A Carefully Planned Festival 2015 crashed over Manchesters Northern Quarter like a mighty wave of noise and excitement. A testament to D.I.Y spirit and a forever strengthening musical community . We caught up with some of the bands on show, some of Yeah Buddy!'s closest pals and even the festivals chief organiser to gather their thoughts on the weekends festivities.
Matthew Boycott-Garnett - Chief Organiser of Carefully Planned Festival
Festival Highlight
My festival highlight was The Gentle Good playing a super-intimate set in the Cord basement on Saturday afternoon. I always enjoy the venues I get no phone signal in.
Summary
It's hard for me to summarise, but put simply, I'm really glad everyone had a good time. It'll take a little while to sink in.
Top Pick Of The Bands
The Gentle Good, Barringtone, Cult Party
Festival Highlight
My festival highlight was The Gentle Good playing a super-intimate set in the Cord basement on Saturday afternoon. I always enjoy the venues I get no phone signal in.
Summary
It's hard for me to summarise, but put simply, I'm really glad everyone had a good time. It'll take a little while to sink in.
Top Pick Of The Bands
The Gentle Good, Barringtone, Cult Party
Lorna Blundell - The Hyena Kill
Festival Highlight
A few friends came from out of town who we haven't seen for a while. We spent some time drinking and catching up in a buzzing Gullivers after we played which was lovely.
Summary
My favourite part about ACPF was seeing the NQ vibing with loads of musicians and music fans. So many familiar faces about.
Top Pick Of The Bands
I saw Iran Iran and Bearded Youth Quest and was really loving both bands sound. Cleft smashed Night n Day too. May sound bias but my favourite bands of the weekend were AMTP and Groves, they were on before us in Mint Lounge so I was pumped to play. They both nailed it and they got me excited to get on stage! The crowd was awesome. Huge thanks to everyone that came to see our set. Awesome weekend.
Festival Highlight
A few friends came from out of town who we haven't seen for a while. We spent some time drinking and catching up in a buzzing Gullivers after we played which was lovely.
Summary
My favourite part about ACPF was seeing the NQ vibing with loads of musicians and music fans. So many familiar faces about.
Top Pick Of The Bands
I saw Iran Iran and Bearded Youth Quest and was really loving both bands sound. Cleft smashed Night n Day too. May sound bias but my favourite bands of the weekend were AMTP and Groves, they were on before us in Mint Lounge so I was pumped to play. They both nailed it and they got me excited to get on stage! The crowd was awesome. Huge thanks to everyone that came to see our set. Awesome weekend.
Nick Jones - Pocket Apocalypse
Festival Highlight
One of the things that strikes you about Carefully Planned is for an intercity festival, how close together everything is. It takes the hassle out of everything and means you can focus on the music.
Summary
Great way to spend two days. Everyone is there to see good music, and that lends a great atmosphere at every venue. While the venues never seemed too empty, It was sometime tricky to get into see some of the bigger acts (Cleft springs to mind). It possibly could have done with an earlier finish on Sunday as well, as I personally had to call it a night early to recover for work the next day, and had to miss out on a few acts I wanted to see. The venues sounded great. Overall, a great weekend.
Top Pick Of The Bands
Alpha Male Tea Party: Kicked off the day with a loud and rifftacular bang. Always beautifully tight, always huge in sound. Tom's new Hayden endorsement has also lent an undeniable extra level to their punch. Their new song was truly excellent. Can't wait for what's to come!
The Hyena Kill: Intensity and groove. These two always bring the heavy with the loud, and I absolutely love it. Meaty riffs, meaty beats and meat. Meat.
Axes: Pure faultless unadulterated happiness as per usual. Can't get enough of these guys at the moment.
Vasa: Like a musical tip of the hat and punch to the face. They perfectly channel joyful riffs and high energy through a massive sound. And that comes across even more clearly when they play live. These guys are worth keeping an eye on.
Alright the Captain: Every gig these guys play at the moment is gold. All at once intricate, insanely tight and well crafted, and then they bring in heavy intensity perfectly. These guys have refined themselves to something well worth your time.
Eyre Llew: Beautiful ambient builds and large swooping and sculpted soundscapes. They were a welcome change from the intensity of the other stages.
Delta Sleep: Rhythmically intricate and musically complex while at the same time being completely absorbing. These guys were a lot of fun to watch with a comfortable playfulness on stage that only sucked you in all the more.
