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Live Review: Give It A Name 2007 - Birmingham

29th April 2007 | by Ross Riley

We get the feeling that the PR people behind this mini festival didn't really think through the consequences of their choice of name.

So, we may well pick up the gauntlet they've so willingly thrown down.

So this three-day event will henceforth be known as Corporate-Fest - we always prefer it when promoters are honest with us and that seems to encapsulate the soul of this event.

To be fair it does seem that there's been a wholesale buyout of the UK festival scene by our 'friends' in industry, some are more pronounced, exhibit A being the V-Festival where bands in the 'mortgage settlement' phase of their careers go to entertain those in the 'youth denial' phase of their lives.

GIAN wasn't quite that bad, a few interesting live bands made good performances, it's just that in live music context is everything and Birmingham's NIA was not conducive to enjoying this event. Coupled with the incessant advertising played out over two large screens - which incidentally seemed louder than the bands themselves - you were more likely to leave indoctrinated than intoxicated.

Jimmy Eat World put in one of the good performances of the night, though the audience was less than euphoric - Jim Adkins remarked “We've got a moshpit, but no one's jumping!” Disappointingly they were moved to number two slot on the bill at the last minute so didn't have as much time to develop their set, it was a good Jimmy Eat World performance, but nowhere near their best.

AFI finished off the first night with an energetic, if predictable performance which seemed to go down well with the assembled audience, though again you could count the moshpit on the fingers of a few hands which at an event like this seems overwhelmingly disappointing.