Seems like yesterday when 2 flatmates sat in a flat in South East London bitching about the sanitised state of music journalism, good-reviews-for-backstage-access type pap, and decided to start calling a spade a spade when it came to live music. Gigslutz was born and up all night was the name of the game, stoking the fires with tune after tune and plans that were definitely going to happen. It’s up all night again these days for both of us lads but this time around it’s due to having wee ones screaming from their cots or toddlers up before the sun. So sometimes a festival experience can be one of a different ilk. You gotta take what you can get these days and make the most of it. After all, I assume some of the Gigslutz loyalists might have gone through the same life transformation themselves, baby bottle in hand at 2am rather than whisky bottle. So I did some digging regarding festivals that cater for kids as well as adults and the Big Feastival repeatedly came up trumps according to various moles. The brainchild of Blur’s Alex James, which takes place on his cheese farm in the Cotswolds.

I took the fam which now includes a 5-year-old girl (wtf!) and a 1.5 year-old boy. We rolled into the festival with minimal fuss, lovely polite people all the way. The festival seemed average at first in terms of size and offering, but we realised after an hour or so that we were only in one quarter of it! Done alright for himself Mr James has, those British Gas ads looking after the booking of Hedge Shearing.

I doubted I would get to see much with kids in tow but managed to catch a few acts, (as well as roughly a dozen drinks!) the first of which was the man that can rival Motley Crue for on stage energy, Justin Fletcher from CBBC fame, don’t ask, I won’t tell you either. Notable grin moments were 2 girls in front of me, both of a chav persuasion and both at least 6 years past anything near an acceptable age to be watching kids entertainment, and they began rowing over a line in the Grand Old Duke of York. Other than that, I got through it by watching Chris the bearded hipster-cool sound engineer attempt to look like he wanted to be there. Keep on keepin’ on Chris mate.

One of the things I love most about a festival where you’re not there to particularly see a certain act, is following your ears and going where the wind blows. I was drawn mid-afternoon to the Udder Stage tent, by some lovely vocals floating across on the breeze, and the fact that other people were being drawn in too. There was no band name displayed, “we can’t afford a banner!” claimed Phil the frontman during the set. I’d stumbled across Phil (lead vocals & guitar), Alex (lead guitar, synths, keys and back vocals), Dave (backing vocals, synths, bass, samples and percussion) and Tom (keys, synths, claps and backing vocals). Four lads from Birmingham. Turns out they’re also an electro/ folk/ indie ship who sail by the name Saint Alto and there’s been a fair bit of excitement about them ever since they did a BBC Introducing session and were named BBC’s One’s to Watch last year. They’ve got the lot. Confidence, aesthetic, understated swagger, tunes and hangovers. Instantly reminded me of peak Gomez, Phil’s vocals especially, there’s some LCD Soundsystem in there, a touch of early Arcade Fire and some Bon Iver but they’re definitely their own beast.

Each song’s a journey in its own right keeping you latched on waiting for the next turn. There are swoops and drops out of nowhere, a vocal hook and then it soars, pokes you hard in the chest and then hugs you with a meaningful line that seems like it had you in its crosshairs. The lyrics are honest and diverse, non-exclusive and I think the locked-on audience stayed that way because everyone watching was relating to what they were hearing. ‘Tell Me Something’ is fit to grace any headliner’s set, epic live, hooky as fuck from the first note, they had every pair of eyeballs in their pockets, fuelled with quality line after quality line and hook after hook, “days they go easier if we don’t speak, soon I haven’t seen your face for weeks, months they go easier if I don’t think, I start unravelling when I drink”, the “woo hoo ooh!” was being chanted back with ever increasing gusto by the audience. You typically see audience churn at this time of day when it’s a band that most people wouldn’t necessarily know, people sneaking out etc but I didn’t see a single person leave, and the applause levels and whistles grew louder with each passing track as new fans were converted.

Saint Alto can play, there were an array of instruments, 3 keyboards in play at once at various stages, the harmonies were complex but easy to consume and with Phil lulling you in with lines like “come round and see me, I’ll make you feel comfortable” in ‘Love As You Want it To Be’, that kind of summed it all up, you felt part of the gang and part of the music. In fact, he unwittingly penned the perfect strapline for the entire festival.

The aesthetic of Saint Alto is different and fresh, they’re witty and loveable between tunes and lead singer Phil Barber (ironically he’d make a good hipster barber on the day!) is like an old pro; engaging, cracking funnies and generally adding value throughout the set. It just got better and better and I think if they’d have played for an hour and a half they would have kept the audience right where they were. They even dropped briefly into a cover of Blur’s ‘Tender’, letting everyone know it was a direct nod to the host.

It’s no wonder they’re headlining the second stage at the weighty Moseley Folk n Arts Festival this week with The Zutons and Public Service Broadcasting on the bill.

I met them briefly afterwards, top lads as well. They’re knowledgeable, they’re gentlemen, smart, funny and affable. They’re so easy to talk to that it was entirely possible to forget I was supposed to be gleaning info from them. Among the conversational tangents that we embarked upon, I managed to unearth:

• Fittest mum: Dave’s.
• Supergroup: Black Sabbath with Jeff Lynne on vocals, well n truly keeping it in the Brum family!
• Detested artists: they admirably swerved naming other acts on a similar placed on the curve to them that sprang to mind because “they’re all trying to get somewhere”.
• Inspiration: they fully agreed that the headliner for that day was a driving force for them, “a template”, to quote; and that was Elbow. Not just musically but for the staying power. Along with LCD Soundsystem and Feeder.

They’re gagging to meet Guy Garvey so if anyone can help them out with that?…!

• Oh and they immediately agreed to having their photo taken in one of the portaloos. What more could you want?

A saintly surprise at what is a perfect day out at The Big Feastival. I’m definitely returning. They’ve thought of everything and it’s not just catering for families, it has the total spectrum, in an incredible setting, pretty much what a 2019 festival should be without ripping you off. Nice little nuances and touches wherever you looked or wandered, including an energy provision dance stand called ‘Kind’ that took the generated energy created by people getting down in there, and used it to power other things at the festival. There’ll be loads more of that coming across festivals of that there’s no doubt.

I had plans to see some other acts such as TFI Brit Pop (for obvious sing-a-long-beer-in-the-air reasons), DJ BBQ’s set and Eloquent Youth, so I said goodbye to my family, staying on to go solo, but it hit me that having seen Saint Alto I felt my day had been dealt a better hand than I could have expected so I legged it to the carpark just as my own band were leaving.

Big up to the Big Feastival, smoothly done. Make a point of seeing Saint Alto when you can. And what’s more, try and have a chat with them.

They’ll make your day. Enjoy this, ‘Tell Me Something’, on your own, up loud and with your eyes closed.

David Ham
@gigslutz_radio
@thebigfeastival
#Thebigfeastival
@saintalto
Musicglue.com/saintalto