Credit: Found On Internet

While I might never have ‘got’ the hysteria that surrounded At The Drive-In, and Sparta, one of the bands formed out of their ashes, do nothing to convince me otherwise. Technical competence can do nothing to cover up the fact that each song forgettably blurs into the next, and if I hadn’t made a note on my phone to include them in this review, I doubt I’d have remembered seeing them at all.

Music Towers gets over to the Carling Stage 5 minutes too late for Kaiser Chiefs secret set under the Hook For Hands moniker, but were able to catch the start of Atlanta-upstarts Manchester Orchestra’s set. Their earnest indie sounds desperate to be played on a huge stage in order to justify its epic aspirations – they just need that elusive clutch of killer hooks. Considering the band are all hovering around the 20-years-old mark, I dare say they’ve got time to find some.

We cut it short though, as Gogol Bordello are kicking up a gypsy shitstorm over on the Main Stage. Twirling around like a topless Romany spinning top, moustachioed charisma-bomb Eugene Hutz is one of those rare performers with enough magnetism to divert the course of ocean liners. His dervish-like performance, combined with the sheer foot-stomping power of new tracks like ‘American Wedding’, and older hits like ‘Not A Crime’ make them the current Band To Beat for the title of Party Festival Kings.

The Horrors provide the weekend’s most unintentionally hilarious performance, thanks to guitarist, Joshua Third, and keyboardist Spider Webb. Wearing a white hoodie so big it keeps flopping down over his entire face, once Third has managed to solve that problem, he finds it tangled up with his guitar. Spider Webb has a ridiculous bob and plays his organ like a cat pawing at something shiny with lights on that he’s terrified of. As Faris Rotter prowls the front of the stage for a booming rendition of ‘She Is The New Thing’, Music Towers lurked off towards the bar.

This is as close to a homecoming festival as Reverend and The Makers are going to get, and the Carling tent has people swinging off every surface. It’s like that scene in The Jungle Book where King Louie holds court with all the monkeys. The depth of John McClure’s (aka the Reverend) is demonstrated by the fact their monster hit, ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’ is thrown out mid-set to rapturous acceptance. Slipping spoken-word interludes in amongst the set, the membership for this preacher’s church can only be set to rise.