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Festivals 2008 - Reviews and Discussion!

jpfizzle

Pre-Show Stalwart
The plan is set, we leave at Wendsday morning: two cars, three people in each and if things go smoothly we will be at the Glastonbury festival by midday, and what a festival it's set to be, tickests literraly sold out Friday afternoon...the day the festival begun!! Organisers where worried the whole year that they would struggle to break even. Many blamed the decision to have Jay Z as a headline act...in the words of Noel Gallacher: "Jay Z at Glastonbury, F**k OFF!" Others blamed the wether of the last few years where the festival literraly flooded out....

So, I wake my way over to my mates only to find out that the car me him and our other friend where going down in had hit a speed bump and had a hole in the bottom... our other three friends where able to leave without us and the festival I've been waiting for for months seemed to be slipping away! Instead of fixing the car we literraly welded the thing together... we then drove it 5 and a half hours down to the festival to meet our friends who had arrived early that day... Luckily they had got us a pretty sweet camping spot right inbetween all the stages. That night we went for an explore... so much stuff to do at Glastonbury... we saw a place for a freak show, trash city - a city made out of recycled rubbish and everything like that, at this point it was getting pretty late, we had a BBQ and then went over to the cinema tent where Kill Bill was playing. Everyone was like "WHOOOOO YEEEAHHH UMA!!" whenever she killed was pretty funny.

After some rain during the night we woke up thursday for some more exploring, the festival didn't actually start til friday... at this point I was pretty waste so the days kinda blurred.... so I will go straight onto Friday where the festival really begun to kick off.

Kate Nash opened the festival on the Pyramid Stage - she drew a huge crowd and put on a fairly good show, she twirled in her dress and eveveryone had the first sing along of the festival to "Foundations." Next on was the Subways who still had a big crowd but no one really knew them... at one point he said sing it during there anthem "Oh Yeah" and the crowd was near enough silent, he then got covered in smoke from a smoke machine and we couldn't see him and he couldn't see us.... what they lacked in hits the lead singer made up for in stage presence.... he literrally jumped off 12 ft high speakers and bombed his way from the stage down to the audience..the energy was ellectric. We stayed at the Pyramid Stage for Get cape, Wear cape, Fly.... underrated as fuck, got a terrible review but where awesome... the lead singer Sam Duckworth did get abit self righteous with his preaching but it was all for good causes and the end of the set was pretty ace as everyone joined in the chorus or Chronicles of a bohemian teenager "bah, bah bah, bah bahhhhhhhhh..."

We then moved up to the top of the hill and sat around some peoples fire to watch KT Tunstall and the Feeling who covered A-Has take on me and "video killed the radio star". The lady took a liking to me and bought me some ciders from the cider bus... she was about 40 though so stayed well away...we then moved on to see candi statton of "young hearts...run freee..." fame and "you've got the love"... she played over on the Jazz World...that's where we met Ned from Neighbours. Following her on the Jazz World was Lupe Fiasco who had a few hits and was a nice change....we then went over to the park stage after some food in the hope of seeing dizzee rascal followd by Pete Doherty....

When we got to the Park Stage who should turn up but Franz Ferdinand to play a secret show! Pretty good but started off rumours that Pete Doherty had no showed which was gutting for me as I am a huge Libs fan and was looking forward to seeing him all day... after Franz Ferdinand; Dizzee Rascal came out and worked the crowd really well, he brung out Calvin Harris and they played there new song together...this finished at 12... Doherty was supposed to start at 10 50.... just as the fans where giving up hope out came the icon that is pete doherty, the man the papers can not stop talking about... "Im sorry about being so late, I thought I was on Tommorow-" true Doherty style! He played all the hits and was my personal best.. someone launched a pint at him which he downed and he brang out babyshambles to play the last song... really short but really good set.

I was buzzing the next day... I spent some time shopping and soaking up the rest of the festival now it was all open, Glastonbury really does have stuff you wouldn't expect everywhere you turn. A man jugling ping pong balls in his mouth etc...a huge skate board ramp and free hula hooping lessons where the order of the day. We went over to the hare krishna tent where they hand out free vegetarian food, we joined in there parade which was pretty amazing and a real culture experiance... We also went over to the Jewish Tent for some free vodka and helped them with this hand patch quilt thing they where maiking as a prtoest against darfur and the genocide.

The Music that day was Manu Chau who where really pumped and after just having had some weed where abit too much... we worked our way to just behing the second security barrier to watch Amy winehouse who started really well and really quite witty but then disintergrated abit and came out to the fans and eventually I think got dragged away, still a really big spectacle though... Jay Z headlining was one of the best gigs you could been to, its been talked about over in England all summer and he really snuffed out all the doubters...the crows ADORED him! The opening pot shot at Oasis and in particular Noel Gallacher was hillarious and the sing along to Wonderwall was classic.

The next day we where pretty drained...we had been to the slumberave and stuff during the night...we head over to the Other Stage and watched Black House (I believe) followed by Newton Faulkner who covered Teardrop by massive attack, "you spin me right round" (like a record) and Bohemian Rhapsody. We then saw Jack Penate. Then headed over to the Pyramid stage to see the one all our mums thought we should see Neil Diamond.... his closing song "Sweet Caroline" was awesome and was one of the biggest sing alongs of the festival... we then caught Mark Ronson who was absoloutly brilliant. He had alot of help, most notably Lilly Allen who was really worth watching. Her nan had passed away the night before so she dedicated the songs to her. We then saw Pidgeon Detectives but where soo drained...we all headed back to the tent had some more weed and chilled over in the hare krishna tent. We then made our way over to see the Verve who closed the festival last night.... Truly astounding... particular highlights where "Love if you Want it- Dont sound like a sonnet," "lucky man" "Drugs dont work" and the classic "Bittersweet Sympthany."

