Blog: Indietracks Tour: DAY THREE

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I woke up on Saturday morning feeling a bit ODD - strange in the tummy and shaky in the legs. It took me a while to realise that this was because I was EXCITED, for LO! after nearly a YEAR of waiting it was finally time to go back to INDIETRACKS! Hoorah!

After a big Holiday Inn Breakfast and a SPRINT through the Spa Facilities, The Rooms In My Hotel and I checked out and strolled back to the railway station, where we said TEARFUL GOODBYES. I was excited to be heading to the festival, but was really going to miss her - touring is a lot more FUN and a HECKLOAD more SALUBRIOUS when she comes along!

Still, i bore up MANFULLY and was soon in Alfreton, in my long-booked room at The Travelodge for an unpack, a bit of a wash, and then another taxi ride back to the site. I'd asked to be dropped off at Butterly station, but the taxi driver took me to the Swanwick Junction site, leading to INDIE PANIC: if I was SEEN arriving in a LIMO like this at the main foot entrance, then surely that would blow ALL my Indie Cool?!? What would Bobby Gillespie do in such a situation eh?

Luckily we weren't allowed to go all the way in, so i got turfed out, whereupon I heard someone say "Are you in MJ Hibbett & The Validators?" "Yes, yes I am", I said, and it turned out be be Be Like Pablo, lovely people who gave me a GRATE CD last year. I wasn't going to be able to SEE them, as we were on at much the same time, so it was nice to MEET them like this.

I gained access to the site and IMMEDIATELY starting bumping into various lovely people. About the THIRD group of pals I met included Mr S Hewitt who, before the festival, had been expressing some doubts. "PAH!" he would declare, "Indie Schmindie Nonsense! PAH!" I was a bit nervous about how he'd going on, so asked how the weekend had been so far. "Everyone here is SO LOVELY!" he said, practically EXHALING BUTTERCUPS as he did so - like everyone else, he had GONE NATIVE!

The rest of Saturday is a little bit of a blur, to be honest. I wonder why that could be? Still, I do remember seeing part of La La Love You (GRATE jackets!), The Just Joans (i SWELLED with glee at how BRILLIANT they were), The Parallelograms (ALWAYS a delight), The Smittens (IBID) and... er... eventually The Primitives (a bit rubbish). MOST of the day was spent just wandering around with and towards PALS, not least 80% of The VAlidators who had arrived mid-afternoon.

I know everybody says this about MOST Festivals, but at Indietracks it is EVEN MORE TRUE: it really ISN'T mostly about the bands, it's the lovely people that MAKE it so GRATE. Everyone was having a BRILLIANT time and weren't afraid to show it and, as I struggled home and into my hotel bed at WAY past my bed time it was with a HUGE grin on my face. Could this possibly get any MORE fun?

Yes. Yes it could.

posted 28/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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