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Balado, Scotland
July 11th - 13th
Day One
With a line-up featuring two legendary
groups who we failed to see before they broke up and subsequently
reformed, a host of iconic acts and some of the best new talent in
Britain, missing the 15th T in the Park festival would’ve been nothing
short of criminal.
Which is why we sent Chris Skoyles up north to join some 80,000 Scots in
experiencing one truly monumental weekend.
After a manic day trying to get from LINC HQ to Balado via non-existent
coaches from Preston, crammed train journeys and quick bout of being
lost in Glasgow, we finally arrive at ‘T’ just in time for Friday
night’s headliners.
Which is gutting, since we were quite looking forward to catching the
likes of Newton Faulkner and Feeder earlier in the day.
Luckily, we have Wigan’s own rock ‘n’ roll heroes to lift our spirits.
As night falls over the Scottish sky and bodies eclipse the land, The
Verve enter into an epic, spirited performance which couldn’t have been
better for kicking off our weekend.
Led by Ashcroft, who seems even more fired up than usual, the band blast
out a cornucopia of past hits and tracks from their forthcoming album,
all the while slamming critics and praising ‘the greatest live crowd in
the world’.
Yet it’s those sing-along anthems which really engage such a crowd.
‘Sonnet’ comes early on in the proceedings, before a treble helping of
classics begins to drive the night to a close.
After a tingling rendition of ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’, Ashcroft dedicates
an equally enthralling run though of ‘Lucky Man’ to his missus.
“Does anyone know what’s like to write a classic?” bellows Ashcroft.
“Some of you lot will go on to write a classic.”
Just the cue we need then, to join in with ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’.
The tune which arguably defined the band’s career sounds grand and full
of life, inspiring the crowd into a massive chorus of the famous song.
The Verve still aren’t finished though, bringing the first night of the
festival to a close with new track, ‘Love is the Noise’.
It sounds phenomenal, the trademark ‘Verve sound slamming straight into
the new millennium.
By the time it’s all done, we’re practically salivating at the prospect
of getting our hands on new album, ‘Forth’.
Recommended links:
►
www.theverve.co.uk
►
http://www.myspace.com/thevervetv
Day Two
We can’t imagine ten to twelve in the
morning being the prefer stage time of many bands, but it’s the one
Jaguar Love have been lumbered with, and they’re taking it in their
stride. Formed from the ashes of US alt-rockers Blood Brothers and
Pretty Girls Make Graves, the group revel in a kind of sublime and
slightly beautiful chaos, all manic yelping over an eccentric sense of
structure.
For the uninitiated, allow your reporter to
set an image in your mind which could easily offend: Imagine if
pop-twerp Mika suddenly sold his soul to the devil in exchange for all
new powers of cool and calamity, became possessed by Beelzebub and set
off on a crazed rampage; that’s something along the lines of what’s
happening on this Saturday morning. And it’s good. At least good enough
to wake us up, and we can only imagine how much more we’d enjoy Jaguar
Love at a proper rock ‘n’ roll hour.
If you ever wanted to see Slash and Lenny Kravitz rocking out together,
catching David Jordan’s set comes pretty close.
Backed by a black-clad, big-haired ax-man who seems strikingly like the
famed guitarist, Jordan himself cavorts about the stage in black leather
and a baseball cap, reaching into the Kravitz’ book of style and pulling
out a rock ‘n’ soul performance full of fun and flamboyance.
Probably one for the ladies, Jordan amps up his provocative stage
presence as he swirls around the stage. The music’s good too. Songs are
catchy and passionate, and when recent single, ‘Sun Goes Down’ is
unleashed, the modest-yet-eager crowd lap it up.
Heading out into the breaking sun, we’re just in time to catch quirky
popstress, Kate Nash.
Though hardly delivering anything overly spectacular, Ms. Nash does
provide an entertaining show full of her usual piano-pop ditties.
Surrounded by a coral-inspired stage set, Nash appears both gentle and
confident, a smile splashed across her face as she runs through her
animated set. Joined at one point by a troupe of dancers attired in
skeleton costumes, the auburn-haired singer shines in the summer sun as
she entertains a jovial crowd.
Up next come The Feeling, who are an absolute joy to watch.
With every windmill and rock star leap, we see a band unashamedly living
out the rock ‘n’ roll fantasies of their youth.
