Modest Mouse: roared at All Tomorrow's Parties with new guitarist Johnny Marr, right. Photograph: Sarah Lee
Right now I'm on my way back from Butlins Minehead, a quaint unreconstructed holiday camp on the Cornish peninsular, where some of the best-kept secrets in alternative rock convened this weekend for All Tomorrow's Parties' inaugural ATP Vs the Fans.
While the festival is typically known for its more leftfield bills, this time the booker, Foundation's Barry Hogan, put the power in the hands of the fans, who voted for their favourite acts on the ATP website. Highlights included Battles, the supergroup built from members of cerebral US rock outfits like Don Caballero, Lynx, and Helmet, who've succeeded in penning one of the year's most unlikely floor fillers, Atlas. Johnny Marr, formerly of the Smiths, played on the main stage Sunday night as the newest member of hardy indie perennials Modest Mouse. And Brighton's the Go! Team were a surprise hit, rapper Ninja waging war on the chin-strokers with a clutch of songs from their forthcoming album Keys to the City, due late Summer.
The queuing issues that blighted the site at ATP's December shindig appear to have been solved with the addition of a huge main stage under the central canopy. Some fans were wholly satisfied by the solution, and sure, it was profoundly weird to brooding post-rock lords Slint play to a circus-like tent full of Burger King advertising hoardings and drunk people on bungee ropes. But Patti Smith proved it didn't necessarily have to be a problem, playing a Saturday night hits set that included Gloria, Rock'n'Roll Nigger and a cover of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. Were you there? Tell us your highlights, lowlights, and what you thought of the site.
