Road to Standon kicks off festival

In just under a couple of hours’ time the first guitar will be strummed on stage at Standon Calling, the first drum skin will be smacked and the first vocal will ring out. The Road To Standon may be about to conclude, but Standon Calling is only just beginning.

After starting with more than 100 bands, nine are set to appear in the Road to Standon final judged by festival founder Alex Trenchard and Standon Calling booker Tam McLarty. I Dream In Colour, start Standon Calling up and early arrivals among our festival-goers will be able to see why Tom Robinson regularly plays them on his Radio 6 show. They’re followed by Stevenage’s answer to The Strokes, five-piece Maddox. After them we have Heart on Fire who started out as an acoustic act, but won their heat after “borrowing two members from South London’s Cutaway and some Ginger bloke who likes to smash up drum kits”.

Having a lot of people in the band doesn’t always result in a messy racket as the delicate sounds of the eight musicians that make up We Used to Make Things illustrate. Energetic Scouse quartet Dire Wolfe will then pick the tempo up again playing straight-up Indie that’s cleverer than it first sounds.

The Road to Standon final is the first of a few festival appearances for the Sharp Knees who’re subsequently appearing at V and Reading. After them we have the throaty vocals and infectious driving retro music stylings of The Jude.

Then come the closest to a world music outfit we have in the final, Klezma Villanova, who meld a European folk feel with indie. Three-piece electro instrumentalists Toxic Funk Berry are the evening’s final act and plan to make you dance before the judges deliver their verdict.

(We apologise for the even more cliché-ridden copy than usual…it’s been a long few days for the team at Standon HQ and we still have a lot to do.)

Tagged as: Road to Standon, Standon Calling