Where Stars Are Born - Camden Crawl 2009

Two days, 40 venues, 150 acts, no mud, rain or controversial line-up. Get it right and the Camden Crawl is one of the best urban festivals going, provided you’re prepared for leg-work, queuing and potential disappointment.

The music might not kick-start proper until 6 pm, but there’s plenty to see from the off and a saunter through the Hawley Arms rewards with a sun-drenched mix of acoustic covers and original material including ‘Cherry Tree’ and ‘The Lovers’ from Sam McCarthy, who receives justified appreciation from a music hungry crowd with bemused enjoyment.

Bypassing a stash of street dealers, down at Underworld East London trio Bleech are plying their dirty home-grown grunge to an older than expected crowd, who sedately bask in the UV light soaked glory of ‘The Worthing Song’ and ‘Dancing Without You’. Despite the pop leanings of ‘Is It True That Boys Don’t Cry’ a measured abundance of back-combed attitude underlines an emphatic three-way partnership of harmony, chorus and breakneck drumming. The Camden Crawl is officially on.

Venue number three and the tiny stage space at The Black Cap is hardly big enough for much at all, yet Danny And The Champions Of The World manage to squeeze on a ten member ensemble which includes members of Brakes, Electric Soft Parade and Neal Casal of Ryan Adams fame. It’s a stunning, raw and captivating performance of which the ‘The Truest Kind’, ‘Red Tree Song’, ‘These Days’ and ‘Still Believe’ inspire airborne handclaps both on and off stage amid an eclectic assortment of instruments more than warranting their champion of the world moniker.

Where there’s a song there’s a crowd - and at the Earl of Camden a huge queue are waiting for the bleached hair and black spangled jacket of Tommy Sparks to play that one particular song. Unfortunately they have to endure a largely uninspired and disappointing twenty-five minute set which exposes an artist made for radio. But all is nearly forgiven just for that one song: ‘She’s Got Me Dancing’ doing what it says on the tin and transforming the pub into a seedy nightclub of spuriously vogue freeze frame poses.

Back towards Chalk Farm and the floorboards of The Enterprise are being bent to their bendable limits through the gurning overindulgence of those witnessing the mathematical mind of James Yuill at work. With a six string slung over his shoulder and a table full of wizardry at his disposal, the unassuming solo artist’s occasionally nervous appearance is musically deceptive. Allowing himself intermittent grins, ‘No Pins Allowed’ and ‘Over The Hills’ even get the on-stage security guard tapping his foot as the crowd are brought to a finely tuned cathartic comedown courtesy of new track ‘The Ghost’.

With the evening nearly finished but far from over, Gigwise wraps things up at the Dublin Castle. In the words of onstage compere Steve Lamacq, Goldheart Assembly are “one of the best bands I’ve seen this year who don’t have a record deal”. Going on tonight’s performance he’s not wrong, it might be an over-spilling drip-tray of carnage off stage but on stage their unkempt brilliance is immediately apparent. The focus and harmonies that permeate ‘Jesus Wheel’ and ‘Wolves And Thieves’ are beyond compare and their full smiles and red wine swigging enjoyment completely made defensible by ‘So Long St Christopher’, ‘Last Decade’ and ‘Oh Really’. Apparently this is the biggest crowd they’ve played to, but after tonight they’re surely destined for much bigger and much better.

Day one might be finished but the Camden Crawl most certainly isn’t and a Northern Line full of shit eating grins and hangovers in the making are testament to its ongoing success.

CLICK HERE to see photos from day one and here to continue reading our Camden Crawl review...