We Are Scientists - Photo by Matt Cawrey
Friday & Saturday
Well, that was a pretty good bank holiday for Leicester, wasn’t it? On the eve of the Foxes’ ridiculous victory in the Premier League, the city was blue with unprecedented optimism and it had this underdog atmosphere, which fit perfectly with the independent and scrappy nature of Handmade Festival. I was let loose in University of Leicester’s SU, where the acts were spread out among four different rooms and three days, and pints of Fosters were £3.90…
Ash Mammal were first up, fronted by Cass Rowe, a twitchy offshoot of Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction. His sneering yelps really gave character to the songs and the combination of them and swishy haired drummer Anya Greengrass’s really pretty vocals was an enticing combination. The first couple of songs they did were moody, slightly shoegazey punk, but one of the last was this groovy hard rock monster which led to some pretty fantastic convulsions by Cass.
Vitamin lightened things up a little with their very summery brand of alternative/indie pop. They were fronted by another musical look-a-like, Morrissey. I enjoyed the set, especially the tight, jazzy drumming, though the audience didn’t seem too enthralled. I looked like I really, really enjoyed the set, however, since I wandered in partway though and joined some people at the front, who then promptly left. I was then stood there alone like the world’s biggest Vitamin superfan.
65 Days of Static - Photo by Magda Wrzeszcz
Black Honey, a band I’ve seen before in Nottingham, were as mesmerising as ever. Taking mean blues and spaghetti-western twang and infusing it with catchy indie rock hooks, they’re a band that just has to be going somewhere big. Lead singer and frontwoman Izzy Phillips was brilliant to hear and see. She’s got a certain dark and deranged energy to her. On the opener, Spinning Wheel, she shocked the audience into the set with her mad mariachi screams.
65daysofstatic were dramatic. Pulsing electronica, bittersweet piano and anthemic guitar work were woven together to create absolute movie soundtrack material. People in the audience didn’t really move, they just kind of stood there in awe of this performance. It was spellbinding stuff, especially the final track, Into the Wildlight. It ended on a sillier note though, when a mishap with the lighting meant that the previously not very lit up stage was suddenly bathed in all of the light, leading to frontman Rob Jones admitting that the illusion was kind of lost when you could see that it was just four fat blokes on a stage.
We Are Scientists, whilst the headline act, seemed a bit pedestrian and ordinary compared to the manic energy of Black Honey and the majesty of 65daysofstatic. They played a solid set of indie rock and the place was absolutely packed. It was a great atmosphere and they played a couple of crowd pleasers like Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt. Still, even though the 2000s was only last decade, We Are Scientists do feel a bit anachronistic, a feeling only cemented when I heard a guy say that 2006 was “the best year for guitar music”.
Kagoule - Photo by David Wilson Clarke
I didn’t show up entirely on time for the beginning of Saturday, but I did see a lot of the stuff from 5pm onwards. Weirds smashed into the audience with a wall of angry psych-rock. They mixed harsh and heavy guitar riffs, reverb-drowned vocals, discordant piano and apocalyptic organ into an enthralling performance. They also had quite a cute good cop/bad cop routine between the lead guitarist and the lead singer, the former kept saying how much he appreciated the crowd and grinning like a schoolboy, while the latter just scowled at everyone.
Kagoule was one of the acts representing lovely Notts in this alien land of football teams which win things. Probably the first band I’ve heard of being named after a waterproof coat. It was really tight and abrasive alt/noise rock, reminiscent of Sonic Youth (complete with male and female vocalists). The highlight was It Knows It at the end of the set – a really bittersweet and pretty track with some real bite.
Next up were Axes. Having never heard of them before, I wandered into their set blind, but came out deaf. What they do is incredibly intricate, noisy, sometimes groovy and generally ridiculous guitar rock. They don’t have a vocalist, which might turn some people off, but you seriously need to see this band live. They played a song called Rainbow Bacon. All four members were just so animated and the sound they made was brilliant. Leicester gave them a bit of a weird welcome though, since one guitarist revealed how a man came up to them before their set started and threatened to squeeze his testicles.
Axes - Photo by Magda Wrzeszcz
I saw Clubs instead of Saturday headliners Deaf Havana, because I’m just not into Deaf Havana. Clubs ended Saturday with some very pretty-sounding indie/dream pop. Though, right before their set started, the frontman said something cryptic about the band’s future, so this may be the last thing that’s ever written about them.
I showed up very late for Sunday and only caught the headliners, Swim Deep. Who were definitely my highlight of the festival. They are the kings of uplifting indie/dream pop/synth and I am surprised that they’re not bigger than they currently are. They write such catchy songs. Ending on the 8 minute, 12 seconds happy rave monster, Fuieho Boogie, was all I ever could have asked for really.
Handmade is a seriously great little gem hidden in Leicester, packing a lot of surprises and quality acts for something that cost £40 and didn’t require you to trek out to a field. Nick Palmer
Big Deal - Photo by Matt Cawrey
Sunday
Sunday was all about a football team winning a league, nothing new except if it was Leicester. It's safe to say that the town has been buzzing and as we watched the first half of the Leicester match at the train station we expected scenes of carnage on the streets when we arrived. It wasn't quite the party for Vardy just yet (Leicester drew leaving The Foxes waiting until the Monday night to find out that they would cause the biggest upset in modern sport)
So we arrived at Handmade, last year's line up was pretty special including Hooton Tennis Club, Childhood and Eagulls for starters. Today seems a little bit like the footy result, a little deflated. Maybe the big match and the bands playing on Friday and Saturday have taken the steam out of it but we crack on none the less.
Big Deal get us dancing on the main stage, we don't get to see them as often as we'd like so their American loaded indie pop is a welcome treat. Singer Alice Costello is as charming as ever and they manage to create some great noise pop for a Sunday afternoon.
Los Campesinos are ace, they don't care that somebody didn't win something, they don't care everyone's hungover, they just want to party and yeah they do it well!
This is where it went a little downhill. I saw Swim Deep last year and despite my intoxication, I remember it being a pretty poor showing from the b-boys and today is no better. The room was half full but they were not playing like a headline band. It felt like the Birmingham bubble has burst, the new songs sounded tired and apart from Honey, taken from their debut Where the Heaven Are We, it was a mediocre end to what is becoming a really great festival. Rob McCleary
Handmade Festival took place in Leicester on 29 April - 1 May 2016.
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