Festival Review - Fort Rox at Newhaven Fort (continued)

Next up are the Research, a threesome who’ve come down from Wakefield: there’s a nerdy-cool guy in the middle on synthesiser, flanked by a girl bassist, who looks moody and rockchick, and a girl drummer who looks like she’s having the time of her life. I give them two songs. The sun’s come out.

I’m more tempted by Glaswegians My Latest Novel, who inject a Postcard twang to their guitar and a lot of serious enthusiasm into their performance. They use interesting instruments: the most compelling member is a guy with Flock of Seagulls ginger hair. He barely smiles through the whole set, but I’ve never seen anyone put so much passion into playing the xylophone, and he handles his guitar with some aplomb, contorting his body like a latterday Jesus and Marychainer. There’s a girl on violin and towards the end of the set he drifts over to jive with her. Their intensity together is amazing.

Just before me in the queue for the portaloo between bands, I meet a guy who’s come down from Peterborough to see the next lot, The Duke Spirit, and they start just as he leaves and I’m due to enter. I can hear from inside that they’re going to be good, and I hurry out and head stagewards. They are. They’re fronted by a blonde-haired singer who bashes a tambourine and coos menacingly into the microphone. The crowd has swelled, but sadly no one is dancing. Is there anything quite as serious as a mob of Indie fans? The energy from the stage, on the other hand, especially from the lead singer, is immense. It’s a bluesy-soul-punk fusion with distorted guitar, and I can’t keep my eyes off it. You’ll hear a lot more of this lot.