Biffy Clyro

It is the day of The Mardi Gras and I am sitting in a slightly damp field in Essex. This is the site of Thurrock Music Festival - lovingly known as TMF2002. There aren’t any bands that have hit the ‘mainstream’ here bar a slight handful but they have travelled from far and wide to be playing here today. With four live music stages as well as two dance stages this is not a festival to leer at. Although the burgers here look just as dodgy a touch of class is added by a pig on a spit roast. That’s rock ‘n’ roll, baby.

I take up position, as expected, on the Musictek stage, apparently featuring “Heavy Rock/Metal/Ska”. Oooh, sounds good. There are thirteen bands on the line-up today and the first three are crap. The site is constructed so you can just keep walking round in circles watching each stage as you walk past. This is what I did! But alas, I always returned to what I know.

Back at the what I am now calling The Metal Stage You get some heavy, heavy monster rockers and then you get the RATM wannabes, who do entertain briefly while jumping off the stage and jamming in the empty pit. It is only brief. My ears prick first when The Seven Machine start rocking the stage. It ain’t half bad. Other highlights here were few and far between with the sound not helping the mighty Mr. Shiraz’s show liven up proceedings. You’ve all seen those Kilkus stickers everywhere, haven’t you? Well they’ve changed their name to Dury*Falls but sound the same. And they’re still not very good. Maybe the perennially insipid SugarComa could salvage the stage? No.

I spent the majority of the latter half of the day at the Maple stage which, I was informed by the free programme would be playing “Rock”. That’ll do for me, too! The Biffy Clyro tour stopped off on this stage with the gloriously abstract EmO ramblings of thisGIRL followed by Hell is for Heroes playing their Deftones-esque heavy rock.

I was slightly distressed to have turned up too late to see the wonderfully named Spankin Harry but was my disappointment here was swiftly abated as Essexshire starlets InMe appeared onstage without any notification and failed to become one of the highlights of my day. They stormed through a set full of potential kiddy hits and this being my first InMe experience, I finally understood why they’ve been getting so much attention. You need to see them live because they were seriously good. Not really.

The band I was really waiting for was to appear was Oceansize. They didn’t show. A scowl appeared on my face as I realised that InMe had actually replaced Oceansize and Giant had been shifted up the bill. Hmph. The compère’s claims of free money at the Fat Surfer stage were clearly unfounded and I walked away from the “Indie/Alternative” fiasco to check out a bit more Hell is for Heroes.

I had waited long enough to witness the splendid work of Biffy Clyro. Oh you know them: those slightly crazy Scotsmen who whisper and moan one moment only to scream threefold just moments _later. They seemed on better form tonight despite their quiet, sensitive moments being rudely punctuated by the incredibly loud bass from the Lyrical Lush stage…playing _UK Garage and RnB! A remix is surely now in the pipeline.

There was a great mix of people at TMF ranging from _goth blokes _in rubber dresses to to the _indie kids _in their cords to those youngsters who wear tracksuits, white trousers and too much gold jewellery. The site was a great size for just walking between stages. There was a family atmosphere here that welcomed everyone and that meant that the several dogs and very young children I noticed didn’t really seem out of place. I daresay the other festivals this summer won’t be as welcoming.