Cravenfest 2007!.

Lev 2 Esquires Bedford. 15th September 2007.

At 2pm, Cravenfest 2007 began. he annual nine hour music extravaganza, this year split between level 2 and Danny's Bar. As ever the bands are personally handpicked by organiser Paul Craven and there is plenty of choice for everyone. My day is spent on level 2 and this is my chronicle of events (unfortunately I missed opening band Dregs Of Society).

1000 HERTZ
My, this band are quite a revelation as the quartet perform with a full dynamic flair. They grab the spirit of punk and give it a 21st century ball-hammeringly rock'n'roll kick-over. Blood, sweat and tears are left in their awesome wake.

HENRY AND THE BLEEDERS
It's an early start for HATB as the boys are leaving straight after this performance to play a show in London supporting Mad Dog Cole. The festival comes alive with jiving a-plenty. Henry wryly quips that he has thrown away the set list and they are "making it up as they go along"! They conveniently finish with "Rock This Town" which they most certainly did.

DUN 2 DEF
Old skool punk at its sleaziest best. Nasty and loud and always 'in yer face'. Vocalists John and Ferret are in top form shouting out songs from the street, including a sharply observed one called "Bargain Booze" - a shop I'm sure this band know all about!

THE CULTURE
A perfect example of how diverse Cravenfest is comes with these young Mods. Developing and as sharp as ever with the anthems "Dead Man Shoes" and "Cab Driver". Thoughtfully they even play a song for any stray metalhedz in the audience.

GUERILLA POUBELLE
All the way from the suburbs of Paris are this manic punk band who bizarrely have a flip chart on stage. A member of Guerilla Poubelle must be the French equivalent of Rolf Harris, as during each song he sketches some various caricatures so surreal and no I couldn't guess what they were! Despite this malarkey, the band were a total tour de force who played with a punk rock fire.

RANDOM HAND
Quality ska band with the attitude to match, Bradford's finest hit little old Bedford again. Us Southerners got a verbal hammering from the 'Hands' fiery vocalist. When someone steals his water bottle from the stage he sharply retorts "Is it in short supply down here? We've got bloody gallons of it in Yorkshire"! With brass and plenty of front this was a great thirty minutes.

WOLF LAW
Currently the most talked about young band in Bedford, brash and vibrant they deliver one hell of a set. The ever popular anthems we have come to love are mixed with a couple of new ones, which although challenging bring an immediate impact. This year has seen Wolf Law travel up and down the country, and in front of their local fans we get to see how much they are maturing. "Obey the Law" has become the Esquires catchphrase of 2007.

SONIC BOOM SIX
After spending the last couple of nights suppoting Less Than Jake at London's Astoria 2, tonight it's the turn of Bedford to welcome back this Manchester band. They mix underground punk with dollops of hip-hop, all fronted by the delightful and diminutive Laila. Lyrically it's cutting edge but the melodies are so infectious.

NEW GROOVE FORMATION
This perennial Cravenfest band deservedly obtain the headline slot. The New Groove collective effortlessly bounce and skank in unison. They are faultless and focused with the addded bonus of a full brass compliment. The crowd, high on alcohol and adrenalin are in a party mood and NGF provide it to climax a memorable day.

DANNY'S BAR:
Although I only arrived to see the tail-end of THE STICKS headline slot, it did include the brilliant "This is Love". A couple of other highlights include Rich "Dilinquents" TAYLOR playing on oblivious to the fact that the PA speaker was billowing smoke! While Big LIAM VERNON's acoustic set sees him recite more tales of heinous crimes of the 19th century as well as delivering some Pogues and Dropkick Murphys covers.