IT TRULY was a game of two halves at Farmfestival near Bruton this weekend.
From baking sun to torrential downpours – along with touch of fog.
The small and perfectly formed music festival specialises in breaking acts, cult offerings and DJs with the rarest of grooves.
And it would be great to tell you what they were all like.
But as your writer spent most of the weekend next to a speaker stack or haplessly organising bands in the home of Somerset music, The Battleground Stage, he can tell you little of these delights.
However he can say that the Battleground, born from the Mid Somerset News & Media Battle of the Bands had its most successful year yet.
While there is no current contest, there is no shortage of talent wanting an outlet, and the Battleground was packed with it as never before.
On Friday the show kicked off with Shepton Mallet's b.e_cooling, followed fellow Sheptonites Finches Fly – surely one of the few occasions when a teacher has been followed to a stage by his pupils – and it was the usual contrast from the Battleground – from bluesy folk to Arctic Monkeys covers in the space of a few minutes.
Third on were The Hartletts from Yeovil, a trio who reminded one of the Small Faces, with just enough rock swagger and an engaging easy style and who are now my favourite band.
Things took an entirely different turn with Bristol-based Gouranga – their blistering stoner rock made them the surprise hit of Friday and demand for their CDs and T-shirts was high.
Minor Works Unit's ukulele solos and songs of surreal farce took things out to another level while All Us Authors from Street were about as good and tight as a young rock band could be.
Closing the evening was a joyous 45 minutes of bouncy skatepunk from the reformed Don't Do Tuesdays playing their first gig for seven years. And to clear the tent a CD of wedding disco songs was put on, but the sound of Kool and the Gang and Sister Sledge had the opposite effect of attracting people to the tent in search of a dance and it was hard to extricate them so that the team from Maltings Audio could get some well-earned rest.
Saturday dawned hot and sunny and the first act due on stage were Glastonbury-based Swampgrass, booked at the last minute when it was realised the stage could open for longer than expected. As it turned out Swampgrass were promoted to the main stage when an expected band didn't show – a move that was great for the bluesy Swampgrass and great for the audience too.
So the Ground stage – rechristened from Battleground because someone had wandered off with half the stage sign overnight – kicked off with a fantastic set by singer-songwriter Chris Millington and a further hour of cool bluesy tunes by Shepton Mallet's Palmer Fox Eldrich.
At which point, it rained. In buckets. As the organisers struggled to contain a flood deluging the main stage the Ground was packed for Blueskin Fever's funk rock who gave the evening a very cool and sensual start, followed by Keynsham's Foreign Affairs who raced to Bruton from West Wales where they had headlined a festival the previous day.
Meanwhile, backstage there were frantic discussions going – with the rain still pouring, no one was going to play the main stage. Could we move some acts about and put a few headliners on? Is the Pope Argentinian? Does a sound engineer hoard gaffer tape?
Foreign Affairs graciously agreed to a shorter set as did the Martock-based folk-duo Lazibyrd, beloved of Reef's Jack Bessant, and Street's Awaken The Silence blasted the audience into grinning enthusiastic submission in 25 minutes while we waited to accommodate electro-folk from Mt.Wolf. The contrast was as dynamic as it gets, especially when they were followed by Bristol-based blues six-piece the Red Hot Knives – back on stage after a brief 25-year hiatus.
And then came the event of the night – a spellbinding performance by the astonishing Gramme – an underground four-piece said to have been the big influence on Hot Chip.
And to round the night out? Why, only 45 minutes of good old-fashioned old-school punk rock from Highbridge's Vermin to take us all out on a high, while the Ground's other main attraction, Radstock's Inbredz, found themselves upgraded to the festival's biggest tent for a midnight slot.
Thanks to all the performers, to the festival organisers and to Doug Siddons, Eli Heath, Sofie Hunter, Jake and Dave, Deborah Walker, Bradley America and Scott Tippett, without whom etc.
And to the people of Bruton, Batcombe and Upton Noble, thank you for your patience in putting up with the racket.
