{"id":36448,"date":"2013-12-20T13:04:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T13:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejoycollective.co.uk\/blog\/?p=36448"},"modified":"2014-03-26T14:17:16","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T14:17:16","slug":"wales-goes-pop-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/preview\/wales-goes-pop-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales Goes Pop! 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"helen-love_01_446\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WALES GOES POP!<\/strong><\/p>\n

An all-ages pop weekender over the long Easter bank holiday<\/p>\n

Friday 18th – Sunday 20th April 2014 at The Gate, Cardiff<\/p>\n

FRIDAY 18TH APRIL 1.30PM
\nHelen Love
\nSeptember Girls
\nNight Flowers
\nFlowers
\nRandolph’s Leap
\nKutosis
\nSeazoo
\n& sets in the cafe\/bar from: The Magic Theatre, Young Romance, Cristina Quesada, Francesca’s Word Salad
\nfollowed by DJs: Typical Stereo Recs. vs Belong<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Quietly and without self-congratulation or fanfare, the inaugural Wales Goes Pop! festival in 2013 achieved through commitment and good-natured force of will what many budding UK festivals struggle to, and what often seems unlikely in a sometimes moribund South Wales musical community; it reached beyond the listless caricature of the \u2018typical\u2019 indie pop fan to attract a diverse, positive crowd, and it also reached far beyond Cardiff, attracting the committed indie pop festival-goer from the wider UK and even Europe.\u00a0 It\u2019s a winning attitude typical of Liz\u2019s approach to booking gigs in her promoting days as Loose; unafraid to aim high, an if-you-build-it boldness that notes the success of Indietracks and sees no reason why it shouldn\u2019t work on a local scale.\u00a0 The Gate is a fine space for it, lending itself perfectly to the sort of bustling market-stall atmosphere that DIY festivals create so well.\u00a0 Using the caf\u00e9 bar for short, small-scale sets also works a treat, with a nicely crowded, intimate feel and a decent bar.<\/p>\n

As with last year, half the attraction is in a carefully selected and nicely varied line-up that doesn\u2019t oversell it on headliners but cannily guarantees ticket sales.\u00a0 Top crowd-puller is the first Cardiff show in, blimey, 14 years from Helen Love<\/b>; by my reckoning, her last was a free gig in Clwb with Mo-ho-bish-o-pi and a nascent Mclusky in support. Last year\u2019s one for the dads was the return of the Primitives; this time out The Wedding Present<\/b> headline the Saturday, ensuring their enduring and reliable diehard following turns out.\u00a0 They\u2019re teasing a Welsh-language EP, which sounds like their most outr\u00e9 statement since the Ukrainians LPs in the early 90s.\u00a0 Laetitia Sadier<\/b>, re-politicised and with a sharp, minimal two-piece band, and the rollicking, anecdotal indie-folk intimacy of Withered Hand<\/b> share the honours on Sunday.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect from something programmed with such love, there\u2019s much to discover further down the bill.\u00a0 Cowtown<\/b>\u2019s crazed dayglo electropopgrind, like Melt Banana doing Hey Gabba Gabba!<\/i> or hyperactive 8-bit versions of Brainiac\/Devo post-punk, will be an excellent jolt of energy, while Asturian duo Los Bonsais<\/b> do a cute garagey take on the template once laid down by Elefant labelmates Juniper Moon.\u00a0 There are, as you might expect, a few sizeable nods in the direction of timewarped c86 classicism, with September Girls<\/b>\u2019 bruising, brooding Isn\u2019t Anything<\/i>-era MBV rush and London trio Flowers<\/b>\u2019 waspish guitars, rudimentary drumming and upper-register girl vocals recalling the heady days of Motorcycle Boy.\u00a0 Young Romance<\/b>\u2019s doomed-romantic pop is all piercingly direct crystal pop vocals with the shabby grandeur of Johnny Boy \u2013 if that means something to you, WELL DONE \u2013 while sparky Glaswegians TeenCanteen<\/b> have a yearning One Kiss Can Lead To Another <\/i>thing that just wants all that stupid old shit like letters and sodas, and is all the better for it.\u00a0 Honourable mentions to Randolph\u2019s Leap<\/b>, plaintive like Pictish Trail or Withered Hand, playful and skittish like early B&S, Hefner, even Hidden Cameras, with massed choruses and cute brass and woodwind trills; and to The Magic Theatre<\/b>, who are, remarkably, two of late-90s Scouse popsters Ooberman.\u00a0 Once you know that, you can hear strains of \u2018Blossoms Falling\u2019 underneath the swooping cadences of ‘It Was Glorious’; a confident, subtly modernist take on the kind of pastoral folk reveries that turn up after 40 years lost and spark collector frenzy.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s local flavour care of Hail! The Planes<\/b>, Kutosis<\/b>, Radstewart<\/b>, Tender Prey<\/b> and Seazoo<\/b> represent a suitably broad spectrum of local noises, while your hosts The School<\/b> cameo on the Saturday and Sweet Baboo<\/b>, now deservedly a proper big-stage draw, plays a solo set.\u00a0 Call out your favourites and see where that gets you.\u00a0 You could easily make a case for purchasing a day ticket for any of the three days, all rounded off with noisy indie disco fun, but if anything here piques your interest you really should dig out the \u00a340 for a weekend pass and be a part of it all.<\/p>\n

TICKETS: http:\/\/www.wegottickets.com\/f\/6975<\/a> \/ Spillers \/ Diverse<\/p>\n

Under 12s go free! (booking required)<\/p>\n

INFORMATION on accommodation, travel etc:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/walesgoespop<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/walesgoespop<\/a><\/p>\n

Travelodges start at \u00a322 triple room, we suggest booking your accomm\/travel first if you have to split it so it’s cheaper!<\/p>\n

Airports: Cardiff (Flybe\/Aer Lingus) + Bristol (Easyjet\/Ryanair) or London.<\/p>\n

Coach\/Train: megabus.com nationalexpress.com arrivatrainswales.co.uk to Cardiff Central Station<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS? walesgoespop@gmail.com<\/a> xx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WALES GOES POP! An all-ages pop weekender over the long Easter bank holiday Friday 18th – Sunday 20th April 2014 at The Gate, Cardiff FRIDAY 18TH APRIL 1.30PM Helen Love September Girls Night Flowers Flowers Randolph’s Leap Kutosis Seazoo & sets in the cafe\/bar from: The Magic Theatre, Young Romance, Cristina Quesada, Francesca’s Word Salad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078,458],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-preview"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}