Adding unexpected covers of Ah-Ha’s ‘Take on Me’ and Buggle’s ‘Video
Killed The Radio Star’ amongst their usual hits, the band confirm what
we’ve said all along about them; that they rock so much harder live than
they do on record. Not that this is knock on their sprightly,
radio-friendly guitar pop, far from it. It’s just that, as with all good
bands, you get so much more out of The Feeling in a live setting.
We top off our day with legendary political rockers, Rage Against The
Machine.
And sadly, they’re a bit of a let down.
That’s not to say they’re not enjoyable, but for this writer, it’s a
sense of enjoyment which could have easily been matched by sticking
‘Rage Greatest hits’ on the living room stereo and inviting the whole
street round to slam into each other with gusto. Even Zack De La Rocha’s
obligator tirade against George Bush, leading up to a scorching version
of ‘Wake up’, seems somewhat clichéd.
Again, there’s nothing really wrong with the music, which is just as
intense as we could possibly hope for. Blasting off from a powerful
version of ‘Testify’, the band pummel their way through a furious,
career-spanning set taking in everything from the bouncing ‘Renegades of
Funk’ to the fantastic ‘Guerrilla Radio’ by way of relentless anthems
like ‘Sleep Now in the Fire’ and ‘Bombtrack’, pummelling the eager crowd
all the way to a finale in the form of the ‘Killing in the Name’.
As the band’s biggest hit, it sends the whole place into hysterics;
thousands of frenzied fans moshing like mad whilst bellowing the
infamous, expletive-laden battle cry which made this song such an
anthem. It sounds good, and no other way of ending the show would’ve
seemed right, but still, there remains this nagging feeling that there’s
something, something we can’t quite put our finger on, was missing from
Rage Against The Machine’s first UK performance in eight years.
Recommended links:
JAGUAR LOVE
►
www.myspace.com/jaguarloveband
►
www.matadorrecords.com/jaguar_love
DAVID JORDAN
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www.davidjordanmusic.co.uk
►
www.myspace.com/davidjordanofficial
Kate Nash
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www.katenash.co.uk
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www.myspace.com/katenashmusic
The Feeling
►
www.thefeeling.com
►
www.myspace.com/thefeeling
Rage Against the Machine
►
www.ratm.com
►
www.myspace.com/ratm
Day Three
We get our Sunday underway with Royworld,
the south-London quartet specialising in a brand of lavish pop which
could see them become a very big deal.
When we catch the band this morning, they remind us somewhere along the
lines of a far-less dreary Keane, with all the swooping, soaring sense
of the epic you could hope for.
Sounding all melodramatic and rife with emotion, Royworld could be a
very good band in the right setting, but at this early hour of the day,
we’re looking for something to light us up, not something to get our
lighters out and sway in the dark to.
Which is why we next head over to the Pet
Sounds Arena to check out 1990s.
When we arrive, just a few short minutes into their set, the band belt
out two tunes, both of which provide intros sounding scarily like The
Undertones’ ‘Teenage Kicks’.
It gets better from there tough.
The Glasgow trio genuinely seem to be enjoying themselves, always a good
thing in our book, as they romp through jaunty, joyous jolts of
feel-good indie pop.
Full of quick wit and crisp licks, 1990s are such a fun band to watch
and, whereas Royworld earlier made us want to go back to bed and cuddle
up, they boys create a real urge to out and have one huge party.
Heading over to the NME/Radio 1 stage, expecting to catch Little Man
Tate, we’re instead confronted by Mindless Self Indulgence.
Revelling in what can only be described as some vitriolic kind of
cyber-gothic-electro-punk, front man Jimmy Urine (yes, you read that
right), antagonises the crowd; taunting them, between intense chunks of
storming industrial rock, over the fact that he leads a rock ‘n’ roll
lifestyle whilst we ‘all have to go back to work tomorrow’ (er, after
this weekend, we don’t think so, mate!) before miming along to a
rendition of ‘There’s no Business Like Show Business’ as the set closes.
It’s surprising, but altogether quite brilliant.
Lunch is served with a spot of Delays, who seem positively
thrilled to be here; doing their best to instil a sense of festival
atmosphere with an energy which stretches all the way to the back of the
tent.
OK, so they don’t leave us feeling awe-inspired, but they are pretty
good, which must count for something.
