Unlike its pop counterpart, an all out glowstick-fest which annually descends into autocue/miming hell down the Point, Childline Rocks manages to showcase a far more tasteful array of talent for precisely the same cause.
Recent Choice Award winners Super Bonus Extra Party, amongst the first to take to the main stage, ultimately fail to live up to their encouraging moniker and live reputation. Sure, they have bundles of energy and are capable of blending many different musical styles into a repetitive electronic crescendo, but they’ve yet to prove they know their way around a memorable pop hook. They could learn a thing or two from Jape, unleashing underground dance-pop classics ‘Floating’ and ‘I Was A Man’ in quick succession downstairs, managing to achieve in one lone electronic whiz-kid what SEBP fail to in six.
Back on the main stage, Ham Sandwich air their impressive recent single ‘Keepsake’, a near-perfect blast of contained indie aggression. It proves such a highlight that the rest of their set seems a bit meat-and-two-veg by comparison.
Opening with the aptly titled ‘Moving’, Cathy Davey and band seem intent on shuffling their feet and making the gig like one of their own. The memorable Bo Diddley blues beat and Bangles-esque vocal of ‘Reuben’ allows Davey the kind of crowd recognition required to do so with style. Although headliners The Coronas' brand of soft pub-rock seems more suited to the aforementioned Point bash, all involved here made a charitable effort, and thankfully, there’s not an autocue in sight.