Oxjam Festival

The Anvil, Bounemouth

Featuring: Sansara, The Crash Landings, Echoic, Power Thief, Ruby & The Rough Cuts

Unfortunately I missed the first couple of bands on (Suburban Cult and Skyway Avenue) so the first band I caught were Ruby and the Rough Cuts.

Their classic style of Rockabilly Rock ‘n Roll was great bouncy fun and a reminder that the old rock of the 50’s and 60’s still has a place in the multi-music genres of the Noughties. Also they played an awesome a cover of Motorhead’s Ace of Spades, so I was well happy.

Ruby And The Roughcuts 1–2–3–4–5–6–7

Power Thief – The average age on this young band is roughly fourteen but they did themselves proud by delivering a strong set of sixties covers with a few of their own compositions thrown in. With a confidence belaying their years they pounded out classic tracks from the Who, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Undertones among others. If they carry on like this I can only see good things for these lads and with a few more original songs under their belts there will be no stopping them.

Power Thief 1–2–3–4–5–6

Echoic Sounding like a mixture of Radiohead and Jane’s addiction with a pinch of Northern Soul thrown in, Echoic have a truly unique sound. The passionate vocal execution delivered by Connor John Turner was deep felt and sung with real conviction. He managed to inject a spectacular amount of emotion into the songs which forced the crowd to sit up and pay attention. But this isn’t a one man show, the rest of the band added to the vibe in spades and produced an overall performance that was top notch. With well written and well thought out songs that combined to make a memorable show.

Echoic 1–2–3–4–5–6–7

The Crash Landings I’ve been looking forward to seeing these guys again and their old school balls out punk didn’t disappoint! Bodies were still coming in as Oxjam was in full swing over 5 venues but that night the Anvil is where I wanted to be. As the Crash Landings kick off, some drunken dancing ensues and some good natured heckling was expertly dealt with by wise cracking frontman Si Folkes superb stage banter. Songs Hate mail and Billy’s got fucking Tourette’s smack you up upside the head like a bouncer on speed. Ska tinged filthy punk rock gets the crowd moving and as all their songs are under three mins the set doesn’t get stale and sounds as fresh as fuck, even though the blueprint for this music is over 40 years old. Nice!

The Crash Landings 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10

Sansara are Bournemouths rising stars at the moment, new logo and a new EP that sounds awesome! (read review here). People were well lubricated by now, as were the band, and they started as they meant to go on, playing their grunge tinged hard rock with passion and feeling. When they play new video track Stronger the many young ladies in the audience were spellbound by lead singer Tom Sawyer as he went to one of them and she told him it was her birthday. He promptly announced it to the crowd and she’d squealed in delight.

Sansara 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10

All on all a good night, I don’t know exactly the amount raised at the Anvil but I’m hoping the Oxjam was a success across all the venues.

Words and Photos: Dan O’Gara