Features

The ultimate of taste-making UK festivals has been, gone and thrown some customary left-field punches from the dancefloor. Among this years’ highlights were Metronomy, Cage The Elephant, Soko, Jeremy Warmsley, Elle S’appelle, Captain Phoenix, SixNationState and Make Model, but with so much happening across the infamous London town, no one person will ever know what the truly preeminent gig of the event was.

This festival is about the unknown, the exploration – be it in the near structural desolation of Los Campesinos or the dark pop engulf of Duels. The Red Stripe Camden Crawl is about people finding the new and as Camden gets taken over by corporate Britain, we use this festival to try and consider what Camden should be about. Music. There were so many unforgettable performances athwart the two days with the elite of an emerging British scene falling over themselves to deliver a show that will still be notorious this time next year, though curiously it was the invading acts such as Soko and Cage The Elephant who were perhaps the most talked about in the wake of this years Red Stripe Camden Crawl.

Other highlights came from Liverpool trio Elle S'appelle who wonderfully stormed an astounded Oh! Bar on Friday with their quirky, harmonic alternative pop. The most perfect three-minute pop songs we've ever heard. Across town, Scottish six piece Make Model tore a difference in the calibre of bands performing, offering their collective experience as accomplished musicians as a besieging pummel of infectious songs, wistful and vibrant, they showed what real musicians sound like when making brilliant rock 'n' roll.

Electronic troubadours Metronomy caused the biggest dance outbreak at the Electric Ballroom with songs from their debut record seizing the stage in a dazzling display of the spectacularly sharp and visually dumbfounding. Cheap push-lights are a rock 'n' rollers best friend thanks to these boys.

French singer and composer Soko turned some heads, and almost had the police called, when she played a clandestine house party amid some lucky few; her powerful piano pop bashing cold, tetchy poetry to soft vocals. And that's the magic of the festival; to be enjoying yourself, giving your heart, to somebody that 20 minutes prior you had no suggestion existed.

We at Red Stripe certainly made the most of our passes and not only enjoyed the best from slightly more established artists One Night Only and The Rumble Strips, both of whom showed why they're earning so much radio airplay just now; but we also indulged ourselves with the real grassroots of this festival in our busking area.

With the likes of Captain Phoenix, Dirty Scavenger and The Troubadours playing at the almost overwhelmingly tight Camden Eye as well as in the midst of our swanky VW campervan, we had an opportunity to really take pleasure in the proletarian side of guitar music, bands stripping their sound down to fit the elastic vibe of the setting. You can see highlights from the sessions by clicking here, so do check them out, and if you bypassed them on the day, slap yourself for missing out of course.

As with any event of this size, its triumph is hinged on the people that buy tickets; those that for two days allocate themselves to the cause of new music and throw their bodies into the downright confusing haze of the bill. With secret performances, after show parties and our dynamitic busking sessions on top of the intense wealth of planned live performances, this years Red Stripe Camden Crawl has been like no other, but it's down to the crowds for making this event what it was. See you next year!