The fourth Bearded Theory festival ran over the weekend of 13-15 May 2011 in its new permanent home nestled in the grounds of the very impressive National Trust property Kedleston Hall. It is the first real festival of the year where you can chill out in the open air and soak up a really exciting range of music, in fact it's a bit mind bending in its variety, the organisers seem to have gone all out this year to increase the kind of acts they brought to it. From Punk to folk and singer songwriters to performance poets.

A new stage was added this year, the Drop-Inn featuring hip hop, DJ's, beatboxers and all sorts of talented young acts. The Drop Inn was also the chosen charity for the festival in 201; 'A place for the Young People in our community to meet and engage in positive activities or just call in and socialise with peers.' to that end the Drop Inn arena did just that in a brilliant fashion. The festival will be making a donation to the charity from profits, more info at www.thedropinn.org

First off, we were proud to present 3 Daft Monkeys with their Spiral Award for Best Live Act, in which they had more votes than the Levellers, Dreadzone and Seth Lakeman. Bearded Theory was a fitting place to present the award as they were there at the beginning of the festival when it was held in a pub car park and they remain one of the most popular acts at the festival whenever they play, as you can see from the crowd they drew below.

Kedleston Hall is a gem of a site for a festival, a genteel and refined scene with the grand looking hall in the background, a lake stretching behind the main arena and bemused looking golfers whacking their balls on the course that overlooks the site. Within the boundaries of the festival another world is created for three days, Bearded Theory has grown very quickly but quite organically, you still get the feeling that it reflects the likes and dislikes of a group of friends organising it for an even bigger group of friends. It is a very friendly place, I've never been hugged so many times by complete strangers.

The Waterboys delivered a solid rock set that capped off the Saturday a treat, although it didn't quite come across as a vintage Waterboys performance.

Transglobal Underground were one of the highlights of Sunday, in their twentieth anniversary year they show no signs of losing that magic that makes them so special. They compress more influences, sounds, beats and genres into one song than most bands manage in a whole career.

Another treat was Champignon on sunday afternoon, made up of ex members of Ozric Tentacles and current members of Zubzub and Dream Machine. Time to lay down on the grass and have an ambient chill out. Something I realised about this festival is the way the programme gets you moving around the site, there was always something new or something familiar to draw you in a different direction. For me it was the lesser known artists and the low key performances that really shone, the poetry of Joolz Denby backed by the big dirty sound of New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack, or the stark beauty of Martha Tilston's performance. Even the barking cheesy madness of Wagner filled the Beard Top with fans (No, really, people had made placards saying 'We love you Wagner')

Martha Tilston

Neck kicked out a great breakneck set, enough to drag fans out of the beer tent and get them leaping about in front of the stage.

'That twat off the telly' as Ade Edmondson described himself has proven that his idea of covering punk and rock classics in a folk stylee really does work and they ain't no novelty act. Those uillean pipes sounded greta being carried on the wind across the festival.

An all too short set from Joolz Denby was magical, backed with the low growl of New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack it became something trance like in its intensity. Her poetry is intense and direct and she has such a presence, there is an aura of strength about her yet tempered by compassion. Find out more about her at www.myspace.com/joolz_denby

Over on the main stage the festival patrons were performing, 3 Daft Monkeys are one of our favourite bands, and yours too as they won the 'best live act' category in the 2011 Spiral Awards. Bearded Theory seemed a fitting place to present the award to them.

They sum it all up for us...

There were a lot of bands who epitomised immediacy and excitement in their heyday, Eddie and the Hotrods, the Undertones, UK Subs and the Beat are all big names but didnt quite have the edge they once did. Whilst they all delivered tight workmanlike sets it felt a bit by the numbers. Even the Saturday headliners the Waterboys failed to quite get the pulses racing like the last two acts on the Sunday night did.

Hobo Jones and the Junkyard Dogs had to squash their set into a shorter slot as the man from the council had been round to impose a curfew. It must have been the strong winds blowing the sound away from the festival all day that caused the local residents to complain, boy do we like to complain in this country...

 

MAIN STAGE
FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Athlete	The Waterboys	Alabama 3
The Whip	The Undertones	Transglobal Underground
Sonic Boom 6	Dub Pistols	The Beat
The Skints	The Bad Shepherds	Zion Train
Last Republic	3 Daft Monkeys	UK Subs
James Warner Prophecies	Eddie & the Hot Rods	Tofu Love Frogs
	Neck	P.A.I.N
	Jerzey Street Band	David Gibb
BEARD TOP
FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Cosmo Jarvis	Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs	Miles Hunt & Erica Nockells
Mama Rosin	Justin Sullivan	Little Johnny England
Dirty Revolution	Abdoujaparov	Zombie Met Girl
Ferocious Dog	NYAAA (Acoustic)	Mistys Big Aventure
Attila the Stockbroker	Dan Donnelly	Martha Tilson
The Amber Herd	Flutatious	True Deceivers
Seven Little Sisters	Who Shot Who?	Mundo Jazz
Verbal Warning	Tom Williams	Band from County Hell
	Fyre Fly	Northern Monkey
	Dan Days	Wagner
	Joolz Denby
MAGICAL SOUNDS ARENA
* Running order TBC
FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
DJ X (Lab4)	Eat Static	The Orb Soundsystem
Chris Liberator	Ed Tangent	Disoriental
Glowbones (RiffRaff)	Tristan	Wobbly Squadron
D.A.V.E The Drummer	Lorraine (Psylocibe Tribe)	Eat Static
Greg Zogg	AtomGrinder	Magiclantern
Key Lo & Dr $icknote	Full Lotus	Tarantism sound system
DJ Criminal Justice (Offyerface)	Mad Mick (Kulu)	Astrodruid
DJ Mo	Lunarseed
THE DROP INN (Days TBC)
FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Nathan Hadley	Shookz	Squigz
Dave Angle	MC Spyda	Robinson
Ricky Meakin	The Pete Box	Richard and the Rafters
Stunt Brothers	Operand	Unknown Creatures
Dirty Bear	Maestro	Secret Band
This Wicked Tongue	Skairpigg	Ragatti String Band
Riptide	Patch Werk	Greenman Rising
Jasper in the company of others	Super Kaine	Panic Dance
Nathan Hadley	Smoke Stack	Chloe-Jade
Urban Canvas	Whitemoor	Please Y Self
The Code	Paradise 9	Resident DJ Bayer
Sun Machine
SOMETHING ELSE TEA TENT (Days TBC)
FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Cosmo	Black Canaries	Deferred Success
Simon Mason	Manana	The keeps music
Jack Pascoe & Leeum Johnson	The Stanley's	Muddy Summers & The Dirty Field Whores
Akiel Chinelo	Jordan Delap

Check the web site for changes and updates at www.beardedtheory.co.uk

Official site - www.beardedtheory.co.uk

This years chosen charity www.thedropinn.org

National Trust Kedleston Hall and Park pages

2010 Spiral Earth feature, with pictures and video interviews