After a splendid first day spent in the ruins of Reading Abbey in the company of the likes of Antony Szmierek and Kathryn Joseph (review here), we’re back in the glorious mid-September sun for a further eleven hours or so of fantastic music from an eclectic line-up selected by local promoters Heavy Pop.
It’s family day today, so the early afternoon atmosphere is buoyed by the presence of excitable youngsters with strangely scrawled facepaint and mutant balloon animals courtesy of the Disappointing Clown Company. Against this idyllic backdrop Nostromo, the first of two representatives of local music charity Readipop‘s XOX electronic music showcase, seem somewhat out of place with their buzzing drones, vacuum cleaner swirls and crystalline electro shards, which might find a more natural habitat in the darkness of a club venue. They’re followed by Projected Form, perhaps my favourite of the five XOX performances this weekend. He begins with an elongated wibbly throb, which merges harmoniously with the aeroplanes overhead, building slowly before the inevitable, but well-earned drop brings in a slapping synth and cacophony of drums.
We saunter across to the main stage, where local band Sundaughter are already whipping up a dustcloud with an impressive set of spaghetti western shoegaze. There are some luscious guitar tones on display, a strong grasp of the importance of dynamics and a bit of a middle-Eastern bass line on one track, which adds to their musical palette.
Over on the second stage The Amazing Tiger Band is making it their personal mission to make everyone in the Abbey smile, and is doing a pretty good job of it. The self proclaimed ‘One Tran Band’ is a beatboxing, live-looping, double-necked guitar playing sunshine machine, and by the time we reach the end of a set that’s taken in blues vocals, rapping, whistling and a song about trans pirates, we’re all in the right frame of mind to join in with the actions for ‘The Alligator Shuffle’.
One of the great things about the two-stage, no clashes set-up at Down at The Abbey is that it encourages everyone to check out bands they might not usually see, and there’s something for everyone to discover as the day wears on. The second stage plays host to Ma Bessie‘s take on blues and jazz classics, trans artist Freddie Lewis‘ tear-jerking letter to his childhood self, Miss Hunte‘s neo-soul grooves, Lost Velvet‘s shoe-gazey post-rock and Dolly and The Clothespegs‘ crowd-pleasing country fried covers set, including a loving tribute to the recently departed Dolly Parton.
Over on the main stage, The Race are reviving their anthemic indie epics, seventeen years since they last graced a stage (with their kids watching from the front row), and they’ve added some new songs to the repertoire, packing melodic bass, soaring vocals and the occasional tinkle of glockenspiel.
Veteran indie rock and rollers The Wave Pictures ply us with laid-back bluesy tunes, which pair very nicely with the crisp pint and stageside deck chair I’ve furnished myself with in the mid-afternoon sun.
Much as jeans and t-shirt bands are very much our staple and we love them dearly, it is always nice when someone makes an effort, and Paige Kennedy and her band, appearing in matching monochrome jumpsuits (Paige herself in full clown make-up), have certainly upped today’s ante. Their set of metronomic synth-boosted guitar pop really kicks up a gear towards the end, with single ‘Male Friend’ both hilarious and irresistably danceable.
By late afternoon the ragged medieval masonry which provides the weekend’s setting is looking magnificent and the atmosphere is one of the friendliest I’ve experienced at a festival. A few of us in the crowd still need a bit of waking up though, and Ziyad Al-Samman is convinced that he is the man for the job, exploding onto the stage – a ball of pure energy, gesticulating wildly, shaking his leather clad hips and imploring us to do the same. It works, and combined with his eighties inspired psychedelic disco-pop tunes, gets us all shimmying along, particularly for crowd favourite ‘Ya Habibi’, which has more than a hint of ‘Blue Monday’ to its undulating bassline, while the chorus sounds like that one song at Eurovision each year that gets you up off the sofa and dancing around the living room.
The weekend’s highlight comes courtesy of Brighton quartet The New Eves, whose mythology-infused DIY folkloric punk could not have been better matched to this mystical setting had it been created specially for it. Starting with minimalist, spoken word piece ‘Circles’, you can almost see the mist swirl as they throw the vocal between all four members, before exploding suddenly into a post-punk violin and drum clatter, the vocals ever more urgent and overlapping as they work up into a giddy maelstrom. It’s met by a moment of mesmerised silence followed by full throated cheers and applause.
