Murder on the dancefloor

Birthday parties can be stressful things for those organising them – and Alex Trenchard’s is probably up there with any A List celebrity’s. His party has grown dramatically over the last ten years, with this the biggest, and probably the best one yet. Although you have to pay to attend, you know you’ll have a great time – Alex’s birthday party is Standon Calling. Ever approachable, I asked Alex what he thought of this year’s festival, hoping for a nice quote, but upon spotting my press pass, he replied “You’re a journalist, you tell me”. So, here goes.

Although this year’s Standon had doubled its capacity, the atmosphere remained the same (possibly the friendliest and most fun festival crowd in the UK) and while it didn’t look like the extra money had gone on more facilities, we did get a bigger line up for both day and night.

Friday kicked off with A Hawk & A Hacksaw and it was a shame that their Balkan folk was only met with people sitting on the floor of the Crooked House tent, rather than the foot stomping and dancing that it deserved. This was to be the only time I witnessed such madness, as (in Standon tradition) the rest of the weekend was all about dancing. Metronomy started things nicely, ripping through a tight set on the main stage. If it wasn’t for the late night entertainment, I would have been even less impressed with Liar’s headline show. Void of anything resembling entertainment, we quick stepped to the cow shed where the post-Metronomy dancing continued in the open air with awesome lasers. When it was time for Kill Em All we hot footed it over to the Twisted Licks tent where rugs were cut up till the early hours.

The joy of a hangover at Standon is the knowledge that you can shake the cobwebs out with a dip in the pool, which on Saturday morning was the perfect start to the day. It was subsequently complimented with Marthas & Arthurs, whose sweet folk was a perfect start to the music. Band-oke followed, karaoke but with a live band, which was more awesome than you could ever imagine. A move up the billing from last year, and one of my favourite live acts, Casiokids, pulled in a huge crowd, all of which were unable to stand still as the Norwegians infected everyone with dance fever. A hard act to follow I mused to myself, but Etienne De Crecy brought his A Game along with his beats and cubes show which grew from standard to spectacular. Silver Columns were basically rubbish after that, but Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs brought us back up to awesome till we realised, wandering around at 4am, it was probably time for bed.

Mr Fogg slowly woke us up on Sunday afternoon, his fuzzy pop-tronica brought us back to the living, in time to get up to get down to Fools Gold. Words cannot describe how brilliant they were, possibly phenomenal, which was funny as they were just that little bit better than the Phenomenal Handclap Band, who seemed to be stuck at half speed for most of their set, only coming to live for ‘15-20’ towards the end. I think Efterkland were misplaced in the Sunday billing, following two infectious and lively bands, I felt they fell rather flat, which meant it was left up to Orchestra Buena Vista Social Club to close proceedings on the main stage, and they closed it in style. I have never witnessed so many people dancing and spinning and whooping at a live music event, they were a joy to behold. With the weekend drawing to a close, it was left to Gilles Peterson to keep us upright and swaying, to which he did a fantastic job, but sleep was finally calling after an awesome festival and to my tent I trotted, safe in the knowledge that a little bit of my heart will always be devoted to it. Standon.

words – Keith Allen
images – Olenka Gibbs/Keith Allen