Having moved to Cardiff is a blessing and a curse. The positives is that I’m experiencing a whole new set of venues and scenes that I have never seen before, the downside it’s a long way to treck back down to the south coast to visit old favourites. Nonetheless this weekend I popped on the train for 2 and a half hours to see a festival which has become part of my yearly routine.
Southsea Festival, which I went to in 2012 and 2013 seeing artists like George Ezra, Drenge and Anamanaguchi before they were a lot bigger, is fantastic. Split across many venues in Southsea across Albert Road – the live music hub of the city – it’s always a fantastic opportunity to see new music; local, national and international. However this year the organisers have taken a year off, and hence Dials Festival was born. Run across 5 venues on Albert Road who wanted to keep the tradition of a street festival going it was a fantastic testament to a local community pulled together by music.
Having lived down the road from the festival site as a child and being brought up in those music venues it was very nice to feel at home after 2 weeks in an alien city and not only that the festival had an incredible line up, some I knew, some I’d never heard of before.
The day started in a little venue called the Edge of the Wedge, a little pub/music venue on the side of the much bigger Wedgewood Rooms, a well-known and popular independent venue in the local area. I wondered in not knowing what to expect from Bright Smoke and I was pleasantly surprised by what greeted me. A one woman band, sampling a cello and electric guitar live in a psychedelic style is a fantastic way to start your Saturday afternoon. She was quickly at 3 in the Wedgewood Rooms by the local Showcase event winners _______ who brought a familiar indie rock style to unfortunately quite an empty room, however they played on and those who were in the room thoroughly enjoyed it.
The next band I saw were my band of the day for the second festival this summer, having seen them at Blissfields already this year I knew what to expect from MOK but once again they were fantastic, better even than when I saw them before. Not really fitting into a genre is MOKs speciality combining elements of Rap, Indie Rock, Electronic and occasionally heavier metal they are delight for any music fan. I still would definitely tip them for much greater things as they had everyone in the room bopping and listening attentively. I definitely cannot wait for any album they may release in the future as it will be on repeat for a long time.
Another stand out band of the day for me were FlashFires who I have also already seen this summer at Butserfest. Again, like MOK, they were even better than before, I think this is because both bands lend themselves to filling a room with their sound which they couldn’t do where I saw them both before. FlashFires played in a poky little pub called Little Johnny Russels just down the road from the Wedgewood Rooms, and it was fantastic, you could sit, have a pint and watch an exciting band in tiny venue.
Then came the top end of the bill, my favourite of which was Kagoule. Having released their fantastic new album Urth this summer it was fantastic to hear a fantastic album live. Kagoule are a part of a new emerging grunge and punk scene in the UK, headed by bands like Sleaford Mods, Fidlar and Slaves amongst others, the next year could be a breakout year for Kagoule amongst many others in this genre. Having seen them at Dials I have already booked tickets to see them up in Cardiff, can’t wait!
Roll on Dials/ Southsea festival next year, if it’s as good as this year, I can’t wait.
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