V Fest 2013 - Weston Park

So after a good nights sleep, it's time to reflect on V Fest 2013. My eighth on the trot and one that created gems to remember.

The absolute highlight for me came not from a headliner, or a new comer but an incredibly emotional Fran Healy of Travis on their return to the music biz after a 5 year absence being Dads. I'd watched Travis at the start of their careers at V99 many moons ago, wowing the crowd with their feats of weather control whilst playing why does it always rain on me. I've seen them various times across the UK so I was an easy target for the come back in a rammed Arena stage at ten past six, as were a tent full of similarly 90's focussed indie/Britpop kids.

The set was a festival short 45 mins of hits and obligatory new one, songs with pace (the lust for life infused Selfish Jean) slower ones but mainly sing alongs throughout (Sing, Sing, Sing).

It wasn't the sing alongs that made this a stand out set of the weekend, but the emotional response of the crowd, reacting to the wondrous amazement of Travis to the response they received. All culminating with a tearful Fran Healy launching into finale 'why does it always rain on me' having received one of the loudest and longest standing ovations (not hard in a tent of standing people) which was ear splitting and went on and on and on.

Another highlight was the band sing along to Frans acoustic run through of flowers in the window (?) with them standing behind Fran, smiling and winking appreciatively, Dougie (looking far too cool for school with every passing year) and one of the other chaps taking over one end each of Fran's guitar whilst he waved his hands in the air.

Fran with suitably greying hair, the sign of kids

Once Travis finished the set, there was not much more to do, nothing could top that and Mrs P and I were more than happy to wander out of the Festival on a high leaving the youngsters to an evening of Fun, Beyonce and the Script.

Looking back, this was a good one, I'd been a little disappointed with the line up, and with Beady Eye pulling out but Saturday (with mate Neil) and Sunday with Mrs P had some standout stuff.

So Saturday and doing my tour guide bit for V festival virgin Neil, we got in for the start whilst I pointed out all the sights (emergency exits are here, here and here) bought the beers tokens and wandered down to settle into the first band,the Saturdays. We lasted 3 bombastic songs, bass pumping, one which we should have known apparently per the Saturdays (we should have been jumping) before heading round to the 4 Music stage to see a band I was really looking forward to seeing, The Heavy. They could have done with the Saturdays bass, as their stand out tune, How you like me now, would have sounded grimier and dirtier with the bass turned up, but we were then away and into the festival. Beverage of choice in hand, we headed back to the main stage for Scouting for girls, not as I had said Scouting for boys, leading to a discussion about childhood TV celebrities who were now facing long stretches in chokey.

Scouting for girls lasted a few songs for us, and we could see the format for their success, name check an icon (James Bond, Elvis etc) and singing a chirpy indie pop song about it, sticking in a Bond theme cover too, then back to the 4 Music stage for Reverend & the Makers, a band made for V Festival. John McClure is a front man who is not shy about telling the crowd what he expects of them, largely challenging us to jump up and down, dance and pitting the left hand side of the audience (our side, great) against the right hand side (poor effort). His comment about 'the Heavy weight champion of the world' being the best song we would hear this year at the festival this year was not far of the mark, but it has a distinct advantage being one of the best songs of recent years IMHO.

Kangaroo burger imbibed (nice but no Ostrich Burger) we were off to provide local support to Laura Mvula, who has definitely worked on her Brummie accent both for singing and chatting to the crowd, she really sounds like a product of the States now. Sadly though, her show is not made for the Arena tent, iPhone came out, twitter was tried to be checked 57 times as album tracks of warbling were played. We didn't stay for the singles (which I do rate) it didn't work for me, so to restore the vibe we caught a bit of comedy in the Glee club tent, anyone in there works and we were back.

After him we were back over for a bit of Seasick Steve, with John Paul Jones (legend alert) on bass. Now he is an artist. Guitars either bashed up or home made (cigar x or hub cap variety) he rattled through great blues tracks, leaving me hoping i'll have his energy at his age (whatever age that is). A nice touch was bringing a lass out the crowd, and romantically serenading her before leaving her with a signed LP (like a big cd he informed the crowd) and a John Deere cap.

