Friday 07/08/09 Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Day One @ Beauly, Inverness-Shire

The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival is possibly the nicest festival in the world. Entering it feels as though entering an enchanting little land where carnival and music collide to create a quirky weekend where great bands are placed alongside honey pot stalls, ceilidh dances and fancy-dress; one-man piano bands, flame throwers and sing-a-long movies. Perhaps the only festival where headline bands are rivalled by ukulele karaoke, The Swinging Showcase Salami Spectacular (a glamourous drag queen display), a Verb Garden or the soon-to-be-legendary (?) Mr Methane.  A little sister to Rockness, the festival is a family friendly and insanity soaked two-day party, which this year was rich in Britpop favourites of old, while also promoting smaller bands alongside folk and jazz music.

Friday ‘s proceedings were kicked off by Kid British, who have provoked a lot of press with their debut album, comically titled It Was This or Football. Fired up with seventies Ska references, choppy beats and MC slams, they were enjoyable but not hugely memorable. Perhaps it is the moulded-by-Mercury element of being commercially and carefully contrived, as opposed to the ‘gives-a-fuck’ attitude of their Ska and Britpop idols, leaving it all a bit too safe and unexciting. Or perhaps it was just because the northern lads are more Kid English, which is perhaps not best suited at a festival that celebrates the ever so Scottish.

Orkestra Del Sol however, now veterans at Belladrum, put on a theatrical and lively performance that fused brass, samba and a Spanish soldier thrown in too. Comedy and entertainment met with huge musical variety and talent, as they promoted festival waltzing to their Balkan beats.  Dressed in red and black suits, they reminisce something of a 1920s dancehall meets a Spanish fiesta.

Broken Records have received a bit of bad press lately, with a slight backlash to their recent album, Until the Earth Begins to Part. However, the seven-piece were a delight to listen to and a perfect accompaniment to a sunny afternoon perch, proving that their live performances of musical vigour perhaps outweigh their recordings, which have an element of weak Indie-folk that appears absent in their dramatic onstage performances. A array of instruments that harvester to create a evocative mesh of orchestral rock, combining strings, percussion, guitars and piano with an accordion thrown in for good Klezmer Jewish measure. ‘If Eilort Loveborg Wrote a Song’ is a tune that never tires, so lets hope the Broken Record’s fan base doesn’t either.

Tommy Reilly was the first of those playing off the back of T in the Park, to a more deserved, larger stage. The T4 Orange Unsigned Act Winner 2009 played to a riotous crowd of growing fans chanting the now common “Tommy, Tommy, Tommy fucking Reilly!” Completely lovable, chatty and still obviously overwhelmed by his recent success, having won the hearts of the nation with his charismatic songs of girls, nightclubs and barbeques, which retain upbeat pop acoustics despite their emotionally charged content. He played hit single, ‘Gimmie A Call’ to manic cheers, along with his cover of ‘Mr Brightside’ that brought Alex James to tears during his time on the reality TV show. Debut Album, ‘Words on the Floor’ is released in September.

Toploader were a funny one to be headlining the Britpop enthused festival. Mainly because nobody can really remember more than one song. However, the band put on an enjoyable show, and ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ was a festival favourite of the weekend.

The Editors headlined the festival. Personally not an Editors fan - the dark drawl doesn’t do it for me - however I appeared to be within a minority as the main stage packed out to watch the Brummie lads smash out old favourites along with new tracks from their recent album, ‘The End Has a Start.’ Roll on Saturday...