Glaswegian gal’, Amy MacDonald attracts a devout audience this
afternoon, and it’s clear to see why; coming across as just a really
nice Scottish lass done good, when she breaks into song she sounds so
refreshing.
Talking about how she went from playing the T Break Stage, home to
emerging new acts, at T ’07, to the Main Stage in the space of a year,
Amy attracts rapturous rounds of applause between her folk heavy,
acoustic tunes, all laden with a thick, sweet accent which helps her
cause as one of the most original acts in the country.
The Enemy then hit the Main Stage, rousing the crowds with hits
such as ‘Away from Here’ and a stirring rendition of ‘We’ll Live and Die
in these Towns’.
The Coventry outfit attract a huge crowd, but from where we’re standing,
they’re really not that special.
Sure, The Enemy are good are what they do, but when all they’re doing
seems to be the same thing every other band is doing too, it’s not
really all that impressive.
Injured Counting Crows frontman, Adam Duritiz, greets the crowd
warmly, apologizing in advance for a lack of ‘tween song band by
explaining that “this is the last stage of our European tour and we want
to play as many songs as possible; new songs, old songs, lots of songs.”
There’s no need to apologise; it’s doubtful that there’s a single artist
in the world who gives as much of himself in performances as Adam Duritz.
As though feeling the pain and pleasure of every word, the despair and
desperation behind every note, on stage, Duritz becomes the physical
embodiment of emotion.
And whilst this is admirable, it’s also somewhat worrying.
Dropping the crutch supporting his seemingly knackered right leg, Duritz
bravely leaps about the stage, wincing and staggering on landing before
bounding straight back into a mesmerizing, emotionally-wrought
performance.
And all the while, you think: “Man, I love this song, but I really hope
that guy’s OK!”
Highlights come in the form of opening track ‘Omaha’, crowd favourite,
‘Mr. Jones’ and a haunting rendition of ‘Colour Blind’, whilst new
tracks from recent album ‘Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings’ sound
resplendent in the open Scottish air.
As we leave the main stage area, the entire population of Scotland flock
towards it, making easily the biggest crowd of the festival for tabloid
fodder and sometime singer, Amy Winehouse.
We decide to stick around, but only really to see if anything
controversial happens, or if she’s even going to show up at all.
When she does, and the only controversial, or even slightly interesting,
thing that happens is that she sounds awful, we head off to prepare for
an audience with Messrs Mills, Stipe and Buck.
Watching R.E.M is probably the most fun you can ever have at a
live music event. It’s certainly the most fun we’ve ever had.
As the band rock their way through a career-spanning set, it’s clear
that the veterans have perfected the art of the live performance.
Dancing and singing through tracks from recent album ‘Accelerate’ to the
classics, you’re no longer simply watching a gig with R.E.M, you’re
experiencing it.
From the bouncing ‘Orange Crush’ through the rarely featured
‘Ignoreland’ by way of favourites such as ‘The Great Beyond’ and the
classic ‘Loosing My Religion’, the Athens rockers deliver a radiant
performance which sees Stipe leave the stage to interact with those
lucky-enough to be in the front row, and encourage the masses to
illuminate the night sky with their mobiles during ‘Electrolite’.
After leaving the stage, they return for a three-song encore of
‘Supernatural Super Serious’, a sublime sing-a-long of ‘It’s The End of
the World As We Know It…’ and finally, the Andy Kaufman inspired ‘Man on
the Moon’.
There’s no band on earth quite like R.E.M, and no better band to round
up our 2008 T in the Park experience.
Recommended links:
Royworld
►
www.royworld.co.uk
►
www.myspace.com/royworldtheband
1990s
►
www.myspace.com/1990sband
►
www.1990s.tv
Mindless Self Indulgence
►
www.mindlessselfindulgence.com
►
www.myspace.com/mindlessselfindulgence
Delays
►
www.thedelays.co.uk
►
www.myspace.com/delays
Amy MacDonald
►
www.amymacdonald.co.uk
►
www.myspace.com/amymacdonald
The Enemy
►
www.theenemy.com
►
www.myspace.com/theenemycoventry
Counting Crows
►
www.countingcrows.com
►
www.myspace.com/countingcrows
Amy Winehouse
►
www.amywinehouse.co.uk
►
www.myspace.com/amywinehouse
R.E.M
►
www.remhq.com
►
www.myspace.com/rem
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