Festival Highlight
One of the things that strikes you about Carefully Planned is for an intercity festival, how close together everything is. It takes the hassle out of everything and means you can focus on the music.
Summary
Great way to spend two days. Everyone is there to see good music, and that lends a great atmosphere at every venue. While the venues never seemed too empty, It was sometime tricky to get into see some of the bigger acts (Cleft springs to mind). It possibly could have done with an earlier finish on Sunday as well, as I personally had to call it a night early to recover for work the next day, and had to miss out on a few acts I wanted to see. The venues sounded great. Overall, a great weekend.
Top Pick Of The Bands
Alpha Male Tea Party: Kicked off the day with a loud and rifftacular bang. Always beautifully tight, always huge in sound. Tom's new Hayden endorsement has also lent an undeniable extra level to their punch. Their new song was truly excellent. Can't wait for what's to come!
The Hyena Kill: Intensity and groove. These two always bring the heavy with the loud, and I absolutely love it. Meaty riffs, meaty beats and meat. Meat.
Axes: Pure faultless unadulterated happiness as per usual. Can't get enough of these guys at the moment.
Vasa: Like a musical tip of the hat and punch to the face. They perfectly channel joyful riffs and high energy through a massive sound. And that comes across even more clearly when they play live. These guys are worth keeping an eye on.
Alright the Captain: Every gig these guys play at the moment is gold. All at once intricate, insanely tight and well crafted, and then they bring in heavy intensity perfectly. These guys have refined themselves to something well worth your time.
Eyre Llew: Beautiful ambient builds and large swooping and sculpted soundscapes. They were a welcome change from the intensity of the other stages.
Delta Sleep: Rhythmically intricate and musically complex while at the same time being completely absorbing. These guys were a lot of fun to watch with a comfortable playfulness on stage that only sucked you in all the more.
Groves
Festival Highlight
Making some noise, Wandering around
Summary
Its always a fun weekend, rambling around the venues is a great way to discover some good new music, and there's always a great bunch of people you know at the festival and a great bunch of people you don't know ... and its an affordable ticket too which is just lovely !
Top Pick Of The Bands
We didnt see too much music this year but it was nice to catch a few friends play, Butcher The Bar, Hyena Kill ... and Kieran Leonard was fun, I think thats about all we caught as the planning of the festival was not as careful as you might think and we seemed to keep missing things.
Festival Highlight
Making some noise, Wandering around
Summary
Its always a fun weekend, rambling around the venues is a great way to discover some good new music, and there's always a great bunch of people you know at the festival and a great bunch of people you don't know ... and its an affordable ticket too which is just lovely !
Top Pick Of The Bands
We didnt see too much music this year but it was nice to catch a few friends play, Butcher The Bar, Hyena Kill ... and Kieran Leonard was fun, I think thats about all we caught as the planning of the festival was not as careful as you might think and we seemed to keep missing things.
Marsicans
Festival Highlight
A lot of cool people about. Interesting selection of ales at Soup Kitchen.
Summary
ACPF was great: well organised, friendly volunteers, well selected venues, reasonable ticket price and a genuinely indie ethos.
Top Pick Of The Bands
Marsicans (obvz) and the two bands either side of them, Kagoule and Crushed Beaks, all put on a good show. Would have liked to see Get Inuit but sadly the scheduling did not permit.
Festival Highlight
A lot of cool people about. Interesting selection of ales at Soup Kitchen.
Summary
ACPF was great: well organised, friendly volunteers, well selected venues, reasonable ticket price and a genuinely indie ethos.
Top Pick Of The Bands
Marsicans (obvz) and the two bands either side of them, Kagoule and Crushed Beaks, all put on a good show. Would have liked to see Get Inuit but sadly the scheduling did not permit.
Sam Jones - Monster Sound Collective, (Atlas), Triptych
Festival Highlight:
Just meeting loads of people I had met at ArcTanGent this summer and catching up with them over delicious beers and watching some incredible music. I also loved how much freedom there was to explore between venues and find a ton of different sounding stuff. That, plus being legless in Manchester is always a laugh.
Summary
This was my first Carefully Planned, and I'm glad that it was everything I was building up in my head that it would be! It was a different city festival that I was used to in the sense that every venue was within an extremely short walking distance from the rest, which made it incredibly easy to get around. I got to see loads of mates play, loads of bands I'd never heard before, and loads of the bottoms of beer glasses. One hell of a good weekend, in other words.
