Credit: Found On Internet

Eggstock is the third annual celebration of all things Pickled Egg. Fittingly it takes place in this independent label’s hometown, Leicester. Music Towers circum-navigates the city centre several times before happening upon its hidden gem and festival hub; the Phoenix Arts Centre. It’s perfect for the festivities with its bar and large auditorium/cinema downstairs and its café and second stage upstairs. Small and self-contained, at this festival you can make it to the next band in 30 seconds flat with not a speck of mud on your shoes.

Pickled Egg Records is extraordinarily consistent, boasting releases from Zukanican, Daniel Johnston, George, Nalle, Need New Body, Dragon Or Emperor, Big Eyes, Homescience, Hassle Hound, The Go! Team, Scatter, Bablicon, Oddfellows Casino, Mass Shivers and Fulborn Teversham. Most are bands that rarely make it onto airwaves or into the press but reward the adventurous few who discover them.

Nigel Turner, who founded the label ten years ago, explains why he perseveres in these lean times for the indies; “It’s just rewarding being able to do something that touches a small number of people in a big way rather than reaching a big audience in a fairly superficial way. Getting to organise the first Daniel Johnston tour of Europe was particularly rewarding and interesting, although he was on his medication so it wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped perhaps it would’ve been.”

The roster is very much a reflection of Turner’s own taste, “It’s totally gut instinct but I think there is a sound to Pickled Egg. There must be some direction to my taste. And there’s always been a food metaphor - my own band was The Milk Of The Stars, and I’ve done nights like New Potatoes and Red Leciester.”

This audiophiles’ shindy opens with the excellent and noisy Dragon Or Emperor, whom Music Towers misses due to on a one hour quest to find a Leicester café that is a) open and b) still has food. Fulborn Teversham is scheduled next; surprisingly early on. This is explained by drummer and bandleader, Seb Rochford, who says he and tenor saxophonist Pete Wareham are also playing a Polar Bear gig in Coventry later. Fair dues. So many bands, so little time: Acoustic Ladyland, Paul the Girl, Menlo Park, the Mercury nominated Basquiat Strings and Polar Bear being just some of their projects.