The former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer, Jeremy Barnes and his sidekick Heather Trost go under the guise of A Hawk And A Hacksaw, to provide some fiddle and accordion fuelled, musical diversity for the more discerning pallet. The only percussion around was delivered from the jangling court jester hat of Barnes, as an ambient vibe with freewheeling interludes is provided by Trost. A chilling reworking of Derroll Adams' protest song, 'Portlandtown' gives Barnes a chance to display his slightly coarse, blues-based singing style. A festival needs some off-kilter variety and it is certainly provided here. After the blues, some frivolous gyration is called for and who better than the groovemaster himself, DJ Format to provide it? Format's reputation for spectacular fun shaking, Ugly Duckling-influenced hip-hop with MC Abdominal gave him a platform from which to launch his breakbeat funk solo career. His hour long set at the indoor stage spans his entire range and while the tempo builds up a little too slowly for many, when the spin-star hits a groove he keeps going and reluctantly has to end proceedings while he's still climbing. This is done much to the chagrin of the crowd and himself.

Elbow must be the epitome of the indie artist ethos and this evening they surprisingly have a spring in their step, as they headline their first festival. Guy Garvey takes no time in settling into his laid back, reflective mood and vocal gait, something that is adeptly displayed in 'Red'. The energy and dexterity of bassist Pete Turner livens up the stroll and political bemusement that is projected through songs from the third album, 'Leaders Of The Free World'. Dry wit decorates the inter-song interludes, with the reformation of Cud bearing the brunt of the Garvey sarcasm. 'Powder Blue' from the honest and troubled debut album,' Asleep In The Back' puts the lid on a journeying and musically compact set. However, after an Elbow set you feel in the mood for something more, to release some energy. Perhaps organisers should have put Cud on to finish the night?

The difference between this and so many cross-over records is the clearly apparent knowledge of both genres, courtesy of producer Badlands (currently earning plaudits as part of electronic duo Does it Offend You, Yeah?). As an instrumental it would be great, but with Trip's accessible lyrical themes it is yet another shining example of why you are shooting yourself in the ears if you still think there is any benefit to limiting yourself to one scene.

So how are Gomez in 2006
It's alright- we've had quite a bit of change with the new label and new album.

Your last label must have had certain expectations because of the Mercury prize. Is it quite nice being on a new label, has that pressure gone?
The label never really put any pressure on us as there wasn't a lot of pushing in the first place, since the first album sold itself after the Mercury. Then the second record fell off the back of that as well. After that point in the UK you either get to the point where you're huge or you slip back as the new bands come along. We didn't do ourselves any favours because we took too long before the third album- we should have kept going while the interest was there.

At this point Jaime makes his first contribution to the interview by having a nosebleed, but after some medical advice from Blackie and myself, he once again disappears into the background, formulating his questions for later on.

Were you dropped from you last label?
We were with Hut and a week before Split the Difference (fourth studio album) was released, Hut closed down and it went back to parent company Virgin. Suddenly we were under people who hadn't signed us, and the label went through a bit of damage limitation.

Was there a big difference between how Hut and Virgin operated?
Well Hut were their 'hip indie' label, but it was a strange one. Hut got closed down and Virgin's attitude was 'we don't really know this band, we don't know how to deal with them', and they already had their own acts so, so the album just sort of slipped by.

So where did Dave Matthews fit into this? (the singer-songwriter has signed the band to his label, ATO.)
We knew he'd been into us for a while because we heard a few years ago that he wanted us to support him in the States, and vice versa over here but we were busy doing other tours at the time, so as soon we had finished with Virgin ATO (Matthews' record label) were on the phone straight away.

How well do you go down in America?
There'll be areas that are hotspots, the two coasts. UK bands can go to America and from word of mouth from England, you can hit the coasts and get a big crowd, but the thing you have to learn quickly is that when you play over there, it takes a lot of work in order to get across. In the UK you can become well known overnight and the mistake that could bring an end to a band is presuming that they'll make it big straight away over there, and unless you're incredibly fortunate like Coldplay- you can't. We've built it up over years. We kind of started it out of necessity to survive. It's a bit different to here as well as they want to see that you can play live, before they start buying your records.

This record has had the best response so far over there. In the UK we've only done a small tour the week it was out so it hadn't really been out for long enough for people to know about it.

You've got your first album with an outside producer (Gil Norton). What brought that on?
A bit of regrouping, regaining an identity- a matter of new beginnings. We always try something a bit different on each album and I think its worked out- it's kept it pretty focused. With five songwriters in the band all having their own ideas, it can be a bit skewiff, in terms of getting decisions made. Having a ringmaster helps out a bit. He also helped with the slimming down of the songs, sorting the wheat from the chaff.

It's unusual for a band to get this far with the same five original members.
We were all mates beforehand. It depends what your expectations are as to how you respond to things. You have to feel fortunate that you're making a living from doing it. Really the only difficult thing about it is that you're away from your loved ones so much of the time. In comparison to 9-5 jobs or whatever, its not easy work but if it exactly what you want to do, then you're lucky to be in that position. We never thought we going to be huge- the Mercury thing was a big surprise to us. And probably a few other people too!

With hindsight was the Mercury a positive thing? Even until the last album, critics were always bringing it up- as if the debate as to whether you deserved to win was still going on?
We'll never shake it off. I think it definitely helped out as the amount of people that got to hear of the band from it. People talk about the curse of the Mercury prize, but I think that's a self-fulfilling prophecy. The way the English media generally works is that its looking for the new thing, to a certain extent you can understand because new things are exciting.

It does seem that there's the media for the brand new bands, and there's the magazines that respect bands for their longevity which I imagine you guys are getting more coverage from now, but there's not a lot of middle ground.
There are people trying to get us features in magazines, but there's a lot of apathy out there about us- it's difficult to get anything like that. I imagine there's a lot of good music out there lost because people don't get given time to develop.

I think the labels adopt the same kind of attitude.
Well that's the thing- labels are too happy to jump in with masses of cash in order to get a particular band and then videos and promotion come into it, and they struggle to get a quick return on it.

So it's down to Jaime to move in for the kill to finish off the interview. Firstly he points out an oversight on my part by reminding me that I haven't asked Blackie what his band is called. Then he gets the scoops- really putting Blackie under pressure with questions such as 'do you like hamburgers?' and 'how often do you get nosebleeds?' The respective answers being 'yeah I had one earlier that was pretty good' and 'not very often fortunately', in case you were wondering.

And there ended our chat with the delightful bass-playing, hamburger-eating, nosebleed-avoiding Blackie before he disappeared into the distance only to re-emerge a couple of hours later headlining one of the stages playing one of the best sets of the weekend.

Ambient/folk B-side, 'Ancient Curse' casts an eerie shadow over matters with the aid of a hauntingly hollow percussive element and low key vocals help to complete the mystic feel. 'Writers Block', the third album from this sojourning Swedish outfit, is released on the 14th August and there is enough here to tempt you into taking on this adventure without leaving your home. Well if you buy it on the net that is.