Wychwood Music Festival 2008 - 30th May until 1st June 2008, Cheltenham Racecourse
Friday
The Proclaimers
The Scottish duo, best known for the songs 'Letter from America', 'I'm on My Way', and 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' will be closing the 2008 festival in typically rousing style.
The band released their seventh album in 2007 and that year also saw the premier of a musical based around the music of The Proclaimers called Sunshine on Leith.
www.myspace.com/theproclaimers
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Robyn Hitchcock & the Psychedelic Trams
Robyn Hitchcock will be bringing his cynical jokes and surreal stories in lyrical form to Wychwood for the second year. Aided and abetted by his friends the Psychedelic Trams, who are Terry Edwards (horns and keys), Kimbereley Rew
(guitar)
Paul Noble (bass) and Morris Windsor (drums).
www.myspace.com/robynhitchcock
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Dreadzone
Dreadzone are an eclectic fusion of dub, reggae, techno, trance, and folk. They had a UK hit in 1996 with Little Britain. Radio One DJ John Peel had earlier championed their cause, selecting six Dreadzone tracks in his Festive 50 for 1995. Dreadzone's music evolves with each album.
They are known for their use of unusual samples, be it classical music or obscure films.
They are returning for their second year at Wychwood after a storming set at the festival in 2006.
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Kasai Masai
Based in London and led by Voodoo King Nickens Nkoso, Kasaï Masaï brings us the Traditional Sound of the most remote equatorial villages with a Urban Twist.
The band is a 5 piece outfit, consisting of d'jembe, guitar, saxophone, bass and drum. To add that extra exotic touch they are also joined occasionally by a balafon player, a MC and one or two female dancers!
Named after a river, Kasai lies in the heart of the rain forest where many tribes such as the Pygmies still maintain their traditional lifestyles. The Masai, just like the Baka, are another dignified tribe whose lives still centre around a nomadic existence.
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Misty's Big Adventure
A glorious 8 piece band from Birmingham in the UK, made up of brothers and sisters and twins and saxophones and trumpets and cute, weird dancers who produce the most uplifting, life affirming tunes you will hear since Louie Armstrong played with the Lovin Spoonful.
Dave from The Zutons loves them, so much so that he invited them on tour, twice and we were invited to support The Magic Numbers, The Guillemots and The Pipettes last year.
We can't wait to see them strutting their stuff on the stage at Wychwood.
www.myspace.com/mistysbigadventure
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The Epstein
"The Epstein are akin to a force of nature. Their excellent musicianship and folky comraderie calls to mind a young Fairport Convention." BBC Oxford
A new force to consider in country rock music in the UK, The Epstein came together in Spring 2003. Returning to the roots of good melody and relevant lyrics, the bands inspiration is wide and varied, from 60s heyday bands Love and The Byrds, Gram Parsons and The Band to the present day Calexico, Bright Eyes, and Queens of the Stoneage.
The band are constantly shaking things up with new sounds whether it is finding and dusting off an obscure old blue grass album for inspiration or inviting guest banjo, trumpet, mouth organ or fiddle players during their live shows, they concoct an almighty spaghetti soundclash.
Winners of the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition in 2007 this is a band to watch for the future and a great way to kick off Wychwood 2008.
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Rattle on the Stovepipe
Rattle on the Stovepipe explore the interwoven worlds of traditional British and Appalachian songs, ballads, and music. Morris dances flow into their Old Time Appalachian counterparts, Minstrel songs brought to Britain in the 19th century are resurrected via the singing of Cotswold rural labourers, while English jigs and Scottish pipe tunes evolve into fiddle and banjo reels, while 18th century British ballads, as heard from source singers in the mountains and 'hollers' of Kentucky, Georgia and N.Carolina, reappear in more democratic guise.
The musical backgrounds of the three band members make them uniquely qualified to explore this fascinating cross-cultural area.Together Arthur, Cooper and Stewart combine their interest and skills in British, Irish, and Appalachian Old Time music into a joyous, foot-tapping and, at times, sensitive and moving Anglo-Appalachian experience. No one goes away from a Rattle on the Stovepipe performance without a smile on their face, a skip in their step, and warmth in their heart.
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Air Cav
With triumphant supports of the likes of We Are Scientists, The Young Knives, Little Man Tate and Architecture in Helsinki as well as having debut single "Alliance" touted as one of Steve Lamacq's "5 Hottest Records in the World Right Now", Air Cav are making all the right noises.
The four band members are inseparable, spending long, rainy, Mancunian evenings writing songs, dreaming and performing the music they love to people as much as they can. Drawing influnces from a shared passion for all things aurally uplifting; from sixties garage to French sitar music, the sound of the band is eclectic to say the least.
The name Air Cav is taken from a reference to the "air cavalry" in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 movie, "Apocalypse Now"
Catch Air Cav headlining the Wickwar Stage as part of The Doghouse at Wychwood programming.
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The Black Bloc
The Black Bloc provides compelling socially critical music accessible through the bands keen ear for rhythm and melody. With powerful and unique vocals laid down over tight hip-hop grooves, surrounded by atmospheric guitar work, the band rejuvenates the traditional bass, drums, guitar, and vocals format to great effect.
Influenced by a wide range of musical genres and artists including; Can, Primal Scream, Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, Gang Of Four, Funkadelic, and The Prodigy, The Black Bloc's unique sound resists any straightforward classification, but those people intrigued by a concoction of leftfield trip-hop and psychedelic rock will not be disappointed.
The Black Bloc are appearing as part of The Doghouse at Wychwood programming
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The Maladies of Bellafontaine
'...they have to be seen to be believed.. file somewhere between Pram and The Velvet Underground.' Lee Gorton, Proud Galleries preview
Upon first glance Wigan¹s fertile musical womb appears to have laid something of a curate¹s egg in the shape of The Maladies of Bellafontaine. A multi-instrumental seven piece, these tatty-glam troubadours formed in March 2006, in a disused barn strewn with bric-a-brac and permeated with a fruity fragrant form of musical vision.
With a list of influences that includes The Langley Schools Music Project and a taste for Bacon Fruit Kebabs, The Maladies of Bellafontaine possess a uniquely uplifting brand of psych-tinged folk pop. Theirs is a live show encompassing the cello, glockenspiel, bulbul tarang, melodica, synth and impish vocals sashaying to the junior drums. This results in a heavenly resonance, a gloriously vital cacophony to which you surely must be privy.
The Maladies of Bellafontaine are performing as part of The Doghouse at Wychwood Programming
www.myspace.com/themaladiesofbellafontaine
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The Eden Four
A 4 piece folk group based in the Oxford area The Eden Four are Jon on Guitar, piano and vocals, Sam on cajon, guitar and bass, Hannah on piano, guitar and flute and Adam on bass and acoustic guitar. And with that many talented instrumentalists it won't come a surprise to hear that they have varied influences, but work together to make their own unique sound.
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