Reviewd by London journalist and musician Steve Harrison
The Bourne Festival had at one point more toilets than people- it had 3 or 4 bouncy castles a hog roast van and a large tent which contained the main stage and the beer tent in one large space. Plenty of mud around.Some people large of girth eating giant portions of hog in a bap waddled around trying to avoid the guy who must have been 60 who had the cowboy boots skin tight jeans combo. He looked the businesss for the Bourne Festival. Our friend Dave was playing with his band The Real World. In this rather unreal world they seemed a breath of fresh air. Not only were they not a covers band but their music offered subtlety and a refreshing take on the world of X factor and media driven pop bands who cant play their instruments. Luckily for Dave and the Band the media probably arent going to spend too much time looking at their grizzled faces. They could have been the guys who had run the hog roast van by the look of them. But the music spoke volumes. Grizzled it was definitely not. The more Indie pop song 'Ordinary Life' proved their versatility. Not only is this an unashamed pop song it takes the audience to a very different place than some of their heavier rock influenced numbers. These often contained different sections - they slowed down or new and unexpected riffs appeared, which would be coaxed through changes of tempo and rhythm until resolving usually back into a shared lead guitar break. The guitar work was excellent- thoughtful, at times blues based then heavy rock, creating waves of phrases often in tandem, the two lead guitars working off each other and the bass player weaving scales and phrased riffs under the tumult.