The 1234 Shoreditch 2010: Rated!

Shoreditch Park, London - 24 July

United Kingdom | by Rhian Daly | 26 July 2010

Overall - 7/10

A festival dedicated to “future rock and roll”, 1234 is a veritable who’s who of rising stars plus a few who’ve already made it to legendary status. Here, it’s perfectly possible to go from seeing lo-fi’s brightest young things to a post-punk hero in a minute. With a killer line-up during both the main event and the host of after parties dotted around Shoreditch’s coolest bars and clubs, as well as dodgems and a special Converse stand where you can get your Chucks turned into one-off pieces of art, on paper The 1234 looks to be a no-brainer.

But once in the confines of Shoreditch Park, something’s not quite right. Maybe it’s the technical problems that mar the majority of the performances on the main stage or the hipper-than-thou air of some of those in attendance but the festival fails to live up to expectations, although not for want of trying.

Getting There and Back - 10/10

Being in a park in the middle of London makes it stupidly easy to get to and from the festival site. Old Street tube is a mere five minutes walk away, with Highbury and Islington not much further in the opposite direction. There are even a handful of buses that stop right next to the park. As for the after parties, they’re all within easy reach of Old Street or the new Hoxton and Shoreditch High Street stations too, with plenty of night buses passing by come the end of the night.

The Site - 8/10

The little section of the park fenced off for the festival is almost the perfect size for the event. There is little distance between stages so dashing frantically from one to another to avoid missing your favourite band walk on stage is not a concern here. And although the programme claims a 10,000 person capacity, the queues at the bars are relatively small - VF never had to wait more than five minutes to be served, something of a rarity at a festival. There are a few food stands selling your standard burgers and chips, whilst there is also a solitary clothes stall. The positioning of the toilets could be re-thought - being tucked away behind the dodgems doesn’t leave much room for the ever-growing queues - but aside from that, there’s little to quibble about in times of the surroundings.

The Atmosphere - 5/10

The fact the festival is held in Shoreditch is probably a dead giveaway as to what type of punter it pulls in. If you’re thinking vintage waifs and geek chic gents, then bravo. Whilst the 1234’s crowd is probably one of the more attractive festival crowds out there, they’re also far too cool to care for the most part. One of the few exceptions to the day’s rule is Rolo Tomassi’s fans who, not content with circle pits and crowd surfing, climb the pole in the middle of the tent and fling themselves off into the arms of those below.

Music - 9/10

The 1234 isn’t just about fresh-faced indie bands - they’ve got a whole tent for all things electronic (under canvas Toddla T continues on his ascension as one of Britain’s finest DJs) and numerous more hardcore bands littering the line up elsewhere. Rolo Tomassi leave the Artrocker tent with the overpowering stench of sweat after a particularly riotous set, whilst Fucked Up spend most of their main stage headline set in the crowd. Bobby Gillespie’s covers supergroup The Silver Machine bash out garage rock hits of yesteryear and teens Pull In Emergency show up some bands twice their age with their spiky indie-pop.

Uppers

Wavves - 9/10
Nathan Williams, king of lo-fi, shows the pretenders to his throne how it’s done. Merging tracks from new album ‘King of the Beach’ with those that are more familiar, Wavves’ set is the perfect early evening summer treat.

Veronica Falls - 8/10
Veronica Falls play songs about falling in love with ghosts and notorious suicide spots and what more could you possibly want than that?

Comanechi - 8/10
Akiko Matsuura once again proves to be THE coolest lady on the face of this planet, all whilst wearing a massive gold bow and shouting: “Don’t touch me, I’m disgusting!”

Flats - 7/10
Angry punk reminiscent of the original movement rather than the polished US modern take on it, Flats are a welcome, chaotic break from pre-meditated, meticulously thought out music.

Von Haze - 7/10
Woozy psych-pop from Brooklyn that feels like it should be illegal at this early hour of the day. Nothing short of mind-warping brilliance.

Downers

Peter Hook - 0/10
Some might argue that watching Peter Hook cover Joy Division songs is favourable to watching some shoddy tribute band do the same. These people are wrong; neither option is good idea, especially not the former. It’s like watching your dad air guitar his way through ‘Unknown Pleasures’ after a few too many, except Hooky’s got an actual bass in his hands and doesn’t seem to be drunk. He has got that foot-up-on-the-amp rock star posturing down to a tee, though.

S.C.U.M - 3/10
Just say no.

Dum Dum Girls - 5/10
All female Californians Dum Dum Girls shouldn’t be featuring under the heading ‘Downers’, what with Kristin Gundred and friends making some of the most beautiful, harmonious garage-pop around. Sadly, the true extent of their ace-ness is hidden by poor sound and thus they’re only half as satiating as they should be.

These New Puritans - 0/10
It’s not just the main stage that’s dogged with sound problems; the Rough Trade/P.I.X. tent also falls foul at the last hurdle. Extensive line-checking means Southend’s These New Puritans are already running a quarter of an hour late so it’s a relief when they finally walk on stage and launch into a stomach-churningly exciting rendition of ‘We Want War’. It seems the excitement’s too much for the soundboard though, with Jack Barnett’s microphone cutting out halfway through the song. An attempt is made to resurrect the situation but when TNP are given the all-clear to start again precisely the same thing happens. A meek, apologetic bow later and they’re off with no time to return and deliver the festival-slaying set they were promising.

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