The End Of The Road Festival

Larmer Trees Gardens, nr Salisbury, Dorset - 15 Sep 2006

by Charlotte Otter

Success first time for the last festival of the summer

"His deep, haunting vocals and use of loops on his guitar make his set amazing to watch, with a growing crowd standing in silence, completely enthralled."

With so many music festivals now established in the UK, and so many more run by huge great big beer companies or mobile phone operators, it’s becoming a rare thing to find an event which not only has a fantastic line up, but that is independent, small and above all incredibly friendly. End Of The Road is one of these, ticking all of the right boxes, and even adding a couple of extra things to the list.

Held near Salisbury, in the beautiful surroundings of Larmer Tree Gardens, End Of The Road is a brand spanking new event that describes itself as the final festival of the summer. And it’s tiny. With only 5,000 tickets on sale, End Of The Road is minscule, especially for those used to going to huge events such as Leeds or Galstonbury, but its size only adds to its charm. With a crowd this small, no one seems like a stranger; parrots and peacocks roam the site and, as it only takes ten minutes to walk around, when the inevitable clash between two bands that you want to see occurs, it’s really easy to flit from stage to stage without missing too much.

Good thing too, as the line up at EOTR is amazing, a music snob’s wet dream. The weekend’s headliners, Josh Ritter, Richard Hawley, Badly Drawn Boy and Ryan Adams are the most commercially successful acts of the festival, but the smaller, lesser known (but not less loved) bands are the ones that make the festival so unique.

Friday evening’s highlights include Ed Harcourt and and New York anti folk singer extraordinaire, Dawn Landes with her high, clear voice cutting through the strumming of her acoustic guitar. Harcourt plays a selection of his newest and oldest tune, looking very smart in his black waistcoat.

As the weekend progresses though it becomes clear that the festival's accidental theme is "bands-with-summery-tunes". These range from Absentee, with their super-happy, super-poppy, upbeat summer songs, to The Boy Least Likely To, who have the audience dancing around clutching balloons to their jaunty, joyful tunes, marked every now and then by power punches in the air and the twang of a banjo. The group finish with a rousing cover of George Michael’s ‘Faith’, winning over the final few of the audience members who had never come across the band before.

Also competing for the title of "Summeriest Sounding Band... Ever" are Tilly And The Wall, I’m From Barcelona and The Ralfe Band (as featured on The Mighty Boosh), their crashing cymbals and complicated keyboard harmonies backed by a cowbell and the off-beat rattle of a snare drum. Tilly And The Wall feature a tap dancer who provides the accompaniment to the guitars and keyboards on stage, whilst I'm From Barcelona (who actually come from Sweden) cram all of their 28 members onto one stage to become a firm favourite with the majority of the festival goers. A few lucky punters even manage to catch them a second time when the band gives an impromptu second performance on Sunday evening, hidden in a wood at the back of the festival site.

If super happy bands are not your thing though, it doesn't matter, as there are plenty of serious singers. Howie Gelb, British Sea Power and Chris TT. The latter seems like the sort of single bloke you’d want to have a pint with in your local, singing protest songs about everything from the construction of the M1 motorway to the impact of wars on civilians.

As there are so many small and relatively unknown bands playing at End Of The Road, it means that punters get to discover a whole array of acts that they would otherwise not encounter. Amongst them, and definitely one of the highlights of the weekend was David Thomas Broughton, a singer/songwriter from Leeds who played mid Sunday afternoon. His deep, haunting vocals and use of loops on his guitar make his set amazing to watch, with a growing crowd standing in silence, completely enthralled.

All in all, End Of The Road was a fantastic weekend, made even better by the lack of rain and the friendly and approachable organisers. This is one of those festivals that people will return to time and time again. Hopefully, becoming bigger and better known will not mean it looses any of its charm and charisma.

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