Review: Long Division festival, Wakefield

Funds came and went, venues closed, trends sprang up and disappeared and so too the bands and artists associated with them.

The economic climate for running a festival is tight, and more often than not Long Division has been held together by hope and passion as well as tears and highly strung emotions.

Though organiser Dean Freeman has been vocal about the lows, his enduring stamina for pulling a community together and bringing Wakefield a festival nigh on year on year is to be commended. Many would have thrown the towel in long since and most have.

A once burgeoning music scene in Wakefield is long since gone. Some is in part to people getting older, moving away or having more opportunities elsewhere.

Wakefield hasn’t nutured a music scene on the whole for a long time and the heady days of Arctic Monkeys and Carl Barât playing The Escobar are now mere whispers beyond time. A period for those who remember and nostalgia for the old ways.

But here we are. At the very end. And it feel prophetic. It feels huge. Who now to pick up the mantle? Is this the last roll of the dice for the indie-rock old guard? The curtain call of the 00s city, perhaps?

Let’s add this up and see who carries the remainder over.

Beginning Long Division 2023 in the reopened Unity Hall was the not-to-be-missed, superb one-man, Hall and Oates-style 80s neon balladry of Leeds’s Speilman. Accompanied only with his guitar and a pre-programmed drum machine, Speilman delighted the early attendees with Northern wit fused with boots on the dancefloor. There were references to The Cribs in there (which wasn’t the only time on the evening), a nod to the heritage and history not only of Wakefield but of Long Division itself.

A short walk down to Venue 23 and already up to near capacity with their opening act Bunkerpop. Touted as Hull’s answer to LCD Soundsystem, their mix of electro-clash and live instrumentation really hit home with the eagerly receptive audience.

Local mecca of all things music, Wah Wah Records hosted a not-so-secret and highly sought-after acoustic set from Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. The crowd were bursting beyond the door, with fans faces pushed up to the windows to catch a glimpse of this most intimate of affairs.

From Wah Wah to wah guitar and funk at Vortex Bar with the female-fronted Harri Larkin, from Sheffield. A hot, steamy affair both on stage and in the venue, their funk-pop nuggets were a perfect foil for the glorious weather.

The name everyone was talking about around town were Leeds’s Green Gardens. Heavily touted as a one to watch, the full-to-capacity venue brought fans in by the droves, like a pied-piper of shoegaze and art-rock, Green Gardens gained themselves a moment in the Long Division history books and the chances of getting this close to the band again are numbered.

Unity Minor played host to a welcome moment of calm and acoustic charm from Stanley Brinks. Sounding like a mix of The Decemberists and an acoustic Brian Molko, the Frenchman’s folk allure captured the afternoon feeling of warmth and good vibes.

The main event for me was always going to be the ‘other’ Wakefield three-piece. Re-formed after over a decade away, the most underappreciated and underestimated The Research hit the Theatre Royal stage with all the confidence and energy of a band that played every evening, but were here live after years away from the stage (in the guise of The Research at least), to cement their own star on the pavement of the city.

All the best singles from the debut album Breaking Up, as well as the follow up The Old Terminal, were thrashed out of Russell Searle’s busted up casino keyboard (eeking out a sneaky Cribs riff), Georgia Jakubiak’s thumping bass and accompanying glitter ball dress and Sarah Williams’s tub-thumping drum action and beautiful backing vocals.

On the evening, this was a band in the prime of their ability. Not a long-passed indie entity trading on history alone, The Research sounded as relevant and as passionate as those early 00s gigs in the city.

And that was that for me. A coda had to be drawn. Go out on a high and remember the moment. Though the event carried on for a few hours beyond, for me walking away with The Research’s triumphant set ringing in my ears, will be my high water-mark for whatever may replace Long Division in the future.

It was a sadness to walk away from the city and the closing of the festival, but a positive conclusion to the 00s era of Wakefield music. The Research were a celebration of all that was once and hopefully still will be within the minds of music lovers in the city in the future. Wakefield will always have music so long as hearts still beat the same.