Rockaway Beach (Bognor) - January 2022

I certainly will. Notebook and pen packed in readiness.

Rather annoyingly, LIFE have pulled out due to a member testing positive. They were on the main stage on Saturday night. Frustrating, but goes with the state we're in I suppose.

Being lazy I'm going to point you in the direction of the Louder Than War review as I think it's a fair reflection of what I saw. Plus they saw more bands than me.

louderthanwar.com/rockaway-beach-festival-live-review/

The only things I will add is that I thought Tricky performing wasn't 'enigmatic'. When he first came on, he played for about 10/15 mins under low level lighting from behind ( reds and blues ), which didn't light his face. Vocally he was very quiet, most of the 'heavy lifting' being done by a wonderful female singer. My initial thoughts were that if he increases his vocal volume as the set progresses then it'll be a great way to intensify the performance. But after 3 or 4 songs he walked off. The band carried on for a song and a half .........then followed him. After about what seemed like 5 mins he returned and the set carried on. The only light now on stage appeared to be from a lit music stand, but to all intents and purposes it was a dark stage. Interestingly his vocals now were very powerful, but for me the fact that he was 'invisible' detracted from the music. Towards the end, he was slightly lit by a couple of punters using their phone lights, and this gave him a real threatening edge. It's a shame that this 'effect' hadn't been part of his set from the start as this would have looked fantastic.

Secondly, the LTW review is very generous to Porridge Radio. They were a real anti-climax and nowhere near a headline band, lacking any stage presence whatsoever. Rockaway Beach have given main stage space to similar bands i.e those that are elevated above their status, such as Goat Girl and Black Country New Road, but atleast with these two they weren't headlining. 
After 4 or 5 songs the lead singer of Porridge Radio said "I don't know if you noticed, but I broke a string during that song and as I haven't brought a spare guitar with me I'm going to have to go off stage for 5 minutes."
WTF!!! You're a headline band and you haven't got a spare guitar? How amateurish is this? Have you not noticed that there are a couple of thousand people here, and you're closing an excellent weekend by asking us all to wait around? I left at this point.
A Certain Ratio - on before Porridge Radio - were brilliant ( as the LTW review states ). First time I'd seen them, but I'd make an effort to see them again in a mid-scale venue.
Unfortunately, P Radio were not the band to close a festival. 

Unlike the LTW reviewer, I didn't think Thousand Yard Stare 'prove they still have the chops'. They were a bland male indie act in the mid-90's and should have stayed there. Like Porridge Radio they also lacked stage craft/presence. Here's a tip - once you've played a song, why not go more or less into the next one? It's what the Buzzcocks did, and worked a treat. Diggle may not be Shelley, but he got it right.
Thousand Yard Stare - we don't want to hear your life story, especially when you tell us you're going to play two songs from an album no-one bought ( Mapa Mundi ) and one you admit wasn't vey good. Is that really a good way to promote yourselves?
What made it funny though was that because the singer spent too much time between songs talking inane nonsense they ran out of time and had to cut their set short by apologising and shambling off stage. 

Roll on Jan 2023.