Futuresound 2010 - Leeds Festival choices

The Cockpit venue in Leeds has been choosing six local bands to play at Leeds Festival since the early days. In July a series of gigs are held as a kind of battle of the bands with selections being made by a combination of audience voting and points given by judges. This year the audience vote has been given a higher weighting in the decision making process. 60% is a figure I have seen somewhere. But I must say I don't know whether the audience vote is a raw number or a fraction of that night's audience.

The outcome seems to be a choice of bands whose rating on any kind of interestingness scale would be on the low side. The original list of 40, picked from the large number of entrants already had a conservative feel to it - a lot of polished but rather uninspiring emulations of existing formats and very few that stood out as distinctive or engaging. Cowtown and Castrovalva were two bands I would have liked to seen among hte chosen six. But never mind, they weren't. Club Smith did get in and I like them, so I'm pleased. But their format is now quite old, and they have been in before under a different name. It would have been better to see fresh faces and newer approaches, especially as the main line-up for Leeds Festival this year is on the rather dull and dated side.

Perhaps in times of economic anxiety audiences become more conservative and comfort seeking. They seek out music they recognise and sounds that are familiar. At a local level, they go to see friends' bands rather than risk whole evenings in unknown territory.

In the end, the balance of the whole event at Bramham Park is what matters. But at this stage I feel temporarily disappointed with the balance of choices that have been made.

I have linked the bands chosen to the group - with the exception of Soul Circus, whose name is used in so many other ways that there would be no point.

I'm not saying the bands aren't good enough. I'm saying that their music sounds old-fashioned and uninspired to my ears. To use old musical vehicles can work, of course, but the vehicle has got to carry something very special or be adapted in a cunning new way. Sounding nearly as good (for one example) as Wintermute's lovely emulation of Minus the Bear is not really what I need for 2010.

Any contrary thoughts? Am I just being a grumpy old man again?

My take is that there's a fundamental flaw in certain areas of the Leeds "scene", which is that bands are watched more or less exclusively by other people who are in bands. This leads to a focus on technical competence and a tendency to not rock the boat too much, because there's too much of a focus on what other people think.

People in bands are, in general, not a good audience. Far too concerned with whether the people they are watching can play well, whether they have the "right" gear, and whether they've spent enough time honing their songwriting craft.

So when something a bit "out there" comes along, they're all quick to jump on it and point out its supposed "faults". "Art" became a four-letter word some time ago, I'm afraid.