With Glastonbury back after a year off, 2013 is set to be one of the busiest for UK music festivals. Some of our favourite small festivals are also still going strong as we take you through our guide to the best festivals in the UK. We’ve also found space to showcase possibly the worst festival line up we have ever seen. Sadly this year is the first where we will no longer be endorsing the All Tomorrow’s Parties events. With the line-ups becoming increasingly predictable and question marks still lingering in our minds over a recent festival postponement and financial woes we’ve decided that there are better and more reliable options elsewhere.

The Great Escape

May 16-18

Taking place at venues across Brighton and Hove, on the Sussex coast, you have to be very queue tolerant for the more popular acts. The event does include a lot of leg work to flit between venues but such minor ordeals are worth it for this festival, which prides itself on showcasing the best new talent around as well as a sprinkling of familiar names. This year’s line up includes Merchandise, Bastille and Phosphorescent. Once again we will be reviewing this event. For more information click here.

Glastonbury

June 26-30

As usual tickets sold out swiftly for this year’s event, especially after it took a break last year to give the fields at its Worthy Farm, Somerset, home  a break. It’s worth checking the website though for details of returned tickets that usually become available around Easter. So far this year the line up rumour mill has been churning faster than ever with David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and Arctic Monkeys all in the mix for a headline slot. After attending our first Glastonbury in 2011 we were amazed by the sheer breadth of music on offer, with the new band-focused BBC Introducing Stage and the John Peel Stage among our favourites. Whatever the bill it promises to remain the best festival for music fans on offer this year. As with 2011, we will be once again be covering the event. This year will be extra special for us as our co-editor Joe Lepper has been one of the judges in the festival’s emerging talent competition, which has a main stage slot as its prize. For more information click here.

Indietracks

July 26-28

New bands, twee-pop and steam trains. That’s the quick review of this excellent small festival that we have attended at its Midland Railway, Butterley, Derbyshire location for a number of years now. Over the years Neonfiller.com favourites such as Teenage Fanclub, Allo’ Darlin’, Tigercats, Darren Hayman and Pains of Being Pure At Heart have graced the stages scattered around its steam railway museum location. For more information click here.

Greenman

August 15-18, 2012

Set in Glanusk Park, Wales, this three-day event offers an enticing blend of folk and alternative acts. This is another we are looking to attend this year, especially as the line up includes the likes of Veronica Falls,  Edwyn Collins, This Is The Kit, The Pastels and Fuck Buttons. For more information click here.

End of the Road

August 30 – September 1

The laidback setting at the Larmer Tree  Gardens, North Dorset makes this one of the best located festivals on the UK circuit. Nestled at the end of the summer holidays the weather tends to be drier (although don’t hold us to that) and this year’s line up is one of the best we have seen. Headliners are Sigur Ros, Belle and Sebastian and David Byrne & St Vincent, with other notable acts already booked including Matthew E White, Jens Lekmen and Frightened Rabbit. For more information click here.

Festival Number 6

September 13-15

As stunning locations go they don’t get better than this festival, which takes place across the welsh seaside town of Portmeirion, where The Prisoner was filmed. With events taking place in bandstands and other famous settings, there will also be  lots of Prisoner worshippers (above picture by Arthur Hughes) on hand in addition to an eclectic mix of old and new acts. Be warned though, festival goers at last year’s inaugural event warned us that camping conditions, on a rather unsettling slope, could do with some improvement. At the time of writing the line up for 2013 had not been unveiled, but with New Order, Spirtualized, British Sea Power, Field Music and Stealing Sheep among those who played in 2012 we are expecting a similarly impressive line up for 2013. For more information click here.

And this year’s worst UK festival line up….

V Festival

August 17-18

V Festival, seemingly the music festival for people who hate music, has outdone itself with its traditional line up of mediocrity this year. Not only do we not want to see a single act, but we would actually pay not to go. With Beyonce and Kings of Leon headlining the organisers are no penny pinchers but certainly have questionable taste. Elsewhere for those festival goers looking for something bland for the car stereo there’s Beady Eye, Jessie J, The Script and Olly Murs. To top it off Scouting For Girls, who I always thought were a joke band, are also on the bill….albeit a little lower down and nestled next to Deacon Blue and Ocean Colour Scene. If this appeals then feel free to visit their website here.

