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 Here are a few shots from The Young Knives‘ homecoming show at the Oxford Academy, 21 December 2008.

Support came from up-and-coming local stars Tristan and the Troubadours.

A bouquet of roses to Three Blind Mice, who succeeded in putting together an excellent lineup of varied but compatible acts on their first night as promoters. Dead flowers through the mail to the Port Mahon toilet attendant, who failed to note a coil of barbed wire in the toilet bowl of the gents (wouldn’t an ‘Out of Order’ sign have been sufficient?) and then compounded his error by presiding over an occupation of the same room by a posse of female physiology students who wanted to do their make-up. Let’s get to the music and banish these traumatic memories.

The combined age of Tristan & The Troubadours seemed to me in the murky Port light to be about seventy. So far so unremarkable, but you should know that there are seven of them, floppy haired hobbits enthusiastically banging percussion, scraping violins and blasting out fat organ chords. The style is hard to pin down (good), but the vocalist has obviously heard of Robert Smith, David Byrne and Win Butler, and certainly the band, with its often bombastic combination of folk instruments, spidery keyboard riffs, surges of guitar noise, and that vocal yelpiness (which will be an acquired taste for many) bring us into Arcade Fire territory-check their rather wonderful ‘Venice Ghosts’ on Myspace for a prime example. At other times in the set there lingered the aura of the after-school youth club- at one point the drummer and percussionist changed places, which demonstrates versatility, but to what effect? At the moment, I see T and the T as stem-cell talent, undifferentiated, uncommitted, but full of nervous life. What will they become?

Perhaps the next We Aeronauts, who rather despairingly admitted that ‘We’re f***ed, basically’ due to half the eight-piece folk-rock band’s taking up residence on other continents. Still, with various ringers on board they gave us a satisfying if far-from-perfect set. The strengths are in the effortless excellence of the songwriting: ‘Boatswain’s Cry’ is a worthy successor to Dylan’s ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’ as the cool person’s sea shanty of choice and ‘99 Days’ was a spirited, singalong stomp with more than a nod to Mercury Rev. ‘Fleet River’ (the famous subterranean Other London River- Tom Baker’s Doctor Who once caught a salmon in it and shared it with The Venerable Bede, who adored fish) is charming on record, full of tremulous guitar atmospherics, but was on the shambolic side tonight. I hope they get their lineup sorted out soon, because songs like these are too good to lose.

Another band to recently undergo extensive re-tooling is Maria Ilett’s. Last year, she produced an excellent little CD which was all sunny folk-pop married to subtle electronica. That’s all gone now and in it’s place is drums, guitar, sax and trumpet, as if Mark Ronson were running the show. A song like ‘Sit on the Sun’ from that record doesn’t really work with this band, as the horns drown out Maria’s low notes. In contrast, they actually improve ‘Hit the Blue’, a scuzzy little charmer on record but transformed here into an exhilarating anthem. Even better is ‘You Play These Games’ which reminds me of that long-forgotten time back when Amy Winehouse could sing. The discipline of the staccatto Motown-style horns and drumming, together with Maria’s fine voice combine to superb effect.

So, well done everyone. Good music, good turnout, well-publicised (there were three local music journalists in the audience) and free white chocolate mice to all payers. What’s not to like? Oh, I remember, the bogs. If you’re coming to the next show, best bring a bottle. An empty one.

By Colin MacKinnon

Tickets for the eleventh Truck Festival go on sale this Wednesday (2 April). The tickets, priced at £60, will go on sale to local residents before they go on sale to the general public, and you can but them from any of the following outlets:

• OXFORD: The Scribbler, SS20, Music Box, Videosyncratic (Cowley & Summertown)
• ABINGDON: Mostly Books 
• DIDCOT: Baby John’s/Windjammer
• WALLINGFORD: Toby English Books
• WITNEY: Rapture
• READING: Guitar Works 
• HIGH WYCOMBE: Counter Culture
  

This year’s festival boasts a range of new stages and collaborations – the Barn Stage will be hosted by Vacuous Pop on the Saturday, with Lovvers and These New Puritans already booked, while Maps headline the Sonic Cathedral-curated Sunday Barn. Fresh Out The Box bring the dance tunes to the Barn on Saturday night, while local electro promoters Abort, Retry, Fail? host the Market Stage, with live music including Robots In Disguise. The Truck Stage has already confirmed acts including Noah and the Whale, Camera Obscura, The Television Personalities, Emmy The Great and Small Faces legend Ian Maclagan. Local acts to have been confirmed so far include Borderville, This Town Needs Guns, The Winchell Riots, Alphabet Backwards, Tristan and the Troubadours, Little Fish, Richard Walters, Morrison Steam Fayre and The Family Machine. For all the latest, stay tuned here and on the Truck website.