It’s been a busy festival season for invernessGiGs with coverage of some of the best festivals Scotland has to offer. So it’s the A98 and not the yellow brick road that we will be travelling down to meet the Wizard of New Deer.
A good look at the line up reasserts our opinion that it is particularly strong this year, providing a strength in depth that has created the most consistent amount of ‘clash concerns’ that we have had all festival season.
Let’s have a look at the four clashes that are causing us the most consternation. Please note we do not have the set times at the moment but the acts appear very close to each other on the bill. (For those that think this may be a contrived attempt to revisit the normal festival preview format, well ok fair cop.)
First off is The Stranglers (headlining Main Stage, Friday) versus Rhythmnreel (headlining the Banshee Stage, Friday). Certainly not a like-for-like battle but the legendary, genre-shifting Stranglers play at the same time as the Celtic rock, guaranteed party, Rhythmnreel. With classics such as ‘Golden Brown’, ‘No More Heroes’ and ‘Peaches’ The Stranglers certainly show they have the pedigree but, really, the opportunity to dance and sing ourselves silly may be too much to resist.
Second are the poppy anthems of Jon Fratelli (3rd on the bill, Main Stage, Friday) versus the emotional rock tunes of Iain McLaughlin & The Outsiders (4th on the bill, Banshee Stage, Friday). Ironically, whilst the genres of music are very different, the addictiveness of the tunes boast great similarities. So whilst there might be a great familiarity in Jon Fratelli’s songs it might be time to experience the raw emotion of ‘Remedy’.
Iain McLaughlin – Remedy[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2NGd-auU1U[/youtube]
Dance versus rock is our third Wizard clash. The Liverpool based 90’s rockers, Cast (Headliners, Main Stage, Saturday) reformed early last year and were described,unfairly, as Brit-Pop also rans. They actually produced great list of hits that whilst being commercially successful never brought any real critical acclaim. Dance is represented in the SNAFU Soundsystem who play host to The Japanese Popstars (headliners on Saturday), lasts seen by invernessGiGs at Rockness where they won our attention and support after an exceptionally strong set by the trio.
Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds (main stage, 4th on the bill, Saturday) bring thier folky-style punk covers and acclaimed stage presence up against Stanley Odd (Main Stage,4th on the bill, Saturday) the Glaswegian Hip-Hop band whose energy on stage has won frequent comment. We suspect that those in the know will visit Solareye et al at the smaller stage but we will make that decision nearer the time.
The Wizard, due to it’s varied and ultimately extremely strong line up has thrown up a few challenging conflicts for us but the one thing we are sure of is that we will be having a good time.
So altogether after three…..We’re off to see the Wizard………
The Wizard Festival, New Deer, Aberdeenshire is held over the 26th –28th of August. Tickets are available via online ticket vendors and locally at the Ironworks