Compiled by Joe Lepper

Fresh from an enjoyable set at this year’s Indietracks festival, Vermont’s The Smittens are this month releasing their fourth album Believe Me. In true indiepop fashion, the release will be on clear 12’ vinyl on Fika Recordings, limited to 500 copies and complete with a digital download code, a recipe for cider-glazed doughnuts and a bag of rooibos tea (we kid you not). You can also buy a digital download version only but the former format sounds a lot more interesting.

Believe Me showcases the best and worst aspects of the band. They craft  bittersweet indie pop, have genuine emotion when they sing and seem like a lot of fun. The problem though is that in sticking to the twee-indiepop path they have chosen to walk  so rigidly, they sound  just too similar  to their obvious influences, most notably The Magnetic Fields and Scottish twee-sters The Pastels . Along the way they have seemingly forgotten to be their own band.

We had a similar problem with Allo Darlin’s new album Europe this year. Sure the songs were good and the musicianship was great, but we’d heard it all before.  If you want to hear what our benchmark is for interesting, original indie pop  then Isle of Dogs by London’s Tigercats, or the self-titled debut by Brooklyn’s Hospitality are pretty good examples.

Anyway, back to The Smittens. Even though it sounds a lot like The Magnetic Fields and doesn’t push the boundaries of indie pop one jot, it’s still a fine and nice listen.

Typing, texting is an enjoyable ditty to start with with, some nice (that word again) three part harmonies and keyboard arrangements but by the second track Burning Streets of Rome I’m finding myself drifting a little; I’m not thinking “what a good song”, but “gosh, doesn’t Smittens singer Max Andrucki’s baritone sound an awful lot like The Magnetic Field’s Stephin Merritt.”

I’m back with them by the third track, Turn The Music Up, which has a good enough riff to keep me interested. And from fourth track First Bus till the end I’m less cynical, feeling pretty darn guilty about thinking they were just a Magnetic Fields rip-off and starting to warm to their sunny take on the whole indie pop genre. As much as I hate the word twee, The Smittens are surely up there with the twee-est bands around, although  they prefer the word ‘bubblegum’ to describe their pop, whatever difference that makes.

Despite my reservations I like this album,  and from what I can tell from those who have seen them live, they seem a likeable bunch as well, which is just enough to make up for their career- crippling lack of originality. The doughnut recipe and tea have also helped sway me.

7/10

by Joe Lepper

This clip, recorded live on 7th July at Inditracks 2012, is of Go Sailor performing ‘The Boy Who Sailed Around The World’. It is an uncharacteristic song in that it is their only track where Rose Melberg and Paul Curran switch places, with the latter handling the guitar and lead vocals.

Indietracks 2012 was my first experience of the “indiepop at a heritage railway” festival and, for reason that should become obvious, it is unlikely to be my last.

Arriving at the campsite, independent from but close to the festival itself, I was a little concerned as the rain bucketed down upon us. The rain soon stopped and sun returned, a sign of things to come with sun primarily dominating the periodical heavy showers over the weekend. Arriving at the festival site itself, the charming Midland Railway Centre, we found that the bands had been driven inside by the inclement weather and would play on the second stage in the cavernous train shed.

Evening on site

The first night of music was limited to just three acts, but it proved to be a pretty satisfying evening’s entertainment none the less. First up were The Smittens, a technicolor blast of cheerful pop from Vermont. Sitting somewhere between Architecture In Helsinki and The Magnetic Fields they put on a good show and open the festival in an appropriately quirky manner. Next up The School set a high bar for the most members in a band with their sweet vocals and soulful 60s pop sound. Belle and Sebastian are a clear influence, or at least the band are coming from a similar musical place.

Finishing the night, and turning in one of the sets of the festival, saw Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament turn in a crowd pleasing mixture of new and old favourites. A new line-up sees Allo Darlin’s Bill Botting move to guitar,  Tigercat’s Giles added on bass and the addition of a keyboard and harmonium player. This backing band could well be the best in his career and the songs, including a version of The Bee Gees ‘I Started A Joke’, sounded brilliant throughout. A closing version of Hefner favourite ‘Painting and Kissing’ goes down a storm and sees Hayman hammering his guitar during the extended outro.

