End of the Road: September 4 to 6, Larmer Tree Gardens

It’s the tenth year of the EOTR festival and though many of the music acts were from America, most of the weekend’s highlights came from the British bands.

Liverpool girl trio Stealing Sheep were a welcome antidote to a lot of the dreary Americana on show for the three-day festival. They produced exuberant electro-pop and wore multi-coloured tights.

Fat White Family, a bunch of blokes from South London, have an unwashed slacker appearance but put on a tremendous stage. Their emaciated shirtless frontman screams his way through a deranged set of blues-infused sleaze rock.

Sleaford Mods are two dodgy-looking blokes from Nottingham. One controls a laptop which provides the pre-recorded beats and tunes. He rocks back and forth to the groove drinking a beer while his mate Jason Williamson delivers Tourettes-style rants against the injustices of society.

The crowd goes bonkers. It’s like being at a punk gig from 1977. Beer is thrown around and an inflatable turtle gets trampled underfoot. It’s all great fun.

In total contrast The Unthanks, Tyneside sisters, deliver traditional mellow folk songs sang with gorgeous harmonies. They even did a bit of clog dancing.

The chilled out electro-pop of Saint Etienne and their singer Sarah Cracknell graced the Garden Stage delivering their first album Foxbase Alpha in its entirety.

Later Mark Lanegan growled his way through his downbeat songs and even did a poignant version of ‘Atmosphere’ by Joy Division.

Rising Michigan-born songwriter Sufjan Stevens headlined the main stage on Saturday night his voicing reaching falsetto heights ringing out to the clear night skies and transfixing the crowd.

On Sunday Ultimate Painting (terrible name) played cool 60s style Velvets-inspired psychedelic grooves, despite being from North London, topped with beautiful harmonies.

Canadians Alvvays enlivened the Woods Stage in the evening with their uplifting jangly tunes reminiscent of Brit pop in the 80s.

Laura Marling brought the festival to a fitting close on the Garden stage as the stars came out on Sunday evening. Dressed immaculately in white cloak and scarf she sung her country-infused wonderfully-crafted songs beautifully.

EOTR as always provided many musical moments to cherish though it was shame to see so little inspiration coming from across the pond.

GRAHAM JAMES