I've got a feeling that in the time of writing this and the next articles I will have become myspace friends and/or fans of a few more people. It will be useful to do at the very least as I think I'm going to struggle to remember who was on. Luckily, with the help of the flyer from the festival, the notes I made and the rather helpful live blog that Dan made at the time, I think I'll piece it all together.

First a big apology to the acts I missed at the start of the fest. They are in no particular order Heath, Let Our Enemies Beware, Grim Hilde, Shaun Grimsley, Wonk Unit, Monkish, Glass and 23 Frames . Bugger. Now I write them all down like this, I realise I missed quite a lot. Must try harder next year...

Well, I would have arrived earlier if:

a) I'd not been up late with some friends who'd crashed over at mine
b) I'd have got my act together earlier, and not lay around in bed vainly trying to catch up from the night before, but most irritatingly,
c) The fact that I'd circled the immediate vicinity of the venue a number of times looking for a parking spot.

Actually I think I may have heard a little of Glass and then later 23 Frames as I waited at the traffic lights. But Jane didn't help the performance telling me I had reached my destination over and over again. God she can be so irritating. Only this time instead of it being perfectly obvious that I had reached my destination by looking out the window, I could also hear it. But to no avail. No parking to be had. Not anywhere near though. So round and round I went as the clock ticked by. And Jane kept talking...

But I was lucky. Very lucky as it turned out as I walked in as Miss Jo Williams was performing on the acoustic stage. What a start to my fest. The crowd was hushed and attentive listening to what was for me an exceptional start to an exceptional event. Her voice has a beguiling quality, tremendously expressive and beautiful, backed by some simple well executed guitar playing. I walked over to the bar, bought a drink and was captivated. I knew that this was going to be a brilliant evening. Thanks Jo.

It's at this point I then got the idea of how the venue worked. Two stages at either end of the pub. One is the acoustic stage and the other is er... the not acoustic stage. So up on this other stage was Hindley. I confess I didn't see much of them as I remained at the other side of the pub chatting. But they sounded pretty decent from where I was sat. What made this possible for me was discovering that there was a big screen to see the band if you couldn't be bothered walking all of 10 yards forward to see the bands. So lazy...

Back at the acoustic stage, was Robert Rorison. I didn't need to move to see him, which was good, but I quickly discovered that this wasn't a venue to be lazy in. You might think that you'd found the best place to settle down to listen to a set, but no sooner had you found it then someone stood in the way. So, up on my feet to catch his act, which I enjoyed. Some great songs of his own with some quality covers thrown in for good measure.

Next up were David Goo and the Variety Band. Now this is interesting. I know I enjoyed this. A lot. But my notes read something along of "Goo: A lot of fun". Hmmm. Well I know they were a lot of fun. I had my first dance of the day to them. I loved them - it was certainly not what I expected. It's one of those ones I think that's best left by saying go see them for yourself. It says on their website they'll be at Glastonbury. I'll try and catch them there for sure. I'm sure they'll be even better with a few ciders down the hatch...

Back to the acoustic stage for Clare Portman. I said in a previous post that I couldn't wait to see her perform. So, it was with much anticipation that I stood and listened to a really quite breathtaking set. I've listened to her album Little Red quite a lot recently, so it was nice to hear some new material (new to me at least - she's very popular in these parts). I loved her two new songs, one of which she wrote for her best friend, which was really touching as she stood there and listened. Her cover of "I drove all night" was also quite superb. But it was all over too quickly. Even when she found that she had time for a quick encore by popular request. Was it worth the wait? You bet. Can't wait to see her again.

Next up were the unfortunate Ocarina. Unfortunate? Well, only in my mind I guess. But I think they were going to struggle to compete with the previous act. But that's not fair on them at all. They were in actual fact one of the most orginal, innovative bands I'd seen over the two days. How to describe them? Their myspace page describes their music as Trip Hop / Breakbeat / Psychedelic. What they don't say is that they do it with some rather delightful strings. I have to be entirely honest here, I didn't actually get it that much at the time, but now I'm listening to their music as I write this, I want to try them again. Follow the link and give them a listen.

