Thirty bands across four stages in the welcoming surroundings of the Hunter Club, mainly showcasing performers from the musical cauldron of Bury St Edmunds. Curated by Seymour Quigley, local veteran of many bands including the inestimable and greatly missed Horse Party, a favourite on this site. And he must be congratulated on a superb job; with so much choice and quality on show during the day.

There was a mellow and relaxing start on one of the stages from Alicia Hall and then Robert C Taylor, with subtle acoustic guitar and a mix of covers and own compositions. Cambridge based Lemondaze were a revelation of loud, artful, psychedelic energy. With all the infinite possibilities arising from bass and two guitarists with a mountain of effects pedals, three voices and industrial strength drumming the songs hit and lifted the audience onto another plane for their half hour.

Duo Kulk played the first of two sets, the heavy electric guitar and frenetic drums combination works brilliantly in an intimate venue, with guitarist Thom Longdin down in the audience or roaring some vocals, while Jade Squires pounds the drum kit mercilessly. Back on the ‘Rock Against Racism’ stage we found another intriguingly named duo: Grandma’s Waffle Velocity from Colchester, this time the vocals and unrelenting drums interlinked with an effects-laden bass. The Glitter Shop brought a dream-pop, keyboard driven vibe to the main stage performing some powerful versions of best known tracks ‘Alive’, ‘Fizz and ‘Sleep’. I caught the end of the set by Cambridge trio The Baby Seals, consummate performers with a great sound and stage presence; and also a couple of rapid fire rock-pop songs from SIAH, very well received by the audience.

I was looking forward to Londoners Fightmilk having seen them recently and they certainly didn’t disappoint, with a set drawn mainly from their soon to be released new album the four-piece mesh brilliantly on stage with a wall of noisy mayhem tempered by light and shade in their mix and neat instrumental flourishes. Witty lyrics are delivered knowingly by lead singer Lily Rae and older songs ‘Pity Party’, the stealthy ‘Your Girlfriend’ and the mighty ‘Bank Of Mum And Dad’ went down well too.

While Cambridge trio Goldblume were weaving their magic of edgy blues next door, Bury rockers Tundra thoroughly warmed up the home crowd for the arrival of local heroes Gaffa Tape Sandy, returning from playing in Leeds earlier in the day. Opening with ‘Transylvania’, it was second track ‘Water Bottle’ that sent the faithful into overdrive, with crowdsurfing carrying on through the set, even when the music was briefly interrupted by a charity flexi-disc raffle. The rhythm powered trio make an incredibly full sound and the pace and momentum did not let up throughout, reaching its apex in the majestic ‘Beehive’, a glorious end to a fantastic day.

http://www.gaffatapesandy.co.uk/
https://fightmilkisaband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TUNDRABANDOFFICIAL/
https://goldblumeband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SIAHbury/
http://thebabyseals.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/theglittershopband/
https://www.facebook.com/Grandmaswafflevelocity
https://kulk.bandcamp.com/
http://www.hunterclub.org.uk/