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Jul 31, 2024 By Dom Gourlay Web Exclusive

With the festival market having become saturated, its the ones that stand out from the crowd who will survive. Step forward Deer Shed Festival, enjoying its fourteenth year in the picturesque confines of Baldersby Park deep in the heart of North Yorkshire’s beautiful countryside. Already firmly established as one of - if not THE - most family friendly music festivals in the UK, Deer Shed continues to grow from strength-to-strength. A statement that is evidenced this weekend as 8000 revellers melt in the glorious sunshine while enjoying a wealth of incredible live performances and so much more besides. Because Deer Shed offers so much more than music. Indeed, the music stages only make up around a third of the festival site itself, as the sports field, science tent, boating lake, tree climbing and infamous Feral Farm provides a weekend’s worth of entertainment for the family. Add the numerous bars and food vendors - all selling locally produced goods - and it’s a welcome respite from the mostly corporate branded events that permeate the UK festival calendar.

Nevertheless, Under the Radar are here predominantly for the music and Friday gets off to a bang with the double whammy of Man / Woman / Chainsaw on the Main Stage and Jessica Winter on the indoor second stage aka In The Dock. It’s been a heady start to 2024 for the former, having recently signed to Fat Possum and announced their debut EP Eazy Peazy (From which they play all six songs this afternoon). The five-piece are something of a revelation in the scorching heat, musically veering from charming to coarse. Their quiet/loud dynamic proving insatiable on songs like “What Lucy Found There” and “Sports Day”. Comparisons to bands like Black Country, New Road and Otala are inevitable due to their ability to carve up and traverse genres with consummate ease and on this form, Man / Woman / Chainsaw will be closing rather than opening stages in the not too distant future.

For the latter, her mid-afternoon slot is probably a tad earlier than we’ve come to expect from the average Jessica Winter show but it’s no less captivating. With a musicality and production that’s coming from the sleazier end of disco, Winter’s set is a masterful exercise in turning your bog standard festival marquee into Studio 54 for forty minutes of sheer, unadulterated pleasure. Breakthrough single “All I Need” sees a number of revellers do as its lyrical content suggests, throwing their handbags on the floor to dance. While the equally luscious “Choreograph” (think Katy Perry fronting Confidence Man) causes a similar outbreak of Friday Afternoon Fever throughout the In The Dock Stage.

Headlining the first day are The Coral, a band who’ve become something of a Great British Musical Institution over the past quarter of a century. With a back catalogue of riches to choose from, it’s somewhat surprising they choose to play a cover of The Doors’ “People Are Strange” (albeit impeccably delivered) midway through, but the six-piece really come in their own on the likes of “That’s Where She Belongs” and “North Wind” off 2023’s Sea Of Mirrors proving they’re as relevant today as they were when the band’s self-titled debut landed almost 22 years ago to the day. “Simon Diamond” and “Goodbye” are aired off said record, as is a closing “Dreaming Of You” which turns the entire main stage area into a sea of merriment while closing the curtains on day one in climactic style.

The next morning, Northumbrian artist Frankie Archer‘s delicately poised electronic folk shakes the cobwebs away in emphatic style. Her fusion of traditional numbers (“The Peacock Followed The Hen”) with electronic gadgetry luring a sizeable crowd to The Lodge Stage before lunchtime. London-based four-piece Picture Parlour are also a revelation on the Main Stage. Having emerged towards the tail end of last year amidst a cloud of hype, their live performances and songcraft justify all of the plaudits bestowed upon them. Playing an extended (for a festival) eleven songs set this Saturday afternoon, their repertoire is seemingly all killer with no filler. Each and every one of the songs they play a certified banger in waiting (“Talk About It” and new song “Used To Be Your Girlfriend” in particular). While all eyes quite rightly focus on singer and guitarist Katherine Parlour whose distinctive vocal sets them apart from many contemporaries, the musicianship of Ella Risi (guitar), Sian Lynch (bass) and Michael Nash (drums) makes them an insatiable proposition (think Stevie Nicks fronting Gold Against The Soul era Manics and you’re in the right ball park) that will almost certainly become household names in the foreseeable future.

Amsterdam collective Personal Trainer also draw a sizeable crowd to the In The Dock Stage that seems to grow in number with each song that’s frantically exorcised by Willem Smid and his merry band of accomplices. Musically they’re an eclectic bunch, meaning elements of post-punk, hardcore, noodly electronica and winsome indiepop all appear at regular intervals. Occasionally even in the same song. Unsurprisingly their set is a main talking point in the bars and campsites after, as is the one that greets us on Sunday morning courtesy of Vanity Fairy.

Having only arrived onsite an hour or so earlier after a late night set at Sheffield’s Clamlines Festival the previous evening, Vanity Fairy’s decadent disco is just what the doctor ordered. Inspiring, sensational and theatrical in every sense, and that’s before we even get onto the tunes which are all magical. “Love Of My Life” and “Top Of The Pops” are dancefloor filling gems in waiting, while “He Can Be My Lady” is alternative pop at its finest.

Cardiff’s Melin Melyn also attract a whole new legion of fans thanks to their countrified psychedelic pop that owes as much to Glen Campbell (including a frazzled cover of “Rhinestone Cowboy) and the Beach Boys as it does fellow countrymen Super Furry Animals and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. Dressed in matching outfits that almost wins first prize for best stagewear of the weekend (Vanity Fairy’s gold sequinned dress just pips them), Melin Melyn are the latest in a long line of irresistable musical talent to emerge from the Welsh valleys and with a debut album imminent, expect to hear more of this six-piece before too long.

Why Flamingods aren’t household names is one of life’s great mysteries as is the surprise choice to put them on the third (Lodge Stage) stage this Sunday afternoon. So it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to see the Lodge area bursting at the seams when the four-piece do eventually take the stage. Playing a set fusing traditional Bahraini folk with Western psychedelia and post-punk influences makes them an enlightening watch, not to mention one of the most danceable acts of the whole weekend. Hopefully the rest of the world catches up sometime soon.

New York born and Cambridge based Annie Dressner is currently enjoying something of a golden year thanks to the widespread critical acclaim bestowed upon her excellent and most recent long player I Thought It Would Be Easier, so again its no surprise to see the Wilderwood Stage packed all the way outside the tent before the start of her set. Playing eleven songs spanning her entire career, Dressner delivers each one with an introduction about its origins, thanks the audience at regular junctures and looks genuinely astonished that the tent remains packed until the anthemic “Black And White” closes her set.

It’s been a massive summer for CMAT, having emerged as a genuine festival headliner since topping the bill at Sheffield’s Get Together in May. Having drawn a huge crowd - arguably the biggest Under the Radar has ever seen for a Sunday night headliner at Deer Shed - it’s easy to see why she’s destined for big things. Last year’s second album Crazymad, For Me was responsible for elevating CMAT into music’s big league so it’s no surprise the songs she plays off that record receive the wildest applause. “I Don’t Really Care For You” and “2 Wrecked 2 Care” off its predecessor also go down a storm, as does a pitch perfect cover of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” that’s both unexpected and jawdropping. As the delightful “Stay For Something” closes her set, the entire field appears to be in awe at what they’ve just witnessed.

What’s more, it also provides the perfect finale to another overwhelmingly exceptional Deer Shed.