REVIEW – Indietracks Festival – Midland Railway Centre, Butterley, 25th-27th July 2014

There is something quintessentially heart-warming about the Indietracks Festival. It is an event that has become well established on the festival circuit, yet has neither pretence nor desire of grandeur. The venue restricts the scale of the event of course, yet the organisers expertly select performers who appropriate the ethos that has developed.   Those performers blend in with Joe & Jenny Public in a communal spiritual gathering that is somewhat unique.   There are four stages for the weekend; the main stage perched on the corner of the lush grassy field; indoors in the old locomotive shed; inside the old pew-seated chapel and then on a steam engine of course, which continues to trek along its familiar route like any ordinary weekend.   Things kick off on an abridged scale on Friday evening with four bands lined up on the main stage. Around a thousand faithful roll in for the early delights, cumulating in a wonderful performance by Allo Darlin’ who pulled on board a few of the following day’s performers. Preceded by The Chills who have been around for over thirty years and dished out a selection of hits to provide a welcoming hug to the ensemble to set things firmly in motion for what is to become a wondrous weekend.

Saturday sees the real kick-off and suffering a ruptured tent pole, this writer must confess to having missed the start of his shift, sorry!   Thankfully I arrived in time to catch the charismaticMark J Hibbett and his Violators who had assembled quite a gathering.   Playing all his “hits” as he put it and bantering with the crowd like a depoliticised Billy Bragg, a memorable experience for sure. Over on the main stage comes Linda Guilala who are a band that can make a fair old racket for sure. It’s power pop and delivered with both style and energy getting folk up off their arses for a while! Dashing back to the indoor stage for another dose of power pop then with those jumpy jangly Swedes, Dorotea who provide a frenzied attack that sees the assembly gain momentum heading into the evening. Back over on the main stage we have those quirky ScotsThe Spook School who have the audacity to include a trumpet in their instrumentation, so the “are you ready to rock” greeting might seem misplaced but they do a decent job, even if the chit chat becomes a little addling.