Saturday 30/05/09 Wychwood Festival 2009, Day Two @ Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire

Day two of the festivities started at the more typical time of 11am with ambitions of packing the next 12 hours with more music than you can shake a drum stick at.

Between 11am and 7pm the Old Hooky Bar, (the festival's home for all things unsigned and independent) was handed over to Halifax based promoters The Doghouse who brought with them the cream of Manchester and the North's emerging talent. Based on their performances on this tiny stage, shoe-gazy, wall of sound maestros Motion Picture Association and T-Rex flavoured 'cosmic dirt' rockers Ten Bears will soon be appearing on  'ones to watch' listings everywhere.

Over at The Big Top it was a bit of an up and down affair that started with a ferocious punch courtesy of post-punk ensemble The Black Bloc and progressive rock four piece Sleeping with the Fishes, who together managed to kick out enough energy to wake-up the entirety of Cheltenham, never mind the somewhat sparse crowd populating the tent. Up next, a complete change of pace and one of the biggest attractions of the day as Ade Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds rounded-up fans eager to hear the Young Ones' star and his band perform their unique folk-styled take on punk classics. The combination of exceptional fiddle playing courtesy of Andy Dinan (whose solos garnered rapturous applause each time), irreverent and warm humour courtesy of the surprisingly talented Edmondson and the ability to craft a mandolin part for 'London Calling' that's actually well worth hearing justified this band's placement on any festival listing. Any punters who then braved the sweltering heat to stay for next act Goldheart Assembly were well rewarded. Comparable only to Fleet Foxes rockier UK cousins, this young beardy bunch show why they've been added to the bills of some of the biggest festivals around this summer. Following hot on their heels is singer-songwriter Alex Cornish, who despite being less than 100 per cent both health and mood wise still manages to impress the crowds with his epic indie melodies that are now pushing their way onto radio playlists nationwide.

It's then back into the (slightly) cooler outdoors to catch rising electro-pop sensation Little Boots on the main-stage. Blackpool's Victoria Hesketh has lashings of unassuming charm and some killer pop  tunes to boot which leads to an enjoyable if not mind-blowing set as several songs failed to ever catch alight. In the main support slot we were treated to another dose of 80s punk nostalgia in the form of 2-Tone, Ska revivalists The Beat who run through the classics such as 'Tears of a Clown' and 'Two Nice to Talk Too' and other tracks from their three albums released between 1980 and 1982 for an enthusiastic audience. Another form of nostalgia hits when headliners Supergrass appear to close out the night. Whilst fellow indie-pop icons such as Blur continue to reinvent and revitalise themselves into continued relevance, Gaz, Danny, Mick and Rob  have the distinct look of a band who are happy to get by playing their 'Best of' compilations. That's not to say that anthems such as 'Alright' and 'Pumping on You Stereo' pack any less of a punch then they did when they were first released, with the audience going into full sing-and-dance-along mode, but you can't help being a reminded of exactly how long ago that last hit was and feeling a tiny bit sad as a result.