Really great festival..

9.5 stars out of 10
 
Leeds Festival 2008

Friday:

The Metros - These guys were a band I was interested in seeing, because A. I missed them in Hull and apparently they were really good and B. The Main Stage appeared to have been taken over by Download Festival or something, so the NME tent was the place to be this morning. Anyway, a really good set by these new guys, they looked genuinely into their set and just excited to be there, there were some jeers from some in the crowd and I have absolutely no idea why. A good start.

Yeasayer - Who the fuck are Yeasayer? Absolutely awful band.

Adam Green - My mate Sean decided it would be a good idea to see this guy, and boy was he right. The guy was clearly pissed, but it didn't matter, he was something completly different to what I've seen before, he really got the atmosphere in the tent going, which was no easy feat after the place was stunk out by Yeasayer. Unfortunately, Adam went on too long and had his mic turned off, resulting in him riding is mic stand like a horse, funny but frustrating.

Lightspeed Champion - I've seen this guy before at the Adelphi in Hull and I was fully expecting another mindblowing performance, unfortunately we didn't get that. What became apparent was that his music doesn't suit large venues. That and the immensely hot drummer seemed nervous and didn't do her singing parts, which kind of ruined the songs. Having said that, this was by no means a poor performance, just not up to speed with their amazing Adelphi gig.

Avenged Sevenfold - Aah, help. The Main Stage is running late and we have to endure this shit, three of them were ill so they only played about 15 mins. Proof there is a God.

Feeder - A great gig from a terrible band. If you listen closely to Feeder's lyrics you can just about make out "We have no talent at all". Good atmosphere though, ruined by metal fans who made their first trip out of the basement all year. What is the point in moshing? Just enjoy the music without beating the shit out of one another.

Tenacious D - Maybe it's just me, but I have no idea how a gimmick band got so high up on the bill. Still, entertaining, even though I missed half the set taking a dump.

The Last Shadow Puppets - Whilst my mates were getting a good spot for Metallica, I decided to pop back to the NME tent to see the musical genius of one Alex Turner. I am so glad I did, easily the best gig of the weekend, the tent was packed out to the extent there were probably more fans outside the tent than in, they even got a bigger crowd than Metallica. They went through all their album and played some new ones, they planned on doing a Kaiser Chiefs cover until the crowd booed when Miles Kane suggested it. Absolutley awesome gig, it was amazing just for me to see Alex Turner in person, best of the weekend, but can we have our Monkeys back now please Alex?

Metallica - Metallica really refined the term "has been" tonight. The most boring set all day, they played hardly any old stuff and their new stuff is so samey it's unreal. I got bored of these "legends" and left.

The Cribs - Back to the NME tent then, I don't like this band for their personalites, but I have to admit the music is brilliant at times. Full of gimmicks like old guitarists and poets, but still a good gig, far more worthy headlines than the shitfest that was Metallica.

Saturday:

Blood Red Shoes - We're in the NME tent yet again, this time for some average indie pop. Still, it was entertaining, and a good way to start the Saturday off.

Serj Tankian - A surprisingly good set ruined by political mumbo jumbo. Serj informs that music is everyone's to share, but I don't see any of his royalties coming into my bank account. If this guy just concentrated on his music he could be great.

The Fratellis - I don't know how I ended up here, and quite frankly I don't wanna know.

QOTSA - Absolute fucking shite, I swear to God it sounded like that played the same song about seven times at least, I have no idea why I even bothered to come here. Credit to Josh Homme for making me actually consider going to see the Wombats.

Rage Against The Machine - After making us wait 30 mins extra (that's rock and roll, dude). They actually played a brilliant set, the kind of moment where you realise you've just witnessed history. I hope they break up again so I can say I saw the last ever Rage gig.

Sunday:

Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong - Awesome. After being bittely disappointed by them when they played the Hull Asylum I decided to give these guys a second chance. They delivered everything I expected the first time I saw them and more. These are definitely a band for the future. The new Arctic Monkeys methinks.

Santogold - Help.

Mystery Jets - Totally up their own fucking arses, terrible band, terrible music, terrible style, played pre-recorded parts to their songs. Lucklily the roadies took too much time to set up and they only played five songs. They wanted to play more, so did the crowd apparently. Explains why I got such a dirty look when the guitarist said "We've been informed we have to leave the stage" and I shouted "Well fuck off then" and proceeded to throw a bottle. The roadies got showered in bottles afterwards, shame, they sounded better than the Mystery Jets when they were testing the equipment.

We Are Scientists - Absolutely fucking genius band. The comedy between the songs sometimes outshines the brilliant music that is been played. Their performance had to be one of the highlights of the weekend. It was a great atmosphere generated on the Main Stage, although to be honest they would've been better headlining the NME tent.

Bloc Party - I saw one song then needed a shit. Missed most of it.

The Killers - My mates decided to stay in the tent and get pissed, having decided it was impossible for 6 blokes to get pissed from 4 cans of Strongbow I decided to head off to the Main Stage to see the night's headliners. A lot of people say they aren't big enough to headline festivals, those people are wrong. Absolutely brilliant set, complete with fireworks and ticker tape. Oh how impressed I was.

Random Thoughts:

  • It's amazing how much more paler metal fans are
  • Always take wellies to a festival
  • Some guy told me The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys are playing on the same night next year
  • I hope to God he's right
  • Flags are annoying
  • There should have been more space around the Main Stage
  • Why do people sit down in the middle of big crowds?
  • Politics ruin music, especially when the artist doesn't understand them
  • Why beat people up when the music gets loud? I'll never get moshing...
 

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