Back to the acoustic stage. So, you'll get the picture now, it's quite metronomic. Almost hypnotic. Back and forth. One stage to the other. But it all works. All festivals should do this. No hanging about. Just turn around and watch the next act. Let me tell you, the crew at the fox are truly awesome. Good work guys. So, Matt Daley begins playing. And what a set this is. Brilliant and enjoyable use of the loop pedal. Nice soothing reggae. Lovely.

The thing I really enjoyed about this fest was the breadth of talent that was on show. And I loved the way the lineup was put toether so that you never became too comfortable listening to one style of music. Just as the nice warm feeling that Matt gave us was really beginning to take hold, Bleech kicked in. A really exciting three piece that are beginning to get some real attention they are Jennifer on Guitar and vocals, Matt on drums and Katherine on Bass. The thing that struck me most was that they were as visually appealing as their music was enthralling. Jennifer's tangled hair masking her face as she powered through the songs with a real old school rock attitude, whilst Katherine the bleached blonde barefoot bassist marched up and down. Matt not wanting to be forgotten provided the entertainment between the songs. The stand out song for me was "Is it true that boys don't cry", a real indie box of delights. Go see them if you get the chance.

Guess what happened next? We turned around, back to the acoustic stage for Russell Joslin. The set didn't get off to a good start for Russell as he broke a string. It took a little while to sort out, but it wasn't a problem. These things happen. It was however, a difficult performance to listen to. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was me, but he seemed a bit uncomfortable on the stage. I'm listening to his music now on his myspace page and I have to say I'm enjoying it. So it's not the song writing that I didn't like (give them a listen, they're good). I don't know. Maybe it's the flip side of the different music styles that were on display - maybe after Bleech I couldn't quite get into Russell's particular groove. But I think, judging by the reception of the now large crowd in the fox, I was in a very small minority.

The next band Ten City Nation were special. Really special. A brilliant noisy, spectacular 3 piece. Tremendously energetic, with some great tunes they really took the roof off. And what a perfect venue to see them, as Seymour, their guitarist went nuts. Quality. As I watched them, I was drawn into wondering how he'd met Mike the bassist. As two opposite looking people as you could see in a band. Seymour, the lithe geeky looking guitarist with the wedge and the glasses, jumping up and down, falling around, struggling to stay on the stage, standing next to Mike, the tall much more robust bassist. Both feet planted firmly on the ground at all times. All held together by some top drumming by Neil. Superb. Not sure why I didn't buy their album for a quid. No bother I downloaded it from their website. Although it's not a patch on the way they play live. I might even go see them again tomorrow.

So, once more back to the acoustic stage. But this next band wasn't acoustic. Oh no. Breton were no such thing. Well, discounting the drummer. Which I guess was acoustic. Kind of. But the other two were knob twiddling. No other words for it, but unlike Justice they play their stuff very very live. I am told that this was very much experimental for them, as I was lead to believe that they really do play guitars and stuff, but by jove this was good. I've seen Holy Fuck a couple of times, and they're pretty damned good at this kind of stuff, but they've been doing it for years. So if this really was an off the cuff performance from these boys then this really was sensational. Somehow they even kept it together when the drum kit appeared to fall apart in the middle of the set. Fantastic beats, searing bass, and skillfull tight drumming made this the stand out performance of the night for me. Totally unexpected, and the crowd went absolutely nuts for it.

It was coming up to the end of a long day, and I think a lot of people were beginning to feel the pace, so it was perfect timing to have Breton do their thing. Because I think this was the band that people here were waiting for. They're called Their Hearts Were Full of Spring and are quite clearly a crowd favourite here. And rightly so. A tremendously delicious band to look at, they really deserved their top billing tonight. With fantastic songs played with real passion and perhaps more importantly, with a great sense of fun, the band ended the night on the greatest of highs. So many smiles, with love and laughter passing between the band and the crowd, this was something to see. Something you might only see at something like foxfest. What a way to end the night.