In it's 2nd year, York's DV8 Festival had already won well-warranted attention from it's 2010 debut, with a welcome promise of choice...choice of venues...choice of music genres....'choice can never be a bad thing' as per organiser Chris Skerrington notes in the festival's official guide. 5 venues (including an alternative market which hosted a mighty acoustic performance from Luxury Stranger frontman Simon York and book-signing of the long awaited 'Worldwide Gothic-Chronicle of a Tribe' by Natasha Scharf....a global bible for all things goff. Let me begin by saying that York is a really beautiful city. Street after street of picturesque character, it boasts some of the UK's most (allegidly!) haunted taverns and is riddled with curios and eateries to keep you occupied between musical adventures! The main musical venues were The Duchess (a medium sized basement emporium of dark decor, cheap booze and bat-tastic wall hangings), Fibbers (roughly the same size and nextdoor to The Duchess but with a far more shiny and modern decor) and Stereo ( an intimate venue for some eyeball to eyeball performances!)

With nearly 50 bands playing over the weekend, it was a spot of work to figure out some vague game plan for where to be when, in order not to miss out on 'must sees' and then just go with the flow. Unfortunately, we couldn't escape Ireland until Friday morning so we missed out on the first night of debauchery, including sadly missing Deviant UK....who never fail to entertain. Adding to that, the usual festival 'techical issues' and overruns, meant that inter-venue plans all went to pot and we just prioritised some bands we hadn't seen before and filled in the gaps. But thus is the nature of mutli-venue festivals. And unfortunately I was, for once, disadvantaged in liking most of the genres on offer and not just one. But choice is good....

FRIDAY:  Stockton-on-Tess lads, The Chapman Family were the first band we caught. With one album under their belts ('Burn Your Town') and NME singing their praises, this proved their worth. With a tight, flavoursome sound, their multi-talented frontman led us through a set that sounded to my ear like BillyBragg meets JoyDivision, with a light dash of New Model Army on the side. With their singer and bassist to the fore, The Chapman Family gave a cracking performance and made it look easy. Their sound crosses many genres and I suspect they would have been just as comfortable in front of an indie crowd (these guys played Glastonbury in 2008).


Next up were Londoners, O Children. I forfeited Grendel's (I hear) awesome Fibbers performance to catch these guys for the first time and they did not dissapoint. Named after a Bad Seed song, this band have built up a big underground following over the last 12months. Offshoot of the now disbanded but epically titled ' Bono Must Die', O Children have won over music critics all over Europe and with just cause. Frontman, Tobi O'Kandi loomed over the microphone and boomed out a dulcid and resounding vocal performance, to match the belting, big big sounds the band had to perform. Notable also was the rapport and graciousness of the band, still voicing their surprise to the enthusiastic crowd about how cool it was to see people mouthing their words back to them. Definitely not got too big for their witch-house boots, O Children are still going places...or at least they SHOULD be! Their encore was much warranted.

Then followed a quick dash to see Gary Numan perform in the half-filled Barbican venue. The scale change from the smaller venue was wierdly jarring and left you feeling detatched from the performance, presumably because of the sudden distance. Gary and band were completely on form and stormed through both newer material and all the classics...Haunted, Cars, Friends Electric. The luke-warm energy persisted however...which I can only put this down to the venue scale, as Messers Numan and Co. were flawless in delivery, with suitably evocative lighting and stage set-up, although completely lacking in inter-song banter. One encore and he was gone...


We gathered the celtic troups and randomly retreated to The Duchess' aftershow soiree ironically entitled 'Are Friends Deviant?' A very bat-tastic buzz prevailed with a good mix of classic goff, metal and 80's...that musical 'choice', as advertised. Great fun!
SATURDAY:  First act caught was The Last Cry. Always highly emotionally-charged, this band won me over at last year's SpidersWeb Festival in Bristol. There is something Shakesperean about frontman Andrew Birch's performances....you can't but be struck by how emmersed in each song the entire band are. Their sound is gothic rock but with added emotion. There is an integrity to The Last Cry's performance.....you are drawn in and at the end are left wondering is everything ok? This band need to be seen live and I highly recommend you don't miss any opportunity to do so.

Next up.....XII....most recent project of Ex-Nephilim bassist, John Carter, this trio (that also includes Shaun Dunne on guitar and Alex Martin on drums) took to the stage after a rather protracted faulty start, with much anticipation and with a whole loada extra amps. Plaqued by technical and sound issues throughout what we saw of their set, XII stuck to their guns and saw it through. However it all seemed to end up coming across that perhaps the lack of a full soundcheck (which the logistics of a festival can often preclude) meant that XII didn't get their chance to shine. Vocals were as dark and raspy as one could hope for...John Carter would give Baz Coleman a run for his money! Obviously all competant and experienced musicians, I felt that XII failed to deliver on this occasion. I suspect it was just one of those off performance,s as all the ingredients were there for greatness....will look forward to checking them out again on a different stage.


