Crowd revels in high-quality music at Cockrock festival
Last updated at 13:02, Monday, 23 July 2012
Organisers of this year’s Cockermouth Rock Festival promised the best ever – and they didn’t disappoint.
Thousands of people took over the Wellington Farm site for three days and were treated to a weekend of varied and high quality music.
The annual festival, now in its eighth year, put together its most ambitious line-up and the crowd responded enthusiastically.
Clint Stamper, chairman of the organising committee, said: “We have had lots of good feedback from people. We listened to their issues from last year and addressed them.People have seen that the festival is better and have had a really good time and that’s why I’ve been going round with a smile on my face.”
The festival was revamped for 2012 with changes to the site and a new main stage.
The new stage allowed for hundreds more people to cram in front of it and they turned out in their masses for the headline acts although Radio One DJ Zane Lowe pulled in the biggest crowd of the weekend when he performed on Saturday evening.
He mixed tracks spanning all the genres – pop, rock, dance and drum and bass. It was an inspired choice by organisers with the main stage crammed to bursting and the whole crowd jumping.
Mr Stamper added: “I had somebody come up to me and said before that he didn’t think he would be that good but after watching him he was converted. Zane was a really nice guy and said he really likes the grass roots festivals.”
Another big crowd assembled for Saturday headliner Tinchy Stryder who, despite only a 35-minute set, still impressed the crowd.
It was another coup for the organisers to get the artist, who has previously played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury and he included performances of Number One which topped the UK charts in 2009 and Bright Lights with Pixie Lott.
The Friday night headliners were the Fun Lovin’ Criminals with lead singer Huey Morgan immaculately turned out in shades, smoking a cigarette which he then put on the end of his guitar as he played.
He got the crowd involved and was clearly appreciative of the support they gave.
The New York trio oozed class, belting a set which included The King of New York, Love Unlimited before finishing with signature track Fun Lovin’ Criminals which drew great cheers from the crowd and enjoyed it so much ended up deejaying in Tent 42 later on in the evening.
Although the headliners understandably drew huge crowds there were many other big names performing as well as dozens of local bands who also packed in the audience.
Hertfordshire quartet Lower than Atlantis certainly got the crowd in the mood on Friday night with their mixture of pop rock and punk and interacted with the crowd well.
It set the scene for The Subways who followed and certainly drew the crowds in during their 45-minute set.
The band consisting of Billy Lunn, Charlotte Cooper and Josh Morgan were, if nothing else, energetic as they dominated the stage and drew huge cheers from the crowd.
Local band Collision played a number of covers with Mr Stamper joining in and later on Saturday festival favourites The Lottery Winners were as popular as ever while Saturday night was brought to a close by Thin Lizzy tribute band Five and Dangerous.
On Friday, Highly Strung from Carlisle played on the Bar Stage while West Cumbrians Colt 45 played a good a set as ever on the Session Stage before a huge crowd turned out to see local band AWOL in the bar tent as they energetically covered a number of classic rock songs from the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and AC/DC.
One of the hidden gems of the festival was the Gav McKew stage where Cockermouth band Codex performed.
The four-piece band, all aged between 15 and 17, played a number of covers very well that belied there young age and had plenty of people jumping around.
Sunday brought its own problems as strong winds battered the campsite damaging the main stage with part of it coming away and the lighting rigging coming loose.
Plenty of tents blew away and traders struggled with their marquees and many of the bands were transferred to the bar stage but the show continued.
Mr Stamper added: “We put all the bands in the bar tent and everybody was in there having a great time.”
Main acts Dr and the Medics and punk icons the Buzzcocks performed in the bar tent on Sunday to close the festival.
More photos in today's News & Star
First published at 11:28, Monday, 23 July 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
Apart from the lack of manners from a few idiot attendees this was an amazing festival. The organisers did a brilliant job dealing with the bad weather on Sunday. Highlights for me was Zane Lowe - The crowd were jumping in unison so much it could have been recorded on the Richter Scale and the Dr and the Medics were fun. Also it is great to see emerging young talent taking the opportunity to perform at a festival - I was impressed by a number of their performances. When are the tickets for 2013 on sale? - I'm having one!
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It was a good weekend for me and my family. Zane Lowe and The Subways were the highlights. The only critism would be the cover bands on the main stage at such peak times. They should have been in one of the tents and let the original material bands take the mantle
Posted by Oliver Davidson on 25 July 2012 at 12:16