Onward to the futures tent for a bit of solo Coral action by James Skelly, not going to be making much money as a solo artist with bucket loads of people in the band and a couple of backing singers for a couple of songs in the set. Cracking set, definitely the worth investing in his album, especially as he threw in the Corals best tune Dreaming of you...top.

Then onto the Vaccines, a band channelling the spirit of the Ramones, focussed on the brevity, pace and unashamedly pop tastic nature of the tracks. Having seen them earlier in their career it's a bit of a surprise to see the amount of hair now possessed by lead singer Justin Hayward-Young, again a highlight of the day, Melody Calling being a far mellower highlight of the set. Over to Maximo Park, who delivered a good set, a typical energetic front man performance, legs akimbo bounces into the air. A highlight is always Graffiti with the quality lyrics, 'I'll do graffiti if you sing to me in French' but we didn't stay long as they were on the way to the Eels. The Eels who for me fall into the category of the Flaming Lips, who don't care and will just do what they fancy. The Eels, kitted out in matching black Adidas trackies, topped off by band leader E with his sweat band round his head. The set didn't have songs I knew, or recognised but they were individual, whether it was the count down from 10 mid song, or the group hugs, or the iconic dancing by E. it all kinda sat perfectly together.

Food (Fish 'n' Chips) beckoned as we settled in down the front for the remainder of the evening, Stereophonics (here's a new one off the new album) kicked off with rockets (red white and blue smoke) and ended with 30 ft flames, as if to suggest they should be headlining the stage, or just a nudge to Kings of Leon to ensure they realise they need to be worthy headliners. One thing that strikes you seeing the Stereophonics is the lack of ageing that is going on with Kelly. He hasn't changed since the 90's, and we were pretty close in, not changed in looks, leather jacket, sound, anything....he's either sold his soul to the devil, or has Shakin Stevens genes (Shaky always being pointed to for this in Smash Hits).

Shakin Stevens

Then the Kings of Leon, and worthy headliners, cracking set, all seemingly up for the gig, best songs by a mile though being the Bluesy belters from the early albums, Molly's Chambers sounding perfect. Mid set most people round us got distracted by the emergence of a pile of poo. Basically someone had done a dump and managed to clear a small area of the inner circle of the crowd. It's amazing how choking a dump can be when you smell it wafting around. Then, it being dark, you watched in amusement as unsuspecting people kept filling the space, only to be told by gleeful revellers that they may want to check their shoes....we wrapped up with a Sex on Fire driven encore and then an amble back to the car happy to not be spending the night under canvas.

Onto day 2 and the weaker line up, Mrs P (with a definite reduced stamina and appetite for random bands she doesn't know) confirmed we only needed to get their for Deacon Blue at 1:15, and she was right to insist as Ricky Ross was definitely up for enthusing the crowd, apologising for the crowd for getting the dress code wrong in his suit, he implored us to do a bit of Scottish Country Dancing and cracked off hit after hit to a crowd who lapped it up despite not being the target audience. 'come see us we're on tour' he implored after a blistering rendition of Dignity left us jumping. Lissie by contrast is an up and coming star, the perfect embodiment of Southern USA with her 'yawlllll's, and to go with this one of the most amazing voices around. Again, can't wait for her new album to come out, so much energy and a real sense of her enjoying herself.

Misread dress code catastrophe

Another highlight, and James. It's been 20+ years since me and Mrs P went on our first proper date to see James at Alton Towers and the years have not been kind to either my or Tim Booths hair since, the manc haircut and quiff both having bought it some years back. James picked a set list that suited themselves, not just hits but new song and early single Johnny Yenn. They did resurrect Sit Down, having presumably fallen back in love with it since becoming sickened of it previously and dropping it for years. Tim Booth was the joint most intelligent man at the festival (sending us to see his peer Eddie Izzard at the end of the set) intelligent banter, unique dancing and then sitting on the shoulders of the crowd for the finale. A belter. Then not being able to get close to Eddie Izzard, we strained to hear from outside whilst watching him on the big screen, an interesting tale about Vader, God and Keith(?) from marketing with a tea tray.....you had to be there.

