James Yuill @ Portsmouth Drift Bar

He may not be the most extrovert of front men, but James Yuill is currently producing a live set that is innovative, interesting and full of tunes that are both mellow melodic and danceable. The chilled ambience of the evening has already been set by the support acts, the draped twinkling multi coloured light chains, the hushed attentive audience and chairs around tables at the front, so Yuill’s mix of acoustic picking and electronic beats are never going to generate a pumped up rave night club atmosphere. However he does manage to get plenty of heads nodding, a couple of people at the back dancing a little and shouts for an encore, which he politely declines.

As Yuill straps on his acoustic guitar and merges it with his banks of buttons, sequencers, sliders and faders it is fair to say that the description of his music as folktronica hits the nail on the head square on. This is a man who fully embraces technology but also understands the warmth, tenderness and humanity that an acoustic guitar can bring. I imagine his CD collection features both The Aphex Twin and Nick Drake, and they sit comfortably side by side. In fact there is a moment during his second song No Pins Allowed where it seems that Aphex Twin is in the house, as he drops in a fuzzed up disjointed synth beat vaguely reminiscent of the track Windowlicker, but because of Yuill’s gentle soft voice and melodies it never seems as harsh or aggressive as that of Aphex himself Mr Richard D James. This Sweet Love is announced to a whoop of joy from certain members of the crowd and gets toes tapping with it’s simple repeated guitar refrain underpinned by a gradually building rhythm and beat. Simple but highly effective.

Surrounded by his electronic gadgets and gizmo’s, guitar slung across his back, Yuill looks like a late 20’s floppy fringed geeky glasses wearing student; but despite his laid back appearance he is in total command of what he is doing, producing many hypnotic aural laptop lullabies, which would be just as acceptable in a bedsit as it would be in a club. This is forward thinking music for forward thinking people, and is a joy to listen to.

Rose Elinor Dougall - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

There are some things where the parts are very much equal, but everyone has to have a favourite. For example, the bobble ones in Liquorice Allsorts always get my vote. In bands it’s always been John in The Beatles and Baby Spice of the Spice Girls for me. And likewise everyone had a favourite Pipette; Was it tarty welsh blonde Gwenno? Nerdy looking but fun Riot Becki? Or the slightly sultry raven haired Rosay? It was a close call between Becki and Rosay for me, but with Rosay just winning by a short head due to some of her witty onstage put downs. It therefore came as a great disappointment for me earlier this year when I heard that Becki and Rosay were both leaving the band to be replaced by two new members, and that musically they were to jump from their very retro polka dotted 60’s shimmering pop to a much more 80’s influence. It was like getting rid of your favourite Revel from the pack.

However I am now delighted to say that Rosay is back. Throwing off her pop shackles she is about to release her own debut solo single. Another Version of Pop Song is a limited edition 500 copies only 7” single and download, released under her real name Rose Elinor Dougal, and a fine lightly lilting pop song it is. Apart from a few starting handclaps, the song is far removed from The Pipettes output, reminding me instead of the sadly much forgotten Sundays with a touch of added Casio. Not as obviously commercial as The Pipettes it displays a dreamy maturity and depth way beyond The Pipettes that bodes well for future releases. Her My Space page references Broadcast, The Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Bjork, Stereolab and Portishead as influences. If Rose can match up to anywhere near these acts, forthcoming releases should be something to be cherished.

Crime at UK Festivals

One of the basic selling points of music festivals is to enable people to get away from their everyday existence and have a good time. As part of that basic ideology it is reasonable to expect the environment where the festival takes place to be a happy and safe one, to feel part of the community of that festival.

Words such as community are banded about far too often these days in the UK; maybe as a result of a sadness of the loss of the concept. Over the last 25 years both Tory and Labour governments have destroyed the very idea of what the word stands for. Instead they have instilled in society the selfish values of looking after the individual as everyones priority. The "I'm all right jack," attitude is now almost everywhere we go. However it is quite often at UK festivals, that I still find a strong sense of community; where people get to know their neighbours, enjoy the company of strangers and most importantly look after each other as well as themselves. Inherent in this sense of community that is created by such actions is a feeling of security.

