East London’s Lovebox festival has rapidly established itself as one of the capital’s premier events, offering a combination of eclectic music, a groovin’ atmosphere and a genuinely innovative spirit. Founded in 2002 by Groove Armada with the intention of creating a proper urban festival, it has now expanded to a three-day jamboree, with a line-up this year including: Grace Jones, Roxy Music and Bow’s very own Dizzee Rascal.
It isn’t at all unusual to see a line-up that combines world famous rock stars with acts who have only just begun their careers, but the good-humoured vibe and willingness of festival goers to take a chance on new artists, means you’re as likely to find your new music obsession at Lovebox as you are to catch up with an old favourite.
Highlights this year included Paloma Faith exhibiting her signature quirky dress sense and equally individual music to great acclaim. Given she was nearly in danger of being upstaged by a nearby ‘hotel’ featuring burlesque performances, this was no mean feat. She was soon followed by Mark Ronson with his new band, The Business Intl. On the evidence of what was unveiled, it looks to be a natural step forward from his earlier covers album, Version, with less brass but a similar number of guest stars and 80s-influenced hits in waiting. Nick Rhodes and Simon le Bon – and then the entirety of Duran Duran – came on stage to perform two songs, the title track of Ronson’s new album, ‘Record Collection’, and then their debut single, ‘Planet Earth’.
The eagerly anticipated headliners were the ever-suave Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. Rumours that they would be reforming for a new album proved incorrect – it will be a Ferry solo album, albeit with all the Roxy line-up (including Brian Eno) contributing in some capacity. Daringly they chose to play obscure album tracks for the first hour or so of the set, including epic versions of ‘A Song For Europe’ and ‘In Every Dream Home a Heartache’, before giving the crowd a dose of hits, getting the East London crowd to strut their stuff to ‘Jealous Guy’, ‘Love Is The Drug’, ‘Do The Strand’.
All in all – a fabulous event. Let’s hope Lovebox 2011 is similarly splendid stuff.
