FESTIVAL REVIEW ::: BEACH BREAK LIVE

Try putting up a 3 room tent in 70 mph winds and torrential rain. That was the idea anyway. I’d packed for a nice little getaway to the beach; shorts, flip flops, sun cream and all that jazz. The tent went up in the end, but there were times when it was flying away that I thought we’d never get a chance to leave the campsite. So 17,000 students (and yours truly) set off into what was described as the worst storm in South Wales in the last 50 years. Did they care? Did they hell! They say a British festival isn’t a British festival without a bit of rain, but this was something special.

The rain let up a little for Maverick Sabre’s set, which was beautiful. The man was on song and got everyone in the mood for a bit of Delilah and Chase and Status. With a line-up like this you can hardly complain about the weather. Chase and Status were a great way to end the opening night and left me excited about the next two day. As long as my tent hadn’t blown away – I shouldn’t joke because by the morning a couple of the neighbouring tents had been utterly destroyed by the wind.

Day two saw the likes of Labrinth, Wretch 32 and Dizzie Rascal all take to the main stage. But first up was Levi Roots. Yes, the Reggae Reggae sauce man. The beach was closed and so were a lot of the activities at this point because of the weather. So there were quite a few people sat and listening to a nice little collection of Reggae numbers. But as the evening closed in and the man that is Labrinth was warming up backstage the festival became electric once more.

Labrinth was a stand out performer, as you would expect. He owned the stage outright and was never shy about having a cheeky solo on this beautiful electric guitar. As he exited the stage a whisper of ‘Earthquake’ soon became a deafening cheer for an encore. He more than delivered as he gave an epic rendition the tune.

Dizzie Rascal was utterly insane! I have to admit that the line up of Dry The River, Ben Howard and The Maccabees that was Sunday is much more my sort of scene, but this man is such a great performer. I was quite excited to go find the Benga tent after his set, rather than the Shisha tent, which had had my name on it before. Having said this the following day was my favourite for music. Friendly Fires put on a great headline set to finish off the night. I loved the Maccabees and Dry The River were absolutely fantastic – a definite band to check out if you haven’t heard their stuff already.

It was also really nice to catch some great Unsigned acts as well in the smaller tents. As Elephants Are (@AsElephantsAre) put on a brilliant little set. They have a lot of The Maccabees to them and their drummer is awesome. The other band that I stayed for the whole set was Delve (@DelveBand). This is 2 piece acoustic folk act who I have played along side at The Troubadour as well as other venues in London. It was great to see them playing a festival like Beach Break. An epic weekend and brilliant start to the summer.

Written by ::: Matt Woods
Website ::: http://www.mattwoodsofficial.com/
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