Hindsight is...

...amongst other things, a quietly fine little song by Catriona Irving recently put out by tiny London label Neednowater [go]. It's half of her vinyl 7'' debut (complete with colour-in cover & crayons) and you can listen on her MySpace. Yes yes, its another girl with a guitar but this blog can always find room for one more. And it's just the sort of thing that would have fitted right in at the Bimble Inn...

...the cosy, cushion-lined teepee tent and smallest, most informal of the three performance areas at last weekend's End of the Road Festival. Is it alright to hope that something which folks have put a lot of time & effort into, and which you've enjoyed, doesn't become really successful? Because to be honest quite a big part of why the inaugural EotR felt so good was down to the fact they seemed only to have sold about half the tickets - which meant excellently available hot showers, tolerable loos, plenty of space for all and guaranteed ability to see any act you fancied. What with this, no rain, hot cider and lashings of Swedish indie, Simon and Sofia's enthusiasm-powered project shows every sign of being the little festival that just might...

Howe Gelb, Ryan Adams, British Sea Power, Badly Drawn Boy, Guillemots, Josh Ritter, they were the big end-of-night names. Missed all of them. Well, not quite. Stood dutifully around for Mr Adams, heard the first couple of tunes then politely.. fled. To the Big Top tent to make up the numbers for James Yorkston who had the thankless task of taking on the festival headliner single-handed. Not really this blog's kind of thing either (certainly not for a straight hour) but he dealt sympathetically and musically with the tricky distraction of some guy collapsed and prone for ten minutes directly in front of him. Micah P Hinson was.. ok I guess as were Ed Harcourt, Jolie Holland and Emmy the Great (or should that be Emmy the Quite Good). But again, not really this blog's thing...

Inching up the Infallible Index of Rightness (what?!), Absentee were certainly more lively and held the attention better than this blog remembered. American girl-with-guitar Dawn Landes has some lovely spare songs and a great voice but half the set came with backing rhythm tracks which kind of stomped over the magic. Arty psych-pop trio Semi-Finalists got a bit Flaming Lips-y now and then but generally convinced, with great use of projections (loved the lizards and jellyfish) and shadows.

Sunday morning and it was off to church. Well that's sort of what it felt like as wacko Swedish 29-piece I'm From Barcelona kicked things off on the main stage, drawing perhaps the most spontaneous and magnetic response of the whole three days with their simplistic, hit-you-over-the-head hooks and a beautifully inclusive approach to music-making and the whole festival experience. And proving that 'happy' was what a lot of folks here wanted The Boy Least Likely To pulled as many as anyone into the Big Top for another great (if entirely familiar) set of twinkly stomp. Quite a few more apple wagons hitched to their star, surely...

By contrast, not too many smiles from Boy Omega over in the little tent but not really sure why. The Swedish five-piece curtailed their set of shady, yearning folk-pop some seven songs short, making a vaguely unconvincing excuse about sound problems or something. Not sure what that was all about Martin, you sounded just great (as ever) .. don't let it put you off coming back. The band have a brand new and entirely gorgeous mini-album The grey rainbow just emerging which Huw (nice to meet you as well) at Stereo Test Kit [go] will be selling in November...

Whoa, Gravenhurst! Getting better all the time and really quite thrilling in that controlled, dispassionate, quiet-loud way of theirs. Still a bit of a secret, Gravenhurst should be opening for the likes of Muse not Belle & Sebastian; new album being recorded now, apparently...

A pint of English Peculiar, anyone? Easily, easily the best surprise of the whole festival was Yorkshire's David Thomas Broughton and his unique brand of eccentric art-folk. Methodically building extended 'songs' using looped recordings of his subtle voice, guitars, drums and other random noises, this blog found the whole thing quite beguiling and at times really rather moving. Pretty sure it wasn't just the cider, either...

So, Mr Broughton and his assorted vegetables were almost Best In Show.. but not quite. For their geeky exuberance, for the way they worked their silly-but-smart Swedish indie-pop magic to turn a tentful of unwitting strangers into dancing fools on Saturday night, the rosette surely goes to Suburban Kids With Biblical Names. Having made the floor heave upstairs at The Enterprise in Chalk Farm earlier in the week Johan, Peter and co. did their best to make a little piece of English earth move five days later and reallyrather is beyond glad to have been there...

And there's hundreds of photos from other End of the Roaders over here...