Mixtape Monday - Festival Special

On Friday night I went to X&Y Festival in Liverpool and finally got a chance to see a band I've been hearing quite a lot about - Catfish and the Bottlemen. I first read about the young four piece from Llandudno, in my copy of Nylon magazine last month and they immediately intrigued me. Clearly they had made an impression across the pond, so I was curious to finally catch a live show to judge for myself. After browsing their songs on YouTube and reading comments like 'he's the new Alex Turner' I had to see what all the fuss was about.

In good company, with the likes of Andy Metcalfe, The Family Rain and Half Moon Run, the Bottlemen didn't have the headline slot but I suppose they should have. They drew quite a huge and rowdy crowd. Everyone was into it; either bopping their heads, jumping up and down, singing along or crowd-surfing. The bands' stage presence and overall performance was pretty damn good too and those remarks deeming lead singer Van, as the new Alex Turner probably aren't that far off base....

As we're well into festival season, of course we had T in the Park this past weekend. The line -up was rather disappointing except for a few bands. The Temperance Movement played but their set wasn't shown on any of the coverage (terrible move by the BBC btw!!)  However, I did tune in for Paolo Nutini and Arctic Monkeys.  I can't get enough of Paolo, I've been a fan since day one but I'm loving the fact he's back and better than ever. His voice is just so distinct and completely unique, it's hard not to love him!


As for the Monkeys, well they just do their thing and it works every-time doesn't it?... Apparently Catfish and the Bottlemen played T too. Same day as the Monkeys....All in all a great weekend for them! I look forward to grabbing their debut album when it's released.