The Beatyard 2017, Dun Laoghaire 5th & 6th August

bodhrandude

Will add my thoughts when i come back from my session, but i loved it, nice and compact, similar in size to Sea Sessions.

bodhrandude

I had a fantastic weekend, some of the sunshine out balanced the rain, but there was some heavy showers and bits of drizzle, kinda like the weather at Forbidden Fruit on the Sunday although thankfully the rain clouds spared us the AIR set. I was working the weekend there as a volunteer, my job on Saturday night with a few other fellahs was to stop men going into the women's toilet and likewise there were female volunteers stopping the ladies going into the gents. This was outside the entrance though and we had a great view of the main stage action and mad random conversations with lovely people. Also watched the DS in action busting some poor feckers, at least we knew who to avoid when having a sneaky spliff in the throng of the main stage.

The music, I arrived on site about 3 pm, got wristbanded and wandered about taking some snaps and the odd video clip, caught a bit of the fifth act on the main stage, Romare and his band, Romare is an electronic producer and keyboard player and he was supported by a dude on the congos and a guitarist/saxophonist, they made a nice funky ambient sound which went well with the sunshine and created an uplifting vibe. A good choice for the time of the day.

When my shift started Bananarama were rocking it out on the main stage with a proper live band, much better then their Electric Ireland performance at EP last year which was basically two of the original group singing over a backing tape so the live band gave it a bit of balls. I'm not mad for their music or anything but it was an enjoyable set.

I enjoyed Larry Heard's set, lovely ambient techno, house and acid house vibes and a lovely explosion of colours splashed in the backdrop screen in visual splendour.

Mark Ronson's set had some nice tasteful stuff and then some absolute dire stuff too from auto tune land, also some good hip hop stuff. I liked that he played some Amy Winehouse, I suppose he is still emotionally attached to that work, but it was nice to hear. So a good and bad set. We got off from volunteering an hour and a half early so that was nice too. I thought the Box Burger was sensational, volunteers got a food token, so I went for that which gets served with chips.

Sunday we just stood outside the Red Bull entrance, we basically just gave info of what was in the Red Bull area, a proper jacks, a bar, a rave and a children's area. Before we were sent there we done various odds and ends so we missed the first main stage act Mama Kabash. We did catch the next act in earshot, Katie Kim, she is good at what she does and at times her vocal did have qualities of Liz Frazer aka Cocteau Twins, but her tempo was just so damn slow, after a while I felt it clashed with the happy vibe of the festival. She will need to try a few fast numbers sometime but wrong time of the day for the music.

Kila gave a lively set of their hybrid trad and pulled a nice steady number of people at the main stage.

Toots and the Maytals as far as I'm concerned killed it, I thought they would have brought the sun out like at EP 2005, but unfortunately it rained for a bit, not their fault just Ireland. It was mostly the same as the EP set last year but I think they maybe played an hour and a half here at Beatyard. Toots Hibbert is getting old so the older faster style is slowed slightly with Toots doing some nice acoustic versions of the songs. A feel good set to up the festival mood.

After finishing our shift at 6 and signing out we went straight down to the Toots gig, so we all had sore feet from working all day and then standing for the gig. Kevin had his camper parked in the West Pier just down the road from the festival site, so we went out and got cans and piled down to the camper, man it was good to get a proper seat, one of the small criticisms of Beatyard was major lack of seating in the outdoor areas.

Sorry I missed you Morcheeba, but we had to sit and once we sat, we drank and smoked doobies in the camper.

Just made it back in time for the start of the AIR set, they are an incredible band, seemingly influenced by Kraftwerk, Daft Punk and the Wish You Were Here period of Pink Floyd. They had some lovely visuals going on in the backdrop and the sound was crisp, some acoustic electronic stuff, some cool heavy rocky stuff and at least five tracks from Moon Safari, one of my desert island discs. They also have that way they sing in French but they harmonise their vocal like the way you hear on some of the old Floyd records like Meddle and Obscured by Clouds.

After Party live at Kevin's Camper drinking Beamish, Smokin' and listening to Kelly-Anne Byrne on the Beat Goes On. :)

Easy Rod

I'm sure I saw you outside the Red Bull area on Sunday but you were being accosted by a young lady shouting 'Nially' so I thought better of going over and saying hello.

bodhrandude

bodhrandude

bodhrandude

bodhrandude

The final clip

furiousox

Man, the amount of crowd noise would drive me mad if I was there.
What the hell is it that people have to yap-yap-yap at gigs??

bodhrandude

furiousox wrote: »

Man, the amount of crowd noise would drive me mad if I was there.
What the hell is it that people have to yap-yap-yap at gigs??

I suppose some people treat the event like an outdoor pub really, it can be a toughie, a mixture of fans who want to relish every moment and other folk talking about where they went on their holidays and such small talk.

