| Live Lounge | Music and chat on Live Lounge with Sally Fairfax every Monday, 7pm - 10pm on BBC Radio Leeds, 92.4FM. You can listen back to last week's show by clicking on the BBC Local Radio: Listen Again button on the right hand side of this page. |
Featuring fantastic sets from the living legends Terry Callier and Roy Ayers, seasoned performers The James Taylor Quartet and Badly Drawn Boy, plus newer acts such as The Chalets, The Bees, Paolo Nutini and The Magic Numbers the event based at the largely unused car park at the rear of Granary Wharf promised something for everyone and had a really pleasant family vibe to it. SATURDAY One of the great things about any festival is the fact that no matter where you go you are bound to be entertained. Although there were two decent stages - the DJ stage was a little pointless and intrusive to the more mellow acoustic performances such as Jose Gonzalez - there were plenty of pleasant surprises and hidden treasures to be found. Kicking off proceedings on the main stage were the delightful Irish band The Chalets. With their 50s frocks and sugary synth-pop sound they were the perfect accompaniment to a brilliant sunny Saturday afternoon and delighted the audience with their set which included Love Punch and Nightrocker. | ""I remember this place when it was a dusty old car park full of people drinking in the afternoon… how things have changed"" | | George Hinchcliffe, The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain |
Once The Chalets departed so did many of the audience, but only to the cavernous Blank Canvas stage to catch the fantastic iLiKETRAiNS who didn't let the fact that it was only lunchtime deter them from rocking out like it was the last 30 seconds of New Years Eve. A blistering set from a band I'd heard much about but never seen before. Highly recommended. Unlike the warbling idiot-boy from paisley on the main stage. Paolo Nutini is the kind of act beloved by Radio 2's TOGs (like Katie Melua and Jamie Cullum). He's a pleasant young fella with a pocket full of melodies, unfortunately today he's also had a skinful of beer and is struggling with his set. Almost missing his mic stand as he tried to adjust it, Paolo just about managed to finish his allotted time but didn't do anything to justify the immense amount of PR his management have drummed up over the past six months. Following Paolo on the mainstage were the Young Knives, a kind of Franz Ferdinand tribute act but without the tunes. As my Nan would say "if you've got nothing nice to say about them then don't say anything at all" - so I won't bother.
 | | Sally Fairfax with Terry Callier |
Thankfully the folk/jazz legend Terry Callier is next and were soon back in safe hands. Callier has a career spanning 40 years and has seen something of a revival as a whole new generation of fans have discovered his music from his collaborations with Massive Attack, Paul Weller and Beth Orton. As he later said, he was in time but had no time, an houir of Terry Callier is just not long enough to do the man justice. A magnificent performance from a genuine star. Another assured performance follows with the Swedish-born Jose Gonzalez, best known in this country for providing the soundtrack to a Sony HDTV commercial. Performing his mellow acoustic guitar-based songs from his fabulous album Veneer, Jose effortlessly entranced the crowd and could even be forgiven for his re-imagining of the Kylie Minogue classic Hand On Your Heart. But only just. Jetting in from The Isle Of Wight come The Bees with their fantastic organ led, pounding pop to get the audience back on their collective feet and moving like crazed marionettes. Chicken Payback, These Are The Ghosts and the Os Mutantes track A Mina Menhina cast a spell over the crowd and set them up a treat for the criminally under-rated British Sea Power. BSP have been bubbling under for years and Saturday's performance was the best I've seen them give. Decorating the stage with a variety of foliage and bric-a-brac BSP pulled the largest crowd of the day and even managed to attract a number of rubberneckers from the platform of Leeds City Station who enjoyed one of the festivals best sets for the price of a platform ticket! And so to the final act of the evening, the Top Of The Pops-snubbing indie favourites The Magic Numbers who performed an assured set but, surprisingly given my indie-leanings, failed to move me. I'm sure they are very good and I know I'm in the minority, given the fantastic reaction they receive from the audience, but I feel I've seen this kind of thing before. Still a fantastic first day and sets us up nicely for Sunday. SUNDAY A little more overcast than Saturday, but a promising afternoon is on offer, kicking off with the fantastic Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain whose inspired rendition of Isaac Hayes iconic Theme From Shaft, magically transforms the much-derided instrument favoured by George Formby into the coolest thing on the planet. Hilarious, entertaining and musically blessed the UOGB are much more Bill bailey than Richard Digance.
 | | Sally interviews Eddie Roberts |
Back in the Blank Canvas stage funk is on the menu with the fabulous double-whammy of Leeds soul warriors The Haggis Horns and The New Mastersounds, both blisteringly good and enormous fun. After these first few performances I'm almost danced out, and realise it's not even three o'clock yet. As I blink out into the sunshine I'm confronted by the Hammond-led jazz noodlings of the doggedly-persistent James Taylor Quartet. On a good day there's nothing better than the 70s-inspired cop-theme funk of JTQ, however this isn't a good day. It's a bloody awful day, and having subscribed to the acid jazz mantra of "why use one note when fifteen will do" they go on and on and on. Like the musical equivalent of a duracell-powered migraine they burrow into your skull until you want to pull your lugs off. A damn shame. The rest of the afternoon passes in a blur of activity as I put on my radio producer hat and conduct a flurry of backstage interviews for Radio Leeds' The Live Lounge, but just about get time to see the indomitable Roy Ayers who may have been around the block a few times but can certainly show younger artists how to command a crowd and how to get down and get funky. A real trooper whose philosophy is to "tour and tour and then tour some more" he has more energy than acts half his age. Stephen Fretwell occupies the same kind of slot that Jose Gonzalez did yesterday and although his music is pleasant and refreshing it is a little too familiar and uninspiring.
And so to the final act of the day, former Leeds College Of Music student Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy, who immediately endears himself to the crowd by claiming that Leeds is the second best city in Britain - after Manchester. The moody little clod. By now the evening is drawing to a close and despite performing his fabulous hits such as Silent Sigh and All Possibilities, as well as some great new tracks from his forthcoming album, the crowd is thinning and it's apparent that although everyone has a had a great time it may be time to call it a night. In all the Across The Tracks festival was a fantastic way to spend a couple of sunny days and I'd welcome it as a regular fixture in Leeds' cultural diary, just go easy on the nu-soul Hammond jazz next time fellas! | 
