Camp Bestival 2009 - Part 4

It doesn’t matter how good a festival is, it’s always better when it’s dry, and unfortunately on Sunday evening a little bit of rain hit Camp Bestival 2009. However, this wasn’t rain of Glastonbury 1997,1998, and 2005 or Bestival 2008 biblical proportions, just a light shower to see off the lightweight festival goers and wet the ground a little. Breaking More Waves was there till the bitter end, although our band count was a very low number of three, due to all of the other attractions on site taking precedence. Spending a significant amount of time in the Bookworm tent enjoying spoken word performances was just one of our highlights of the day.

We do however catch The Dub Pistols who swagger on to mix and match ska, reggae, dub and hip hop and even the occasional tropical vibe whilst attempting to gee up the crowd with shouts of “make some noise.” Their influences are all rather too obvious, often coming across as a tribute band, but just don’t know the songs they are covering. “You look like freaks, you should act like freaks,” they demand, but maybe a little more freakishness in themselves would make us like them more than we do.

Breaking More Waves favourite Marina and the Diamonds is our next port of call. Just a week or so ago we raved about her self assured live performance, it was so utterly convincing. And after Camp Bestival we see no reason to change our mind. Marina is a proper entertainer. She struts and parades in her just got out of bed look wearing her pyjama top like she has gate crashed the top of the pops comeback party. Her dextrous almost operatic voice hollers its way through a short set which includes a Late Of The Pier cover version, the cuckoo bonkers Mowgli’s Road and raucous party anthem in the making Shampain Sleeper. Marina is supremely impressive once more, controlled, charismatic and hugely enjoyable. Marina is no cubic zirconia.

The final music we catch is the iconic first lady of southern soul - Candi Staton. The grey clouds begin to empty their contents over Camp Bestival but it doesn’t bother anyone as Candi shows that she’s a seasoned pro, her dramatic vocal forcefully booming out across the air, her band tight and disco funky. As a man seated on a makeshift throne carried on a platform by his throne bearers is hoisted into the air and slowly makes his way through the crowd to the front Candi is almost overshadowed and unfortunately chooses not to make any reference to it, which seems a little disappointingly disengaging of her. But once she pounds out a super extended version of Young Hearts Run Free and the classic You Got The Love (see video) the disco queen has virtually everyone on her side.

So with Camp Bestival 2009 over, Rob Da Bank can categorically state that it was even better than 2008. If it continues into 2010 there is a high chance that Breaking More Waves will be there again. Hi di hi campers !