M Fest

This weekend it was the annual M Festival, a music festival that has been running for 5 years now, in Darton, Barnsley. The festival is a charity event that showcases some of the best local talent from up-and-coming, unsigned musical acts to more established artists. I went along on Saturday to check out the bill. I mostly stuck around the second stage, Burn Down The Disco Stage, which seemed to be the place that offered the best talent. The first band that really caught my attention were an unsigned band called The Velotones. The young band from Sheffield owned the stage with their cool garage rock with obvious influences being the likes of: The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club as well as early rockers such as The Kinks and The Beatles. Mathew Hall's impressive vocals sound beyond his years and backed by the tremendous drums of Kris Senior and the throbbing bass via Jamie Duckworth the band certainly prove they are worth keeping note and watching out for.

The next band to impress me was Silents, also from Sheffield, who's half-hour set was enough to leave an impression and their alternative rock keeping the audience entertained. Adam Hayworth, leadsinger and guitarist reminded me of Nicky Smith from another local band, my favourites Exit Calm. His voice showed the same raspy yet tentative quality.

My day ended at the Acoustic tent with The Velcro Teddy Bears. The band, who were headlining, had been recommended to me by various people throughout the day and after we asked them what time they would be on I was soon waiting in anticipation. The boys didn't disappoint with their fun set and stage banter. Their setlist was a healthy balance of upbeat and sorrowful with an encore of covers and requests from the audience including Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower, Time of Your Life by Greenday and a lively version of Sweet Home Alabama that had the entire tent on their feet dancing.
With bands like The Velotones, Silents and The Velcro Teddy Bears being sure to stay on my radar, what I initially thought would be a day of apathy and disappointment turned into great enjoyment. With this much local talent at just one festival in one day, South Yorkshire is building up an impressive artistic base that we should all be very proud of.