Review: Sunday Lovebox 2010

Look – Grace Jones really was at Lovebox

Labelled the first ever ‘Polysexual’ day of the Lovebox festival in Victoria Park, London, I arrived early on Sunday afternoon to avoid a non-existent but expected glorious gaggle of gays.

There was in fact only handful of people queuing to get in – at least we got to walk around the site freely and notice how dry the grass was.

We headed straight to the main stage and set up camp,  in time for French Soldier – some mediocre rock electro.

Mainstage compere Jonny Woo then performed as the pope. Amusing but fairly shite at the same time. Is he really the best gay entertainment has to offer? I decided to ignore him the rest of the day so won’t mention him anymore.

Wanky but Good

Dapper Bastards

Next up was Hurts - the fast rising northerners, nominated for BBC’s Sound of 2010. Despite most of the small but growing crowd not knowing many of their tunes – it’s clear that Hurt’s epic power pop forged with more than a hint of 80s Tears for Fears synths and melodies – was catching on.

Although quite accurately described as ‘a bit wanky but good’ by fellow So So Gay writer Scott Jonathon with their dapper formal style they managed to pull off an impressive performance.

They saved the best till last with a slightly beefed up version of their last song and current single Better Than Love (YouTube) which most people had a sing and dance to.

Hercules and Love Affair really missed Anthony Hegarty and a roof – their music got lost in the open air. They were decent but forgettable. Or maybe I’d already had too much by then…

It was a Real One

Peaches and her cast

Peaches was ferocious. She was pushed on a wheelchair most of the time thanks to her broken leg – but still managed an impressive show with her massive beats on great tracks like Talk to Me.

The feisty Canadian got a great response from the crowd. We all wanted more. Even from the naked trans gender on stage – it was a real penis, I’m sure of it.

Hot Chip next and they seemed lacklustre in comparison to Peaches. Over and Over was all I and most people seemed to care about really. Not bad though.

Oh Grace

Another hat on Grace Jones

The headliner and the highlight was Grace Jones. She commanded the now heaving Victoria park with her low but often scary voice. I got the fear when she decried ‘this is my voice, my weapon of choice’.

Drawing from her massive catalogue of songs old and new she took over the stage and seemed even bigger than she already is – but nowhere near her 62 years.

Oh yeah and she sang Slave to the Rhythm, with a massive headdress, whilst hula hooping. Throughout the whole song.

No Poo

This Lovebox was the first I’d been to. I’ll certainly go next year. A festival with none of the hassle of camping, no showers and holes full of poo. It would have been good to see more people there earlier and have the party start sooner – but it did get busy eventually and I’m sure there were many a hung-over worker in London on Monday.