Slaves, The Horrors, Dream Wife and more bring celebratory sets to Hull’s 53 Degrees North

As the swathes of festivals falling by the wayside each year will attest, it’s bloody hard trying to start a large scale event in 2018. It’s even harder, meanwhile, trying to start one in a region not generally predisposed to that sort of thing. Kudos then to new Hull all-dayer 53 Degrees North, who not only manage to avoid the pitfalls of both in this, their inaugural year as a big outdoor shindig, but who are also doing it for a cause more worthwhile than putting another few dimes in the big promoters’ back pockets. Organised in support of local youth charity The Warren, it’s a Saturday knees-up with a heart, and a line-up that’s already packing an impressive punch.

Following sets from local punks Vulgarians and London-via-Hull newcomers Night Flowers, Our Girl continue the afternoon’s proceedings in earnest. Drawing from forthcoming debut ‘Stranger Today’, the trio’s blend of quiet-loud dynamics and mesmeric, slow-building drama might be more suited to low-lit, moody gig venues but in the blazing mid-day sun, they conjure up a different kind of spell. While the elongated, hypnotic motifs of set-closer ‘Boring’ (truly, a track that’s anything but) plough darker furrows, the softer lilts of Soph Nathan’s vocals on recent track ‘I Really Like It’ provide a cooing foil, lulling the audience into a false sense of security before all hell comes crashing around them.

Still only entering their first summer on the festival circuit, Kent trio Lady Bird are already a ridiculously fully-formed proposition. It’s not only in the Mike Skinner-esque social storytelling of recent EP ‘Social Potions’, but in the confident, easy way they switch vocalists and dish up word-perfect between-song stage patter that’s more spoken word poetry than your usual, awkward “Hello Hull!”s. There’s an obvious spark between the trio with no weak links; rare praise, indeed.

Doncaster boys The Blinders might have a questionable line in face paint (singer Thomas Haywood’s black smears are more accidental oil smudge than stylised goth), but their raucous racket is decent, seemingly drawing, appropriately, from headliners Slaves’ spitting punk and The Horrors’ first album psych squalls in equal measure.

With a crowd of punters adorned in merch, Hull boys LIFE aren’t just hometown heroes here, they’re also part-orchestrators of today’s entire event. Unsurprisingly then, their set is a victorious one, singer Mez Green peppering their playful post punk with impassioned speeches about the importance of young people and The Warren itself. It contextualises the quartet’s whole ethos. While the likes of ‘Euromillions’ and ‘In Your Hands’ are excitable, propulsive gems in their own right, it’s the political and social message that runs throughout their arsenal that sets the band apart. Today, it shines through with importance.