South East London is a musical black hole. It’s close enough to the rest of London to go there for gigs and events, but the area itself is barren of any noteworthy acts (except for maybe Squeeze, but, y’know). This weekend however, for the sixth year running, it’s LeeFest!
In 2006, a bunch of teens fulfilled an age-old adolescent fantasy and held an impromptu festival at their house after one’s parents had gone on holiday. The story of the inaugural Leefest is a testament to teenage ingenuity and heroic compromises, from bribing a school caretaker with beer in exchange for a stage to pulling said stage for a mile in a bunch of stolen shopping trollies. Since then the organisation’s been upped but the basic premise remains: an unpretentious festival that chooses not to overthink itself or burden itself with gimmicks.
Though this mentality could easily lead to it all collapsing in a pile of wanky worthiness and dire up and comers, the organisers have made the intelligent decision to go with bands that come with both credibility and hefty presence.
Mystery Jets headline this year, along with Slow Club and Ghostpoet. Further down the line up lurk gems like Casiokids, whose skittery electro-pop has been cruelly missing from UK festivals for years, or Sound Influx faves Summer Camp, who’ll hopefully bring along new material as well as big hitters from their still-great debut.
The biggest surprise is Raf Daddy (better known as the non-Hot Chip half of 2 Bears), who is set to play a dj set that looks likely to contain the kind of garage, 2-step and soul that’s currently leading the way in reshaping the UK’s pop landscape. With more acts still to be announced and the cost of bigger festivals soaring, Leefest is looking likely to be the underdog of this festival season.
Find out more here on the official website
Ned Powley
It feels like a long time ago since the Mystery Jets released ‘Making Dens’, their first album in 2006. 6 years on and ‘Radlands’ is the fourth offering from the Eel Pie Island boys, and the last with bassist Kai Fish. Having thrown off their twee mantle on ‘Serotonin’, Mystery Jets have continued to make a name for themselves as an actually good guitar band, a precious commodity these days. ‘Radlands’ is a 50 minute opus seeped in imagery, intense guitar lines and America.
The religious aspect of ‘Radlands’ is inescapable. From the title track opener of Blaine whispering “we’ll be together until hell freezes over” to upbeat ‘Sister Everett’ you can’t help but feel that the band have been wrestling with their faith during the song writing period, making some of the songs feel intensely personal. ‘The Nothing’ is a Bowie-esque drift away from some of the more melancholy songs, while ‘The Hale Bop’ is infused with so much enjoyment it’s impossible not to grin. The only wrong step is ‘Greatest Hits’ which simply feels like an attempt to reference as many different things in three minutes, but then other people have picked it out as the best song on the album, maybe I’m missing some of the wit there. I could be reading too far into the album but ‘Take Me Where The Roses Grow’ feels like more than a subtle nod to Nick Cave’s duet with Kylie Minogue on ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’, whether it’s the boy/girl vocals or the shared affinity with flowers.
The change of scenery for the recording of the album (Radlands was recorded in Austin, Texas) makes it feels more polished and almost as if the band have reached a kind of maturity, away from the raw sexuality of ‘Serotonin’ and the ‘sweet’ indie pop of ‘Twenty One’ and ‘Making Dens’. This is album is filled with brilliant song after brilliant song and I could gush about it for a very long time. By the time you have reached the end, following the torturously beautiful ‘Luminescence’, you’ll just want to go straight back to the beginning again.
8.9
Jessy Parker
