Party In The Park – Day 2 – Rock Regeneration

Ashley Cross Green, Lower Parkstone

Featuring: Butcher Blues Foundation, The Frequency, The Transitions + Devil’s Rejects

The second day arrives with much gloom and heavy rain dominating the Parkstone skyline, quite a contrast from the blue skies of yesterday. Despite this once again the hardy music fans are out in force; armed with their umbrella’s, wellies, and Kagools.

The 1st act of the day is to be local solo artist Nick Tatham but sadly for some reason he does not appear, so Swanage folk/rock band Devils Rejects arrive on stage a little early. The rain is still falling quite hard and much of the audience are sheltering under the many trees in the park. The Devils Rejects give a great account of themselves performing some of the many tunes from their new album “13”. Their folk/rock sound combines fiddles, accordions and electric guitars-a sound that nestles itself somewhere between The Pogues and the Levellers. The band’s 30 minute set ended just as the sun decided to peak it’s head out form behind a cloud briefly. They leave the stage with plenty of positive applause from the rather damp but happier audience.

Devil’s Rejects 1–2

Next up are local covers band The Transitions who aim to perform a string of crowd pleasing songs and once again put more smiles on everybody’s faces. They do just that with a perfect selection of tunes to please a whole range of people of all ages. The band’s set up was far from conventional with the frontman Kalos playing bass along with a pedal attached to a bass drum, with “Fatts’ on acoustic guitar and “Mr Listy” on Cajon. The tunes come in the form of Madness’s “The Prince”, Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” and ending their set with a completely reworked version of Motorhead’s “Ace Of Spades”, which had some of the audience up dancing in the muddy puddles.

The Transitions

The Frequency arrive on stage and immediately the blue skies return and for the first time today, the sun comes out providing some very welcome warmth. The Frequency are a four piece band who have an abundance of great original material that takes influences from all over the place; with a bit of pop, rock and blues all finding their way into the bands songs. The band as always start strongly with their twin guitars sounding loud and proud, echoing nicely around this large park area. Frontman Austyn dedicates a nice bluesy song called “Pray” to his Father who is celebrating his 60th birthday today and as the song was inspired by his Dad this is very appropriate. The band give the party a massive injection of energy and have by far the most amount of people in front of the stage dancing and singing along to their well constructed vibrant songs. A real standout song is a brand new number called “Our Way Always” which shows some really passionate, from the heart songwriting that shows a great new direction for this band that have all the right ingredients to be really going places. The band’s 45 minute set was a complete high, full of entertainment from start to finish and the crowd show their appreciation by requesting an encore. Sadly, due to time constraints this had to be declined.

The Frequency 1–2

Having just witnessed The Frequency perform a near-polished performance-interrupted only by another short power cut, Butcher Blues Foundation take to the stage as this years Sunday headliners. Tonight’s set is made up totally of covers, and it’s an Indie music lovers dream. They open with “Molly’s Chambers” (Kings of Leon), followed by Arctic Monkeys “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” which sees the few hardy punters who stuck around take a few steps forward. Pulp, Jet, The Killers and Franz Ferdinand, they’re all in there. The Stereophonics “Dakota” is particularly good, as is The Fratellis “Chelsea Dagger”. The Kaiser’s and The Killers (again) soon follow before they surprise us with their final song “Suspicious Minds” (Elvis)! They gratefully milk the applause before being beckoned back on for “one more”. The Buzzcocks “Ever Fallen in Love” gets the BBF treatment as we all leave with smiles on our faces, despite the damp weather and surroundings. All in all a great weekend with some fantastic local music, we hopefully can look forward to more of the same for next year.

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