Saturday in Bradford initially promised a break in the weather but by Noon my pre-gig wander found me taking shelter and lunch in The Fighting Cock (a fortuitous discovery if ever there was one). Two hours and a couple of pints later it was still cats & dogs outside so the trusty taxi was resorted to once more for the trip to Al's Dime Bar.

Once seated in Al's it became clear that timings were again pretty fluid as initial act Rory Holl was yet to take to the stage despite it being nearer 3pm. Whether this was due to an act dropping out I've no idea. Had he though not been on the event programme you could have been forgiven for thinking Holl'd been drafted in at the last minute given his professed lack of a set-list. Maybe that's just how he rolls. His own songs 'Wires' and 'Bless This House' were good and displayed a wry wit along with his clear tones but he relied rather too much on cover versions, even if it's not often that you hear 'Rocky Raccoon' getting an airing.

From Al's it was a hike back to the Delius Art and Cultural Centre, with a pit-stop for dinner,to catch Canadian duo Nadja in action. The centre, having been a church in a previous life, has fantastic acoustics so the pair's massive, doom-heavy sound benefited greatly from that as they pounded away on the guitar & bass and twiddled the odd switch or two on their electronics package. Bringing to mind the likes of Godflesh this wasn't quite what you'd call industrial but certainly something closely associated with it. A towering performance that you felt had the audience holding its breath for the duration.

Now came the most frustrating period of the weekend in terms of that flexible attitude to stage times, although in fairness I should have opted to turn up at The Tavern In The Town late and gone to check out left-field jazz pianist Matthew Bourne at Glyde House on the way. As it was, a desire for something more rock-oriented took me back across the city centre to try to see local act Iron Rat. Astheir gear was still mostly on the hall floor when I arrived, however, it became clear no one on the bill here would be hitting their advertised start time. To cut a long story short I finally saw them play (in front of an unexpectedly small though loyal crowd) on my third return to the venue. Heavy, stoner riffs were unleashed as expected but whilst they had their moments, especially on 'Monument', there was an underlying pedestrianism about the performance. Whether they were just off their game, set back by tech issues or have played at home once too often wasn't clear but on the night they didn't bring their A game. I saw some of the Dawn Of Elysium set here too but can't I feel do them any justice other than to say they went down well with the crowd and looked to be having fun (other than their keyboardist during the soundcheck, who more than one punter noted looked glum).

From The Tavern In The Town it was time for a return to the Playhouse, but not before the strains of music in the night air detoured me to the City Vaults pub where local rock trio Francis were making quite a racket & going down well. Whether this was part of the official programme of events was unclear but the BTF14 poster was in the window. 'Living Stone' was a particularly enjoyable instrumental and I'd wager the group like to listen to a bit of Rush in their spare time. Once at the Playhouse there was time to take in the final couple of songs by London trio Snack Family, who on the strength of that were worth buying a t-shirt and EP by. Basically if you liked Morphine then these guys are right up your street. Finally tonight came the motorik Japanese trio Nisennenmondai, with their practically hypnotic, driving sound. Imagine Shonen Knife suddenly deciding to start covering Neu and you'll be in the right sort of area. Excellent stuff although to one Yorkshireman heard upon leaving the venue they were "just girls playing Tangerine Dream". That's as may be but they did it extremely well.   

The final day arrives bathed in sunshine, allowing for any respective hangovers to melt away. We start by popping by catching a bit of The Crooked Brothers and their Americana tinged folk, complete with banjos and beards. This afternoon we have plumped to be healed by some soothing reggae sounds courtesy of the always wonderful Hollie Cook. She is in a large tent structure close to Brighton Pier and thanks the crowd for having the strength to join her at midday. She, as always, delivers subtle reggae pop tunes whilst more Jamaican influences come via the ska sounds of Lazy Talk who increase the tempo and get our tired feet a-tapping.

Feeling refreshed and refuelled, we plump for indie rockers Fe whose large entourage create a chilled rock vibe to conclude our final afternoon session. We pop into the Great Escape free bar purely to bridge the gap between the afternoon session and the evening shows and are treated to sounds via Finnish DJ Jaakko Eino Kalevi.

The final session begins with a simply stunning performance from acoustic maestro The Bony King Of Nowhere. Playing in the Brighton Unitarian Church he stands with the evening light streaming in via stained glass windows as he holds the audience spellbound with a magical performance. His voice is beautifully magnified by the acoustics of the venue. Clearly a wonderful talent, he is without a doubt one of the weekend's stand out performances.

We then catch a quick glimpse of the acoustic pop sounds of Yumi And The Weather, before heading to Brighton seafront for Future Islands via Ipswich's finest Blaenavon, whose comical rock provides great entertainment and crowd participation.

The queues for the main venues are, by now, huge and we start to panic and contemplate who and where will be are next port of call. We know we want to end the night with the chilled electronic sounds of Hidden Orchestra and Jon Hopkins. In order to ensure we get to the venue on time we plump for Belgian four piece BRNS. The Brussels boys create a large drum focused sound in a small intimate hotel lounge. Our decision to plump for the late shows for Hidden Orchestra and Hopkins proves fruitful as the other venues seem fit to bursting. We see the huge queues for hip hop supremo’s Jungle and even bigger queues for the wonderful Kelis. However we are satisfied we have made the right decision and are not disappointed; a larger venue for the two acts rewarding us with some wonderful sounds as we contemplate a great three days of music and frolics.

