Bands have a blast at MidFest
THE LATEST festival to rock into Campbeltown boosted beer and ice-cream sales last Saturday.
The free afternoon show on Shore Street attracted a crowd of young and old who were treated to bands including Rhuvaal.
It was not all good news, though, as, despite vigorous efforts to sell tickets and performances from a great selection of Scotland’s up and coming bands, audiences stayed away from the town hall headline event.
They missed a treat as a select crowd danced and pogoed to music including trad folk, punk and electronica.
Undersmoke opened the evening’s show, followed by Livingston folk outfit 5 Strings, with a mix of what they called ‘depressing tunes about dying’.
The beat was ramped up as Declan Welsh and the Decadent West, fresh from last month’s BBC 6 music festival, imported its brand of punk often compared to the Clash.
Declan Welsh told the audience he was from East Kilbride which he described as a ‘paragon of mediocrity’.
Mediocre is not a word that should be associated with the Decadent West. The band is in demand across the big cities and has some infectious riffs that were good enough to see them make Glastonbury’s longlist for emerging talent.
It was nearing the witching hour when the Kintyre Songwriters’ Festival 2015 discovery, Be Charlotte, featuring the haunting vocals of Charlotte Brimner, set up her background on stage.
Charlotte was just 16 when she last appeared in Campbeltown, and has moved on in leaps and bounds in the past two years.
Her energetic drum solo, supported by the Twisted Melons’ Mark Johnson, was definitely something different.
MC Kenny Johnson, father of Twisted Melons’ trio Paul, Mark and Stephen, who added their stadium sound to the mix, said: ‘At this first MidFest we have heard music from bands that do not normally get here.
‘Lewis Nelson’s concept is a great thing for Campbeltown, as new music is very important.
‘People in Campbeltown are very wary of new things but MidFest will grow.’