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As far as anything labelled ‘Underage’ or ‘All Ages’ goes most people think of school disco days revisited with over excited kids and constant ID-ing every time you want a drink. This year there’s a festival for 14 to 18 year olds with the only adults being those in the bands or working there; there’s no booze being served; and the tickets cost a pittance…the Underage Festival. Peddled as the first of its kind and organised by fifteen year old Sam Kilcoyne it has made a magnificent arrival in Hackney’s Victoria Park. As Gigwise walks up the stairs at Mile End tube station we’re met by the sight of loads of kids swarming around the street as they walk up to the festival, but deciding to avoid to mêlée Gigwise hops on the bus and is strolling down the path in the park only to find there’s a phenomenal queue full of teenagers all fussing and preening over themselves, and that’s just the boys, to get in.
After having to join that same long queue ourselves, the first band we catch is Kitty, Daisy and Lewis on the BBC Radio 1/Underage stage; a band consisting of three bright young things and both their parents, but the Von Trapps they ain’t. This band bring a modern cut to 50’s blues and skiffle style with sharp drumming and a real kick of attitude that get’s the crowd moving wildly, especially when they play a fantastic cover of ‘Blue Moon Of Kentucky’. If they keep up such a good show they’ll almost certainly be high hitters on some of the major festival bills soon.
Over on the Coverse/Artrocker stage I Was A Cub Scout’s noisy electro pop keeps their audience happy but with songs that barely alter throughout the set, they prove to be a bore in comparison to some of the other acts like the excellent Late Of The Pier who draw a big dancing mob to the Myspace stage and bang out some superb dancified electro-indie tunes. Meanwhile on the far flung side of the musical scale it’s the turn of Vincent, Vincent and the Villains to bring their spin on the rockabilly sound to the yoof of today; from the upbeat songs to the downbeat ones even though they don’t pull a huge crowd everyone watching them shows their enthusiasm by leaping around, clapping, whooping and cheering at the end of every song and at everything Vincent utters (“I can’t get naked here! I’d get arrested!”).
There’s a few minutes before the next main act of the day starts up so Gigwise wanders around the festival taking in all the delectable sights and sounds from the little stalls, to the place selling bags of candy floss, the merchandise tent that looks like a giant nipple and the giant Rumble Strips drum. But the most noticeable thing is that while most of the kids seem to be floating in and out of the tents and stages it still seems stuck on the school disco vibe with people sitting in their own cliques or skipping around covered in stickers and bits of caution tape.
It’s only when they actually congregate for the bigger bands like The Pigeon Detectives that you get a feeling of togetherness, particularly during the chant along choruses of ‘Take Her Back’ as hundreds of young punters go mental prompting the need for one poor girl to be stretchered out of the mosh pit! And even though nearly every song can be referenced to another better band who has done it all before, there’s a distinct lack of difference in the songs and the sound doesn’t fill the stage, just like IWACS, the quality of the music doesn’t seem to bother these kids that much but at the end of the show there is the impression that The Pigeon Detectives leave something to be desired.
We stay at the Underage stage to watch the hotly tipped Cajun Dance Party, who walk on to a deafening roar before they launch into their set rammed full of cracking tunes with catchy riffs and more one liners than you can shake an inflatable thing at. Their creative approach to a mix of Libertines-esque punked up beats and a pop edged guitars held together by fantastic vocals really makes you think fuck, if they sound so good now where the hell will they be in five years time?! It’s a shame the same can’t be said of Tiny Masters Of Today (at 11 and 13 years old these kids are far too young to have developed their ‘talent’ or be playing at a festival) or of Foals who’s less than impressive set proves that all you need is a half decent bass line and you’ll get anybody up and dancing. Thank God that Pull Tiger Tail walk on next to rapturous applause and swooning girls and smash out the first few notes of what proves to be a blinding set. Typical of today’s scene, PTT have a sound that may not be breaking boundaries but they do what they do (upbeat indie with a few keyboard melodies thrown in for good measure) brilliantly, as fan favourite ‘Hurricanes’ shows.
Later, Jack Penate has a huge, really huge crowd all leaping around, arms and legs a-flailing to songs like ‘Torn On The Platform’. This style of sunshine indie meets chav speech meets pop has seen a small revival since the initial days of Lily Allen’s success and has been popularised by colourful, simple and catchy lyrics and melodies that will make classic chant-a-longs for this generation who are still going fucking mental and singing every single word right back to Penate who is in his element on stage. The second and headlining act on the Converse/Artocker stage has the tent packed out, kids lifting each other up at the back, others shimmying the poles trying to get a better look at Patrick Wolf who in full lederhosen regalia has sat down on the edge of the stage and starts singing a slow against a myriad of odd electronic sounds and bird songs . Today, his electronic-folk cacophony of noise works damn well.
Meanwhile as the majority of the festival goers are in the Converse/Artrocker tent for GoodBooks, The Young Knives play to a dwindling audience and even manage to throw a joke insult at the crowd – “Under 18’s I can’t stand, but you lot are alright” – nice touch.
In its inaugural year, The Underage festival has been a great success with most of the bands bending over backwards to please the wide eyed, youthful crowd. Hats off to the young organisers - we can’t wait to see what’s on offer next year.
