Blast Arts 2008

On a random weekend, mid-August, whilst the rest of the country is hiding away from fears of torrential rain: the people of North Yorkshire are hitting the sands for the 2008 Beached Festival in Scarborough!

Forget the tents and barbecues on grass barges, the sea is the place to be. With a line-up smack bang in place only a week in advance, it’s a happy-go lucky festival. You just turn up on the beach, expect good music, and pray to not get washed away.

It is all about supporting local talent and up and coming bands, with acts from previous years including the Libertines and the Fratellis. Held on Scarborough’s South Bay in the middle of August, it has an unpredictable mix of tides, bands and tans. But it all seems to work out peachy in the end.

The Pieces on the Truck Stage

The combination of music is what makes the weekend so eclectic. A blend of rock, indie, pop, tropical punk, rap and good old fashioned acoustic tunes all united together is what you can expect from Beached.

Thursday Truckers

The debut day for the Beached line up is over at the ‘Truck’ stage. This is where fresh, talented artists have the chance to perform live to the crowds of enthusiastic music lovers, who were shadowed under a sea of umbrellas on Thursday. The day was mainly dedicated to the promotion of the ‘Folkwood’ record label including local acoustic acts such as Ollie Banks, Jools and Nick Mackay. The sunset brought the screening of ‘The Big Movie’ where people turned up to watch Wayne’s World on the sands.

Freaky Friday

Friday is when the mayhem and magic really began. The main stage opened with a 'Big Salute' from The British Forces Broadcasting Services. The fundraiser was supporting the festival in order to raise money and awareness for forces charities.

Its a rave, Dave!

The sun finally smiled down on Scarborough’s South Bay as the line-up opened with Iraq and Roll making a comeback collision at PM. This was followed by a mixture of innocent piano and haunting vocals from Joanne Ramsay. A fantastic live performance from BBC 6 Rebel Playlist winners, The Domino State and brummie riff-rockers The Mexicolas headlining with a slashed up 'Queens of the Stone Age' style.

The Truck stage was a playground for raw talent with contrasting acts catching the attention of the acoustic lovers of the North. Local pop-punk act We Heart Katamari lived up to their slogan of playing ‘happy music for happy people’, whilst Billy Nielson wowed the crowds with his genius for songwriting.

Saturday Superhouse

Saturday at Beached was a day to remember. With such a diverse mix of music from all over the country, the sands were swarming with beachy keen crowds ready to dance the night away. Young electro-techno radicals, Flamboyant Bella, dazzled the stage with a sound in between The Ting-Tings and Kate Nash.

Flamboyant Bella

The Lancashire Hotpots bounced around the stage batting tambourines and wearing the typical Northern flat cap and waistcoat combo whilst chanting “I’m a working man from Lancashire and I want a chippy tea!” The ‘hotpotters’ brought cheerful memories to an effervescent atmosphere with their signature version of ‘Hey Jean’, and the beach became a big sing-a-long for many.

Performances from The Anomalies, Livingston and The Ryes warmed up the audience for the super headlining acts to follow. Hull boys, The Paddingtons, played artistically with a drunken celebration for the start of the football season. They later caused chaos backstage by climbing over portaloos to greet and party with screaming fans.

The Truck stage hosted a selection of good compositions from The Occasion and Soul Rebels, and later, Fame Academy’s Alistair Griffin.

One Night Only

Headlining was the band that everyone had been waiting for: One Night Only! They came on with all that glitters, including their guitars and outfits! It was the first headlining festival for the young boys from Helmsley who have had huge success in the charts and on tour since playing at last years Beached. The turn out was massively surprising and it was good to see North Yorkshire supporting their local heroes. George, lead singer and guitarist was right when he declared, “It’s good to be home.”

Sunday was a bit Dodgy

The final day of Beached 2008 was action packed with bouncy castles, MTV talent scouting, East Coast Tigers Cheerleaders and good surf. The debut performance for the Beached Academy premiered on the main stage at midday on Sunday. The youngsters did tremendously well performing the songs they had written in the previous week at the Academy. The Pieces hit the truck stage playing their own cheery, acoustic tunes along with some brilliant covers of The Killers and Muse.

Sunday night brought music with influences from all over the world. Natty and his 'reggae-rap' brought a booming sensation to the stage with his waist length Bob Marley style dreadlocks. This was followed by tropical punk act Ebony Bones. The showbiz veteran gave an electrifying performance with tremendously energetic dance and explosions of colour, making everyone want to shake maracas and wear fruit bowls on their heads!

Forget sandcastles, its all about bounce

Acts such as the Troubadours, Billy the Kid, Hijak Oscar and The Bookhouse Boys also sang with glee on Sunday. Many of the artists at Beached are playing at major festivals this summer and some are coming to venues around North Yorkshire so visits to myspace music pages are definitely a must for follow-up gigs.

Power-pop rock trio Dodgy were staying out for the summer to headline the day with 90’s Brit pop tunes such as advertisement soundtrack, ‘Good Enough’.

All in all it was a good few days. Beached festival is certainly in a league of its own, what next year holds is a mystery Scarborough has yet to reveal.

The next big festivals to look forward to in North Yorkshire are York Green Festival on 31st August and the much awaited Acoustic Gathering III in Scarborough on 14th September. Be there for more musical goodness on the Yorkshire coast.

Nadia Emam