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THE FEELING/GHOSTS/NICK HARRISON
Escot Sounds - 29 July 2007
Escot Sounds was a totally new and pleasant experience for me , after seeing The Feeling in Bournemouth with my wife back in February we were eager to see more. I was lucky enough to win a pair of tickets through The Feeling website so it would have been rude not to go.
Billed as a family festival, myself and my wife decided to take my 3 year old son who had a absolutely brilliant time dancing and singing to all the music, not bad for his first gig at three years old , I had to wait until I was thirteen for mine!
The weather, despite raining all week, was mainly bright sunshine throughout the afternoon and evening. The facilities were great; clean toilets , good parking and surprisingly very little mud. Just a great setting in the middle of the fantastically picturesque Devon countryside.
As we all settled down and tucked in to our picnic, the first band of the day came on. Nick Harrison who's guitar based ska sound boomed through the ample P.A. system. Despite confessing to being a little nervous the band gave a great performance. Their music could be compared to some of The Police material with a ska edge thrown in.
They ended their set with a great track "Oi Rude Boy" which really warmed the crowd up very well , I was a little disappointed at the short set, the organisers could have allowed much longer as the gates opened at 4pm and the first band did not come on until at least 7pm. A great start to the evening with a great band who showed lots of promise with their new fresh sound.
Ghosts were next up and after having plenty of radio airplay recently , many of the audience knew a lot of their material. A perfect band to support The Feeling with a similar style of music.
They played mainly material from their latest album "The World is Outside". Simon, Jonny, Mark, Robbie and Gav put on a great show with their guitar and keyboard sound. "Stay the night" was by far the best received track with many of the crowd singing the words along with the band. My personal favourite is the single "The World is Outside" after hearing it on the radio for the first time I was determined to find out more about this band. Hearing that same track live just blew me away, it so well delivered with much emotion , I was really impressed and it even had my son up and dancing. Considering it was two hours after his usual bedtime that was pretty good!!
I have now ordered the album and can't wait for it to arrive.
Just before The Feeling took to the stage a couple of young chaps set up a stall at the side of the stage selling Star Wars style light sabers at £3.00 each. Within a very short space of time all of them had sold out. This created a really interesting sight as many of them had made their way to the front of the stage and as it was getting dark their blue glow just looked great amongst the crowd.
The band finally hit the stage much to the Escot crowd's delight with the "Fill my Little Fanfare" intro then launching into "I Want You Now", looking well dressed as ever and looking every bit like the gentlemen that they are.
These guys really know how to entertain and the quality of their well written pop songs is amazing. "Sewn", "Rose" and "Never be Lonely" got the crowd singing at the top of their voices. As nightfall covered Escot the lights from the stage and the many light sabers with their eerie blue glow created an unforgettable atmosphere .
Song of the night had to go to "I Love It When You Call" which had everybody up on their feet dancing and singing along to this now classic track. Even some of the album tracks such as "Helicopter", "Kettle's On" and "Blue Piccadilly" were also well received. "Miss You" which is just one of the most beautiful songs only found as a hidden track on the album ,had my wife in tears such was the emotion of the song and the moment.
If that wasn’t enough they played a couple of stunning cover versions Buggles "Video Killed the Radio Star” and their last song of the night Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls".
The Feelinghave had an amazing eighteen months, with their rise to fame and the success of their debut album "Twelve Stops and Home". Tonight was the very last night of a long tour and as Dan said on stage it was going to be an emotional show and it was. This band at the moment can seem to do nothing wrong in the eyes of their adoring public , they now take a break and start to record that difficult second album. I for one hope it's as good as the last.
Dave Chinery