This feeling of security can be massively undermined by a few less savoury elements that can make the whole festival experience very upsetting. Crime, and in particular, tent theft is unfortunately a sad fact of many of today’s festivals. I am lucky that I have attended over forty festivals and never been the victim of crime. However this year the BBC reported that crime at Glastonbury Festival more than doubled, thefts from tents being the major non drug-related crime, with more than five times as many incidents reported. This pattern is common place, particularly at other big UK Festivals.

A while ago I reported on the formation of the Association of Independent Festivals, who had been created with the aim of bringing independent festivals together to help make events greener, more cost-effective, and better for fans. The Association have now reported on the first piece of work they have been doing, which is the formation of a security task force to help stamp out thefts from tents and campsite crime at festivals.

An announcement today on E Festivals website describes this work. “The task force will be set up to provide a constant presence at participating festivals, working with event security firms and police services throughout the UK to identify known thieves before they enter festival sites.

Building on existing police initiatives, including intelligence-pooling which reduced tent thefts at some festivals this summer, the task force will provide support for security with extra teams on hand over busy weekends when there are multiple festivals being held.

It has been acknowledged that a small number of organised criminal gangs, rather than opportunist thieves, are responsible for the majority of thefts on site at festivals. These gangs follow the festival circuit around the country, normally targeting campsites on the first night when people have all their weekend's money. The new task force will allow festival organisers to more effectively target the gangs involved.

Jim King, director of Loud Sound and AIF board member said, "Whilst still statistically low, thefts at UK festivals have to be addressed. Customer experience and safety is a most important part of the whole festival experience and we want to act to ensure that customers have a great time at our events without experiencing the upsetting scenario of being a victim of crime."

Although the security task force is an AIF initiative, the board realise that this is a problem that affects all festivals, and say that they would welcome the involvement of non-members in the scheme. Thefts can take place at all shows and criminals move from show to show, and so the AIF will make this service available to everyone. The AIF believes the larger festivals who are affected the most will welcome the support of this initiative to help them in combating crime.Speaking at the launch of the scheme, Rob da Bank, Bestival promoter and AIF co-founder said, "Tent theft at our festivals has always been very low, but any theft at all is really upsetting for the promoter and the people involved. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to set up AIF and I really believe we can make a difference with this initiative."An open invitation to tender has been sent by the AIF to all reputable security firms with experience in outdoor event security. The AIF expects to have the new team finalised, ready, and in place by March next year.

The AIF aims to establish best practice for festivals, to make them as good as they can be in a variety of areas such as security, the environment and beyond, providing a knowledge base for festival promoters, as well as creating collective purchasing and marketing opportunities for its members.The AIF is also working on a number of other initiatives including helping members with issues around securing UK visas for international artists and developing databases of suppliers, and services. AIF networking and tutoring events are expected to be announced in the New Year these will cover topics from licensing to booking artists for festivals.”

Breaking More Waves hopes that this initiative is a success, but that increased security is kept as unobtrusive as possible for the vast majority who are attending a festival simply to have a good time and have no intention of spoiling it for others

Alessi's Ark - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

“My songs are like potions, I have my guitar and I'm stirring a big cauldron of ideas,” says Alessi Laurent-Marke, who is Alessi's Ark. It’s time to knock back that potion and feel the magic.

But first, an apology. This month has already seen four pieces reflecting on the wonder of various female artists that have rocked or at least gently swayed my musical boat. I was not intending to produce any more for a while. But then I read a post on The Daily Growl, and just a few hours later, I am compelled to write another, but this time with a note attached reminding me that there is more to music than angel voiced girls.

Hailing from West London this artist produces beautiful, organic, lush acoustic folk with a pretty childlike tone that will inevitably draw many comparisons vocally to Bjork, Joanna Newsom and Julia Stone. This however is fine company to be compared to.

Her songs are spindle soft silken lullabies filled with delicate romantic lyrics; whether she’s singing about crystals around the moon and dreams of kissing someone between the eyes on Woman, or how she was told that kite flying is for lovers at the start of The Horse. Alessi has a breathless natural dreamy vocal that will make you want to waltz in the fallen autumn leaves. Or maybe fall in love. It's not all serenely gentle though. The Dog grows quickly from gentle strumming to a banjo flavoured full band effort reminiscent of a female fronted Thrills.

If you are lucky you can catch Alessi's Ark on tour next month as she is out on the road across the UK with Brighton’s Peggy Sue (formerly Peggy Sue and the Pirates) and Derek Meins. An album is also due to follow.