I’m back from my first “Parklife” experience. Let me say first up that the parklife festival is one that would normally pass me by as I’m not into “Doof Doof ” music and a fair bit of parklife is just that, but when asked by Faster Louder if I wanted to shoot parklife I jumped at the opportunity as I do love experiencing new music even though it might never grace my CD collection.
I got down there reasonably early soon after the start at 12 noon, whilst the crowds were small and made my way down to the Sahara Stage to catch some of Messrs – plenty of energy from them and some great tunes ( Keep an eye on this band ). I wanted to familiarise myself with the layout of the stages/ access etc so started a walk around and ended up at the Cave stage to catch a bit of the Killgirls ( yet another suprise packet ).
It was soon time to hit the Atoll stage for the first band I was planning on catching – Kimbra.entering with the stage with a warming smile and a colourfull dress, Kimbra warmed up the crowd with her catchy tunes. Great expressions to photograph also. A bit more of a walk around to catch some of DJ Bliss and some other acts. There was ALWAYS lots of things happening on many stages. Sometimes too many though with sound washing over the next stage. Found my way back to the Atoll stage for Little dragon, who also played some catchy songs with Yukimi donning feathers in her headgear and singing and playing some weird percussion pads. A bit of a break then before Death from Above ( DFA ) 1979 hit the stage. I had read a bit about this band and they sounded interesting. The crowd that was here to watch them was pretty hyped and when they came on the Drumming and guitar feedback had the crowd pumped. Some good photo ops although the drummer had the microphone hardware smack bang in the way of any photos from the pit. Next stop was the Sahara stage for The Naked and Famous. I’ve heard some of their stuff on JJJ so had some familiarity.
Santigold – Appearing on stage with 2 backup dancers who feather Santigold entrance on stage with flowers ( roses ) – certainly one of the highlights of the festival in terms of the whole theatrical experience. The performance had an “Egyptian” theme.
Gossip – Can she sing – You betcha. With one hell of a powerful voice Gossip pumped out some very catchy tunes with such gusto. Probably the Vocal highlight for me of Parklife
Sebastien Tellier – To be honest I’d read other reviews that indicated this was a must see, and was surprised when there was almost no crowd in front of the stage. Musically I found the first few songs rather bland although there was some awesome sunlight blasting in through the side where the keyboard player was and combined with the smoke machines made for some contrasty images.
The Streets – Lots of crowd banter from Mike including a request for a hotdog from the crowd which turned up about 5 mins later. I cant imagine anythign worse than a Festival hotdog but Mike had a bite then asked for it to be kept until later. Solid musically although from a potography viewpoitn having him stand for the most art of the first 3 songs on a speaker stack outside of the lighting area meant not a lot of lit shots and lots of sillhouettes.
Lykke Li – Didn’t know much about her, but a bit of in
ternet research and watching some youtube clips meant she was on my agenda to photograph at the 8:45 timeslot when there was so much in the way of clashes ( 4 out of 5 stages clashing ). A Very Moody black and white smoke filled set from Lykke Li. I was pleasantly surprised by the performance and this is one act I might look at purchasing a CD of.
Simian Mobile disco – Ive heard a lot about these guys so I did a detour prior to heading home for a sleep to catch them on the Cave stage. interesting setup with a bank of rack mounted Synth/Effects that the two performers twirl/plug/slide knobs and dials to get the sounds. The crowd seemed to just be taking the sounds in, rather than energetically dancing around as they were earlier when Nero was playing
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