Showing off the Fish 'n' chips to Mrs P they didn't go down well, so we were then into uncomfortably watching Paloma Faith, then the guilty please that is Mark Owen (4 minute warning is a perfect pop tune, but he should have a word with Kelly from the Stereophonics about his beauty regime) and then a nice doze whilst watching the Swedes Of Monsters and Men. A bit more comedy, then the mind blowing spectacle of Travis.

Home early, which chuffed Nan as she got out of full baby sitting duties and V Festival was over for another year, now when do those early bird tickets go on sale again.......

The Charlatans at V Festival 2010

The Charlatans are a band I have had quite an interesting relationship with over the years, and are now filed under the status of one of my top 10 favourite bands, but that is a status they have not held for too many years. My first awareness of the Charlatans was at school and the purchase of the 7 inch single of 'the only one I know' . This now holds a special place in my affection being the first genuinely indie song that I had ever bought. The song was so different due to the driving organ sound throughout, it instantly grabbed my attention, and is probably the reason why I have held The Charlatans in such high regard ever since as there are close links with the organs coming from The Stax stable of records.

The 7 inch did not instantly embed itself as a classic, I always loved it, but I loved every 7 inch (in fact every bit of vinyl purchased) with a passion. It got played a lot, made the trip to uni with me, got copied onto lots of mix tapes but was just in amongst the crowd. In fact in do have a bit of a blind spot between there's no other way by blur and this single and have to concentrate not to mix them up.

Then the Charlatans were lost to me for a number of years until the collection Melting Pot and the eruption of Britpop which they jumped on the tails of. Melting Pot was a cracking collection, introducing wierdo and can't get out of bed plus the Britpop staples of How high and North Country Boy set The Charlatans up there as one of my faves of the era, but no better than the Mansuns and Casts of this world.

So they then got themselves elevated by the simple fact that they have stayed around, created quality albums and reinvented themselves. I think the transition to legendary status came when they released the Wonderland album. This was a revelation as Tim Burgess sang the album in falsetto, and the tunes really stood up to the treatment.


On release, as I was heavily into the NME on a weekly basis they gave it favourable comments, normally the ex Britpop releases were passed over with a brief 7/10 if lucky and I seem to remember it getting compared to Curtis Mayfield -high praise indeed. But this was a style kept for one album, before evolving again and again on subsequent albums. They have not stopped still, a fact that shone through in their set at V this year, songs from a load of different albums all greeted with great affection, See Blackened Blue Eyes for an example of the quality recent output.

In fact the Charlatans were in the forefront of giving away their album free to the public but by the cooler medium of Xfm radio station rather than the daily mail, they did however get overshadowed by the whole Radiohead, In Rainbows phenomena (pay what you want for the biggest release of the year)

The final reason for their elevation to (borrowing a phrase from the NME) Godlike genius was I found out that the bulk of the band are Brummies, and Tim Burgess now living in LA means Manchester can't claim this chameleon of bands really any more, so they are a home town band!

So why was V 2010 special, yes the set was good, and the perfect way to finish the Festival in the Union tent (despite the band huddle after three songs for a quick blocking from Tim I imagine)' but that was not the reason, the reason was my meeting the band, in the signing tent, getting signed cd and poster, shaking hands with the band, getting my photo taken, and the official picture of me and Tim Burgess being shown on the NME website, a thrill in itself given my history with that publication.

Even the queuing was an experience, as having come from seeing Lissie (quality tunes and pipes and was on the front row) I went to queue for the signing tent, but I was a little early and the queue had some Lissie fans in front, I thought i might meet Lissie for a minute, but the 2 die hard Charlatan fans in front of me, who had been queuing for hours already made it clear that anyone over the age of 19 was not allowed to see Lissie, so I stayed put and was very pleased to have done so. As I stood watching Paul Wellers set from the side of the main stage waiting for the Charlatans I got more and more excited until then it was time, I made the day of the chap in front of me, being his official photographer, I think he was more excited as the photos he took for me were a tad blurry, but igit to meet all the band and was suitably star struck just being able to shake hands and say thanks to everyone in the band. At least I recovered enough by the time I met Tim Burgess (last on the line) to say how much I love the band and to get him to shake my hand for the official picture with the nme.

