Tales of the Jackalope - Kimberley Hall, Norfolk, August 4th- 5th

Will Holloway traveled into deepest, darkest Norfolk to seek new music and attempt to stay standing for the 24 hour music festival….

For 24 hours the grounds of Kimberley Hall became the centre of new music in Britain, playing host to a line-up of bands who will define generations with their music. Set in the grounds of a picturesque country manner overlooking a lake and surrounded by lush forest, Tales of the Jackalope, in its short history has developed a reputation for bringing together the bands who are on the tip of wider commercial success or at the least, acknowledgement from the mainstream press. Last year featured headliners such as the Horrors and the Klaxons who didn’t do too badly this year, anyway, the question on everybody’s lips was who was going to be the band to break in 2008. The atmosphere at the festival was perhaps as good as it could be, and as the sun shone, 3000 curious locals and Shoreditch haircuts mingled happily in a field which boasted 4 tents of live music and DJs. Initially the idea was to see as many bands as possible, however, due to scorching weather (and a rather large intake of cider) the need for a siesta under a shady oak took priority over seeing many of the bands who played in the early afternoon. A knock to my attempts at professional reporting. Refreshed from a wonderful slumber however, I decided to set off to investigate what the various stages of music had to offer. The first band I stumbled upon was Conan and the Mockasins who really suffered from having such an early slot in the day. Barely 30 people watched them play , although I’m sure Conan’s cartoon-like vocals over the top of dusty 60s sounding backing endeared a few people to their cause, especially during the wonderfully titled track ‘Sneaky Sneaky Dog Friend‘. I traveled to the other stage to catch a bit of Lightspeed Champion’s set and found Dev’s folk-lite songs rather samey and drab, new single ‘Galaxy of the Lost’ wasn’t so bad though but was not enough to distract me from a rumbling stomach, so I joined the seemingly endless cue for the one food outlet on site, which sold an array of disappointing foods with exotic names, I purchased what was billed to be a sausages and tomato pickle bomb, what I got was in reality a scotch egg with ketchup in the middle, this would have left me on a downer had it not been for the presence of member of These New Puritans in the queue a bit in front of me, seeing a group of young men as fashionable as them queuing up with us regular people for a pasty seemed pleasantly surreal. Next up were Ox. Eagle. Lion. Man who played a spirited set given the circumstances, singer Frederick lost his voice towards the beginning of their set, it’s his dulcet and characteristic baritone which gives their music a bit of ‘je ne c’est quoi’ or as the French say ‘that certain something’. When Fred gets his voice back the band are sure to do well for themselves in the near future. Nottingham’s Neon Plastix were quite fun, their ravey keyboards and lashings of cowbell got the late afternoon jumping about happily, the band’s appearance was quite confusing though, the rhythm section looked like members of a hardcore band who had stumbled onto the wrong stage, the rest of the band being dressed in a multi-colored patterned t-shirts. Then came time for the main course: Late of the Pier , they have talent in abundance, dance-steps aplenty and tunes which even the most po-faced, skinny jean wearing ,bowl cut boy has to grin and dance to. Their set included the synth-laden sounds of ‘Broken‘, ‘Space and the Woods‘ and new single ‘Bathroom Gurgle‘ all of which could become future club smash hits. Their set left me with a huge smile plastered across my face, the evening was only topped by actually meeting the band who were all rather lovely fellows. After another drinks break on a conveniently placed log sipping on a beer we stumbled across These New Puritans, and what a sight they were; stood on stage like contorted statues, bold, unwavering and eerie. Singer Jack Barnett seemed in a trance as he spewed his hyper literate lyrics, and preaching to an invisible flock, whilst the backing section played uncompromising accompaniment of industrial grade noise behind him. I was certainly converted to whatever musical religion they were espousing. Then the sun went down and everyone seemed to become a lot more happy and understanding, I couldn’t say why of course, perhaps it was because the moon was up, stars adorned the sky and the grounds were cloaked in a spectacular sheet of fog. This proved a perfect backdrop to Errors atmospheric electro, tracks like ‘Mr Milk’ and ‘Hans Herman’ seemed to click in perfectly around midnight. Chromeo really knew how to get the crowd in the mood for dancing, P Thugg and Dave 1’s blend of 80s influenced electro funk got everyone partying, ‘Needy Girl‘ got the best reception but ‘Tenderoni‘ was almost as well received. As amazing as it was to see the Queen of the Ed Banger crew in the flesh, Uffie seemed shattered on stage and her performance lacked her usual cocksure attitude and spiky stage presence. DJ Feadz’s electro backing was too quiet to really enable effective booty shaking. Still hearing tracks like ‘Hot Chick’ and ‘Brand New Car’ in the flesh was still a great experience. As we left the giant inflatable dome where Uffie was playing we heard the familiar math-rocking sounds of Foals in the distance and headed over to watch the second half of their set which included versions of ‘Hummer’ and ‘Matheletics’ which made us dance like clockwork toys. After their set my contingent and I made a beeline to the dance tents to try and dance to the various superstar DJs the festival had to offer including remix king Kissy Sellout and DJ Mehdi, however; by 5:30am finding somewhere warm to pass out was the main priority so we trudged back along the stately home’s seemingly endless driveway in search of a warm bed. Driving back in a taxi heading in Norwich’s direction and watching the blood orange sun rise over the East of England, thoughts turned to who the bands destined for bigger thing were. Even in the frazzled semi-conscious state I found myself in, the answer was simple, hands down the best band of the day was Late of the Pier, the sheer inventiveness of their music and the tenderness of their years means that the world is their variety of sea food for the foreseeable future, other bands who deserve honorable mentions are These New Puritans, whose music is as powerful as it is unnerving, Foals and Errors also both gave good showing of themselves. I headed to bed happy in the knowledge that new music in Britain was in a healthier state than ever before.