Sunny Sunday Sounds

Having nothing better to do on a sunny Sunday afternoon, Sir Bruin and I ambled along to Christchurch Park in Ipswich for the 18th Ipswich Music Day. This is a free event and part of the rather splendid IP-Art Festival, that runs for a month each year. The music day may have been running for 18 years, but this is only the second time I’ve been. Last year, it rained and we came away after about three hours. This year, however, the sun shone and we stayed until the early evening (it’s all finished by 8 o’clock – you can’t party all night that close to people’s houses).

We wandered around rather aimlessly with our programme for a while. We paused for a song or two by the CSV & ICRfm Stage where The Jacob Trio were playing. They were a very good blues band and very young too. However, we only paused there briefly as we were heading towards The Evening Star stage in the hope of catching Livewire. Livewire’s blub in the programme described their music as “greasy rock ‘n’ roll", which sounded right up our street. However, by the time we made it to the far side of the park, they were on their last song. Based on that last song, I would say they sounded like a cross between ZZ Top and Queens of the Stone Age. We liked them. I have tried to find them on t’internet, but there are rather a lot of bands going by that name and none of them seemed to be these guys.

It being lunch time, we nipped and bought ourselves all manner of yummy Mexican themed grub from the Chilli Gone Barmy van (is that plug worth an free fajita, do you think?) and then returned to The Evening Star stage for The Empires, who were every bit as good as the food. They are a very young local rock band who mostly played their own stuff but they did throw in a (very good) cover of Led Zep’s “Rock and Roll”. Their blurb in the programme referred to “crunch chords and retro-soaked guitar lines” – yeah, I’d go with that. They reminded me a bit of The Black Crows and the lead singer could certainly give the likes of Chris Robinson a run for his money (Sir Bruin thought they sounded like Split Enz). My favourite band of the day (given that I’m an old fart, that’s probably the kiss of death for them – sorry boys!)

Music fans sunning themselves near The Evening Star Stage. Picture courtesy of Sir Bruin.

We also enjoyed Hayze, who popped up on The Evening Star stage around 4pm. This band have been together for around eight years and have played with a number of established bands, including The Stranglers and The Bluetones. I can’t think of anyone to compare them too actually, so they must have just been themselves. Perhaps a slight hint of Oasis in the guitar sound? Have a listen to them on Myspace and make up your own mind.

After Hayze, we went to get ourselves some more drinks and to sample some fruit fritters from a stall called Audrey’s Delights. Audrey was very charming and her banana fritters with melted chocolate were gorgeous (the apple with toffee sauce weren't too shabby either!)

We spent the remainder of the afternoon by The BBC Radio Suffolk Stage listening to a couple of covers bands. Picture House have, according to the programme, been described as “The Marks and Spencer of covers bands”, so I was expecting them to be a bit staid, but they played mostly indie-style stuff, treating us to tunes made famous by the likes of The Pigeon Detectives, Kings of Leon, Paulo Nutini and (unfortunately) Snow Patrol (I know I’m probably the only person in Great Britain who thinks that ‘Chasing Cars’ is a shit song, but I’m entitled to my opinion).

And finally, the last band on stage were Soul Kitchen. Described in the programme as “East Anglia’s ultimate party band” they delivered an hour and twenty-minutes of toe-tapping favourites in a soul stylee. They repertoire was “Blues Brothers” meets “The Commitments” and they were great fun.

Small Bear getting into the soul groove with the aid of a Large Bear's hat.

Much partying goes on in front of the BBC Radio Suffolk Stage (hastily assembled on the back of a borrowed truck) to the sounds of Soul Kitchen.

It was good to end with some stuff you can jig about too and familiar old songs. The Empires still get my vote as band of the day though.