Next up were Dublin’s very own and fantastic Sick Boy, fronted by identical twins Colm and Giles.  The band thrashed through a rumbling bass heavy set, pulling influences from the Clash and Iggy with a huge helping of Joy Division and Mary Chain, although a lot of bands are doing the same thing at the moment, I really liked the way that Sick Boy played and they had some killer tracks thrown into the set notably their track ‘Objects’. I enjoyed the set so much I ended up going to see them again that evening, one thing I will say is their dark sounds are perfect for a late night venue.

Cantora Records and DB’s very own Rumspringa were next on the bill …  Joey and Itaru just get better and better and apart from a technical issue (involving a Margarita machine and the venue’s power supply) Rumspringa played another faultless set.  I am so glad that we are working with these guys, they are doing something totally different and manage to bring influences like  early Beefheart and Dr John into their sound whilst still making it sound fresh and new…  Make sure you keep reading the DB blogs as we will have full reviews / photo’s and live tracks of all the recent Rumspringa UK shows.

Black Box Revelation were next and another two piece that make a storming sound.  Hailing from the unlikely city of Brussels they blast through a US garage heavy set that includes the killer ‘Gravity Blues’.  It seemed to buzz by in the blink of an eye and they finished the set with Jan Paternoster standing on top of the Bass Drum stamping down as his guitar strings snapped one by one…  Rock and Roll!!! But it was rather unnearving as it was the only bass drum we had and there were still another 5 bands to play!  Good news was the drum just about survived ready for Kissy Sell Out to play.

As you know we have already had Kissy play a SXSW warm up show at DirtyBoots in London and fittingly they played the DB Party as their final show in Texas.  Kissy and Dan have a great rapor onstage but for me it’s all about Aicha, she manages to keep the set super tight throughout and definitely gets the biggest cheer of the day so far when Kissy bigs her up mid set…  Kissy finished the show with a cover of EMF ‘unbelievable’ that gets the crowd singing along and it creates a lovely vibe as the crowd hang around in anticipation for FiN to play.

I spent most of my time in Texas hanging out with FiN and they are an amazing bunch of guys.  This year’s SXSW was their first tour outside of the UK and what roller coaster US debut it was.  For those who don’t know the guys this included Luke losing his voice completely before a huge show, cortisone injections, a comeback gig and a storming SXSW finale. I have always liked what fiN do musically and although it is not the most fashionable sound in the UK at the moment, I really see them building a fan base in the US.  Luke has always been a great frontman and Jonny is a fantastic songwriter and guitarist but but it is since they have been joined by Kerry on Bass, locking in perfectly with Simon (drums) that the band have really found their sound.  The crowd at DB’s absolutely loved the set and seemed to lap it up…  which only adds to my theory.

Cage the Elephant were meant to play next but the dreaded voice bug hit Matt and he needed to be on point for their huge Antoine’s gig that evening.  The whole band still made sure they were at Dirty Boots and stood at the front for the fiN show cheering the boys on.  In some ways I’m glad they rested up as the Antoine’s show was an absolute stormer and definitely got them a huge room full of anticipant new fans… taking them one step closer to breaking the US.  Can’t wait to have the guys back at DirtyBoots again!

As you know Starfucker were one of my highlights of this year’s SXSW and I was over the moon when they said they’d be cool to play as Cage’s replacement at the Dirty Boots Party.  I had been determined to get them on the bill since the first time I saw them and in a strange way this was all working out perfectly…  The Texan sun was now beating down on the Wave Bar’s roof terrace and it couldn’t have been a better time for Starfucker to win everyone over with their twisted sunshine pop.  I love the way this band lure everyone in with their melodic lo-fi tracks at the start of their set, sounding like an electronica Shins.  But then once the crowd are fully under their spell they start pulling out killer dance tracks.  ‘Medicine’ had everyone dancing along and by the time they pulled out the Vocodas for the encore I was totally convinced that these guys will be huge by next summer.

By far the biggest buzz band of SXSW 09 were the Local Natives, so I was chuffed to bits that the band could play DB’s and they certainly pulled in a crowd.  People were queuing outside and watching the band from the street as the venue was at capacity.  They played a perfect set and the four part harmonies sounded amazing as the Texan sun slowly started to ease up a little.  On record, a lot of people have lazily compared them to Vampire Weekend, but live you can totally see that they have their own thing going on. If anything I can hear CSNY fronting Arcade fire which, although sounds a little weird, really works.  They finished with ‘Sun Hands’ that ends up with a Doors-esque wig out that had all the industry honchos reaching for their cheque books.

Alessi’s Ark closed the party and what a beautiful way to end the first of many DirtyBoots SXSW Parties.  Alessi has the most charming way about her and, although she looked very shy and slightly akward up onstage, this only added to her charm.  Alessi has recently signed to Virgin and I can totally see why.  What a gorgeous voice… with hints of Joni Mitchell and Bjork.  She manages to close the day’s music perfectly as everybody waits for her final breath of the set before they leave the venue.

By this time I am totally exhausted but to be honest, I couldn’t be happier with how the day had gone.  What a great way for DirtyBoots to enter the US and watch this space as we will be back next year for a full SXSW takeover.  If you thought this was a good line-up just wait until next year when we will have to book at least 40 bands over the four day festival.

Sam DB x

www.myspace.com/skibunnyclub

www.myspace.com/sickboyofficial

www.myspace.com/rumspringa

www.myspace.com/theblackboxrevelation

www.myspace.com/kissysellout

www.myspace.com/finuk

www.myspace.com/cagetheelephant

www.myspace.com/starfuckerss

www.myspace.com/localnatives

www.myspace.com/alessisark