Maximum Family Fun | livemusic.fm

Maximo Park headlined a day of sun, free ice cream, factor 50 sun cream  and general chillaxing on Clapham Common this Sunday (or Sundae as B&J would have us call it!) The Sundae is in it's 7th year and had a pretty good line up over the two days - including Ash, Gary Numan, Ocean Colour Scene and the Maximos.

To be honest I wasn't expecting much, The Common is a 20 minute walk from my house but for some reason this was the first gig/festival/event I've been to in the almost 10 years I've live in and around Clapham. And this year I had my 5 month old son in tow ... In fact he was a major reason for going as the missus and I have realised how curtailed our former lives are now and this seemed perfect family friendly event ( each day is over by 8pm so you can get the little uns back to bed) and there were clowns, jugglers and people dressed as cows etc ... in fact all the normal stuff you expect to see when you're at a normal festival but with most of the Class A element removed and replaced by endless free Ben & Jerry's. There was an enormous proportion of strollers and babies to adults and I was extremely happy we'd decided to only go on Sunday as Saturday had been a bit overcast. Sunday/Sundae on the other hand was what a British Summer should all be about - slightly sunburnt, a few cans of  cider, some ice cream cones and sitting on a picnic blanket on the Common watching some pretty decent bands caper around on stage.

I was a bit disappointed to miss Little Comets as I've heard plenty of good things aboout them but they must have been onstage at 2pm and offstage by 3pm when I got there (we'd decided 8hrs in the sun might be a bit much for the wee fella so aimed for a 4hrs stint) However I did catch Gary Numan for what  amounted to the 4th time I've seen him now. Back in the early 80s his iconic "Friends Electric" and "In Cars" had been some of the first true electronic music to break the mainstream ... since then he has pretty much re-written pop history to become a sort of Godfather to the industrial-electronic proto-Goth genre and his music now is pretty guitar driven with a much more (Nine Inch Nails) post-punk industrial influence. He even wore a NiN t-shirt and the last time I saw him was at the NiN gig at the O2. To be fair Marilyn Mansonas well as Trent Reznor acknowledge his influence on their heavier styles but it is interesting the iterative effect they have had on his music. There is a very obvious connection to both their music in his later songs and even some of the original music  - in fact "Friends Electric" now even sounds like a forerunner of Reznor's "Hurts" when it's played with piano rather than the original swirling heavy synths. Having said that, and all the slightly faux-history aside, Numan plays a darn good set and for a 53 year old fella is in bloody good shape and did definitely "rock" the stage (and crowd!) He's become a bit of a Festival staple in the  last 5 years and I've caught him at Guilfest and Ireland's Electric Picnic (as well as the O2) ... and to be fair to the man, each show has been better than the last; which is all you can ask for really!

Maximo Park on the other hand I've never seen and I was keen to see them live since everyone has raved about their energy and live performances - particularly the antics of frontman/vocalist Paul Smith. And in the main I was not to be disappointed, Maximo Park put on a great show (in the Park). Smith sprung out of the wings for the opening number "Girls Who Play Guitars" like a Clockwork Orange Jack-in-the-Box and commanded the stage through a compilation of the bands better numbers - both from the recent album "Quicken the Heart" but also a significant amount of songs from the previous albums "A Certain Trigger" and "Our Earthly Pleasures".  Particularly good versions of older songs 'The Coast is Always Changing' 'Going Missing' 'Graffiti' and 'Postcard of a Painting' dovetailed neatly with newer songs such as 'Wraithlike' and 'The Kids are Sick again' ... and even a bonus new song from the newly announced forthcoming fourth album.

The crowd were very receptive and I had gone a bit closer to the front with my little chap on my shoulders and there was a good natured, packed crowd at the front ('Going Missing' was particularly well receoved). The dusky evening contributed to a gig that felt like Maximo Park had enjoyed it too for the most part.  In no way could I fault the extremely slick performance from the entire band - and Smith himself was full of energy and antics during the songs - but I couldn't help but pick up on the fact that the band were slightly aware that this was not one of the cooler-hipper festivals in London this Summer and that they have slipped slightly from their peak when they were renowned for explosive shows, supporting The Police and selling out a series of gigs at the Roundhouse. There were still probably over 1000 people enjoying themselves to their music (and the day was in fact Sold Out) but there were a few heckles that didn't sit well with Smith and you felt that occassionally the rapport with the crowd was not what they expected! Smith referenced the mix of ages several times and remarks during songs such as "This is gonna be our only London gig this year' - and the lack of encore - made me think that the band felt that this was shouldn't have been one of their main summer festival appearance; rather a nice addition to a string of appearances. Still they have another gig in August at the Y Not Festival in the Peak District later in the Summer. Definitely worth catching live if you can get along to that event. There's probably a stronger (indeed 'cooler') line up at Y Not including Feeder, New Young Pony Club, The Rifles, Miles Kane and Viva Brother so maybe they'll feel that this was a slightly more appropriate 'edgier' festival than the B&J Sundae! Tickets available here:

http://livemusic.fm/gig/max%C3%AFmo-park-tickets-moulridge-lane-pikehall...

Picture courtesy of Gary Stafford

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cabstar/