The Underground of Happiness

Friday Trek to campsite. Find bearings. Admire grounds. Time for Lankum in the tent. Crowd love it. Sound is great but I am largely unmoved. See Chapter 9. That night the rain. Mud skiing. The Kraken Bar in the woods. Because it had a roof. And rum. Saturday The sun comes back out. Still ample mud for thigh workouts. Glasshouse play Joni Mitchell on the bandstand. Hearing Canada in the sunshine here is one of those perfect festival/life moments. One of the singers is Rachael Lavelle . More on her later in this series. Ringo Bingo in the kids area. A welcome diversion. Also clean toilets. Lisa O’Neill on the main stage. I’ve been agnostic but she is great here. Including a rousing cover of Black boys on mopeds by Sinéad O’Connor. Black Country New Road in the tent. Very interesting chamber/prog pop vibe. Your man right of stage immediately endears himself to me by announcing he’s had Beamish for the first time the day before – at a Guinness-sponsored fe...

A thoroughly fascinating proposition from the godfather of punk in a collaboration which looks the most unlikely on paper. The poetry of Walt Whitman recited by Pop, with backing from electronic gurus Tarwater & Alva Noto . There’s an intense brooding quality to Pop’s delivery - although it’s quite laid back in one light – and the soundscape behind teases that out brilliantly, with ambient washes and gurgles and clicks giving a very different view of the nature referenced in Whitman’s writing. No need to say any more except you need to hear this.