Roll on next year and the Festival's 10th anniversary; we know it will be even more amazing than this one. Thank you Brighton and good night.

Back for a third go Bradford's Threadfest sees 40+ acts play across ten venues in the city for free over the course of the bank holiday weekend. You read that correctly - free. That lack of entrance fee is achieved by the involvement of such promoters & organisations as Music At Bradford University, Sound Shack Records, the Topic Folk Club and a host more, allowing there to be a rich variety of music (and art installations) on the various stages without anyone being beholden to some mega-booze manufacturer, sports clothing brand or whatever. A wholesome way to begin things.

First stop tonight then was The Black Swan, a pub that fairly screams ROCK! at you and where you can imagine the likes of Napalm Death or similar starting out life on the stage at the end of the bar & everybody enjoying it immensely. Unfortunately no bands were seen on the stage tonight as the start time came and went with no obvious musicians making a move to play so a taxi was called (avoiding the rain would become as much a part of the weekend as the music) for the trip across the city centre to The New Bradford Playhouse, the only other venue in use today.

Weaving through the back stairs from the basement bar brought us into aural contact with the psychedelia of local trio Gurgles and it was the sort of meeting of minds that instantly put to rest all the stresses associated with attending this sort of event. With not a guitar in sight the threesome brought a bit of a heavy prog. edge to their material at times as they ranged from a Yes-like tune at one point to lighter fare employing "Google French" and the heartfelt shouts of "You're an idiot" in a later chorus. Purchasing their 'You Send Me Up' 7" was the only sane action to be taken at the close of their set.

Keeping it local the next band to come on were the particularly youthful indie/afro-beat quartet Koala. Despite the lack of an actual stage the group don't lack for that type of presence, with singer Jemimah gamely attempting to be in more places than one such was the energy she devoted to ranging around the space. With a set including the title track from their Molecules EP and 'Moments' (to which we were all encouraged to "bop") theirs was an enjoyable half hour or so to experience, further proving the worth of making the trip down for the weekend.

Third on tonight were Nottingham's Cantaloupe, another guitarless trio but of a different brand entirely than Gurgles. A band with a quite a few releases to their name there was never going to be a problem in coming up with a set-list. Both sides of the 'Splish'/'Wet Dog' 12" were included in their krautdisco performance, along with 'Hot Water Balloon', with its trippy and motorik start that slowly builds into something altogether different. A seriously good contemporary instrumental act who had their large following along as further proof if any were needed.

Finally tonight came Leeds' Galaxians. With their debut album coming out soon the drums & synth duo didn't mess about in laying down their disco-laced beats, although writing that belies the underlying more serious musical edge that their works contain. Theirs' is a sound that more people than would expect to could appreciate if they'd give themselves the chance. On the night it was bit of a shame that the performance space didn't quite do them justice (a stage of at least a little height and a bit more space for their sounds to fill would have been better) but the crowd were moved to dance to a degree by what was afforded them so that met the bottomline.  

Thanks to Bobbi Luo and Yvonne for the accommodation and hanging out over the weekend.

With sore heads and soggy jeans we hoist our lanyards around our necks and trot out for more of The Great Escape. As we wander through the streets we come across obvious other Great Escapers. We overhear a conversation between two bearded muso types discussing what androgynies sound like and where can they hear some?

We decide to leave them to their beard stroking and we head to hear New Desert Blues and Jaws for some healthy indie rock to wake our ears up. After a quick bite to eat we continue to the wonderful sounds of Glass Owls followed by the soothing keyboards of Unknwn.

After the yesterday's disappointment of not getting into the odd venue or two, we devise a plan of attack. It's become apparent that in order to ensure you get in it's ideal to plump for the band that precedes your favoured artist.

With this in mind, we head for The Haunt. The idea being that with two acts we want to see, we may as well spend a large chunk of the evening in one place. We may also be surprised by the other acts. We spend many hours discussing the benefits of this, on one hand it prevents us running between venues, and our previous experience has told us that once you’re inside a venue, it's best to try and stay there. We are however, rewarded hugely by a great line up.

Hip Hop comes from the straight talking Hawk House with a wonderful flow of lyrics and beats. East India Youth then blows the whole crowd away with an amazing solo performance of sheer noise management. The ginger haired, pimpled youth creates such wonderfully musical landscapes as he moves from subtle keyboards, ending in full on techno. We think he has a magical future ahead of him and, in our opinion, comes out as the star of the festival.

We are then further entertained via stand up British rockers Telegram whose unapologetic rock and roll rounds off a wonderful array of talent through three different styles. Hungry for more we drop into Komedia to catch incredible Japanese DJ Tokimonsta before finishing the night with Ella Eyre whose soulful vocals soothe aching feet and heads before we're tugged home content and buzzing from  another wonderful day of music.