Music
Tartan Heart Festival
Belladrum, by Beauly
Jan Patience
four stars
"THE thing I love about Belladrum," bellows Dreadzone's seated frontman MC Spee waving crutches in the air in the direction of a packed Bella crowd, "is you get kids, parents, grandparents all together and all having a GREAT time."
Thursday night headliners, The Darkness, properly kicked off this annual Highland hoolie with frontman Justin Hawkins (looking like a skinny maths teacher wrapped in not-enough tinfoil) urging adults to bounce children on their shoulders. They did… and then some.
As well as 18 stages featuring live music and the spoken word, there's a feast of food and entertainment on offer at Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival.
Suggs from Madness, headlining on Saturday night, boiled this Highland broth down perfectly in front of a packed Garden Stage crowd. "Belladrum's a family affair!" he yelled and launched into a ton of hits. Much to the joy of many dad-dancing 40/50 somethings.
Two Door Cinema Club, headliners on Friday night, were a tad insipid compared to the raw energy generated on the stages around Bella, where acts like Inverness-based Lional, Colonel Mustard and the Dijon Five, Astrid and the aforementioned Dreadzone, had audiences eating out of the palm of their hands.
Personal highlights? A couple of Police Scotland's finest joining Rhythm N Reel' on stage at a night Thursday night ceilidh; a blisteringly-brilliant sunny Friday afternoon set from Motherwell hip hop, rock and pop combo The LaFontaines; Wilko Johnston and ex-Blockhead bassist, Norman Watt-Roy, just being… legendary on the Garden Stage; Bwani Junction and friends reprising Paul Simon's entire Graceland album; Jo Whitby (Laurence Made Me Cry) riffing beautifully with Clarsach-player Imogen Isla Hay on the XpoNorth Seedlings Stage and watching Circa Waves "smash it" in a circus tent's mosh pit (I think it's called…) with my boy.
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