Tigercats

Day two saw the standard pattern begin in earnest as we flitted between the outdoor stage and the train shed to catch the best of the acts. First up outside was the pleasant, if a little generic, pop of The Birthday Kiss. They suffered, as most outdoor acts did, from a smaller crowd as people prepared for rain and headed inside to the guaranteed dry safety of the train shed. (One suggestion for the organisers would be a beer tent near the outdoor stage to encourage people to stay there even if the clouds threatened). First act inside was more interesting as Vacaciones brought an energetic punkiness to their sweet Spanish pop tunes. Flitting back outside we caught a little of the Evans the Death set, a band that impressed me a lot more live than they had done on record.

The outdoor music was cut short as we decided to catch the next round trip on the steam train (free to all festival goers). This proved to be a relaxed and picturesque experienced and meant we got to catch one of the train carriage gigs happening throughout the weekend.  Marc Elston‘s  brand of acoustic songs may not be anything new but it sounded pretty good played to a toddler heavy audience in one of the moist unique festival venues.

Back on stationary ground we headed to the front of the shed to see if Tigercats could live up to the high expectations their debut album had created. They didn’t disappoint turning in a really confident and energetic set which included the bulk of the album. The strong tunes and interesting arrangements supported by a great rhythm section including the best drumming performance of the weekend.

A detour as we crossed the site ended up with a guided tour of the narrow gauge rail shed by one of the Midland Railway staff. It was interesting to find out about the trains, but also to see what a partnership between the Indietrack’s team and the centre staff the festival was. Something that may go a long way to explaining the excellent atmosphere at the festival. He really seemed to enjoy having the festival saying “We are in our 6th year and we are just about getting the hang of it.” adding “We have never had any trouble, except once when a local wandered up the track.”

Returning to the music (via the Burrito van – some of the best festival food I have ever eaten) we made our way to the stage to see one of my most anticipated acts of the festival, Go Sailor. Go sailor are one of those bands that most people will never hear, but are a firm favourite with those that know them. Lead by Rose Melberg (more on whom later) they play a pure high energy guitar pop that is the sound of happiness, despite the bittersweet lyrics. The crowd should be bigger but again the rain comes and people (those without umbrellas at least) are sheltered in the shed.

Go Sailor

Later in the shed comes the first real disappointment of the festival as Summer Camp fail to live up to the hype. Their whole sound seems too slick and too studied, lacking any innocence or authentic enthusiasm. Reports suggest that the second half of the set was better than the first, but by this time we are enjoying a drink in the train carriage bar and it passes me by. (At this point it is worth mentioning what good value drink was at the festival, and snacks as well. You never felt that you were being fleeced at any point on site)

Headliners Veronica Falls do a better job and it is nice to see a big crowd at the outdoor stage as the sun descends. They walk a neat line between upbeat and dour and it is a reminder to me to check out their album when I get home.

Day three proves to be the most varied and eclectic mix of the weekend. It is apparent though that what a loty of acts have in common, be it the endearing noise of The Spook School or the pitch perfect vocals of The 10p Mixes, is a DIY ethos that reminds me of the first wave of punk. If you can’t guarantee money from music sales then you can generate a fan base by handing out handmade CDs to the crowd.

The Spook School

The rest of the day is dominated by indie veterans who set a pretty high standard for the younger acts. Brighton C86 survivors 14 Iced Bears prove to be the latest victims of the rain adjusted crowd syndrome but their melodic psychedelia sounds pretty good to those that stick it out. Stevie Jackson also suffers from the opening clouds but does a better job of keeping hold of the crowd. He plays an engagingly eclectic set that moves from pop to blues to an appropriate cover of Dillard and Clark’s ‘Train Leaves here This Morning’. His song sounding much better freed from the shadow of Stuart Murdoch on the Belle and Sebastian records.

Super stylish surf pop from Seattle residents Orca Team takes a little while to warm up the crowd in the train shed. By the end of the set it seems clear that this is one of the bands to watch from the festival and they might turn in to something that little bit special in time. One band that seems fully formed, at the busiest outdoor daytime show of the festival, is Allo Darlin’. With two excellent albums to draw from they move from pop gem to pop gem for the partisan crowd. With a rock solid rhythm section (including the engagingly bouncy Bill Botting), a fantastic lead guitarist and a front-woman with real star quality they are the “band most likely to” on the bill.

