A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
Substack
Dean Wareham plays at Indietracks
Indietracks was a small festival held at a heritage railway centre in Derbyshire that ran from 2007 to 2019. I never really imagined that I’d convince Hazel to come to a music festival, and my past experiences of festivals meant that I wasn’t even convinced I’d want to myself. But every year I’d look at the Indietracks line-up and think… “this is probably the festival I could love”.
I finally plucked up the courage to propose that we went to it in 2013, lured by a line-up that included The Pastels and Camera Obscura, and Hazel seemed quite keen so we hired a car, booked ourselves into a Travelodge and went on a pilgrimage that continued annually right up to its last presentation in 2019.
The venue was a major part of the enjoyment, it wasn’t just a music festival, it was so much more than that - it had train rides, industrial museums, woodland walks, space, proper beer. There was literally nothing not to love about Indietracks. Well… maybe the weather! So much rain!
In November 2013 @IndietracksFest tweeted that band applications opened in December and I posted:
If all my favourite bands could do this please that'd be good
RT @IndietracksFest: We're opening band applications on December 1
@grange85 on Twitter - 13th November 2013
I have memories of Nat from Sonic Cathedral replying to me, and so I had convinced myself that when, in March 2014, Dean was added to the bill of Indietracks 2014, it was entirely down to me. Let’s assume that’s true!
In May 2014 Dean was touring the UK, and played at the Islington Assembly Hall in London, at the end of that show Dean asked me if I would look after his guitar so it didn’t have to have two trips across the Atlantic ahead of Indietracks. I, obviously, said yes.
The guitar was taken home and stashed safely under the bed, not to be touched by anyone:
The week before Indietracks Nat from Sonic Cathedral got in touch and asked if I’d ferry some product for the Indietracks merch table. I, obviously, said yes.
So, on the 25th July we loaded the car and headed off to Derbyshire.
Dean was playing on the Saturday, the second day of the festival, but we would of course be doing the whole weekend.
The 2014 Indietracks was an unusual one, it didn’t rain. In fact it was perhaps a little too hot! We arrived on the Friday evening just as The Chills were playing their opening number, how was this not going to be the most perfect weekend.
Friday night headliners were the always lovely Allo Darlin’.
For day two of Indietracks we parked at the main entrance of the site, rather than taking a heritage train from Butterley, so that we could deliver Dean’s guitar and the box of merchandise. This was duly stashed in a small railway building come bookshop that was to be Dean Wareham HQ for the day, and Hazel and I headed out into the sweltering heat to mill gently around the loveliest of all festivals.
After a ride on a miniature train, a box full of gorgeous curry, and a couple of bands watched we bumped into Dean and band settling into their room and chatted briefly before heading off for more music. We had positioned ourselves in the tin church to see Laura J Martin, but the heat drove me out after a couple of songs, Hazel was made of hardier stuff. Outside I met Dean again and Michael and Pascale of Watoo Watoo (who were playing the festival on Sunday).
More band watching, more eating, some looking at owls and parrots, and some beer (for Hazel) and as we’re heading off to the main stage to see Spook School we bump into Dean (again) heading to the indoor stage and discover that he’ll be doing a short guest spot singing with Joanna Gruesome. We watched a couple of Spook School songs and then Hazel headed off to see Nat Johnson in the church and I headed to the shed to see Joanna Gruesome.
Joanna Gruesome’s set was riddled with technical hitches and by the time these were fixed they were looking a little less full of Indietracks-spirit, although they still stormed through a lively set as best they could. Dean joined them to sing a verse of Tugboat which was splendid, although the band performance lacked a little of the vibrancy that their performances usually have. Maybe because of the technical problems or maybe because of the guest star’s unrehearsed appearance.
Dean and band were scheduled on stage after Joanna Gruesome, so after a bit of fresh air I positioned myself at the front of the stage and watched them set up and sound-check.
Dean’s set was obviously splendid, it opened with Emancipated Hearts and then worked through a wonderful, Galaxie 500 heavy set in the sweltering heat of the Indietracks engine shed… “might be the hottest show I’ve played… and I’ve been around” speculated Dean.
Wrapping up the set with a sparkling Tugboat (best version of the day!) and a storming Fourth of July, the crowd in the shed, that had filled up nicely for the show, were completely blown away. No encore, I think the fantastic finish and the incredible heat made for the perfect end and a relieved and invigorated audience filed out into the cool breeze.
I’ve popped an audio recording (not mine) of the whole show on YouTube and there are also a few live video clips (including his Tugboat performance with Joanna Gruesome).
Day two finished with Gruff Rhys on the main stage, we stood at the back and snuck off exhausted before the end.
Sunday was more low-key so we wandered from stage to stage (to church, to woodland, to trains, back to stage) and relaxed before heading off (literally) into the sunset.
We had five more Indietracks before the festival fell victim to COVID, never to return. We saw so many bands I still love, and so many more that shone brightly and drifted off into obscurity. We ate great food, we rode on old trains, we usually got drenched. I miss Indietracks so much.
I’d invariably take my sketchbook to Indietracks and scribble postcards of varying quality, here are a few of my better watercolour postcard sketches from the last festival in 2019 - as you can see this year we had the weather that we’d become more accustomed to over the years.
In a few weeks time Dean & Britta are playing at Sea Power’s Krankenhaus Festival in Cumbria. It’s a festival I’ve often thought might fill the Indietrakcs-sized whole in our life ~ this year we’re going to find out.