British festivals typically mean lots of music, lots of camping and of course, generally lots of rain. Considering how “summery” the last few months had been, I was a little worried that this last weekend was going to be washed out because I was going along to Bestival 2007. We were all banking on good weather, taking Friday off to drive down to the three-day festival and Monday to have a bit more of a leisurely pace back to London.

It turned out that we had fantastic festival weather, and the entire Bestival experience was thoroughly enjoyable. Music highlights had to be The Chemical Brothers who put on their typically awesome act accompanied by a spectacular light show, the ever energetic The Gossip and then The Foals, a new Indie band who put out a great set in the BBC Introducing. On the disappointing side, The Beastie Boys who I’d seen perform a brilliant set back at Big Day Out, managed to cause the crowd to thin out quite well during their Saturday night set. We also caught the end of Carl Craig’s rather dull and low key set which didn’t seem to match the energetic mood everyone was in at 4 in the morning.

Although there were plenty of music acts, many of them were I didn’t rate on the “must see” list. The upside is that there wasn’t as much pressure to go to all the stages, and I could indulge in the company of other festival goers, chill out in the sun and just generally meander throughout the rest of the festival. There’s plenty of alternative entertainment, including glitter wrestling, an inflatable castle with almost hourly marriage services (Ben and Polly’s one on Sunday was a stunner), a burlesque tea tent, a comedy tent and just plenty of places to lounge around and soak up the atmosphere.

Another big draw card, quite unique to this festival is it’s fancy dress theme. Even though it’s based on a poem, all of it is optional, and so here’s what I went as. It was amazing at how much some people really got into their costumes, with many of them hand crafted to superb detail, especially those that co-ordinated an entire group costume.

It was a great taste of what British festivals should be like when it’s not raining and full of mud and could definitely go back another year.

On the Friday before heading out on holidays, I had a couple of tickets to see pop band, The Feeling at the Carling sponsored venue, the Hammersmith Apollo. Surprisingly the venue was busy but wasn’t completely sold out given a number of empty seats around us. The Fray performed as the support act and obviously had a large following in the audience given the amount of clapping from the audience. They placed a decent set that lasted for almost an hour before the switch to the main act.

The Feeling opened with an appreciation for their fans by projecting footage of their fans singing their songs on to a huge white sheet. The clips were pulled from You Tube and played for about ten minutes before kicking into the set for the evening. The band’s main singer, Dan Sells, though sometimes overly camp at times, performed perfectly as the hyper-active and obviously passionate lead singer. It was obvious that he enjoyed the attention of the crowd and fed that energy back interacting well with the audience. He had such a great rapport with the audience that he managed to pull off a harmony involving the entire audience – the best I’ve ever seen. They performed a great set, playing most of the songs from their album, a few covers and a double encore (admittedly the first only lasted a single song) and finishing up with the title song of their debut album, Twelve Stops From Home.

A fun performance with a great light show and a very entertaining set of performers.

TheKua.com Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Last night I saw Scottish pop singer Paolo Nutini in Kentish Town at The Forum. At only 19 years old, this young musical star has the scratchy voice of a much older person and though it doesn’t come through when he speaks, his vocal range and talent are well beyond his years. The gig was completely sold out demonstrating his popularity. Rod Stewart even came along, further testifying to the talent that deserves recognition and appreciation.

Paolo did an amazing job of a richly entertaining show, both musical and visual with a great range of songs and a light show. You do have to look past him sometimes when he performs as he looks like the convulsive John Mayer whilst performing, but in a way you have to appreciate the passion that he has, and the amazing voice that comes from his small frame. He performed many of his songs from his current album, These Streets, a few new songs, and even a few covers that only he could render in his own unique way.

The best thing about this concert was that, unlike any I’ve been to, this one organised a recording of some of the songs and offered it as the “Bootleg EP” – only five songs from the concert for only a fiver! For the small amount of time it took us to line up, and thankfully a much shorter time actually picking up the CD in the huge queue, I definitely think it was worth it. It’s so good in fact, I’m listening to it right now as I write this entry.

I highly recommend you listen to his album if you get a chance, if nothing for his unique voice and easy going songs. I think he deserves the popularity he has got around the world, and I’m sure you’ll agree with me if you ever get to see him perform live.

TheKua.com Rating: 8.5 out of 10