> Reviews > Reviews 2007 > Godiva

Review by Rob.

Crowd at the Enemy - "If only Cov City got crowds of this size eh? "

So many towns and cities. So many people. So many parks. So few inner city festivals. There you have it. Its a great shame more local authorities don't take the lead of Coventry council. They think nothing of blowing a bit of taxpayer's money putting on a three day celebration of all things in the world of performing arts. On the whole scheme of things three days a year is nothing and I'm sure folk would gladly go without a bin collection or a few pot holes in their road in order for something as good as this. Godiva is a great vehicle for showing off the best of local talent, and to be serious for a bit, it brings in people from far far away who spend money in the area. People like us. Gotta be a worthwhile thing.

As we didn't really see a lot of bands we had better fill this bit with a description of the festival, as it is probably one that a lot of folk have never heard of, let alone been to. The good folk of Coventry know all about it of course and until a couple of years ago it was a best kept secret. Then the organisers took the bold step of booking some rising bands. Music fans took notice as Kasabian, Goldie Lookin Chain, The Fratellis and Do me bad things all played career defining sets. Suddenly Godiva was on the music map. Similarly rising acts in the fields of hip hop, reggae and folk all tread the boards at some point over the weekend. But there is a whole lot more on offer too. The format of the weekend is something different each day. Friday is a smaller affair but sees 80's pop bands (the Human League headlined this year), comedy and new unsigned bands. Saturday is the main rock music day, but also features hip hip, world music, street theatre and cabaret. Sunday brings forth orchestras, folk, and singer songwriters. Variety here is definitely the spice of life.

All this stuff takes place in several large tents arranged around a large open air display arena. In the arena family based entertainment takes place including majorettes, ethnic dancing and of course the legendary dog show, more of which later. Also dotted around are the usual bars and food outlets as well as clearly not enough toilets judging by the queues. I had time for a large 99 and was contemplating another whilst my other half queued for a pee. There was also an attempt to go green with recycling and a green crafts area. Give it a stone circle and it could be billed as Glastonbury without the cow shit. Sadly however the park based location did mean a proliferation of dog shit instead, but I've seen worse. Of course the best thing about all this and apologies for not mentioning it in the first paragraph (I could go back and edit it but it's not my style) is of course the fact that it is free. So no queues to get in no ticket checking and you can even bring your own beer. Sadly this does mean some toe rags get in and a big boo to the 2 particularly scummy twats booing a local folk band and full marks to a member of the audience for telling them to shut up.

Super Furry Animals - A perfect end to the day

So on to the acts themselves. We only attended on the Saturday which was the main band day. However we got there early so had a bit of time for a walk round, a very nice pint of Burrowhill cider, and settled down to watch the dog show. This features several breeds large and small, fierce and timid, hairy and smooth (the dogs not the trainers) being put through their obedience routines. Its a bit like a police dog display but some of the mutts are clearly not trained to that high a level so there is plenty of scope for things going wrong. Which I like. To be fair it all went pretty well and the obstacle race was great entertainment won by a springy terrier. One poor overweight beast really struggled to master the art of getting round the poles - and her rotweiller suffered a bit in the heat too. there was even a bit where the announcer called for people to go over the barrier and imitate the slalom poles as they had forgotten theirs (classic incompetence), prompting an Iggy Pop style crowd invasion. Best of all though was the poor soul imitating a trouble maker who had a dog set upon him as part of the act. To protect him his right arm was heavily padded, so the clever dog went and grabbed the left one. He didn't like that.

Musically the Electric Tent had quite a lot of new stuff on early doors. With all due respect things got more exciting when the Noisettes took to the stage. I saw this lot at Glastonbury and was keen to check them out again. The three piece fronted by the very glamorous Shingai Shoniwa, Nick Zinner like guitarist Dan Smith and manic bearded drummer James Morrison (not that one) play a mix of garage rock and stripped down pop and are like a mix of bow wow wow and the yeah yeah yeah's. They all exude energy and are quite a stage presence. Their tunes are decent too especially 'Scratch your Name' and I look forward to seeing them again soon. During the set the crowd is healthy but not packed, however for next act The Cribs it soon becomes pretty rammed. In fact the tent has a safety capacity and is closed after a while. The Wakefield trio have been reviewed a few times on this site and this was another typically spiky show. However a poor sound prevented the majesty of some of the tunes from the new 'Men's Needs Women's Needs' album really taking effect. Sing along old single 'Hey Scensters' gets everyone jumping though and current single 'Men's Needs' gets everyone singing along to the riff (if that is indeed possible). Throughout the set bottles are flying and towards the end we are showered with what can only be described as piss. Look guys if i wanted to spend my Saturday evenings being baptised in this fashion I would be paying someone to do it in a dodgy club in Soho. Fortunately for us the bulk of it gets some poor girl behind us. At the end during 'Wrong way to be' Ryan does his customary stage dive into the audience and it draws to a close a pretty good set, if not quite their best ever.

Coventry has seen only the odd decent band in its history. The Specials were half decent and for a while the city was the epicentre of the Two Tone movement which also features the Beat and the Selector. Hazel O Connor, All About Eve, Napalm Death and erm Paul King all hail from these parts too. Now that would be a festival bill. To this list we can now officially add The Enemy. This three piece have been heavily hyped by the NME recently and the tent and indeed immediate area is swamped for their home town show. The crowd is so vas we only see a bit of the set from outside but it's impressive stuff. They take their sound from the likes of the Jam and The Clash, but add a more up to date sound as well as some good tunes. Coventry loves them and at the end they start a local footy chant which sends the beer monsters into ecstasy. Coventry City who are yer? After the show it takes an age for the tent to empty but it fills up again to a respectable level for our headliners the Super Furry Animals, thankfully without a lot of the unruly elements who watched the last two bands. The Animals run through a greatest hits set playing to a laid back crowd, and their stoner tunes provide a perfect way to end the day. They do crack out some stuff not played the last time I saw them at Glastonbury like early single 'Something for the Weekend', and play several from excellent new album 'Hey Venus', but its the staples, 'Rings around the World', 'Hello Sunshine', 'Ice Hockey Hair' and 'Northern Lights' that get the best reactions. The show climaxes with the epic 'Receptacle for the Respectable' and of course 'Man don't give a Fuck' which closes the show and sounds as relevant as ever given the goings on in the world. A world away from the previous 2 bands it shows how such a festival can offer diversity and still peck them in with quality performances.

So that's it, a pretty good festival with only a couple of negative points. Lots of acts and something for everyone. Not too shabby for free.

Top