THE Vibe went down to check out what was going on in terms and rock and/or roll at the Culture Shock Festival in Pickering

THE Culture Shock Festival is North Yorkshire’s answer to, well, a big youth festival that they hold somewhere else.

The festival moves around every couple of years and the 2009 festival arrived in Ryedale for the very first time at Pickering Showground.

Culture Shock 2009 saw a huge variety of arts and entertainment come together for a couple of days of fun in the sun. There were two acts that really stood out for me, firstly The Maraquettes. This five-piece hailed from the very north of North Yorkshire and brought a real energy to one of the many small stages dotted around the site.

With an amazing stage presence, The Maraquettes really brought a small but appreciative crowd to life and impressed with their fantastic song-writing ability and the unbelievable tightness of their playing which seeming defied their years. The second band that impressed were our very own Loud Noises over in the 6K Vision tent.

The last time I saw them play was a few months ago and in all honesty they came across as thoroughly decent and not much more. They were relatively impressive musically and competent enough to warrant watching and they played a lot of covers that you would most likely know. However, this time they had really stepped it up a notch, there was a confidence about the performance that had been lacking in previous sets.

The Pickering-based band has started to up gigs left, right and centre over the summer, and nothing gives a young band confidence like getting gig offers every week. Loud Noises stormed their way through a set that featured a large number of covers as well as some of their own material that really didn’t sound out of place. The audience started out with around 15 people watching, by time the set was 15 minutes in that number has ballooned to nearer 100. Feeder, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Alien Ant Farm and Blur covers were featured. When the set was over it left the audience in raptures and a sense of pride in Ryedale.

An accomplished and consummate performance by a polished and maturing band. Great set, definitely the best I’ve ever witnessed Loud Noises play.

These festivals are a great opportunity to check out what the grassroots of music is sounding like and I’d say that it’s all pretty healthy.

We seem to have almost come full circle in the sense of young bands springing up, learning their instruments, writing solid songs and gigging, with that horrible bit in between where bands were arriving with all of the fun bits sorted, a name, five members, a Myspace site and in even merchandise, but with no instruments, no songs, and in a large number of cases no idea as to how to play an instrument.

Happily, those days seem to have gone and I’d say that the feeling I took away from the day is that it’s all encouraging.


Gigs to watch out for

Loud Noises: August 5, Colburn Park Festival. Surprise… Fire: Tomorrow (Thursday), The Duchess, York. This show should be lethal, a great PA system and a chance to go to York’s newest venue.