Richard Hawley, headlining the Garden Stage at EOTR on Saturday night, declared his love for the festival. He comes every year with his kids. What he loved about it, he said, is that “There’s no bullshit.” I know what he means. This was my seventh festival – but for lockdown in 2020 and having to quarantine in 2021, it would have been my ninth. And I’ve already booked my ticket for next year.

I couldn’t do the Sunday this year, as I was going to a wedding. But the three days I was there were a joy, as they always are. This year, we had quite a large gathering of family and friends: Jon and I, my friend Shane, Jon’s daughter Connie, her boyfriend Callum, Jon’s son Louis and his mates Tom and Fionn and Fionn’s parents, Sean and Fliss. Fionn and Tom, incidentally, are members of the band Butch Kassidy, who have been making waves.

I’m keeping this review a bit shorter than usual this year, but hopefully will give you enough flavour of what went down.

There were three bands that really stood out for me this year. They were Plantoid in the Folly tent on Friday, Gurriers in the Folly on Saturday and Jockstrap on the Woods Stage – the main stage – on Saturday.

Plantoid were new to me. They were the second act on the Folly on Friday, the first we saw. I was blown away by how good they were. They played what I can only describe as jazz rock, with complexity, funkiness and real musicianship. The guitarist was channelling his inner John Mclaughlin at times. And they were having fun! They’re from Brighton and have an album out called Terrapath.

Gurriers on Saturday were also new to me. Part of the Dublin punk scene. Raw as a butcher’s cut, according to the Irish Times. That sounded worth a try. Watched them warm up – felt like there was something about them. They came on to the sound of an old standard, picked up their instruments and whoosh! The energy and dynamism was palpable from that first moment. They had a swagger, a presence. In that they reminded me of the Murder Capital when I first saw them. Musically there are similarities, though they have more fast songs at the moment. This was a performance that made me smile from start to finish.

Jockstrap are just so good now that it’s easy to take for granted. I did wonder how they would translate to the big open stage on Saturday evening. Answer: with aplomb. Their sound is so good it clearly fills any arena. The setlist was still mostly from I Love You Jennifer B, but one or two songs sounded new, and probably still being worked on. And all the favourites were there: Glasgow, Greatest Hits, Concrete over Water and the awesome closer, 50/50. It was fun to be with the younger members of our group for those first three, belting out the choruses standing in a field! And those basslines in 50/50 reverberated like they always do. Guaranteed enjoyment.

Gurriers weren’t the only full-on rock’n’roll of the weekend. Or is it punk, post-punk, hardcore? Doesn’t matter – it rocks! On Thursday night in the Folly we had MS Paint. A sound that batters the senses while the singer – who I thought resembled Meat Loaf – prowled the stage, bawling out the lyrics in a kind of rap style. Not much in the way of melody, but rocking rhythms that had a lot of people moshing. Tom declared it the best thing he’d ever seen at EOTR, though I think they were superseded the next day by an outfit called Ex-Easter Island Head! On Saturday, again in the Folly, Wine Lips continued the assault on our senses. They had every punk riff in the book. The way they looked, I had them straight from the Windmill crowd in Brixton, but they are in fact from Canada. Flamingods on Saturday in the Folly were also in-yer-face, but I only saw about 15 minutes of that.

MS Paint

Wine Lips

Before I come to the headliners, I’d like to mention a few others I enjoyed. Hello Mary, from Brooklyn, in the Folly on Friday, played a grunge/shoegaze set which I liked a lot, though the singer’s vocals were lost in the noise despite lengthy sound-checking beforehand. One to explore further.  MRCY, on Friday afternoon on the Woods stage, played a lovely, uplifting set of soul-funk-jazz that has been compared with the likes of SAULT. That is a good thing.  Perfect music for a sunny day. Brown Horse, in the lunch time slot on Saturday on the Woods stage, gave us some amiable Americana interspersed with some excellent Neil young-style guitar solos. I felt the spirit of Cortez the Killer! They’re from Norfolk. On the Garden Stage, Saturday afternoon, SANAM, who are from Lebanon, played an extraordinary collection of songs, which melded traditional sounds with some wild electronics and guitar played with a violin bow.  All this enhanced by the beautiful vocals of Sandy Chamoun. They have a debut album called Aykathani Malakon.

Hello Mary

Brown Horse

SANAM

As for headliners, on Thursday it was Bonnie Prince Billy, stage name of Will Oldham, from Louisville Kentucky, on the Woods Stage. He played a rootsy set of folk music, which I though had quite an Appalachian, bluegrass feel – with slightly jarring quirky lyrics at times. On Friday, Jon, Shane and I started with Lankum, headlining the Garden Stage. I feel that I should love this band, but sorry, I found it a bit dull, as did Jon. We went off to see Idles on the Woods Stage. Shane remained loyal. Idles were good. Bit more variety than in the past, not quite as relentless. Partly the outdoor effect. Enjoyed it without getting too engaged. On Saturday, Shane and I chose Richard Hawley on the Garden Stage rather than Slowdive on the Woods Stage, which Jon went for. I really enjoyed the performance – there was an engaging warmth to it. He’s come to greater prominence in recent times with the success of the musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge. I loved his 2005 album Coles Corner, especially The Ocean, a real crooner. He didn’t play that, but did do Coles Corner. There was some great bluesy guitar too. A nice way to end the music at EOTR this year.

Bonnie Prince Billy

Idles

Richard Hawley

Inevitably, some of the bands I most wanted to see were on Sunday, notably English Teacher – superb at Latitude – Water from your Eyes and Thus Love. But I did see Water from your Eyes at the ICA in London this Tuesday. They were amazing. I’ll cover them in my next music round-up.

At 65, the limbs ache as I trudge around the festival site and back and forth to the camping. Standing up for hours hurts the feet. Alcohol lessens the pain, but mostly it’s the music. We do this for the music. And it doesn’t get better than End of the Road.