Review: Kendal Calling 2012 [Live From The Fields]
Tomorrow morning we head to Kendal Calling for the third year running.
Winner of Small Festival of the Year and tons of other things that we’re too lazy to search for, it’s safe to say Kendal Calling is one of our favourite national festivals. It doesn’t quite provide you with the mammoth comedy line-ups of Latitude and Glastonbury, and there’s a much more relaxed approach to their bookings. But the focus here is on the overall experience at Lowther Deer Park, rather than just piling the big names in, and that’s sometimes more satisfying than jumping up and down so you can see a bit of Rich Hall’s ear.
That said, this year’s line-up still features some quality talent if you go looking: a Musical Comedy Award winner (Jolly Boat – Friday, 8.15pm), one of the highlights of Kendal Calling 2011 (Tony Basnett – Sunday, 8.30pm) and one of our favourite North East acts (Danny Pensive – Sunday, 9.05pm). All in all, there’s over eight hours of comedy a day to keep us ticking over. Best take plenty of pens…
Throughout the weekend we’ll be providing you with a live review of the festival on this page. Yes, this one – so bookmark it! Some of it will be nonsense, obviously, and there will be typos; but bear with us. You can also follow our coverage on the Twitter accounts @GiggleBeats and @AndrewDipper.
Don’t worry, though; if you don’t fancy reading half-baked ramblings from our half-cut editor, feel free to just check back on Monday night and we’ll have tidied our review up a little bit. Probably.
But for now, we should pack…
Friday.
And we’re here. Lovely weather today at Kendal Calling; I’m already regretting not packing shorts. Spoken word begins at 2pm in the Soapbox Tent, but we’ll be heading over a little later on. Today’s highlights:
Beat The Frog winners (6pm-8pm)
Jolly Boat (8.15pm-9.35pm)
Ray Guns Looks Real Enough (12am-1am)
In the meantime, we’re going to have a can. And er, do some work or something.
Phil Ellis is compering the comedy in the Soapbox tonight. Jumping on stage to announce a quick break, he’s met by a slightly odd – though completely understandable – heckle: ‘Stay on!’ Ellis stays on all right, jumping off the stage and on to the punter. They’ve only just stopped brawling. Winner: Phil Ellis, TKO.
He might’ve only been on stage about five minutes, but Ellis settled down the room after that initial disruption. A class act indeed, and an assured compere.
In contrast, musical duo Jolly Boat encourage anarchy on stage, and are clear festival favourites. Like Ellis, last year’s Musical Comedy Award winners get the crowd on board, rattling through pop classics with a pirate-y pun twist. The chemistry isn’t always there, as they occupy opposite ends of the stage; yet there’s something special about this pair when they’re chatting between songs. At festivals, confidence prevails and Jolly Boat have it in abundance.
Saturday.
It’s been hit and miss for today’s comedians, most of whom are exported from the lower levels of the North West comedy scene.
First up is Jamie Kilday, who opens strongly with an assured BNP routine that has a nice payoff. He’s an affable comic, Kilday, and brings a slightly abject crowd on side. Rushed delivery occasionally lets him down, but overall Kilday is one of the stronger acts in this section.
Coming from a family of comedians, Colin Manford has plenty of life experiences to draw on for his material. A routine on his silly nana hits the spot, while self-deprecating schtick about failed relationships also goes down well in the Soapbox. On a whole, Manford pitches his material well – even when chatting with an eight year old wrestling fan at the back of the tent. Certainly worth seeing again in a more relaxed environment.
Tony Basnett’s high-energy, a-little-bit-pissed-if-we’re-being-frank style didn’t quite captivate the crowd like I imagined. That’s not particularly his fault, obviously, but by the same token I’m not convinced there’s enough bankers in his set to win over a disinterested crowd. A slightly disappointing performance after last year’s top showing.
As Basnett leaves for another beer, so too do half the punters, meaning the typically reliable Danny Sutcliffe has a tough job on his hands. Not an impossible job, of course; he has a decent fifteen in him, so his five minute spot should’ve been a piece of cake. Instead, though, Sutcliffe goes with five minutes of new material that’s, er, hit and miss to say the least. Shame, really, as he’s obviously got the talent to make things happen on stage.
Just had a quick look at the line-up for tonight: Chris Brooker, Michael J Dolan and Duncan Oakley prop up the Soapbox comedy. Here’s hoping for a more consistent show later.
