Doncaster Live 2009

Doncaster Live has come and gone for another year… Criticism is thrown every year at the organisation of this event due to the lack of local bands on the bill and the lack of publicity of what must be Doncaster’s most expensive leap into live music…

… but is this criticism justified? Is the event worthwhile? Well, according to the reviews we’ve heard from people ‘down the front’ the answer was a resounding yes!

DbR spoke to one sceptic (Robin Burns) after a day watching what Doncaster Live had to offer…

“First things first, I had to swallow some humble pie today as I enjoyed the day much more than I expected… Throughout the course of the day I managed to see Liam Brown and the Triumphs, In Fear of Olive, Eureka Machines, Go Audio, The Magic Numbers, The thieves, Winterman and Stanton…”

What were you opinions on the bands you saw?

Liam Brown: enjoyable and very easy listening fun sounds, with saxophones keyboard and lots of different percussion they were great entertainment and extremely tight as well…
In Fear of Olive: sounded great I just cant help but not like them even though they are very good at what they do, its just not for me… in fact, the phrase ‘trying too hard’ comes to mind.
Eureka Machines: in my opinion were the first big sound of the day and even though the looks were a tad puzzling churned through a great set with some good hard guitars in there – I liked!
Go Audio were the younger crowds favs, I guess some mixtures in the new main stream style they seem to have adopted since they have re-formed, lots of bass in some of the songs sounded good and they were actually quite catchy they seemed to enjoy the fact that there was a police presence (?)
The Magic Numbers: were ace – what more can you say this was a real good booking and despite the rain were quality it was good seeing a mix of all ages down at the front whoever booked them should take a big pat on the back.

I then headed over to the VIntage Rock Bar. The Rockbar was packed as I sloped off to take in the Thieves who rattled through there set with speed… I had planned to see Tom Hingley but old age had started to kick in and I was still soaked to the bone so after watching the genius guitarist Winterman Stanton I left for home

All in all the day for me had been quite a surprise to what i had seen on paper, I for one can eat my words as I believe all artistes that performed and I had seen had been very accomplished and entertaining. I guess its early days but i think that there has to be a fight for the right to have another Doncaster Festival very quickly MAYOR WATCH OUT!

Cheers Robin!

Check out Rob’s shots from the day below… Check out Rob’s flickr page here…