Finishing the Friday of Bloodstock this year are one of the most renowned Blackened Death Metal bands around; Behemoth. With their Vocalist Nergal having only recently recovered from Leukaemia this set is one of their first major festival appearances and their chance to show the world that they fit and ready to play again. Following on from such acts today as Watain, Sepultura, Iced Earth and Grand Magus they had a challenge against them to pull out the best show of the day!

Behemoth rose to this challenge soared showed everyone here and all those watching on the live stream why they were headlining. The whole set had an excellent light show, as well as plenty of fire jets to add to the atmosphere too! Their set props included their trademark custom made microphone stands depicting their symbols. The band all had excellent stage presence, especially Nergal who made sure the crowd kept revved up and wanting more. With horns being thrown, lots of roars, crowd surfers and even a Polish flag nearing half the length of the stage being held aloft by the crowd it was obvious who everyone was out to see tonight. As well as getting the crowd revved up via a great stage presence, Nergal also broke up the set to talk to the crowd, acknowledging the great honour it was to play here, with last time they were booked to be at Bloodstock having to be cancelled due to his illness this set obviously meant a lot to the newly recovered frontman. Part  way through the set the band set alight to 2 inverted crosses on the side of the stage, adding more to the already thick and intense atmosphere they had created on stage with their pyrotechnics and lighting. As a band with a huge discography they had plenty of songs to draw from, including such tracks as Demi God, The Left Hand Of God, Slaves Shall Serve and Conquer All.

The set finished with a culmination of all their stage tools, with the lights blazing, fog machines working at full capacity and jets of fire shooting up the stage, the ending of this set was signified by the firing of huge amounts of glitter across the crowd  which span across the smoke filled and impenetrable sight of the stage. As the music drew to a close so did the light as the fog slowly creeped back to show their amazing set had come to the end.

This Friday night has set a high bench mark for the following headliners Machine Head and Alice Cooper of this festival to try and outdo, Hail Satan for the triumphant return of Behemoth!

It’s difficult to tell if it was the festival theme and fancy dress, the smaller size of the festival, the setting, the mix of music, or a combination of all of these factors, but Standon Calling 2012 had an amazing atmosphere! It was certainly easy to feel right at home at this really friendly festival.

Well the theme was ‘Journey to the Ends of the Earth’ and organisers had created a great setting at Standon Lordship which was amplified even more on the Saturday when everyone donned their fancy dress outfits. There were costumes of all kinds to be seen including traditional explorers, Wizard of Oz characters, characters from Up, native Indians and much more, some of which words cannot begin to describe!

Although this festival is smaller than many, this helps contribute to the friendly atmosphere as you encounter the same people multiple times throughout the weekend. The setting and multiple stages of Standon Calling are certainly at the level of much larger festivals though – and how many festivals do you go to where there’s a swimming pool?!

The music at Standon Calling 2012 was definitely a key factor in generating its amazing atmosphere. The 3 days of the festival were packed days with live music which catered for everyone as there was practically every type of music you can think of – rock, dance, drum and bass, folk, reggae, ska – a complete mix. From small unknown bands to Standon Calling regulars right through to Beardyman – there was a lot to take in.

Overall Standon Calling 2012 was a great festival with an amazing, super friendly atmosphere with a lot of music and fun for your money!

Click here to see photos from Friday at Standon Calling
Click here to see photos from Saturday at Standon Calling
Click here to see photos from Sunday at Standon Calling

Hyde Park was heaving as the sun shone down on what turned out to be ‘Super Saturday’.

Musical entertainment was provided by Rusty Shackle and The Asps on the Bandstand stage and pop sensations McFly and electronic stars Saint Etienne on the Main Stage amongst others.

Alongside the music, the giant screens televising various live Olympic sports kept the crowds entertained.  There were also guest appearances from Team GB Olympic medal winning stars Bradley Wiggins, Gemma Gibbons and Karina Bryant.

To kick off the live music on the Main Stage, Tenors of Rock entertained the crowd with covers of popular chart songs ‘Price Tag’ by Jessie J, ‘Walk This Way’ by Aerosmith and ‘Grenade’ by Bruno Mars, adding their own quirky rock twist.

Up next were McFly.  They opened their set with ‘Nowhere left to Run’, the boys also played some of their greatest hits including ‘Obviously’, ‘Star Girl’, ‘5 Colours In Her Hair’ and ‘All About You’.  The crowd danced and cheered as they covered two well known British hits, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ by Queen and The Beetles hit song ‘Twist and Shout’.  They also performed a cover medley consisting of Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, One Direction’s ‘What Makes you Beautiful’ and Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’.  To round off their performance, they congratulated Team GB and all the athletes on their success and dedicated their single ‘Shine A Light’ to them.   McFly certainly enhanced the ‘Olympic Super Saturday’ atmosphere and left the crowd psyched for the upcoming athletics medals finals.