It has to be better than seeing Dizzee Rascal, anyway…
Duncan Oakley was one of the highlights of last year’s comedy and he delivers again tonight. A real hit with the Kendal Calling crowd, Oakley’s another musical act who goes down a storm. A fitting end to Saturday’s comedy in the Soapbox.
Sunday.
Morning all. A lot of yesterday’s comedians are back for another set today, so we’ll probably be brief. Today’s highlights:
Stuart Mitchell (8pm-9pm – according to our timetable)
Danny Pensive (9.05pm-9.50pm)
Mark Rough (9.55pm-10.45pm)
Wow. When you hear the phrase ‘spoken word’ at festivals you fear for the worst and just hope for the best; but ‘Richard’ absolutely steals the show this afternoon. He cuts a quirky figure – Simon Munnery-esque if you don’t look twice. And his language and his ideas are just as piercing. Now if anyone can tell me his surname that would be just lovely.
Today’s comedy finally gets underway not long after Richard’s exit, with punk comic Ruth Cockburn, Phil Ellis (again), Colin Manford (again) and, for a brief period, Adam Rushton.
Cockburn is a captivating act. That said, she doesn’t half talk about her lady parts. “This song’s about a shit job,” says Cockburn. Then follows up with “…the sexy girl in your area-a-a-a-a.” Despite her occasional two-dimensional material, Cockburn’s confident enough to carry her set, and she has a few smart lines too, like her bit on getting a Brazilian. Still, TMI, Cockburn. TMI.
Phil Ellis is back on the Soapbox “for a laugh” – and doesn’t really get many from the crowd here. Shame on them, because Ellis is a funny bloke. And he has a nice coat.
Adam Rushton and Colin Manford (Kendal Colin, if you will) are having a whip-round for fellow comic Freddy Quinn, who’s offering a tenner to any girl who’ll give him a big sloppy kiss. Amazingly, a twenty-something in the crowd is up for it. I think someone needs to sit her down and have a word.
Taking a breather from that depressing moment in the comedy tent, main stagers We Are Scientists are cranking out the gags with some ridiculously charismatic lines between songs. This isn’t comedy, obviously, but Chris Cain and Keith Murray are two funny blokes with some cracking tunes to boot.
Wrapping up the comedy for the weekend, Danny Pensive and Mark Rough have to put in one hell of a shift. Pensive, a creation of Sunderland comic John Cooper, looks so comfortable on stage, even to the sound of deafening bass. While Rough, another Sunderland export, brings some much needed steel to the line-up. This weekend has been filled with comics who perform with confidence and charisma, but rarely have the material to win back a losing room. But Rough has the tools at his disposal to keep a crowd onside, and his often harsh material, while not to everyone’s taste, does enough here to drown out the horrible wailing noise coming from the main stage.
Final thoughts…
This summer, Kendal Calling established itself as one of the biggest platforms for emerging artists. Musically, this bodes well. The likes of B>E>A>K, Hyde and Beast and Vinyl Jacket all did the North East proud, putting in memorable performance. However comedy is often a much more tricky business.
Two weeks before the festival began I noticed a post on a local comedy forum asking if anyone would like to play Kendal Calling in exchange for a free ticket to the festival. This haphazard, borderline scattergun, approach to bookings was evident in both the organization and overall quality of the Soapbox…
With no compere until 8pm, in a tent that was still far too close to the main stage, new acts were asked to not only hold a dead room with unpredictable material, but to also introduce fellow inexperienced comedians to that room too. Some of these semi-pro comedians performed multiple times over the weekend, as they filled in dead space which should have been occupied by professional comedians.
Phil Ellis, one of the highlights of this year’s festival, summed it up perfectly on the Sunday afternoon: “We’re going to bring on another act for you, ladies and gentlemen…oh, there’s no-one there…that’s professionalism for you!”
As an overall festival experience, Kendal Calling is a joy. The setting is idyllic and beautiful and everything you’d want from a trip to the Lakes. The tents for emerging artists were, on a whole, handled excellently, and despite the lack of big names, the music was still at a consistently high quality. The pies were canny, too.
But while last year’s festival, booked by Kill For A Seat, was carried by the likes of Gary Delaney, Mitch Benn, Barry Dodds and hometown boy Dan Nightingale, Kendal Calling 2012 lacked those key links in the chain. Phil Ellis stepped into the breach, returning to the festival for another year; but a couple of professionals can’t carry eight hours’ worth of comedy.
Let’s hope in 2013 there’s more to laugh about at Kendal Calling…
