As End Of The Road celebrates its 20th anniversary, festival supremo Simon Taffe shares his favourite moments from two decades of musical manna
Sufjan Stevens’ only UK festival show (2015)
“We tried from Year One to get him to play. I went to one of his early shows in London and gave him a handwritten letter, but he wasn’t interested in playing festivals. Then suddenly we made it happen around the Carrie & Lowell tour. The show was incredible, you could hear a pin drop. He came early to the site and heard the first band, Human Pyramids, who were one of the unsigned competition winners. They had a big brass section, so he roped them in for ‘Chicago’.”
Jason Molina’s farewell transmission (2009)
“I was obsessed with Magnolia Electric Co, they were one of the first bands we ever approached to play. Jason Molina should have been huge – although he’s become bigger since he died, with all these bands referencing him. I remember being backstage after the show, and I had this belt buckle with Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton on it. He goes, ‘I love your belt buckle, do you want to swap?’ So I’ve still got his belt buckle.”
Yo La Tengo spin the wheel (2014)
“They popped up on the painted stage between the bands on the Garden Stage, so the whole audience swiveled to watch them. That was a really cool moment, and they did that spin-the-wheel thing where they play a random cover. I think they did ‘This Time Tomorrow’ by The Kinks.”
Aldous Harding goes down a storm (2022)
“She’s such a unique talent. She played End Of The Road eight or ten years ago and she didn’t enjoy the sound, but we got her back to headline Sunday night at the Garden, and it was one of those incredible moments. It was good weather all weekend and the second she finished, it was lightning, thunderstorms. You get these standout performances, and the Garden Stage is usually the place for them.”
Low unleash Double Negative (2019)
I don’t know what it was about that night, but everything hit right. They played Double Negative in full, pretty much, and then a bit of the old stuff. I remember people in tears. There were a bunch of us watching it, and they were all like, ‘That’s the best show I’ve seen in my life,’ and it really was. It’s hard to describe – I don’t think there’s any band like them.”
A star-studded Gene Clark tribute (2014)
“I heard about the show they did in Brooklyn with members of Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, and Beach House playing No Other, and with a bit of shuffling around we made it work. The voices lent to it really well. It was the perfect supergroup doing the perfect album, and it felt great because it was a completely one-off, unique thing to have at End Of The Road. I know two people who got a No Other tattoo after that show!”
Jarvis Cocker’s late-night Cohen cover (2010)
“Jarvis came down a few times to DJ with Richard Hawley. One night I was just walking him around the gardens at 1am and we stumbled across the piano stage, so he got up and did ‘Tonight Will Be Fine’, which just happens to be my favourite Leonard Cohen song. It was one of those goosebumps moments.”
This year’s models: Simon’s pick of the new acts to catch at EOTR 2026
WAY DYNAMIC
“He’s a little bit Mac DeMarco in the way that he can just flick out these songs that are relaxed and draw you in. I heard someone blasting it out from a convertible in Dalston the other day, so it’s obviously doing well.”
BRÌGHDE CHAIMBEUL
“I saw a video of her playing the pipes in a little cabin in the Scottish highlands and it was incredible – hypnotic, mesmerising. Straight away I thought it would be perfect for early afternoon on the Garden Stage.”
ØXN
“It’s Radie from Lankum and she faces the other singer, both with keyboards, and the band behind them building things up slowly. It’s obviously a bit like Lankum, but with a more synthy, Portishead-y vibe.”
KEN POMEROY
“She plays straight-up, high-quality country music. Her voice is incredible. The closest thing I could compare it to is Gillian Welch – it’s at that level.”
If you’re heading down to End Of The Road this week, you can catch our very own Tom Pinnock in conversation with Ty Segall (Friday), Beverly Glenn-Copeland and Elizabeth Copeland (Saturday) and Super Furry Animals (Sunday) all at 4pm on the Talking Heads stage. If you can’t make it to Larmer Tree this year, you can follow our daily coverage from the site here.