Book Yer Ane Fest IX, Buskers/The Vestry, Dundee

It's snowing in Dundee and my fire lighting skills are proving non-existent as I look down towards the city where, for the past two nights, I've been in the audience for what is possibly the best value for money punk/diy festival in the UK - Book Yer Ane Fest (a second festival in the space of a week which is almost at the decade mark). Take into account that the ticket monies go to the Safe Tay charity and you're looking at an event with even more heart.

That it's got a good team behind it in the organisational, social media and sound engineering areas has been evident from when it first came across our radar & that's only been reinforced since Friday as the main Buskers venue and the downstairs Vestry have had exemplary sound across the board, with the engineer lad upstairs nipping about to sort minor issues practically before they occur (when not also kicking off the stage diving or playing in Maxwell's Dead).

Friday night was a riotous, inflatables-and-balloons, hearts on sleeves and emotional night with a great sense of the familial aspect of the scene being catered to and the love within it. Saturday was no less inclusive but more down to the business of getting the bands on and off again. Sunday I'll cover tomorrow.

As you'd expect it's been a mixed bag of acts on off and, having seen 20 out of 31 performances so far (the worst of which infact came during my afternoon at Tannadice watching Dundee United lose yet again) this would become a far too longwinded piece if I detailed them all. Links where possible will let you hear what you want anyway.

So, at the upper end of the scale and in no particular order were The Spook School, Get It Together, The Exhausts (bring to mind The Stupids), Maxwell's Dead, Uniforms (manfully dealing with some band name theft for their final show), Tim Loud (epically overcoming handcramps to complete 'I Don't Care What Everyone Else Says About You, I Think You're A Cunt') and Make War (getting the better of UK Border Control to make it along). Comfortably in the middle were Shatterhand, Veto, Good Grief, Tim Holehouse, Will Wood, Broken Stories, The Kimberley Steaks, The Murderburgers (who last time I saw them were three wee Scottish guys but now comprise one of those & 2/3s of Rational Anthem. New album out in 2016 on Asian Man Records anyway) and Great Cynics. Those not quite reaching me being PMX, Rational Anthem, Lachance & Cavalcades. Catholic Guilt deserve a mention too for having soap for sale in their merchandise, surely a first.

21 more acts on offer on Sunday so time now to get geared up for those as that fire's not looking any hotter and they like to start performances early around these parts.