Sadly I have to cut their set short to make sure of space in the church to watch Rose Melberg play a solo set. It proves to be worth it though as she turns in the performance of the festival to the hushed and attentive crowd. Her voice is sweet and gentle and the songs sad and lyrical, perfect for the setting. She is also the second act of the day to cover Kirsty MacColl’s excellent ‘They Don’t Know’, which sounds pretty lovely both times. I head to the merchandise tent after the set to pick up one of her solo albums to find the WIAIWYA record boss still wiping tears away from her set, I doubt you see that with major label bosses (who are also unlikely to man the merchandise stall).

The Vaselines

Finishing the festival off in irreverent style is Kurt Cobain favourites The Vaselines, a band who recently returned after a 20 year hiatus. The banter between Eugene Kelly and the filthy mouthed Frances McKee (who offers herself up to the crowd and claims to have given Jesus a blow-job the previous night) is very entertaining, as is there messy alt-rock sound. Supported by some excellent guitar (supplied by Stevie Jackson) they rip through a bit proportion of their small back catalogue. They also prove Kurt Cobain right, ‘Son of a Gun’ is just a brilliant piece of music.

There are a dozen reasons to recommend the festival to anyone but the most indie averse music fan. The interesting setting, the variety of stages, the friendly reception from the railway staff and volunteers and the cheap and plentiful beer on offer. It really is a unique musical event and I hope it continues on in the same vein for years to come. With so many festivals struggling it is important that a few truly independent festivals survive, we don’t end up with bore-fests like Isle of Wight as the only options.

As we stand by the road waiting for our taxi back to the station a car pulls up, “I hope you enjoyed your weekend lads, come back and see us again next year” says the old boy behind the wheel. I bet you don’t get that when you leave V Festival.

Words and pictures by Dorian Rogers

See more pictures from the festival in our Flickr gallery.

Read our review of the 2011 Indietracks festival.

Once again we will be packing our bags and setting off to the Midland Railway in Derbyshire to cover the Indietracks Festival this year.

To help you navigate through all the online stories and twitter feeds from the event we’ve decided to enlist the help of Infomous and create a news cloud for you to browse through. All the links in the blog and twittersphere over the weekend about the event will be updated here. Be sure to keep checking over the weekend.

This year’s Indietracks, now in its fifth year, was frankly one of the great festivals on the calendar. It had moments of magic that you couldn’t architect through pyrotechnics, a well choreographed routine or bringing on a gospel choir – you simply had to be there.

Witness Edwyn Collins, Saturday night’s headline act. The generator fails on the main stage. The Hidden Cameras try an impromptu acoustic set nonetheless and somehow pull in one of the biggest crowds to the front as people gather to hear better. And their bombastic style translated beautifully to the hotch potch collection of instruments they could get their hands on and still get a sound out of.

The Hidden Cameras

So Collins is set up in the indoor stage following Milky Wimpshake who are blistering through a set in almost sheer darkness. The electrics are fixed. The normally boomy indoor stage produces a crisp clean sound because it’s absolutely packed with pretty much all 1,000 of the festival goers, and Collins comes on.

At least we think so. Victim of a double brain haemorrhage in 2005, Collins performs his set seated, struggling to muster much in the way of banter between songs, yet his voice still fizzes with power, his delivery upbeat. As the set plays out, we get the crowd pleasers – Rip It Up – and finally the Ivor Novello award-winning artist stands for his hit A Girl Like You. There’s a collective recognition that we’re getting a rather good deal for our ticket price in this three or four minutes alone.

Math and Physics Club

So, that was one very small part of the Saturday. Yet you’d have been more than satisfied if the day had ended on Math and Physics Club‘s sensational set of breezy, guileless songs, particularly ‘Lisa’, about the charms of a girl bass player. Apt given that The History of Apple Pie, who were on before them (successfully sounding not a million miles away from last year’s headline act The Pains of Being Pure at Heart) featured just such an asset.

The weekend had been building up quite nicely, what with Pocketbooks opening on Friday. Anther highlight was Suburban Kids With Biblical Names pulling off a great show as the headline – an almost trademark Swedish-indie sound (think Billy the Vision, even I’m from Barcelona) with some very cool, almost jazz (yes, I said it) chord progressions.