Chelon

This is getting to be a major problem at gigs here - could they have a "yakkers enclosure" where they can all drive each other bonkers!

Toast

Chelon wrote: »

This is getting to be a major problem at gigs here - could they have a "yakkers enclosure" where they can all drive each other bonkers!

Hand out little signs on sticks with "ciúnas!" written on them to passive aggressively stick in peoples faces when they are chatting.

eviltimeban

I hate to sound like an aul fella, but I think it's a problem with this generation (millenials / early 20 somethings). They can't focus on one thing, and they don't care about other people who might be wanting to focus on something. Blame social media and having everything they want at their fingertips.

OK now I do sound like an aul fella.

One positive was that I saw far less phones in the air (no pun intended) than you often see at gigs.

Easy Rod

Apologies to all...I'll have to admit I was definitely a yapper at this gig, I hung at the back so as not to piss anyone off but I wasn't really a massive fan of anyone on the line-up so I was just there for the craic. The 3 for 1 ticket offer kept me interested.

bullpost

eviltimeban wrote: »

I hate to sound like an aul fella, but I think it's a problem with this generation (millenials / early 20 somethings). They can't focus on one thing, and they don't care about other people who might be wanting to focus on something. Blame social media and having everything they want at their fingertips.

OK now I do sound like an aul fella.

One positive was that I saw far less phones in the air (no pun intended) than you often see at gigs.

Hmmm - not so sure. I went to Roxy Music in Vicar Street a few years ago and the noise from middle-aged yakkers nearly ruined the gig for me.

Mrs Shuttleworth

Getting right down the very front is the only solution.

retalivity

Its a side effect of FOMO-ism, people are going to festivals ( and to a lesser extent gigs) to be there, not to see anyone specific. Its all about the event rather than the music, to get a few pics, check in on fb, eat some street food, etc.

bodhrandude

This one is better quality than my clips and closer.

Technocentral

retalivity wrote: »

Its a side effect of FOMO-ism, people are going to festivals ( and to a lesser extent gigs) to be there, not to see anyone specific. Its all about the event rather than the music, to get a few pics, check in on fb, eat some street food, etc.

They are still ignorant and selfish, they must know that people are there to actually hear the bands, no excuse for such asshole behaviour. Shows what kind of character they have in real life as it where.

retalivity

Technocentral wrote: »

They are still ignorant and selfish, they must know that people are there to actually hear the bands, no excuse for such asshole behaviour. Shows what kind of character they have in real life as it where.

Oh yeah, i agree...i wasnt defending them

Technocentral

retalivity wrote:

Oh yeah, i agree...i wasnt defending them

I know, was just saying my tuppence worth in your post and agreeing with you.

bodhrandude

My review of Beatyard 2017, enjoy. https://niallmcquaid.wordpress.com/2017/08/10/the-beatyard-festival-2017-review/

alastair

innuendo141 wrote: »

How did everyone get on?
...
Christ the food was a disaster. Those bloody qeueues.... Bars were grand though!

Wasn't feeling it, but more my fault than anything the festival did. The secret to pain-free grub was Happy Pear - they'd a ****e pitch and less traffic. Their wrap and free bun deal was the best thing on offer there imo. No use if you wanted something hot though.

Thought Toots was better than last EP session, and I liked Air's build to finale. The bit of Soule I saw was great, and there could have been more spots to sit. Enjoyable bumper session for a mortgage-tastic fiver. It was 50p last time I did it! Left during Mark Ronson, as it was leaving me cold.

Goreme

I arrived whilst Kila was on and the place was maybe half full then, and the crowd standing and watching them was not really that into it. I think the singer made a few remarks to that effect? People on this thread were there for different bands, I was there for Toots and the Maytals, and I thought he/they were excellent. He did a big crowd call and response thing going, but his music is made for that.... really made up with his set, loved it. (And yes, I think he did mention UK/London!!!)

Morcheeba, I really like, but thought would struggle in daylight/open air gig, the female singer was very good, but even she was saying to the crowd why weren't they singing along to her like to Toots (which was a bit odd, 'cos their music is very different to Toots' ska/reggae. Good music, but better suited to indoors.

By the time Air came on the place was really full (I'd estimate 8k to 10k people?). Like other people here, I thought a big part of the crowd kept yakking throught Air's set, which is mad!! to pay E63 or whatever for a ticket, and it wasn't like there were many band, so a lot of people must have been there for the headliners, but to the talk throughout the set... bloody event junkies... Air's music can be mellow at times, and for the first 40 mins or so, the crowd response was a bit muted when they finished their songs... Good to see Air play for 1hr 20 mins (Toots also played for 1hr 15 mins or so)  as like other's here I thought the one hour scheduled was bit ridiculous for headliners.

innuendo141

Mrs Shuttleworth wrote: »

Getting right down the very front is the only solution.

No yeppers near me. There was for the first couple of minutes but I think they were killed quite quickly.