So, let’s get straight to business… The overview of the festival is coming at the end of the week, today is just about the bands I caught on the first day of the Leicester’s premier festival.

Thanks to the joy of mobile internet and Twitter, before I’d even had breakfast I was aware The Streets were looking likely to pull out (although it took organisers until 4PM to announce this to the crowd). I’m not the worlds biggest Streets fan but it was a disappointing start to the day (even more so when Idlewild were announced as moving up to fill their slot), and so a good musical beginning was needed.

Leicester’s These Furrows (///) were the exciting start to the festival in the otherwise largely MOR-ish Musician tent, with current Tired Irie (good Leicester band, check them) drummer Darryl taking front man duties. I’d seen this band before when they were Twenty Below Zero but they were much better than I remembered; technical and noisy at the same time.

The first sprint of the day was in order to catch the UK Festival Exclusive™ of South African BLK JKS (////). Playing to a disappointingly small crowd, it was a pretty impressive set with some incredible falsetto vocals alongside more tradition African chanting. I can’t really explain the sound so I suggest you use the old Goggletron and listen for yourselves.

Kid British (/) on the main stage next yet, utter utter über wank. Four false starts of what was set to be a Madness sampled song left them bewildered, and me too. Terrible.

Thankfully, in a little all seated tent in the back corner, Jeremy Warmsley (/////) played one of the most captivating sets of the weekend. Jeremy’s voice is one of the most fantastic things I’ve ever heard, and stripped back with just a guitar his songwriting and knack for melody really shone through. I can’t really talk about him without it sounding wanky, but his voice is beautiful and you should, will check him out.

Oi Va Voi (//) helped kill 20 minutes with their Easten-Europen-esque music, before I headed into the comedy tent to catch Robin Ince (////) with a trademark ranting, and funny it were too.

A result of Idlewild being moved up the bill meant Beardyman (/) was promoted to the main stage. As man that makes ‘Everything live using his voice’ (and about a million effects, loop pedals, samplers etc.), the first minute was interesting but then it wasn’t, at all. Covers of ‘popular’ songs. Bad covers of ‘popular’ songs.

Back into the excellent Drowned In Sound currated Rising Tent, Wild Beats (///) did a pretty decent set that drew a fairly decent crowd (no less thanks to some 6 music single airplay). Punters going to see a band for one song and then leaving became a regular pattern at the festival. I thought people might have liked music more than that to do such a thing but there we go. They were good though, I’ll see them again.

Mystery Jets (//) on the main stage were the main band I was looking forward to but thanks to the worst sound in history and about 100 pissed children (FYI, when I say this I mean ages 14-17), it was a tad disappointing. The sound only really sorted itself out by the last two songs and thus the set that should have been the best was one of the worst.

Back into the Rising Tent for headliners and other UK Festival Exclusive™ Múm (/////), things finally picked up after a bit of a lull. I knew very little about Múm but they turned out to play not only one of the best sets of the festival but one of the best I’ve seen in years. Nice harmonies, interesting arrangements, good songs plus the atmosphere in the tent was great. While the majority of children and idiots were watching the start of Idlewild or Filty Dukes, the wise were the small number in the tent.

I don’t dislike Idlewild (///) but they headlined SSW in 2005 and there is a reason why this year they were only originally third on the bill. However, they have a go and the 30 minutes I see includes the five good singles so I’m happy enough; God knows what happened in the 30 minutes either side of what I saw though.

Finally it’s indoors for The Beat (//) who were OK, but pretty repetitive. A cover of The Clash, check. A few ‘classics’, check. The crowd are happy. I should have gone to bed after Múm.

More tomorrow.

Greg