Belladrum, near Inverness, 7-8 August 2009

NEVER BEFORE has Tartan Heart’s tag of “Homegrown heaven in the Highlands” been more appropriate, and not only for the programme. For the last month it has seemed increasingly unlikely that welly boots would not be essential for Bella, but by a metereological miracle, apart from a short sharp shower on Friday and a shorter one on Saturday, warm summer sunshine was what poured down from on high.

Ocean Colour Scene

Musical highlights on Friday were Orkestra del Sol in the Hothouse tent with their inimitable mix of superb music and theatricality; lovely Lau’s Bella debut on the Grassroots stage, where the audience would have given them a standing ovation, had they not been already standing; the smooth, mellow tones of the Bevvy Sisters in the Venus Flytrap Palais; a simply dazzling display in the Sideburns tent by Bruce Macgregor, Andy Thorburn and Marc Clement (Blazin’ Fiddle, in other words), following on Hamish Macdonald’s terrific take on ‘Tam O’Shanter'; and of course, the perennially magical Peatbog Faeries.

I shall also treasure an exhortation from Larry Love during Alabama 3’s acoustic set not to let the government cheat us by limiting us to bipolar disorder, but to aim for multi-polar disorder. At the time it made perfect sense…

After so much rich musical nourishment, even the smooth indie rock of the headlining Editors with the even smoother, bell-like tones of Tom Smith didn’t quite fit the bill. Shed Seven? One Britpop band in a weekend was enough, and the crowds were thick around Glenn Tilbrook and the Fluffers…. but there was still so much to choose from. Who could resist a karaoke Sound of Music in the Read Bed (on Saturday it was Mamma Mia!), drams beckoning at Fiddlers’ Malt Whisky Bar, or the siren beats of the Dance DJs?

On Saturday programming on the Garden Stage was probably the best ever, when a common thread ran through Treacherous Orchestra, Noah & the Whale and the Saw Doctors to pave the way for Ocean Colour Scene’s finale.

Newcomers Treacherous Orchestra look set to become the quintessential festival band, having closed the Cambridge Folk Festival the week before [see Sue Wilson’s review – Ed.]. Despite being short-handed due to the impossibility of synching 13 musicians in demand on the trad scene, their awesomely disciplined rehearsal schedule paid off yet again.

They turned, musically speaking, on a sixpence, nodding to Led Zeppelin, Dreadzone, predecessors Shooglenifty (whose James Mackintosh was out front dancing like a dervish), and Peatbog Faeries, whose Iain Copeland was also out front, not dancing but beaming proudly. The audience went wild.

The pace slowed, mercifully, with Noah & the Whale – you could have closed your eyes and sworn these were out-takes from Lou Reed’s Magic and Loss – it’s a great voice, augmented by a double bass (the instrument of the festival, seen on every stage). The Saw Doctors took things back to folk/rock basics, while OCS rolled out the Moseley Shoals hits and took no prisoners, ending triumphantly with ‘Day Tripper’.

Other musical highlights on Saturday were the immaculate DJ set by Edinburgh’s Dolphin Boy; The Lost Brothers, impossible to resist, recalling other duos of the calibre of The Proclaimers, The Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel; followed by the sweetness of Aberfeldy before the exuberant folk/world/rock of Seth Lakeman, all in the Grassroots tent; and I managed to catch a glimpse of the equally exuberant De Votchka in the Hothouse tent. British Sea Power, however, failed to impress either this reviewer or the surprisingly small audience for a headliner.

It is evident every year that Joe Gibbs and his Tartan Heart team do not rest on their laurels. Structural rearrangement of the Seedlings and Hothouse tent area, including the removal of several trees, had created an open, more easily navigable central space.

New stages, including the Homecoming Scotland Sideburns tent and the Dance DJ setup in the newly (half) built Mother’s Ruin, meant that this year it was even harder than formerly to see even half of the treats on offer. The only low point was the loos – but that’s festivals for you.

Threaded throughout the weekend were the many joyful flourishes that add so much enchantment to Belladrum. The living room hanging from a tree, the whisky tasting in the Verb Garden, the small, semi-feral children darting here, there, everywhere in search of plastic and paper cups to exchange for hard pence (a brilliant though sadly partial solution to the litter problem), Rimski’s Bicycle (a lugubrious pianist who ingeniously pedalled himself and his upright piano sideways and crablike around the site, complete with candles).

Stiltwalking giant Big Rory & his anatomically correct dog Ochie teetered on the border between comedy and something much darker. Saturday’s fancy dress theme was Beach ‘n’ Sea, so there were shiploads of sailors, shoals of octopi (some luminous), and obligatory mermaids. Two drag Amy Winehouses stuck to their beehives. Burlesque, clowning, circus, football, fireworks, poetry, oratory, debate, excellent food and drink, and so much more – it would have been possible to have missed seeing any music at all, and still have had the best weekend of the summer.

© Jennie Macfie, 2009

Links

• Tartan Heart Festival
• Jennie Macfie