No or very little corporate branding, a benevolent aristocratic landlord, great views of the Clyde coast and islands and a dizzying variety of music, cabaret and arts, food and drink plus camping – it all adds up to an event which has sold out its 4,500 capacity the past few years.

while it’s all about the music, it is worth pointing out that the “selection” of acts mentioned here are mainly because they were fitted around volunteer shifts, in her case on traffic management. The volunteer offer is worth a thought – three shifts of six hours for those on traffic and stewarding, with various other roles such as artist liaison also available – and in exchange for that you get a weekend camping ticket, access to tea/coffee/breakfast in crew catering and a hot meal during each of your shifts (ok, plug for volunteer applications for next year over!).

A bit like TRNSMT the other week BM is putting a disclaimer in for factual accuracy – the notes got pulped in the rain and the phone started to malfunction so a lot of information about these sets was completely lost…

Thursday
Several of the many stages were open on the Thursday so BM saw several acts on the Pyramid Stage, curated on that night by Edinburgh venue Sneaky Pete’s. First on was Terra Kin, who sounded good from a distance and from the bar (!), TK on guitar backed by a keyboard player, no details on track names due to you-know-what…

Next up, Oedipus and the Mamma’s Boys crowded the smallish Pyramid Stage and gave the now somewhat larger crowd a bit of their attitude-filled, punky, brassy God-knows-what-the-style-is music. They played the Houseguest festival back in (checks notes) April and this was a similar set, singer/guitarist Charlie by turns furious and soulful while bassist Jemima again shone with her playing and amazing voice, more great duets. Recent-ish track ‘Stretched/Kitchens’ was great and by the time closer ‘Bill’ came around the crowd were pretty fired up – another strong showing from this lot.

The last act BM saw on the Thursday was Sister Madds – singer/guitarist Maddie was a ball of energy, pouting and preening but then by equal measure shouty and aggressive. Charismatic and slightly Harry-esque (Debbie not Kane!), her betweeded guitar sidekick Fraser joined her in a duet at one point – they made a slightly odd couple… The male of the species got a general kicking (and deservedly so) in several of the tracks, ‘Get Rich Get Girls…’ being a good example, but there were also words of frustration in tracks like ‘Can’t Read My Lips’. They have an EP and a couple of singles under their belt and a couple of tasty support slots as well as headlining at least one venue in their base city of Glasgow. BM acted as unofficial mike lead wrangler several times and the set ended with ‘Performative Exercise’ – this is a band with a lot to give, a heady brew of Riot Grrrl, indiepop and Banshees-esque punk, miss them at your peril!

Also well worth a mention, and what started the evening for BM on the Thursday was ‘Wax Lyrical’ at the Twin Peaks Cabaret Tent. This combination of spoken word and ambient beats was hosted by Iona Lee (also known for her work with the band Acolyte), who performed spoken word pieces along with several guests who jumped on and off the mic as they saw fit. There were some hilariously funny but also very poignant moments, nice to share in a field near Largs in one of the few periods when it wasn’t raining.

Friday
Due to the demands of the volunteer contract BM only came off-shift around 10.30pm so the first band of the day was in fact Glasgow’s Soapbox, appearing here a mere couple of weeks after a valedictory performance in the pouring rain at TRNSMT. They drew perhaps the biggest Pyramid crowd that BM witnessed the entire weekend – a muddy crowd, which only got muddier as the music and the moshing started. Soapbox played a fairly extensive set, maybe 12 or 13 tracks, including most of the crowd favourites.

Tom was in the crowd pretty much from the start, rolling in the mud at least once and causing some mic cable nightmare for his Sister Madds colleague who was trying to stop it wind around the stand and knocking it over. The threat of a stage invasion was also present several times (there is no barrier at The Pyramid) but the band powered through, Tom making several important points in the course of what some could see as a celebration of hedonism – he called out any instances of “anyone who is being touched inappropriately” during the mass of dancing and moshing and he made the point that “refugees are welcome here” which got the crowd chanting.

He further mentioned that his grandpa lives in Largs and he has many happy memories of this part of the world – what a nice boy! Soapbox showed tonight that they can turn a less partisan, non-Glaswegian crowd in their favour so easily, and it’s a well noting they have been playing gigs down south and on the continent. These guys are going places and it can’t be long before there are more tracks recorded to add to the couple of EPs and singles already in the can. Highlight of the set was maybe ‘Fascist Bob’ although there were tons to choose from, including BM thinks a couple of new ones.

After that BM headed off to the Square stage to see her old pals Snapped Ankles (“had them in the back of my van once, lovely boys…”etc) who were midway through their slightly ponderous but atmospheric ambient but with live drums instrumental trance set – pretty good to be fair, but maybe not move on that much since BM last saw them live in 2022. After that it was what can only be described as a downright novelty act, the explicably popular Dogshow. Yes it is two people with dog masks on playing instrumental techno with various bits of spoken dialogue over the top, which did get the crowd moving but good grief it was silly…

Saturday
On the Saturday BM had no shift to worry about so started the day at the Pyramid with Edinburgh, or rather Leith’s Gurry Wurry, know to his mum as Dave. Playing his keyboard (with the “Nord” branding replaced with the word “Knorr” – this man likes his stock cubes!) in the pouring rain to a “select” crowd (including The Skinny’s music editor Tallah Brash, who curated The Pyramid’s acts on the Friday-Sunday), his self-declared “wonky” chord changes were original and the lyrics quirky and often heartfelt. On the verge of launching album no. 2, the sound reminds BM a bit of Withered Hand but equally of more mainstream acts with even a touch of Elton John – these tunes are catchy! BM understands (from Tallah, she knows her shit… (as does oor Jack – Ed) ) that the new album has been produced by Andy Monaghan, an excellent choice… Tracks like ‘Hairline’ and ‘Champions Bore Me’ went down a treat with this reviewer, and the closing cover of ‘Born In The USA’ (“celebrating the 4th of July…”) was a brave and moving take on a widely misunderstood song (he did however replace “Yellow Man” with “Viet Cong”) – BM hopes to catch Dave again in future, great start to the day.

He was followed by another Edinburgh-based act, Samwooddoowmas, a one-man electronica purveyor, who played what came across like a song-cycle, the same themes returning repeatedly, using keyboard, sampler, treated vocals and a couple of other items (yes, that was a couple of dildos lying on top of the decks…) – at one point Sam (for short, or let’s just assume he’s called that) realised he’d left his beer backstage and one of the stagecrew brought it out to him, to applause from the audience.

(Let’s also pay tribute to all the Pyramid Stage crew, including Laurie on sound and the stage manager, whose name BM did not catch – they did a fantastic job in terrible conditions, a surreal amount of rain and mud).

Next up was Gaia, incredible voice and backed by a really talented band – she has all the makings of a real star and with only one track on Shittify, well you heard it here first. Jazzy, soulful yet spiky when required, she was pretty overwhelmed by the large crowd which had assembled, many of whom seemed to know her personally – it was actually rather sweet and made up for the continuing awful rain.

Cuzino and Nwanneka played next, a winning combination of electronica and beats (him) and soulful, rich vocals (her) – they played several joint compositions but also versions of some of Cuzino’s previous releases – some of this was virally catchy and provoked a fair bit of dancing. They clearly enjoyed performing together despite some glitchy moments and the bloody rain. Yet again a great booking by Tallah and anyone could see them going far, with a slightly Hot Chip vs Yazoo sound.

Glasgow’s Majesty Palm took their turn in the rain, singer Sophie being perhaps the least dressed for the weather of all artists on that day, her slightly vampy black dress and knee-high boots just crying out to be covered in mud like...

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