Indietracks site bathed in sunlight

But after Collins on Saturday, Sunday looked like a tough day to perform on. Highlights included Papa Topo (which I assume must mean Daddy Mouse), Majorca’s answer to a wayward piano lesson spooned into three-minute sparkly pop songs, if that ever needed an answer.

Sloppy Joe was the most unlikely of surprises, with the Tokyo band producing an incredible Smiths-y set – and drawing an enthusiastic crowd where there had just been bare grass in front of them as they opened.

Sloppy Joe

Madrid’s Zipper were great on the indoor stage, with driving fuzz-warm tunes carrying cutesy vocal lines that could have come from a kids’ TV show they were so upbeat. While in the church, MJ Hibbett singing with A Little Orchestra was a treat for those lucky enough to get an ear through the door.

And then Jeffrey Lewis happened. His band the Junkyard seemed to the ones in charge as they were setting up. Lewis looked like he’d wandered on from the audience. Until he took control of what was a tour de force. It’s supposed to be anti-folk, but that’s probably because he’s a genuine individual talent, a true auteur – what do you measure him against, except what he’s not. Making up the set as he went, he tore through songs, often starting them up himself and shouting titles to the bassist (his brother) and the drummer, daring them to keep up.

Jeffrey Lewis (far left) joined by Herman Dune (far right)

Songs map out his acrobatic thought patterns with engaging, rhythmic lyrics. Almost Sly Stone in their simplicity, Leonard Cohen in their sophistication and scope. You could cast aside his rap about killing mosquitos as a gimmick, but as a showcase for his literate wit it’s undeniable.

The audience were genuinely quite angered that they couldn’t weasel an encore out of him.

So how do you keep the roof off after that? Crystal Stilts turned the indoor stage into their own dark church of post punk. Singer Brad Hargett  swayed on stage like a reverend Bob Dylan, with tousled hair and shades, delivering the songs over a wall of noise. Between numbers he didn’t say a word. And the whole thing was utterly compelling.

Crystal Stilts

And then there was nothing left but Herman Dune. Looking like a Canadian Mountie lost in the Alps, the French troubadour delivered a masterclass of song writing. More folk than indie, certainly in sentiment, but there’s no doubt he was the perfect headline to an Indietracks that surpassed all expectations

by Matt Whipp

Indietracks have made available an excellent 40 track compilation, featuring the bands who played at this year’s event,  on a pay what you want basis.  All proceeds go to The Midlands Railway Centre that hosts the event.  Click here to download.

If you missed out on going to Glastonbury, or you did go and want more festival action, there are still plenty you can go to later in the Summer. Below are three of our favourites that offer up something a little bit different.

Playgroup Festival

The Playgroup Festival is only in its second year, but it already looks like becoming a regular part of the summer festival landscape. Taking its inspiration from The Secret garden Party and Bestival it aims to offer a unique experience where the overall atmosphere is just as important as who you might be watching on the stage.

One mistake a lot of small festivals make is trying to get recognisable names on a small budget and ending up with a load of formerly famous acts on the bill. That is fine if your idea iof a good time is watching Dodgy headline the main stage and then moving on to watch Miles Hunt from the Wonderstuff DJ in the dance tent. Playgroup take a different tack, picking a load of lesser known but high quality acts from a wide range of genres and creating a really interesting bill. Acts to look out for includes; The Apples, Early Ghost, Gypsy Hill, Kovak, Los Albertos and Quantic y su Combo Barbaro.

They say “Our events are theatrical without being theatre, musical without being just gigs, artistic without being exclusive, accessible without being bland, fun without being shudderingly ‘wacky’, and involve you, without ramming anything down your throat!”

Woodland animals are the theme this year, so be prepared to see people dressed as stags, hares and badgers to roaming the festival fields. The festival is at Eridge Park, halfway between London and Brighton, and buses to the event (complete with magicians on board) can be booked along with the tickets.

http://playgroupfestival.com/

Indietracks

Indietracks does exactly what it says on the tin, it is an indie music festival at a vintage railway. It is this simple gimmick that makes this one of the most unique festivals of the year. Sure, if you don’t like indie pop then the addition off steam trains is unlikely to win you over, but if you do it is a great way to spend a few days.