Superb, superb, superb physical product (signed up at the lake cd) which is now framed on my wall. Happy days.

(and I did feel sorry for Lissie, due to the popularity of the Charlatans, only 8 people met her in her signing, but I'm sure they all had a good long chat!)

James Brown's I Feel Good - for the sick

James Brown was an iconic larger than life individual, the Godfather of Soul, which meant that it was only him, Elvis and Michael Jackson who had their own iconic names in my life. Unless you counted Sir William of Idol which Billy had been christened by Smash Hits magazine. My first experiences of James Brown came from the Blues Brothers - a superb cult movie with a soundtrack that provided me with a love of stax soul music that endures to this day and probably more importantly from the cd that I had bought for me, James Brown's the best of. This was an important cd as, arriving in 1987 it was one of the very first I got to play on my lovely new cd player, (funded ironically by my Dad despite my telling him for at least 12 months that cd's were inferior to vinyl and I would never be getting a cd player, I have no idea why Dad succumbed to my wining to get one subsequently, I would have made have given him a load of grief. I think it arrived for doing my GCSE's but I'm not too sure).

It was interesting how I came to get James Brown's greatest hits, because I didn't have to buy it myself, Mom bought it under my direction, because......... I was poorly, and as it came out in 1987 I guess I was 15 at the time and stuck at home with a temperature feeling sick. This was a very rare occasion, I don't remember many instances of being at home being poorly, missing an early Rich Bennett birthday party, getting a day off school by spinning round and round in the hall until I felt sick, amazingly, one time when I received Muffit the Daggit from Battlestar Galactica and this instance. I probably was ill quite a lot as every child was on reflection, but those were memorable, as was the day I got The Best of James Brown. Actually it was quite amazing to be bought a cd, because they cost a fortune in 1987, at £13 which seemed to be the going rate they cost the same as a couple of lp's but a quarter of my season ticket down the blues and a lot more than toys, and Mom and Dad were sensible in lavishing gifts on us as money was quite scarce.

The disk was well spun, partly because it was one of the few I had but also because James Brown's tunes were very accessible to the young Neil whose music taste was quite limited - I feel good and sex machine were crackers to bounce around to as was Living in America - which was already a firm favourite as it featured on the Rocky 4 soundtrack. Now this was an iconic movie, and one I had bought the soundtrack of on lp. I went to see this at the odeon cinema in Sutton, without parents, which was great, and the cinema seemed to be filled with people from school. It was the scene of one of my coolest moments when I was sat some way back and launched (what was either a minstrel or a little round mint, the sort that you get from a curry house) a sweet forward in the daylight and it bounced with a satisfying 'thunk' off the head of one of the square boys from my class. It was a great bounce, no doubt embellished in my memory, but it bounced up in the air in my memory and the whole school saw and admired it, with me taking a bow. But in actual fact I was probably limited to accidentally hitting the lad, feeling embarrassed and sinking into my seat looking behind me to deflect the blame to the naughty kids at the back, but I like my memorys version better, as I was cool for a second.



With such a love of the record, it seems strange that when I went to V99 with Mrs P some years later, and the legendary James Brown was headlining the second stage I didn't push myself to the front. But I was caught in the grip of Britpop and the manics were on the main stage so I tried to do both, which meant loitering at the back of James Browns audience, which was massive unsurprisingly, waiting to hear a loved tune before heading to hear the manics singing a design for life. But this plan did not work, I didn't know that James Brown's show consisted of lots of acting and introductions before he took to the stage, so much that we got bored of the intros, and left, to see the Manics, who I can't remember anything about at all, and JB is now dead so I won't get to see him, Pish. I am sure he was ace eventually, the NME said so in ironic terms.

Amazing what memories the cd brings back. This was also in hind sight the first cd that I took full advantage of the skip function and program function to create ...... A playlist....... as songs, get up, papas got a brand new bag, gonna have a funky good time, gravity, America and i got you I feel good definitely got loads more spins that the others, but actually looking at the reverse of the CD, all of the tracks resonate really well, I may listen again in the way to the office now......