What a fantastic idea. Take seven much-loved indiepop bands, a clutch of bouncy, enthusiastic DJs and a truckload of music fans eager to shimmy away for a whole ten hours and what do you get? A rather brilliant alternative to festering in Glasto mud-sodden wellies waiting for The Who to play the hits…………Arctic who?

This was the first ever Summer Splash all-dayer event, held on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Kilburn by the lovely Spiral Scratch gang who decided to come over all Jarvis-like on us and stage their own mini-festival. The miserable weather outside mattered not a jot. Inside the aptly-named Luminaire everyone seemed in a resolutely sunny mood, not surprising given the range of treats on offer – a lovingly written fanzine, guest DJs, colourful badges…...even a raffle to win a ukulele.

At this point I have to ‘fess up and admit that I missed two of the bands. Gordon McIntyre from Ballboy performed a solo set at the beginning of the day – which I arrived too late to see – but I was soon informed that his now-legendary cover of Born in the USA was particularly ace. I also managed to miss Brighton noiseniks Shrag – I’m afraid the call of my stomach was too great and I nipped next door for an extremely tasty cottage pie - but I hear they were superb and had all the kids in thrall to their shouty punk pop sounds.

Instead, I arrived just in time to see The Cut-Outs, who are a kind of indiepop supergroup comprised of members of Airport Girl, The Fat Tulips and The Lucksmiths. They played some fab, beatsy garage rock which soon set the crowd shaking along in time to their rootsy tunes. With Spiral Scratcher (and all-round convivial Master of Ceremonies) Ian on guitar, their set was a wonderful way to help kick off festivities. Next up were my personal favourites Electrophonvintage, possibly the Frenchest band I have ever seen. They sounded like everything great all at once – Belle and Sebastian, The Go Betweens, Serge Gainsbourg – I could go on….Their gorgeous, breathy male/female harmonies were easily the most swoonsome thing to be heard on stage all day. But the ear splitting Manhattan Love Suicides weren’t about to let everyone float around in a dreamy French reverie for long – they were clearly longing to re-introduce the crowd to the concept of guitar feedback. Rocking away like My Bloody Valentine’s younger cousins, they fuzzed up hundreds of pairs of ears and proved that an indiepop all-dayer isn’t just about hairslides and sweets.

Unbelievably, I have discovered that next band Horowitz hail from my home town of Stoke-on-Trent and am still utterly, utterly gobsmacked - I never knew indiepop had stretched its glittery fingers as far afield as the Potteries. And not only are they Stokies, but they manage to avoid the distinctive Robbie-style accent and sound like Pavement - hooray! Noisy, DIY and fun, they’re a definite must-see at the Indie Tracks festival in Derbyshire in July. Also due to appear at the festival are the ever-enthusiastic Bearsuit, who rocked up in resplendent dance troupe uniforms which they unashamedly continued to wear throughout the evening. They were a manic assault on the senses, with their glittery costumes, rag-bag array of voices and instruments and stop-start Bis-style choruses. I espied muchos dancing in the DJ booth, and the fans soon followed suit – I’m only surprised there wasn’t more pilfering of Bearsuit garments. I was pretty tempted myself to try and half-inch a hat!

And so to the much-anticipated return of Ballboy, who effortlessly proved that they’re more than just a bunch of lo-fi tweesters with amusingly titled songs. Their main strength has always been in their wry lyrics, so it is to their credit that they prompted a break-out of mass jigging within about two minutes of arriving on stage. Old-time classics “Sex is Boring” and “I’ve Got Pictures of You in Your Underwear” sounded as fresh as I remember and the new material – although admittedly not hugely different - bodes well for the future too. Personally, I felt their set was perhaps just a little too long (although it could have just been the after-effects of the cottage pie), but it didn’t really seem to matter once the Spiral Scratch DJs had cranked up their sparkly gramaphone with a few Hefner records and the like. Fans, bands, the Scottish contingent and even the bar staff were happy to boogie away into the wee small hours to The Smiths, Pipettes et al – proof positive that you don’t need to travel to a muddy field in Somerset to have a good time.

I just hope the next all-dayer isn’t too far away……..although next time I’ll be taking my own snacks!

A Ballboy video and photographs from the event are now online.