The line-up this year is as strong as ever, bands to look out for includes; Edwyn Collins, Jonny, Chris T-T, Herman Dune, Milky Wimpshake, Hidden Cameras and The Bumblebees.

They say “Indietracks is a unique summer festival which combines heritage trains and indiepop music, and is located in the Derbyshire countryside. Guests are free to enjoy the regular facilities of the Midland Railway Butterley such as the steam train rides, farm and museum, and enjoy a range of new and established indiepop bands.”

The festival takes place at the Swanwick Junction site of the Midland Railway Butterley.

Read our review of the 2010 festival.

http://www.indietracks.co.uk

End of the Road

End of the Road is the biggest of the festivals previewed here, but even at an increased 10,000 capacity it is still small enough to be able to escape from the crowds. The great strength of this festival is the consistent quality of music on show and the idyllic setting.

A focus of folky acts and Americana works perfectly in the beautiful gardens, but the organisers aren’t scared to through a few noisy rock acts into the mix. Bands to watch out for this year includes; Beirut, Mogwai, The Walkmen, Phosphorescent, tUnE-yArDs, The Leisure Society, Allo Darlin’ and Gordon Gano & The Ryans.

They say ” The idea with the End of the Road Festival was to organise an intimate festival with our favourite artists and to create a festival with a friendly and relaxed feel. The Larmer Tree Gardens (North Dorset/Wiltshire borders, UK) is the perfect venue to create this kind of atmosphere – where music-loving, open minded and chilled out people get together in the beautiful countryside whilst parrots and peacocks wander around!”

Read our review of the 2010 festival.

http://www.endoftheroadfestival.com/

By Dorian Rogers

Indie Tracks is surely one of the most unusual festivals in the world. Set in the Midland Railway centre in Derbyshire festival goers get the chance to see some of the best new indiepop bands around, some musical faces from the past and even ride on a steam train.

This year’s event takes place between 23 and 25 July and appearing will be one of the most talked about indie bands around, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (album review here) alongside indie pop veterans such as The Pooh Sticks and The Primitives.
The man behind Indietracks, which still only in its fourth year, is Stuart Mackay (pictured right), who is pleased to keep its innocuous billing as simply “an indie pop festival”.  Here he gives Neonfiller’s Matt Whipp his ten easy steps to building your own festival, as well as an insight into the organisation behind Indietracks.

1. Have a great idea.

SM: “I’d like to claim Indietracks was a really inspirational idea but it was really just I that I wanted to put on a gig and putting it on at a place I knew and was working at. As I restore old trains at the centre it seemed the easiest way forward.”

2. Find a unique venue

SM: “At the Midland Railway I sometimes helped out working on the bar on their evening dining train, which also had a disco carriage. Working on there one night the manager explained that at weddings they also sometimes had bands play on the platform, it seemed an ideal opportunity. The first Indietracks we did we had three bands playing on the platform, and in between (when the bands were changing over) the audience would go for a steam train ride with the disco on board. It was a tremendous success, and encouraged me to do something bigger, which turned into the festival.”

3. Persuade a load of people how good your idea is and rope them in to help you out

SM: “We’re all volunteers, and start getting serious about organising once Christmas is out the way. Something to look forward to in those boring months at the start of the year. There’s Emma that does all the website and artwork and now also books the smaller bands, Nat and Andy do all the press stuff, Alice deals with the booking agents for the bigger bands and co-ordinates the workshops, Dan arranges our volunteers, and Claire and Julie produce our programme. I deal with the railway and the stages and other stuff I can’t delegate!”

4. Decide who you want to play and convince them that this is the best festival for them.

SM: “Pretty much any band will play if you offer them the right money, which is a problem when you’re a really small festival, and being such a niche festival we’re always gonna have that problem. But perhaps next year we’ll take the festival down a notch, and not book any bigger bands through booking agents, it’ll make it a lot easier on ourselves.”

5. Know instinctively that a venue such as the centre’s tiny corrugated tin church will deftly produce magical gig after gig.

SM: “As it’s always packed I tend to sneak in the door at the side of the stage it’s great to see rows and rows of people sitting on pews. Despite it being made of tin it still has the wonderful acoustics that churches seem to excel at.”

