Saturday 12/08/06 Day 2 @ Summer Sundae, DeMontfort Hall, Leicester

Rising star Rob McCulloch and his band help nurse late morning hangovers in the Musician Acoustic Stage before the delightful Tunng take to the Main Stage. The charming ensemble mixes a myriad of styles from a plethora of percussion to loops, samples, dueling acoustic guitars and boy/girl harmonies.

The group receive a rapturous reception before the day’s second lovely surprise in the form of London’s Mr Hudson & The Library in the Jim Beam Rising Stage tent. Mr Hudson pumps out the tunes emphatically, with a thumping bass stretching the speakers to their complete capacity. To say he and his band are a melting pot of genres is an understatement – from quirky cabaret, beats, ska, RnB, piano, and steel-pan, the snappily dressed bleach blonde is beguiling with his gorgeously rich vocal that flows through soaring notes and spoken word.

Back indoors; one of Belle and Sebastian’s founding members, Isobel Campbell, sets the benchmark even higher. She’s now cursed/blessed with a Mercury music prize nomination, but wafts onto the stage with Eugene Kelly filing in for former Screaming Trees guy Mark Lanegan. Kelly’s drawl may not be as smoky as Lanegan’s but he’s a suitable replacement, providing the spectacular juxtaposition of Campbell’s treacle sweet Glaswegian whisper and the dusty, cactus desert drone of the masculine narrative on ‘Deus Ibi Est’, and the brilliant version of Hank Williams’ ‘Ramblin Man’.

Conversely, breathy French covers combo, Nouvelle Vague, murder a selection of classic tracks – from ‘Heart of Glass’ to ‘The Killing Moon’ – having been elevated to the Main Stage after Martha Wainwright’s unfortunate cancellation.

Tucson Arizona’s fantastic Calexico follow, with their ever-morphing Espanola style strumming and horns, paying tribute to 60s legends Love with a cover of ‘Alone Again Or’, a nod to recently deceased frontman Arthur Lee, which gets the indie kids’ arms aloft. Unfortunately, in one of many bizarre scheduling decisions of the weekend, east coast Scots institution, The Proclaimers, are on the Indoor Stage just minutes after the start of Calexico’s set.

Queues are snaking around the outskirts of the hall waiting to catch a glimpse of Craig and Charlie Reid; whose near 20-year career has put them in a league of their own. The twins, once ridiculed for their geeky specs and ginger crew cuts, are one of the most anticipated acts of the entire festival. From a fortunate stage side vantage point (with many thoroughly disappointed at not standing a chance of getting in), ‘Letter From America’ is killer. The lads have pioneered bands singing in their own accents, and show that this first mega-hit sounds more powerful and brilliant than it did all those years ago.

The Proclaimers prove themselves as thoroughly captivating artists, whose narratives of the Highland clearances, Scotland’s emigration, politics, industrial closures and simple age-old love songs are still relevant today. ‘I’m On My Way’ live sounds less twee than at its incarnation and gets the massive crowd bouncing.

However, it’s Gomez closing Saturday on the Main Stage that is clearly one of the most remarkably poor planning decisions of the entire weekend. They’re polished but they’re flat with it too, with hits like 1998’s ‘Get Myself Arrested’ and the following year’s ‘Rhythm and Blues Alibi’ proving they’ve done nothing halfway decent since. A sorry end to a great day.