So we waddled back over to Fibbers to investigate what stage the schedule there was at to find UK's Vindicare had already taken to the stage for the debut set. Vindicare is two nice chaps, Addz Milner (of Deviant UK and The Ladder fame) and (Bad)Freddy Krackfox (what an awesome name!?) and a rather splendid green laser. Prodigy meets oontz machine is how I would describe the initial impression...and they do it very well. Unfortunately it sounded dated to me who remembers all this early/mid 90's dance sound the 1st time round, but I would suggest that that says more about me that the obviously enthusiastic and talented Vidicare! They totally won their crowd over so I guess I'm just an antique! Joined onstage for a cover of 'Early Morning Star' by Global Citizen and a later appearance for another track by Deviant UK's ever-impressive frontman Jay Smith, Vidicare belted out some big dance beats and am sure we will be hearing more from these guys in the future.


My lovely London/Italian friends informed me that Komor Kommando were stuck in Rome so, with scheduling thrown off again, we bounced back to the Duchess to check out UK Decay. An obviously loyal crowd were there to see these stallworths of UK's 'alternative' music scene. Comfortable, connected and completely on top of their game, UK Decay simply make it look easy. But it's not surprising when you think that this is the band that, in the 3 years between 1979 and 1983, when they were but musical fledglings, they played over 450 gigs and toured with the likes of The Dead Kennedys...there's no slacking after that kind of musical upbringing. Frontman Steve 'Abbo' is smiling and even if you didn't know anything about UK Decay or their music, their onstage demeanor would enamour anyone.


Utah Saints' (and I believe a homage to Metallica's Enter Sandman?) Fibbers performance lost out to Specimen, on the grounds that I'd never seen Specimen live before and as a compromise to a deathrocker boyfriend who was going to be dragged kicking and screaming to see Mesh the following night! Warm and well-polished, Specimen are in peak form at the moment. As frontman, Oli Wisdom contorts and engages with the audience, you are wrapped up in song after song of batcave anthems. Oli Wisdom has glorious bare-footed style....he oozes a glamrock revelry and pours forth lyric after lyric with the ease of a 19year old.....phenomenal to watch. Guitarist Jon Klein has worked with the likes of Siouxsie and The Banshees and Sinead O'Connor and his skills are obvious. Specimen are simply iconic and their live shows do not dissappoint. A single encore and they were gone, leaving just their Batman/Batcave backdrop and smiles all round. We remained in The Duchess with the celtic crew who were partying it up to the tunes of York's first and original goth club, The Hellfire Club, ending in a blurry mess and chips with cheese....mmmm.....cheese.

SUNDAY:  Sunny Sunday evening's musical delights for us began with Sigue Sigue Sputnik, British 80's pop/ cyberpunk/new-wave band extraordinaire. Origonally formed by Tony Jamse(who went on to play bass with The Sisters of Mercy), SSS is 2-piece with exquisite bird of paradise, Martin Degville still on lead vocals. Emerging from a smokey and muted intro, Degville completely owned the stage; he assaults you with his manner and commands you to dance. Theatrics aside, SSS still come out with some stomping dance tunes and give a fabulous finger to critics who might say their day is gone. 'Love Missile F1-11' still delivers it's punch 25 years (good god, has it really been that long?) later. I am hooked again and look forward to checking them out live in the future.


We had to leave after the first few songs however to catch a band I hadn't got to see before, next door back in The Duchess....namely Anne Marie Hurst (Skeletal Family) Currently a 4-piece band with the fiery Anne Marie to the front. This woman knows how to rock. Memories of Yorkshire's Skeletal Family hits were refreshed and the crowd was won over to more recent tracks from Anne Marie's solo career. Original Skels band members like Roger "Trotwood" Nowell and Stan Greenwood reinforces the authenticity and musical weight of this current band line-up. And flame-haired Hurst was engaging and obviously loving every minute on stage....a mood that was infectious to the assembled packed venue. 'Promised Land' was obviously a memorable gig moment but new material and the new album which is due for release quite soon will no doubt send Anne Marie and band touring a plenty.....don't miss out!

After a protracted changeover break, Mesh eventualy took to the stage around 11.25pm (as opposed to the listed 10pm)...and to a pretty packed house. Not having seen Mesh before, this was one of the bands from the entire festival line-up that I was determined not to miss out on. And the Bristol 4-piece delivered the expected musical punch and more. Frontman Mark Hockings sings one hell of a mean tune and the entire band gives 100%, the small venue adding to the intimacy and energy of the show. Definitely bass-heavy and gripping, Mesh tear through one after another of powerful songs to an enthrawled and self-exhausting crowd! Visuals were on-point and sometimes hilarious, which gave the impression that Mesh are thankfully not taking themselves 100% seriously. Their 2006 hit 'Crash' brought the house down, as did their encore: 'Friends like these'. Martin Degville randomly appeared on stage, just as Mesh had disembarked, to shout his praises of the band....and deservedly so.


For the remaining duration, we flitted between Fibbers (hosting 'Revolution' with Sheffield's finest Leighton James Thompson and Uberbyte's Carbonel, dishing out generous helpings of industrial/electro and hard dance) and The Duchess (a fine platter of 80's cheese). To conclude, bravo Chris Sherrington and all the DV8 Festival crew for a thoroughally enjoyable and varied musical buffet....we will be back for sure and highly recommend that if you have not already done so, mark it onto your 'to do' list for next year! Bravo, York.