6. Don’t just pick your favourite bands. You might be too busy to see them anyway.

SM: “Well for the first three years I got to pick all the bands and they’d be nicely scheduled so the ones I wanted to see the most didn’t clash, but I got to the stage last year when there was always something going on that I had to sort out that I got to see zero bands over the whole weekend. So I thought why worry about picking out my favourite bands, this year I let the others select them and if I’m lucky I might get to grab a song somewhere over the weekend.”

7. Use word of mouth marketing. Tell all your mates to tell their mates

SM : “It was really hard the first year, it was April before we decided to do it so we had to put the whole show together in three months and marketing was a little neglected, and I think people didn’t believe an indiepop festival could work. But everyone that did come absolutely loved it, and word of mouth and good reviews has helped us grow considerably since then.”

8. Give up your day job.

SM : ” I still work on trains! It did get too time consuming last year and was interfering with work, there’s no budget to get paid to do it, so this year I’ve delegated a lot of my tasks.”

9. Keep the natives on side.

SM: “At first there was a lot of negativity at the centre, there was resentment about it not being a train-based event (there’s events on there most weekends, all with the trains as the main focus). But everyone that got involved has seen how much fun everyone has and get’s caught up in the friendly atmosphere and now love to be a part of it.”

10. Work out how you’re going to do it again next, but bigger, and better

SM: “The railway felt last year that it’d grown to a size they liked and were worried that they couldn’t cope with anything bigger, so we’re basically just repeating last year and almost everything apart from the bands should be the same. ”

Tickets for the weekend are priced at £55 for early birds and are available from here.  For more information follow the  indietracks  blog.

Interview by: Matt Whipp

Main picture courtesy of Julie Weston at www.efestivals.co.uk

Indietracks, which for the last four years has taken place at the Midland Railway centre in Derbyshire, was perhaps not quite as busy  as last year when it had the support of Spain’s Elefant label on the main stage and a distinct European feel to it.

But if there’s one strapline to take away from the 2010 version, it’s that this is the year when it established itself as the defining UK indie music festival in your calendar.

This year was indie in its more ascetic forms. The old guard were there with The Orchids growing in stature with their set and Saturday night’s headliner The Primitives (pictured below) will be remembered for a stoic performance, although that’s not to take anything away from the kudos of having booked them in the first place. Both were outshone by a frantic Pooh Sticks set which throbbed with vitality – right down to their performance of ‘On Tape’ – one of many performances that the audience will go away knowing they just witnessed something rather special.

The breakthrough acts were also there in force. Sunday’s top slot The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were the event act of this new breed of bands. In a way they’re difficult to define. They wear their influences on their collective sleeve; in all honesty the gamut of their songwriting is pretty narrow;  the vocals didn’t soar on the night. But as a band and a performance it suddenly made sense what all the hype is about.
And as ever with Indietracks you always get more than you deserve. Shrag (pictured below) have a terrible name but otherwise frankly spellbinding in any other respect, mainly down to their mesmerising singer, but also a bristling crop of energetic three minute stomps.

The Felt Tips were one of the highlights [fellow Indietracks attendees - I accept that when you're faced with one billion acts to watch, it is possible that other highlights were going on at the same time as this writer's]. Particularly their ode to a loss of faith in Morrissey, deftly followed by a defiantly Smiths-y number. Although ‘Life Skills’ is one of those songs that remains in your head for its pure audacity.

Among other acts Allo Darlin’ (pictured below) are clearly great song-crafters and were followed on the Friday night by Everyone was in the French Resistance… Now, a concept act that creates response ‘songs’ to famous hits. Off the wall and hilarious but should they have been Friday’s headliner? Perhaps not, but as they would have pretty much upstaged anyone you would care to put on after them, I can see the argument for giving they them the headliner accolade. Finally Antarctica Takes It definitely deserve a mention for their lo fi up beat work.

And then there’s the primordial indie soup of emerging talent. Betty and the Werewolves had queues round the block and over the level crossing for their energetic set in the church stage. Mexican Kids at Home felt like a rather charming GCSE music lesson. But those five kids in the back of the train singing nursery rhyme songs about mortality certainly had something.

The festival itself continues to excel itself at being the best unkept secret around. Whether they are on-stage or off, you’ll never run into such a high concentration of steam-powered music lovers on any other weekend of the year. Top marks.

Words and pictures by Matt Whipp

For more pictures visit Matt’s Myspace site here.