Ok, no updates for a while as I’ve been ill for the last few days of last week and I was at V Festival all weekend. This post is especially aimed at Rachel who asked me to write a new blog post because she’s addicted. Woohooooo hi Rach 🙂
Wow, V was great. So much happened this weekend, I’ll cut to the chase. The Kaiser Chiefs were fucking incredible and by most accounts stole the entire festival. Absolutely fantastic. I Predict a Riot was, well, a riot. The Ordinary Boys were also outstanding in my mind. As was pointed out, they do sound like most of my favourite bands (The Clash, The Ruts, The Specials and so on. I also hear hints of The Smiths and Shed Seven and… and…), they were excellent.
Also top memories were Goldie Lookin’ Chain, the whole crowd cracked up when they sang, “I wanna fuck yer sister. And yer best friend” before concluding “It’s not me you wanna worry about, it’s my brother, he’s fucking yer mother.”
I watched The La’s play, maybe 15 years since they were last seen together and they were… boring. It’s easy to forget that no matter how much ‘There She Goes’ plays on the heartstrings as an enduring, blissful teenage memory, they still only had one good song. I remember reading (after their demise) about how The La’s had been labelled as the new Beatles and the saviours of the British music scene, only for the recording of their debut album to be blighted by the sacking of various drummers, arguing, accusations of heroin abuse by Lee Mavers and problems with producers and so on. Most fingers pointed to Mavers’ being a talented but unworkably awkward arsehole. And well that seemed to be true of this weekend. While most people who know about The La’s probably would have liked Mavers to open his mouth to acknowledge the crowd, he saved his vocal chords for singing and shouting at the drummer. They didn’t know which songs were next and the sound was unbalanced though thats not their fault. I just thought that the set sort of meandered and even There She Goes sounded awkward.
The Doves, Good Charlotte and The Bravery were all great and Jet rocked hard even though I went to get some food while they were on.
Aside from all the music, there was great fun with the people I went with. Lindsay, Becky, Liz, Gemma, Pat, Simon, Kel(l?), Nikki and Rob. We had a great time, the first day is the official day of drinking. Lindsay had to be held up from around 5:30 onwards and I was so drunk and falling asleep by 10pm or so that we headed off to bed and so I missed Ian Brown, The Prodigy and The Scissor Sisters. Gemma told Lindsay it was about 5 in the morning in a bid to get her to go to sleep though we sat around doing impressions of the opening lines of Shameless while publicly urinating, some of us more shamelessly than others…
Needless to say we spent the following day shouting, “Sca-urh” and “Theh know ‘ow ter throw a paaaaar-eh” at each other and cracking up.
I woke up freezing at 7:30am and again feeling fuzzy at around 9:30am but was ok after a bacon baguette and a cup of greasy tea (wtf?). Oasis were the last band of the night and it was lighters in the air and arms around each other singing as loud as can be. I’m not much of a fan of the last few albums, but they they were cool, though I would have liked the rhythm guitar louder in the mix to get the wall of guitars sound they are known for.
I grabbed some food, said goodbye to everyone and headed to the car as I had to be at work in the morning. I was maybe half a mile from the exit and there must have been 1000 cars ahead of me, none of them moved in half an hour. So, desperately tired I elected to pull out of the queue and sleep in the car until it had cleared as I needed sleep and didn’t want to be awake until half 2 in the morning when I had to be up for work at 7. I slept until around 3, got home at half past, got to bed at 4 and woke up at half 7 and went to work absolutely shattered, but at least I got as much sleep as I could. Next year I will either sleep over the extra night or book the Monday off work.
It was an incredible weekend.
Regrets?
With the mobile phone networks struggling I couldn’t arrange to meet Dan or Rachel. I still haven’t learned not to drink all day on Saturday and then be too drunk to do anything by Saturday night, even though my hangovers at V clear quicker than any other time, anywhere else.
It appears that tickets for next year are already available at this year’s prices for a limited time only.
Well mate I reading Ur v festival report, at which I also present, had had to stop (to try and control my laughter) at Ur comment on Kaiser chiefs, stealing the show. Well for a start mate I agree with u on the ruts specials etc all top stuff, bit of respect there but how can u say a band carried by their drummer, who bring nothing new to the sound of music and informing us that man in tracksuits look scary etc. talent no! Second album …no! One hit wonders yes. I have to say mate that the music shat all over them and as far as new acts go the music by far and away the most charismatic talented group at t well mate I reading ur v festival report, at which I also present, had had to stop (to try and control my laughter) at urn comment on Kaiser chiefs, stealing the show. Well for a start mate I agree with u on the ruts specials etc all top stuff, bit of respect there but how can u say a band carried by their drummer, who bring nothing new to the sound of music and informing us that man in tracksuits look scary etc. talent no! Second album …no! One hit wonders yes. I have to say mate that the music shat all over them and as far as new acts go the music by far and away the most charismatic talented group at the festival
Carrying on if you knew anything about music you would have picked up on the first you mates Kaiser Chiefs released I predicted a riot was a year ago, but NME didt give it a good review so you wouldn’t have known about it I suppose
On to the las and you comments mate, which demonstrate you really do not have any depth in wot you say mate. You seem to me to be the type that thinks there she goes is all about his girlfriend etc. If you knew anything about mavers you know he lets his music do the talking and that’s all he needs to. If you listened then you notice the subtle background riffs, the way he takes over blues scales in feeling, the harsh reality of failure and the sheer beauty of looking glass, unbalanced mate, if you had ever listened to any la’s song other than there she goes you would no they where note for not perfect his voice is in great shape and his new songs are top. This is all friendly advice mate but do some reading, sit down with a spiff if ya mum lets you turn of The Bravery and just lisen to the la’s album mate I ent saying you have to like it but give it ago before you open you mouth ………ye………….? Just an honest mistake really mate
A couple of things:
1) I know I Predict a Riot was released last year
2) I have the The La’s album
3) I know what There She Goes is about
4) I’ve never read the NME or Melody Maker
5) You don’t seem to be able to write properly formed sentences
You seem to be missing the point. It’s subjective opinion. I don’t care whether anyone else agrees or not, in fact I fully expect other people will have completely conflicting opinions. Put them on your own blog.
But aside from that:
Meh. I care. Really I do.