Festival No 6: Five Must See Acts

Image: Festival Number 6

If you've never been to Festival No 6, then this has got to be the year. If their unique brand of absurdity and intellect has failed to seduce you so far, then take a look at this year's line up. Here is my top five, drawing from the worlds of music, comedy and science.

Neneh Cherry with Rocketnumbernine

Readers of a certain age will remember Neneh Cherry from the mid 90s, with pop hits like "7 Seconds" and "Woman", but now she's back with a vengeance, a techno twist, and a solo album (her first for 20 years) produced by Kieran Hebden, AKA Four Tet.

The album (sampler below) has received rave reviews, as have her previous performances this year with Rocketnumbernine. If the hype is to be believed, this is going to be an unbelievable performance, and what I think Festival No 6 is all about, which is some kind of religion where electronic music meets the Guardian Guide.

James Holden

The man is a musical freak. He takes a risk with almost every mix of his DJ sets, which basically blur the lines between DJing and live performance. 80s synths all over the place, but a total understanding of how to rock a dance floor in the present day.

Matt Berry

No, not some new deep house hype thing signed to Hot Creations, but him off the telly - you know, that mad bastard who basically plays the same but brilliant character in all those class comedies. Toast Of London was his most recent creation, but you may also know him from the likes of The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, Snuff Box, and Vic & Bob's House Of Fools.

He's performing on The Clough comedy stage on Saturday, which is curated by Finders Keepers and named "Unmutual": an appropriately comedic reference to the original Prisoner TV series - the whole basis of Festival No 6 - where the lead character, "Number 6", is ostracised by his acid trip of a local community, and officially declared "Unmutual".

If you only watch one clip on the whole of Skiddle today, this is the one above - it's 30 seconds of Berry at his brilliant best in an episode of Snuff Box from back in the day.

The Radiophonic Workshop

I don't even know exactly what they're doing at Festival No 6 by way of performance, but whether it is in a music or an intellectual capacity, their very existence is to be celebrated.

In short, the Radiophonic Workshop was a BBC-funded initiative founded in the fifties, with a pretty loose brief that seemed to mainly involve pushing the boundaries of synthesis and sound design, which ended up coming out with all kinds of genius by-products, like the Doctor Who theme tune.

 Having been disbanded a number of years ago, they've reformed and hooked up with techno-intellectual Matthew Herbert. At Sonar last year I saw them host the most heavyweight of seminars about the creative process in electronic music, and how they are trying to influence it in the present day.

It might not automatically sound like the ideal accompaniment to a Laurent Garnier-induced comedown, but believe you me, some of the stuff they're working on is absolutely mind blowing.

The Pet Shop Boys

You might think that a pop act who are famous for being repetitive would be the last people you'd want to see live at a festival, but you'd be wrong.

In fact just as wrong as I was when I saw them at T In The Park on what had been the most testing of Sundays after a weekend of high jinks in the Slam tent, where my decision to watch them was based solely on the fact I was incapable of moving anywhere else... they weren't going to pick me up off the floor, surely?

But they did, and I genuinely rate it as one of the best live performances I've ever seen - Neil Tennant's still got it in spades.

You can figure out your own unmissable acts at this year's gathering, by clicking on the Festival Number 6 line up.

Like this? Check out our special festival Number 6 Playlist.

Tickets are no longer available for this event