 Scouting
For Girls are the perfect band for those upbeat
summer moments when the sun is shining, the alcohol
is cold and their fast paced catchy pop are blasting
out at you in the must infectious of ways so I
was pretty excited to hear the band were coming
to play an outside show at Westonbirt Arboretum
which to me sounded like the perfect surroundings
for a Scouting For Girls show.
Sadly I was very wrong, when I arrived at Westonbirt
first of all I was quite shocked at the lack of
people there, the place holds 6500 people and
I would be surprised if there was more than 2500
people there, secondly everone was sat out on
their camping chairs or picnic blankets having
a field day with their munchies and situated so
far away from the stage that I felt a bit embarrassed
for the bands.
The support band tonight were new three piece
young girl group Soundgirl and they took to the
stage all dressed in spandex trousers which ranged
from bright green all the way down  to shiny gold,
the tops they were wearing were all over sized
and featuring big bold glittery designs such as
a heart or lipstick pots, they wasted no time
getting into their music but from the start I
was feeling bored as Soundgirl are full on clean
cut pop and really not your average Alternative
Vision worthy band, the girls played a 30 minute
set but started to run out of their own songs
towards the end and threw in a couple of acoustic
Jessie J covers which went down quite well, the
set closed with the girls latest single ‘Don’t
Know Why’ which had an average reaction
from the lackluster crowd.
There was a long wait after Soundgirl before Scouting
For Girls took to the stage but the wait was well
worth as the band came on stage more confident
than ever greeted the crowd and then went straight
into ‘Little Miss Naughty’ which had
Roy Stride situated and the back of the stage
on the piano, whilst Peter Ellard took to the
drums pretty well next to him and Greg Churchouse
held the fort at the front of the stage playing
his catchy basslines whilst chipping in with his
backing vocals.
 The set that Scouting For Girls played was outstanding
with classic song being played back to back with
material from both albums being played such as
‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’, ‘James
Bond’, ‘Aeroplane’, ‘1+1’
and many others being played and not to forget
new songs ‘Naked’ which could actually
end up being called ‘Without You’
if the bands record label get their way, and also
their new single ‘Love How It Hurts’
which is actually being released on St Swithun’s
Day and for anyone who didn’t know who ST
Swithun was, went home knowing as Peter Elland
dressed up as a saxon bishop in tribute.
As the set progressed the fun carried on with
Roy Stride filming the crowd and egging them on
before playing ‘Famous’, during ‘Holiday’
Soundgirl took to the stage and helped Scouting
For Girls to launch ten massive beachballs into
the crowd to get them into the spirit but within
minutes the beach balls were were in the hands
of select members of the crowd who decided to
take them home.
 The whole show ended with ‘Michaela Strachen’
and ‘She’s So Lovely’ which
encouraged the now up for it crowd to sing-a-long
word for word for the last few moments of the
night.
Overall tonight was a weird experience the show
was full of people in my eyes had never been to
a gig before with the crowd spread too far apart
and the majority of people enjoying their social
picnic more than the music on offer in places
and it took towards the end of Scouting For Girls
set for the crowd to really appreciate the band
they paid their money for, however this did not
stop Scouting For Girls from putting on a storming
show whilst previewing some promising new tracks
but I feel they left feeling a bit cheated by
the crowd.
Soundgirl 2/5
Scouting For Girls 4/5
Review By Trigger |
