REVIEWING ALL THE ACTION LIVE FROM LUTON Words By: Milda Narmontaite
Though the weather was that of typical UK forecasts, with all four seasons occurring in one day, the variety of music acts that appeared at the BBC Introducing Festival in Luton was much more appealing. One of the first bands to perform was the charming Hemel Hempstead bases Dufflefolks, giving us a chilled out performance. The four charismatic members caught our attention with their unique sound, and their instrumentals seem to have merged somewhere between Florence and the Machine, Kate Nash and La Roux, while their soothing vocals were strangely relaxing amidst the busy town centre. As we were talked to the guys backstage, they told us that they initially bonded over cups of hot chocolate, and now, a year and a half later they're still going strong, bringing lustre and shine to the UK's hopeless summer. As the day went on, we were faced with a band whose music genre was far off stream, but the whirlwind of bluegrass, rock n roll and country was successful in
capturing the audience when accompanied by the soulful voice of the lead singer. Later the Shefford/Bedford based band, who formed through a MySpace message, admitted that they're slight attention seekers, in that they love to get the crowd going when they're performing, which surely explained their great onstage vibe! Beta Boy describe themselves as coming from a self-named genre - 'dirty pop', and their set was clearly filled with influences of the sounds from the 80's from artists such as Gary Numan, once again bringing a different kind of feel to the festival. Once St George's Square finally received some sunshine, the indie London based group - Exit Avenue performed some hot pieces, ranging from their own take on popular Hip-Hop, and Rihanna's infectious 'Rude Boy' to some more classical indie songs.