 | | Foals |
The Brighton-based band were first up, cramped onto the tiny stage with guitars slung high and forming a strange insular semi-circle, almost deliberately excluding a decent sized audience. From the off, it was clear that Foals are the latest in a long (and getting ever more tedious) line of Gang of Four devotees with a bit of Rapture thrown in. Lead singer Yannis Philippakis has clearly been listening to Entertainment, perfecting his Jon King yelps and flapping his arms with the same sort of mid-80s intensity the Leeds agit-prop greats pioneered. The heart of Foals is drummer Jack Bevan, showing a heady mix of precision and funky beats and allowing the others space to breathe, particularly bassist Walter Gervers who drives the impressive set along beautifully. There’s a strange almost early Dexys feel about their intensity that’s good but a little too self-indulgent live. They may be a bit of a one trick pony but with maturity, they could soon be in the winner’s enclosure.  | | Noisettes |
Nominal headliners Noisettes are on the verge on releasing their debut album, What’s The Time Mr Wolf? We can only hope it has more balls and style than their feeble live show. It doesn’t help when your drummer looks and plays like Animal from the Muppets and you’ve forgotten to write any decent songs. The whole concept is based on the supposed charisma of singer Shingi Shoniwa but, frankly, the Del-Rays do this sort of thing so much better. Shingi does run around a lot but to very little purpose. Her voice is very average and her antics all feel a little contrived and stage school. New single Sister Rosetta (Capture the Spirit) was the best of the bunch but acoustic ballad IWE was cringy and actually would have been laugh out loud funny if it wasn’t so depressing. So the Foals got up on their shaky legs and romped away with this gig like mini Red Rums despite their shortcomings, leaving Noisettes firmly stuck making a refusal at the first. | 
