Sounds From The Other City - A Report

Okay, I Can Hear You Asking -
 - "Where does your lap go when you stand up?"
     Well, 670 North and 260 East puts you square in the Lapps, so there you are.  If you -
     - Oh!  You want to know what SFTOC is? A music festival held in Salford, on the Spring Bank Holiday.  Conrad missed it last year as he did not bother to write it down, and unless it is down in black Quink written with an osmium-tipped Parker fountain pen, it does not exist.
     So!  There are multiple venues across Salford, mostly based around the Chapel Street area.  Allow me to indicate the sheer volume of events and sites:

Look - a map, at bottom right

     Each line on the programme is an event, and there are a lot of venues where the events happen.
     One of the things that helped make this year's event pretty special was the weather - Conrad hied himself out of bed at 7:30 a.m. to visit the bathroom, and heard 1) Gale Force Winds 2)  Torrential rain and 3) The percussion track of Doooooom*.  However, by  2 p.m. things were completely turned around and we had blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

New Bailey Arch
A new experience for Conrad.

     No!  Not the music, the Portaloo.  After an 28 year hiatus, I used a portaloo, in what seemed to be 90% darkness.  Because this blog is SFW, I do not include photographs, but have a soundtrack transcription:
     "Why is it so dark?"
     "Where is the toilet?"
     "What's this lever for?"
     "The handwash water is where?'
Anyway the venue for "Ba Duncle":

     Here we had "Danny Saul vs. Sam Weaver", thank you Art:

This makes it look more Light And Airy than it was

     I have my critical comment down as "Son of Forbidden Planet Soundtrack", which is interesting as there were no theremins in sight.
     Then we had a rather puzzling combo - "David Birchall/Sam Andreae/Andrew Cheetham Trio, which by any arithmetic comes to five people, yet check out what we see on stage here:

A sax and three people, right?

     What is my citric comment here?  "Like Hawkwind minus the guitar and bass and drums and lyrics".  I think that's a thumbs-up.  There were about 50 people in the audience, so it must have appealed to some one.
     At this point Conrad moved on, literally, leaving you with the comment "It's music, Jim, but not as we know it."

Bexley Square
There was a tent there, without anyone actually playing music, so Conrad took a pause to check out another venue and sink a pint of beer.

Before

     It was "DOC", a rather nice pale ale, and for only £3, which is more expensive than the local pubs here in Royton but not by much and -
      - oh the music!  Well, Nagia Bagi was performing, Young Lady With Electric Rhythm Guitar. Far, far too lightweight for Conrad, I have to say, but a nice venue thanks to the sunshine.

From Square To Mill
Another walk eastwards to arrive at Islington Mill, which is an old mill repurposed - this is where I'd got my wristband earlier in the afternoon -

The queue at 14:14

     Just in case any of you are intending to go visit a band at a gig in the near future, allow me to walk you through the process.  First you purchase a ticket:

     - which allows you to trade it for a wristband:

 - which allows you into different venues across Salford:

E.g. Vimto Gardens

Fliss Horrocks
I wasn't entirely sure which gig I was in, so this was either Jupiter-C or Fliss Horrocks -

On the left, Fliss; on the right, Horrocks

     And after some intruigingly-strung guitar songs, Fliss began to do sound-checking on her keyboa - O!  No, that's not sound-checking, it's the incredibly discordant sounds of hideous torment -

Groves
I have to say, Conrad the Rock Fan was desperately grateful for this five-piece, after a lot of - er - shall we say - "avant garde" music stuff beforehand?  Guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and all kinds of other stuff in the background.

Sadly I could not stay as other musical charms led me elsewhere.

Ex-Easter Island Head Plus BBC Philharmonic
They might have a hit even with a title as long as that - remember the "Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps"? Or the "Bachman Turner Overdrive"? Or "Uncorrected Deviate Septum"?**
     EEIH are musicians who make guitar-playing not sound like guitars; rather than play their guitars with the traditional finger and plectrum, they use drumsticks.  I'm sure this is not good for the guitars in question, but there you go.
     Here we have the gig site before playing:

Breezeblock-a-go-go

     This was a great gig, 30 minutes long that felt like 5 - a sure indication that it was compelling, at the very least. Let me show you the mid-gig flow:

BBC on left, EEIH on right

     It had a definite feel of Philip Glass about it, minimalist and melodic.  See the EEIH chap towards the middle?  Ian*** and I had a quick word with him post-gig and he was refreshingly human and non-precious, appreciateive - he liked the Philip Glass comparison - and since his mum and dad were about to enter the venue - Conrad not the oldest person in the room!

At this point I made my Long Slow Way Home, as it takes forever to get anywhere on First Bus on a Sunday.  Had I stayed then there would have been musical mayhem until 4 a.m. on the 4th of May; but your humble scribe is far, far too old to sustain activity until then.

SO! Sounds From The Other City 2015 - more music than you can shake several sticks at, and a reason why Islington Mill is to be given a Free Get Out Of Enslavement Camp card when my invasion fleet arrives.


* I wasn't properly awake so this might be a bit kind of - er - lies.
** One of these is fake.  But - I'm not telling which!
***Breen.  Well-connected muso chap, he pointed your humble scribe at this band.