Nightmare before Christmas

Once again I went to the wonderful ATP festival at Minehead. Although more than a bit chilly, it was a brilliant mix from the eccentric world of music:

My top ten of the weekend were:

• The Dirtbombs: fun, poppy, with a seemingly very camp front man (I think it was just his dad dancing) http://www.myspace.com/dirtbombs
• Meat puppets: a tendency to wanky guitar solos but geniuses nonetheless. One of them has just got out of rehab, the expression on his face tells me it may have been too late. http://www.myspace.com/themeatpuppets
• Os Mutantes: mad Brazilian people. I had no idea what they were singing about but it didn't seem to matter, there were sequins and capes, and that is important. http://www.myspace.com/osmutantes66
• Junior Brown: Old school country with a kick preformed using a double necked guit-steel guitar. They all looked very smart and had permanent fixed grins on there faces. Do not be deceived by there wedding band look! http://www.myspace.com/juniorbrown
• Fantomas: Mad and arty, they performed their directors cut album of interpretations of movie sound tracks, loud and brilliant. There new album is about the month of April. What's not to love. http://www.myspace.com/fantomasband
• Taraf de Haidouks: Romanian Gypsy's who had people crowd surfing, caused havoc by playing outside the door of the venue when their time was up and generally had a good laugh. http://www.myspace.com/tarafdehaidouksbandofgypsies
• Leila: despite being beset by sound problems that would have caused most people to flounce off in a girlie strop, she made a big noise and I would have liked the opportunity to see her under better circumstances. http://www.myspace.com/leilaarab
• The Damned: I had forgotten that they weren't all commercial poppyness. They got back to their routes and made some loud punk noise. Oh, and Captain Sensible got naked whilst singing Happy Talk. Those were the days! http://www.myspace/officialdamned
• Farmers Market: The most eccentric act of the weekend. A kind of pan-European jazz band with accordion and jingle bells mixed in. Fun to watch apart from a most terrible version of Ferry across the Mersey. http://www.myspace.com/farmersmarkettheband
• The Melvins: No list would be completed without a mention to the Melvins. Consistently good. They played here in their current day and 1983 lineup. Mr Buzz Melvin ALSO popped up in Fantomas and Porn. I worked out that he played at least 3 gigs a day for 3 days. They don't call him Buzz for nothing. http://www.myspace.com/themelvins

Also, a note to the Fuck Buttons, I know you are brilliant, I did buy your album whilst I was there (have been meaning too for a while) and I enjoyed your DJ stint. However, there is no need to follow me around. You were everywhere I went over the weekend! Such sweet boys. http://www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons