Gig report: Eureka Stockade @ Stortfest

Band: Eureka Stockade
Venue: Stortfest, Bishops Stortford
Date: 01/05/11
Audience: Sparse as to be expected for an early festival slot, but appreciative and made us feel happy
Set: Through Every Darkness, All Alone, Without You, I've Been There Before, Heroes Fall
Notes: This was a lovely day - at times near perfect in fact. Having been picked up by Nathan the bassist at 10am, we were at the festival within an hour and were instantly impressed by Stortfest - just the way it was ran for starters was top-notch. It's on a nice little site - not too big, but by no means not the smallest festival we've ever done, with plenty of people and attractions everywhere, loads of stages, good food options, and above all a really nice vibe to it all. Possibly because it was bright sunshine, and a Bank Holiday weekend, and I probably also felt this because in the company of Andy, Rob, Nathan, Vicky, Dan and Tina I knew it would be a nice day - lovely people who I know well and the banter, beer and sense of happiness remained throughout the 9 hours. Managed to catch a little bit of a ukelele orchestra who played some unusual but brilliant covers - notably 'Rabbit' by Chas & Dave, in between hanging out in our backstage tent which had everything from comfy sofas to complimentary beer, Red Bull, wine, water etc - we generally got the impression we were being looked after very well. We played on the main stage, on just after half 1, it was a short set and to be honest flew by a little too quickly, I felt we were really getting into it and then it ended, but nothing wrong with our performance technically at least. Still not happy with my current snare sound but I know this snare is so good and we've been through a lot together so will have a little change of skins I think soon, sounded too plasticy today, but that's just my concern everyone else sounded great. We were joined on stage for every track by the brilliant Anna Scott on cello, she played on our album and also did a couple of our bigger gigs last year, and she's such a natural musician that even without a rehearsal with her it sounded often beautiful. After our set we ate well, had a couple more beers in the hot sunshine, chatted, watched fellow Cambridge band The Willows perform an oustanding set in the acoustic tent, and then ended the evening watching Britpop legends Dodgy play a storming show. 18 years later they've still got it - and perform with such enthusiasm and clarity, 'Staying Out For The Summer' will be ringing around my head for a few more hours. Headed back at 8pm, knackered, not drunk but certainly 'relaxed', didn't catch the headliners on our stage - The Boomtown Rats, but 9 hours there felt just about right, it was a really good day.