- Posted on July 25, 2008 1:25 PM
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Lovebox Weekender
Day 2: Sunday 20th July 2008
Review by Katie Spain
I arrive late. By the time my colleague and I drag our glitter-encrusted corpses to Victoria Park Sunday is well under way. We miss Esser and I kick myself firmly in the shins for it. After his storming performance at Transgressive Records’ Cross Kings event last week, I wanted to see if the Londoner plays as well under the sun as he does in kitsch North London venues.
Nevertheless, the afternoon vibe at Victoria Park is a good one. The party antics from the day before ensured that some revellers didn’t make it past their duvet. This means the crowd has thinned out enough for yesterday’s twenty-five minute bar wait to be more of a “Wham-bam-thank you Mojito man” experience. The sun is out, the porta loos are clean(ish) and it’s easy enough to meander close to the main stage. Thank the small-person Lord above for the clear view of the day’s acts.
Our meeting spot is below the ferris wheel. It’s tempting to plonk ourselves down and for awhile we do just that. After catching the tail end of Frenchman Sebastien Tellier’s set, the view of Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 is an uninterrupted one. His set was a hot tip from a colleague and after seeing his legendary dad Fela Kuti play at Adelaide’s Womad Festival, I couldn’t miss it. Sure, I was thirteen at the time, but old enough to know a Nigerian master of sound when I heard it. Seun certainly comes from a mighty fine gene pool; not only does he have a glistening torso to die for, he’s sickeningly talented and has a sense of rhythm most Caucasian men dream of. He now leads his father’s former band Egypt 80 and first played with the band when he was nine years old. It’s a relationship that goes back a long way and the Lovebox crowd is honoured to be part of it. By the time the sound reaches us, the quality isn’t top-notch and I vow to see him in a more intimate setting.
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- Posted on July 25, 2008 12:06 PM
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Lovebox Weekender
Day One: Saturday 19th July 2008
Review by Missy Boomsticks
After years of trying, I never quite made it to Lovebox. Year after year I vowed to sort out my social life far enough ahead to:
a) Book tickets and
b) Make sure my mates did the same.
This year, I didn’t bother checking to see whether my eclectic music-loving pals had the Lovebox date in their diary. Instead, I vowed to see as much music as possible. It didn’t take long to realise that planned or not, you’ll always run into someone you know. I’ll put it down to size; the festival is small enough to meander leisurely and there’s ample grass area for perching and people watching. One could even sit beneath the ferris wheel and watch main acts enchant the masses.
Saturday’s line-up was never going to disappoint and kicked off with Danish Popsters Alphabeat. They annoy the living hell out of me and are are bouncier than a litter of puppies but I’m told that and pint-sized frontwoman Stine led the band into a fittingly happy opening main-stage act.
The Amnesty International Stage revealed some gems throughout the day. Maybe it was the effect of the Firefly solar power; never underestimate the sun me hearties. Boy, did the punters get a good dose of it on day one. Josh Weller, as always was a delight. His gravity defying hair, eclectic dress sense and feel good ditties is tonic for the stressed city dweller. He can pile the love in my box any day.
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- Posted on July 23, 2008 12:56 PM
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2000 Trees Festival, 2008
Review by Cheryl Jacobs
THE FESTIVAL IN A NUTSHELL
Friend making potential:
As it’s a smaller festival-bonding is more likely, especially when crammed into the intimate Leaf Lounge Tent.
Target audience in attendance:
Very mixed crowd. Some families. Average age group =25-30. On appearance, seemed to be less ethnic diversities than ,would, say get at a renowned festival like Glastonbury. Probably attracts lots of locals.
Quality of the food:
Mixed. The crepes were nice, and there was also a great range of smoothies and juices to be purchased. There was an emphasis on healthy eating. My friend had chick pea curry-thought that was a nice festival food alternative. She liked that v.much. Fast food such as chips and greasy stir frys were to a pretty average standard.
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- Posted on July 15, 2008 4:53 PM
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Rise Festival
Finsbury Park, London
13th July 2008
Review by Katie Spain
You’ll have to excuse the vantage point from which I’m forced to deliver my Rise Festival review. You see, I’m small. Very small. It makes gigs difficult to see, especially when the crowd is a big one. If I’m going to be truthful (and I plan to), it’s also because I didn’t move much during the day long 'rise against racism' day of entertainment at Finsbury Park.
Laziness wasn’t to blame; a body weak from food poisoning was. When you’ve spent the last two days heaving up your vital organs, the last thing you want to do is clomp around a festival ground and risk a jerk-chicken portaloo explosion. So, it was with reservations (not many), I plonked down on a picnic rug and didn’t move for the rest of the day. Unlike 2007, the sun beat down on us and the view to the main Rise stage was dotted with happy, smiling faces.
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- Posted on July 15, 2008 3:26 PM
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Top 10 T In The Park Moments
By Tim Kernutt
1. Amy Winehouse performs...
Only Amy Winehouse can get a crowd excited by the mere act of turning up. Yet so common is it for Ms Winehouse to cancel shows due to "Exhaustion", that fans often expect a no-show from her. Her performance was catchy, talented and kooky - testament to the fact that she is famous for a reason.
2. The Bitter Sweet Verve
Richard Ashcroft of the Verve is no stranger to success, however it appears he is still a stranger to modesty. Before doing a stirring rendition of "Bitter Sweet Symphony", Mr Ashcroft asked fans the rhetorical question of whether they knew what it was like to write a classic song. It's a good thing he knows what its like, I guess.