Between acts the crowd gathered round the Main Stage’s big screen, to witness some of Britain’s proudest Olympic moments so far.  The atmosphere was electric, second only to being at the stadium itself, when Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford all won gold medals within the space of three-quarters of an hour!

To round off the evening, headlining act, British electronica trio, Saint Etienne took to the stage.  The audience enjoyed a late night boogie to a mix of their greatest hits ‘He’s On the Phone’ and ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ along with a selection of material from their latest album ‘Words and Music’, with hits including ‘Tonight’ and ‘I’ve Got Your Music’.  Saint Etienne certainly didn’t disappoint and kept the party atmosphere going right through to the end of the night.

However, a word of warning… there is airport style security on the gates with no food or liquids permitted through the barriers, so you have no choice but to buy in the venue, which can turn out to be very expensive.  Also seating is limited so make sure you take a picnic blanket at the very least.

Click here to view more photos from BT London Live – 4th August

Click here to see photos from BT London Live Victoria Park

Renowned as The heavy-weight family festival, any hard-core aficionado would be forgiven if they gave Camp Bestival a wide berth, opting instead for its big brother, Bestival, held on the Isle Of Wight in early September each year. But without question, this is the most superb event for families seeking a delightful break with so much more than great music! And, we were blessed with glorious sunshine and no mud whatsoever – ‘twas pure lushness even without a family in tow… done that one!

As for the children’s entertainment, they had Howard Marks (yes, Mr Nice) telling them stories; I hope he didn’t go too far back in his time vault! Rob Da Bank’s Music Club tent (err, no, he’s actually a DJ and the Bestivals’ creator/operator) was hosting various music and street dance workshops; clearly popular with younger festival goers. There’s a massive Freestyle Sports Park for BMX, skate and boarding with pretty awesome trick demo riders; Silly Olympics; the Dingly Dell trail; Dick & Don… but hang on, I can’t list it all, as their website says: “there’s a staggering array of magical treats with 100s of free things for kids”.

So what about us big kids you may be thinking. Well, you could get wedded in the Big Love Inflatable Church, watch medieval jousting performed by top stunt riders from movies such as Gladiator, see Jimmy Carr on top form, and hear ‘Man of 10,000 Sound Effects’ Michael Winslow in the Big Top. Of course kids can do some of this stuff too, although Jimmy’s set was best avoided by early teens – some looked a little bemused or was it just embarrassment.

Even with such multifarious activities, this laid-back leisurely affair without good music would disappoint. As it turned out the line up wasn’t good, it was eclectically elating; no wonder Camp B attracts so many seasoned visitors.

The Castle Stage hosted a string of quality retro performers satisfying young and old alike. Friday saw Adam Ant in his Dandy Highwayman’s regalia, while Saturday’s funky feast included Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & The Gang, plus one of the world’s best live bands (IMO and Leo Sayer’s for that matter): Nile Rodgers and his band Chic. They performed a medley of tracks all written by Nile himself, such as Like A Virgin, Let’s Dance, We Are Family, I’m Coming Out, in addition to many Chic classics – the crowd Freaked Out, Everybody Danced and I relived my youth, kinda!

The Cuban Brothers press all the right buttons with their music, Miguel Mantovani’s banter and the most ridiculously impossible dance moves from a young Japanese guy. I say dancing, but it’s more street dance gymnastics performed by a contortionist! I hope somebody captured it on video; I’ll be checking youtube everyday now. The Dub Pistols, another high-energy act never fail to engage the crowd, and I found them riveting as usual. Hot Chip are not to my taste, but they were eagerly devoured by hungry fans.

Rizzle Kicks, Stooshe and Scroobius Pip were lapped up by a younger audience that welcomed any interaction going. Pip ran around the stage and then through the crowd like a man possessed, which he probably is – crazy stuff indeed. Clement Marfo & The Frontline, playing in the Big Top did a similarly rousing job during their late night gathering, albeit with a different style of music and its delivery.  The Bollywood tent was essentially for DJs and dancing. I’m a big fan (and contemporary) of Greg Wilson, who was the first DJ to mix live on British TV and has been spinning the wheels since 1975; basically he’s a legend! LTJ Bukem, Justin Robertson, Netsky and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs were pretty awesome too. Again the list goes on and there were 8 performance venues, so you can understand this commentary is relatively limited – so check out the CB website for more details.

The grand finale was delivered on Sunday evening by headlining act, The Happy Mondays. Fully reassembled with Mr Maracas (Bez) wooing reminiscent mums and dads with his posy-dance antics while the Madchester gang played 24-hour Party People to the overwhelmed and perhaps over exhausted gathering of 72-hour Besti-people! I can wholeheartedly recommend this festival; plus, if you are lacking offspring – you don’t have to start a family to get in either and you’ll have a great time guaranteed!

To see what my words fail to express, please check out my photographs in the SFG Gallery and here too: www.nycgapp.com

Click here to view photos from this years Camp Bestival