A magical weekend of peacocks and Pixies, Bright Eyes and Magnetic Fields
“WHEN I first came out, there was nobody here – just a peacock,” says Rosali Middleman, gazing out across the idyllic lawns of the Garden Stage on Friday lunchtime. A sigh: “Quite magical.” It’s an image that captures End Of The Road’s unique vibe, and after a Thursday-night amuse-bouche from Sudan Archives and Khruangbin, Rosali makes the quintessential music to lull us into the weekend proper. Alone with her electric guitar, she weaves chiming alt.folk full of quiet agonies.
strips back the orchestral layers of tracks such as “Giant Palm” and “Working” to expose soft pastoral folk picks up the beatific baton with the seagoing Americana of “Ships” and the soul-scraping folk of “Young Man In America”, while over on the Talking Heads stage – home to ’s revealing Q&As with Kurt Vile, The Weather Station and Black Midi – James Yorkston gets more raw and intimate still, playing laments for his disappointing album chart placings and poetic paeans to .