They don’t let up from there, ‘Cow Song’s bouncing rhythms and yodelling vocals are utterly stunning, while ‘Highway Man’ offers up a cello-enhanced post-punk rattle, with a deep vibrato retelling Alfred Noyes’ poem (well known to a generation of English primary school pupils) through the lens of the titular character’s secret lover Bess. ‘Astrolabe’ drops the tempo and brings droning strings, funeral march drums and spine-chilling harmonies, while recent single ‘Red Brick’, the first track released since their astonishing debut album The New Eve Is Rising, takes a different but equally pleasing turn, the poetic flow of the lyrics spat out by violinist/guitarist Violet Farrer while a chaos of strings, bass and pounding toms builds up around them.
As their set finishes, an excited babble erupts in the crowd as those of us congregated within the Abbey try to find words for what we’ve just witnessed.
By the time Ibibio Sound Machine take to the main stage, the night has fully taken hold and the ruined walls are cloaked in a purple glow. It’s time to dance, and Eno Williams and her band waste no time in serving up a hearty portion of afro-futurist funk-disco goodness that lightens the spirit and compels our hips and our limbs to contort themselves into shapes that would make an osteopath wince.
Williams is a streak of bright colour, barely staying still for a moment, long sleeves flailing as she fills the Abbey with joyful energy, while guitarist Alfred Kari Bannerman takes full advantage of his moments in the spotlight to bust out some delicious licks, riffs and solos.
We leave sweaty and smiling for the festival’s penultimate act.
As the echoes of Ibibio Sound Machine’s technicolour carnival fade into the night sky, Scottish singer-songwriter C Duncan is drawing the second stage to a close with a more subdued sound. Where ISM were a riot of movement and sound, their eight members layering instruments to create an insistent groove, Duncan’s stripped back set up starts with just himself on keys and bandmate Amanda on bass providing some lovely harmonies. A reverent hush fills the space, with new songs lapped up just as eagerly as old favourites by a rapt crowd. Personally, I felt that the set hit a new emotional level when Chris swapped keys for an acoustic guitar, leaving even more space for the lyrics and his gentle delivery to shine through, though the intensity with which those familiar with his work tuned into his every word and gesture suggests that the emotional hit was just as strong throughout.
So it falls to poet Joshua Idehen and his musical partner Ludvig Parment, to bring a fantastic weekend of music to an end, and with this being his final festival show of a long summer run, we find Idehen in a playful mood. Audience participation features throughout a set which doesn’t ignore the endless doom cycle that we seem to find ourselves inhabiting, but offers hope in community and takes every opportunity to laugh into the darkness.
So it is that we find ourselves chanting “RHYTHM” and “LOVE”, to the strains of ‘This Is The Place’, directed by a fan flicking Idehen, the track halted if at any point he is dissatisfied with our volume or timing; that we find ourselves performing the ‘Nigerian wave’ (from front to back rather than right to left as in a traditional Mexican wave); that we find ourselves shaking hands with strangers and telling them “You are good!”; that we find ourselves laughing and despairing at the same time as he explains most of the world’s ideological systems through the medium of your mum doing the washing (with a couple of new additions to the version that went viral a couple of years ago); that we find ourselves dancing like maniacs (though never quite matching Idehen’s own moves) to a perfectly-pitched cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Once In a Lifetime’; that we head for the exits with broad smiles stretched across our faces and a fresh spring in the step of legs that an hour ago felt weary from two days of standing in the remains of medieval building.
Two days and twenty-six acts later, Down at The Abbey has provided an expertly balanced mix of styles, plenty of new favourites to check out and a calm, welcoming atmosphere (as well as one of the cleanest festivals I’ve ever been to – barely a speck of litter to be found) in one of the most spectacular settings you’ll ever witness live music in.
Early Bird tickets for 2027 are available now – get yours here.
Early bird tickets for Down at The Abbey 2027 are on sale now. Find out more and book yours now on the festival website or follow on Instagram and Facebook for updates.
Sundaughter: Instagram / Bandcamp
The Amazing Tiger Band: Instagram / Facebook
Ma Bessie: Website / Instagram / Facebook
Freddie Lewis: Instagram / Facebook
Lost Velvet: Website / Instagram / Facebook
Dolly & The Clothespegs: Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp
The Race: Facebook / Bandcamp
The Wave Pictures: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp
Paige Kennedy: Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp
Ziyad Al-Samman: Instagram / Bandcamp
The New Eves: Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp
Ibibio Sound Machine: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp
C Duncan: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp
Joshua Idehen: Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp
Review and Photography by Paul Maps
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