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- Posted on July 15, 2008 12:05 PM
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Zoo Thousand and Eight
4th - 6th July
Review by Andy Hirst
The organisers of the Zoothousand festival really pulled out all the stops this time; their band selection was nothing short of inspired; a varied and intriguing mix of quality acts spread across 3 days in the beautiful Kent countryside. The mere thought of seeing Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Gallows at the same festival was reason enough for me to lust eagerly at the festival program and the prospect of attending. The fact that I had not heard of this festival through the normal avenues of advertising did not perturb me - perhaps I was not reading the right magazines or looking at the correct websites, a criticism I frequently fall foul of, yet a line-up like that was bound to pull a good crowd whether they were the fashionable presses intended demographic or not.
In addition to the expertly selected line-up, the organisers had even managed to challenge the infinite wisdom of the Met office; wind and rain had been rashly forecasted for the duration of the weekend yet when Friday arrived the weather, though not blistering hot, was certainly far more pleasant than we had been led to believe. Surely the weekend was all marked out to be one of the best festivals of the summer?!
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- Posted on July 8, 2008 11:42 AM
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Jamie Hince fancies the crowd at The Mighty Boosh Festival.
Hop Farm
5th July 2008
By Zarina Raja
The Mighty Boosh Festival, an event showcasing a variety of comedy and music, took place on Saturday 5th July at the Hop Farm in Kent.
Along with the sun came hundreds of Boosh fanatics, many of whom were dressed as characters from the hit BBC series.
Throughout the day, Boosh fans saw the likes of Gary Numan, White Denim, Polar Bear, Robots in Disguise, The Kills, Jarvis Cocker, Har Mar Superstar, Peaches and The Charlatans, take to the main stage.
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- Posted on July 7, 2008 4:46 PM
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Fingering the Counting Crows
02 Wireless Festival
Hyde Park
Sunday, July 6 2008
Review by Tim Kernutt
On a day at the Hyde Park 02 Wireless Festival 2008 in which the Counting Crows was featured as the headline act, it was the Australian band Powderfinger that out-rocked all acts. On a rainy day in which Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, the Goo Goo Dolls, the Delays and Eddy Grant also played, punters may have gone home wet but would have been hard-pressed to be disappointed at the variety of bands on offer.
Arguably Powderfinger had the enviable task of following on from the tepid, but crowd-pleasing, Goo Goo Dolls. Led by lead-singer Bernard Fanning, Powderfinger has now been playing for nearly two decades having been initially formed in 1991. Yet so fresh is the new material from their latest albums, it is almost as if they are a new band. Having had a hiatus in 2005 when band-members decided to temporarily pursue solo interests, Powderfinger came back with a vengeance in 2007 with the release of 'Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'. Funnily enough, it was probably only the Australian and New Zealand contingent in the crowd (which was actually a significant number) that knew of the band before they entered stage right, however by the end of the performance in which hits such as 'Love Your Way', 'My Kinda Scene', 'Since You've Been Gone', 'Who Really Cares', and 'Baby I've Got You On My Mind' were blasted out across Hyde Park, everyone had the band's name on their lips.
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- Posted on July 7, 2008 4:21 PM
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02 Wireless Festival
Saturday 5th July 2008
Review by Max Hogg
For me the defining moment of this festival was the man on his Blackberry. He was dancing along to the end of a surprisingly good set from the terribly named Does It Offend You, Yeah? and simultaneously firing off emails left right and centre. You can imagine the message he might be sending:
“Futures prices on Zimbabwean maize are still far too low. Buy me a million dollars’ worth. Off to see Deadmau5. Keep me abreast of developments.”
Ensnaring your bonus for the year at the same time as signalling your moderately modish music tastes and avant-garde weekend activities to colleagues is undoubtedly fulfilling. But whatever the content of Mr PDA’s emails, the episode neatly summed up a very different festival crowd and atmosphere from those that would lose their wellies on a farm in Somerset or lose themselves under a field of fluorescent butterflies. It left me totally unmoved.
Continue reading "REVIEW: Wireless Fest, Fatboy Slim/Underworld" »
- Posted on July 7, 2008 4:15 PM
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02 Wireless Festival
Hyde Park
Friday 4th July 2008
Review by Chris Todd
The mass of people all arriving at 8.30 meant that Morrissey's fans decide to wait until he’s due on rather than doing something as crass as watching The Wombats. Within minutes of his arrival, an empty Hyde Park is awash with thousands of expectant fans. His arrival makes one girl burst into tears as soon as she sees him as Morrissey fans tend to do, this is either from excitement or the fact he is wearing a Playboy t-shirt which is rapidly replaced oddly by an American Idol one.
Kicking off with a beefy rendition of one of his finest tracks; 'Last of the Famous International Playboys', he precedes to make Hyde Park his with a greatest hits set incorporating songs from his forthcoming 'Years of refusal' as well as long lost Smiths classics such as the gorgeous 'Stretch out and wait' and a rapturous rendition of 'Irish Blood, English Heart' all delivered in his particularly dismissive way. The stench of burger bars and hot dogs hangs so heavy in the air that even Mozzer can smell it onstage to which he begins to berate the audience by 'Announcing you stick death inside your bodies', Kylie also is on the receiving end of his ire commenting on her OBE "Which I believe to be totally deserved, as for me... I'm nameless, timeless, that's about it really".
The showstopper however is a stunning and emotive rendition of 'Life is a Pigsty' which ends with him writhing on the floor looking like a true icon, just to hammer that status home they finish with an electrifying rendition of 'How Soon Is Now' ensuring a mass sing-along occurs before the crowd leave elated if maybe also slightly depressed.
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