Clapham Weekender

Since the popular festival South West Four turned into a weekender in its own right in 2010, Get Loaded in the Park, which used to form the weekender with the electronic music festival, took a year long sabbatical.

But Get Loaded came back this year, coupled with new festival Southern Sounds to form the new and exciting Clapham Weekender.

As a local living in south west London, I loved the fact that this weekender was so close to home – having been to a couple of festivals in the past, I had always enjoyed the buzzing festival atmosphere, but not so much the camping! The weekend kicked off with Southern Sounds, which was a celebration of music from, as the name suggests, the southern hemisphere - Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and there was a real sense that a majority of fans were from down under.

The definitive highlight for me was Jayson Norris, who played in the Homelanz tent, as well as on the main stage earlier on in the day (which I unfortunately missed).  Norris brought a taste of the New Zealander’s southern roots style sound to south west London, as the sun shone onto the Common and wowed the crowd who had huddled into the tent. What really topped the set was the incredible percussionist, partnered with an equally charismatic bassist and Norris himself – it was an energetic performance which was accentuated by the smaller, more intimate tent and I could see the music literally putting smiles on faces.

To be completely honest, I hadn’t heard of many of the acts playing at Southern Sounds. Still, I came away with some good bands to add to my playlist – Jayson Norris, Just Jinger, Town Hall Steps and Lotus Mason. With Get Loaded in the Park on the other hand, I knew which bands I was looking forward to seeing – Razorlight, Noisettes and British Sea Power. But that wasn’t the only difference – Saturday was mostly a scorching, sunny summer day (like most days in South Africa, according to Ard Matthews of Just Jinjer), but Sunday was as typical as you could get for British summer time - rain. All day long.

Thankfully, but not so surprisingly, it didn’t dampen spirits – some of the performers made it worthwhile to watch them in the pouring rain. The Noisettes’ set looked like something from an underwater coral reef, and singer Shingai left the safety of the dry stage and sung amongst a sea of bopping umbrellas.

Wandsworth boy Patrick Wolfe also gave a crowd pleasing and energetic performance, reminiscing about working in a sandwich shop on the Common and being fired on his first day for making a tuna sandwich rather than a salmon one – a shame that his set was just half an hour, I would’ve preferred 30 minutes more of the eccentric Wolfe and a little less of British Sea Power. Headliners Razorlight were equally as good, with songs from their first album reminding me of warm memories of journeys to school on the 632 bus, and they deservedly got the crowd singing along in unison with tracks from their first album. Lead singer Johnny Borrell, like Shingai of the Noisettes got drenched in the rain as he jumped off stage to sing amongst fans who had made it to the front.

The best part of the whole festival for me was Slow Club. The duo from Sheffield’s folky rock sound sometimes made you want to dance away happily to the upbeat tunes, or had you watching and listening in awe of percussionist and singer Rebecca’s powerful vocals. That’s what I love so much about festivals, and in particular this Clapham Weekender – I’ve discovered a handful of amazing musicians and bands that will be looping on my playlist for some time to come. Bring on the summer of festivals!

Staring at Stars is a local blog that reviews local and London events, as well as restaurants, books and photography. It is run by Nadine Truong who is also Time & Leisure’s What’s On Editor.

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