The Unexpected Festival – Supernormal Festival 2011 - 19Aug

A few days ago, Matt Stevens posted something in facebook about playing at the Supernormal Festival near Reading and how difficult it was to get there by public transport. Difficult would have been an understatement – the festival could best be described as being in the middle of nowhere. Having nothing better to do, other than go to work, I took the day off, arranged to meet Matt at Reading station and we drove there together through some lovely Oxfordshire countryside.

We arrived to scenes of the festival waking up – Matt was first up on the second stage.

As we arrived early, even before the beer tent opened, we wandered around and eventually sat down on a straw bale, passing the time.

We watched the site wake up – they might have been running late as the day before the Reading area was partially flooded by torrential rain.

Eventually it was time for Matt's set, initially playing to around half a dozen, gradually swelling to about 30. I've seen Matt a few times and know what to expect – he is a truly gifted guitarist playing a rhythm or two into a sampler and replaying the sample, over which he picks out a melody line. The whole effect is that there is a whole host of guitarists on stage.

Speaking after the set, Matt reported feeling a little seasick – it seems that the stage being built on hay bales was moving when Matt stepped on the pedals.

We caught the set from Rumour Cubes before heading back to Reading. They describe themselves as “post-rock” - I'm not too good with labels, and in the end the only one that matters is “I like this”. Rumour Cubes had 2 violinists, two guitars, bass & drums (no vocals). The guitars provide a wall of sound over which the violins provide the melody, giving a very effective sound and something a little unusual. I found myself enveloped in the music and too quickly it was finished.

A big shout to the people at Supernormal Festival. They are the very nicest people and were working so hard to make the festival run smoothly and to make sure that everyone had an enjoyable time.