Top Pick Of The Bands
This is hard, obviously. I watched Delta Sleep on the front row, and seeing as they're one of my favourite bands in the world at the moment that was pretty bloody fantastic. Axes delivered an absolute blinder, as always. My chums in the Hyena Kill absolutely ripped my ears to shreds with their stellar new material, and Vasa are on such unbelievably good form it's a bit ridiculous. There were some surprises I hadn't seen before who I really enjoyed, too - Bloody Mammals and Eyre Lleu, to name a couple.
Festival Highlight:
Just meeting loads of people I had met at ArcTanGent this summer and catching up with them over delicious beers and watching some incredible music. I also loved how much freedom there was to explore between venues and find a ton of different sounding stuff. That, plus being legless in Manchester is always a laugh.
Summary
This was my first Carefully Planned, and I'm glad that it was everything I was building up in my head that it would be! It was a different city festival that I was used to in the sense that every venue was within an extremely short walking distance from the rest, which made it incredibly easy to get around. I got to see loads of mates play, loads of bands I'd never heard before, and loads of the bottoms of beer glasses. One hell of a good weekend, in other words.
Top Pick Of The Bands
This is hard, obviously. I watched Delta Sleep on the front row, and seeing as they're one of my favourite bands in the world at the moment that was pretty bloody fantastic. Axes delivered an absolute blinder, as always. My chums in the Hyena Kill absolutely ripped my ears to shreds with their stellar new material, and Vasa are on such unbelievably good form it's a bit ridiculous. There were some surprises I hadn't seen before who I really enjoyed, too - Bloody Mammals and Eyre Lleu, to name a couple.
Lewis O' Neill - Mothers
Festival Highlight
I arrived at the soup kitchen at about 6 and I was on my own 'cause I had just come from the City match. Anyway, I was walking around just thinking "I hope I bump into someone I know" and then I saw Lewis and David from Lake of Snakes. So I stood outside and went through cig's and cans like no ones business whilst they ganged up on me for liking certain bands. But the whole thing was really funny and sarcastic and then we all went for a piss together and it was sweet.
Summary
I think Mathew (and all the guys who help out) do a sweet job on that festival. There's so many sweet bands to go and see over different venues but it's a really intimate and community like atmosphere of all those kind of bands who no matter what genre they count themselves as, they are still in this one place just doing their thing and chilling out with friends. When we were packing up I said to Jack "you go and get the car, I'm just gunna go and get some cigs, I'll be like 5 minutes" so I start walking round the corner and I bump into so many people I know from the lovely big pool of music were all swimming in that my walk was broken up and it took so long, and that's what I really like about that festival, 'cause I fucking hate walking
Top Pick Of The Bands
1.Alpha male tea party - Liverpool based band who we've played with a few times. Really nice guys and so fun to watch. It's like catchy mathy stuff but with beats (cause Greg is a killer drummer) track to check out - 'Boris Bike Briefcase Man'
2. The Orielles- like my FAVOURITE band at the minute. Seen these guys a few times and every time they've been SICKKKK. Sweet sweet dudes as well. I can't believe these guys aren't bigger than they are. Really catchy surf rock kinda thing. Track to check out - 'Joey Says We Got It'. - CHOOON!
3. Groves - the sexiest guys ever. Like noisey, shouty, punk rock, noise rock vibe. The sweetest guys in the world. But they really have something about them, I'm not sure if it's their image, or their sound but I always end up getting a really long (in terms of time not physical length) and painful erection. But it's beautiful. I wish I was in a band with Mattia (drummer). I'd use him as a blanket on tour !
Marty Captain - Alright The Captain, Buttonpusher DIY
Festival Highlight
Spending the weekend with a good crew including the Bellow Below boys and Steve Strong, we had all the craic all weekend smile emoticon
Summary
well it really was carefully planned wasnt it. Everything seemed to run like clockwork and there were soooo many awesome bands playing and we didn't miss anyone we wanted to see because it was so well organised with something for everyone
Top Pick Of The Bands
Mothers, Kagoule, Bellow Below, Bearded Youth Quest and Vasa for sure
Festival Highlight
Spending the weekend with a good crew including the Bellow Below boys and Steve Strong, we had all the craic all weekend smile emoticon
Summary
well it really was carefully planned wasnt it. Everything seemed to run like clockwork and there were soooo many awesome bands playing and we didn't miss anyone we wanted to see because it was so well organised with something for everyone
Top Pick Of The Bands
Mothers, Kagoule, Bellow Below, Bearded Youth Quest and Vasa for sure