The Stages

Main Stage
The Truck itself. An eclectic range of bands – country, indie, metal, folk. Anything goes.

The Barn
Mosh central. Shared between Juggernaut (the rockier branch of Truck records) and The Club That Cannot Be Named (metal/punk promotions outfit).

Trailerpark Tent
Truck’s local band night presents a more chilled line-up, with established names and up-and-coming youngsters side by side.

Saturday

Last year saw Six By Seven, Electralane and Mo*ho*bish*opi play in glorious sunshine. This year Seafood sadly have had to pull out – but with Black Neilson, The Rock of Travolta, Samurai Seven and many others I’m spoilt for choice.

I have the privileged position of camping with the bands at the side of the main arena. There are no Winnebago’s here, although there are two tiny caravans meekly poking their heads above the string of tents, looking rather embarrassed. I have a rather good view of the main stage from my tent. I could get used to this. Anyway, onto the music…

Those Bennetts get everywhere. KTB (Katie Bennett) is Joe and Robin Goldrush’s little sister. She packs out the Trailerpark Tent this afternoon. Her voice is strong yet beautiful, and I’m instantly jealous. It’s a gentle summer stroll of a set, and a special mention has to go to “The Stop And Go Slow Man” – which must surely be released as a single.

I only catch the last few songs by Dustball but they’re good ones. Fronted by an extremely good-looking mosh-pixie with a hell of a voice, it’s heavy grunge that gets the Barn jumping. Mental.

The only representatives of the student population of Oxford present are Meanwhile… Back In Communist Russia, and it’s debatable whether you can still call them students anymore. Bassist Ollie “I have no surname” Russian is the overbearing presence of the entire festival. He’s never far away, or sober. He nearly comes to blows with the soundman over the state of the monitors, and seems to be getting more and more agitated. It’s not a fantastic set, and vocalist Emily (“monologues and cigarettes”) looks very nervous, with good reason. After a lacklustre set containing only one or two recognisable pieces, the woman behind us throws an empty plastic bottle and hits Emily on the side of the head. Too shocked to move for a few seconds, she then quickly walks off. The rest of the band aren’t sure what to do – they patiently bring the noise to an end and then walk off too.

The Rock of Travolta are the possibly the biggest little band in Oxford. You may well have seen them supporting Radiohead at the Oxford South Park gig last summer, where they played their infamous take on “Fitter Happier”. At last year’s Truck they were headlining the main stage. This year they’ve decided to pack out the Barn, and they do a sterling job. Airing material from the forthcoming new album (the last one took just 11 hours to record), it’s pounding drums, clever bass lines and numerous vocal samples. Nice and loud. Stuff you can drive really fast down the motorway to.

There’s a man on the stage wearing a tea cosy with teddy bear ears sewn onto it. He’s standing on a box with a panda face on it holding a keyboard high above his head. He is Simon from Fonda 500, although you could be forgiven for thinking its actually Johnny Vegas. Musically they are fast, furious and hilarious, with plenty of electronic bleeps from Simon’s magic box. Bassist Natasha, also known as “Bod” struts around confident that at least some eyes are on her. Simon calls Robin up to the stage and gets the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to him. Robin blows out the candles on his cake and makes a wish.

Goldrush ARE the Truck festival. They live down the road. They rehearse in the barn. They run the record label. They have a gorgeous lead singer and guitarist in Robin. Their style matches the festival perfectly – chilled, melodic and easy on the ear. Coldplay could learn a thing or two from these young lads, although I doubt Coldplay would have episodes of Count Duckula projected onto the back screen.

Jetplane Landing have a tough job to follow the Bennetts in their headline slot. Their singer is determined to get the crowd going, but it’s rock by numbers and I get bored and go to bed, trying to ignore the scary drum ‘n’ bass coming from the Barn.