V Festival 2007
So here we are on Monday afternoon, nice day off work, recovering from a fantastic weekend at the 2007 V Festival, Hylands Park, Chelmsford. The cynics said it would rain all weekend and be a complete wash our. The truth is that it rained twice, once Saturday and once Sunday just as the main stage headliners were coming on....so no-one cared by that point!!
Saturday 18th
Got to the site about 1pm and stocked up on enough beer tokens for the whole weekend. That was the first good call of the weekend - later that day bumped into Nicky who had queued for 2 hours and then given up! why can't festival people get things like that sorted?
Anyway, first band we saw was Juliette & The Licks on the Channel 4 stage. No, we weren't just watching as she's 'famous' (honest!). For me though ended up being a real highlight of the whole weekend as they totally rocked and she proved she's as made as a fish up a tree. Quality set and now have all 3 albums in my collection thanks to the lovely people at Bittorrent ;) Juliette and The Licks get a solid 8/10 for me.
Stayed at the Channel 4 Stage to catch The Thrills and then The Fray both who were really good. The sun was beating down and the festival was getting busier now. Top sets from both bands and they get a couple of 7/10's from me.
Video: The Thrills, Big Sur
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwBbl8I0t9Y
I then left the rest of the crew to head over to the Main Stage for Kanye West. It was rammed! Jim and Alice were there somewhere but at this point the mobile network seemed to crash and my and everyone elses phones were offline for a couple of hours. Nice seem as the event was sponsored by Virgin Mobile....
Kanye West was excellent. The whole place was well up for it and he had the biggest crowd of the day so far by a mile. Diamonds were well in truly in the sky for the main man from Chicago. All the tunes were there, Diamonds from Sierra Leone, Gold Digger, Touch the Sky the Sky, a brief cover of the (missing) Amy Winehouse Rehab which got a few laughs, then finishing with the fucking brilliant Jesus Walks and Stronger, the latter being the first single from the new album Graduation (released Sept 10 2007). I know this is not everyone's taste at a festival but, like i said, Mr West was on the main stage and it was completely rammed. So festival goers do love rap after all. 9/10.
Video: Kanye West, Diamonds from Sierra Leone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdqmoq9XQO8
I then went off again this time to the JJB Arena (is there a more pikey sponsor for a music arena?) for a bit of grime in the name of Dizzie Rascal. Pretty good to be honest 6/10. I met back up with Pete, Suzanne, Julie and Laura for Ocean Colour Scene. They are just getting back in to the live then again with a new album, On The Leyline, and they proved to be another big surprise of the festival. Well, I mean, when you walk out in to a packed tent, people fighting to get in, you know your still popular right? Then you kick off you set with your most famous track ever, the mighty The Riverboat Song, cue place going mental, flying pints of beer and that's how it stayed through to the end and The Day we caught the train. Awesome stuff and someone we'll get tickets for when they are touring next. 8/10.
Heading in to the evening now and Julie and Graham were already off watching Pink. They (and others) thought she was great. Judge for yourselves below with the vid (Thanks Graham!)
Video: Pink, What's Going On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLs8ui5niTI
I wanted to see Happy Mondays next but choose to watch Snow Patrol in really just to bag a good spot to watch the Foo Fighters later. Snow Patrol were there normal good average steady set. Nothing amazing. One funny thing. Martha Wainwright came on to do the duet for the first time ever in the UK. What was totally poor was she had all the words written down in front of her on the stage. You could see them on the big screens and also saw a stage runner take the up when they moved her mic away after they had finished. She gets a 1/10 from me for being a joke, Snow Patrol overall get a 7/10.
So, the end of day one and Foo Fighters were up. Dave Groll came out on stage on his own and started singing on his own. That takes balls in front of 50,000 people. Thy completely rocked then from start to finish. Got to say most of our lot didn't like them and went to see The Kooks (who were also shit according to Pete) and Rodrigo Y Gabriela (who were amazing!). I really enjoyed the Foos along with Julie and Graham and I we're going to see them when they are back touring in November. 9/10 for Foo Fighters and the big stars of the day. Then it was a nice walk back to the cars with a cup of tea then all back to mine to get ready for Sunday.
Sunday 19th
Kicked off the day with Captain (7/10) followed by The Cribs (5/10) which was just the build up really to Mark Ronson.
Video: Captain, Glorious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqyg4NRTv8w
We saw him at the o2 Festival a couple of months ago so we had big expectations. He and the amazing band didn't disappoint either. Started the set with an extended Diversion and with the sun coming out for the only time that day we got the full set with banging versions of Valerie, Apply Some Pressure, Oh My God, Toxic and finishing with the excellent Daniel Merriweather and Stop Me. Loved it all - 9/10
Video: Mark Ronson feat. Daniel Merriweather, Stop Me
Back over to the Main Stage for The Fratellis who were less than average. On the way home everyone was raving about them on the radio - what were you watching?!?! 5/10
Video: The Fratellis, Chelsea Dagger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJWqhXOUdoE
James up next and was shit. I mean totally rubbish. 3/10 max and a waste of video.
Home run now and, as i was not driving on the Sunday I was now having a really 'nice time' and totally ready for Kasabian. Saw them at Somerset House last month and they rocked that. Think this is the 3rd or 4th time seeing them but they did it again and put on an amazing show. First time I properly jumped up and down all weekend and lost it a bit. Proper good, proper loud, proper band. Havin' it we were! 9.5/10 (I hate giving half points)
So, V Festival was all over.....except for one more band. The Killers were playing their last gig in the UK for a while so it was always going to be something special. We've been trying to see them for the last 18 months but just couldn't get tickets. We were all well up for this and what a show. Just the best best best set of the weekend by a mile. I'm not entirely sure what they opened with as the old STM has kicked in by this point but what i do know is they did 2 encores. Final song before they went off first time was Mr Brightside and it was HAMMERING down with rain but no one's spirts were damended at all. There was easily more people there on the Sunday, I reckon 70,000. If you've seen the TV highlights then you'll know basement Jaxx had a massive crow too but I reckon 50,000 were watching The Killers and EVERYONE was singing every word to Mr Brightside. Pretty amazing stuff really. So off they went then came back on and did a Joy Division cover and made a 30 year old song sound like it was written yesterday. Signed off with a storming version of When You Were Young (which the oddly did earlier in the set). Final score for the final band of V festival 2007? 10/10 of course and well and truly deserved.
Brilliant brilliant brilliant weekend. Well done to the crew for making it the best weekend ever. Graham, Julie, Pete, Suzanne, Jim, Alice, Sheena, Housey, Julie, Laura (festival virgin!!) plus Nicky and her gang, Neil and his crew (where ever you were all weekend?!?). Nice one.
That was it for the 2007 V festival. All over for another year and, as this our last big year gigging, then I guess that's it for good.
Hang on, I've just had an email.....what this....Ticketmaster say tickets are on sale for 2008 next Tuesday. Well, maybe one last 'big year' in 2008......
Saturday 18th
Got to the site about 1pm and stocked up on enough beer tokens for the whole weekend. That was the first good call of the weekend - later that day bumped into Nicky who had queued for 2 hours and then given up! why can't festival people get things like that sorted?
Anyway, first band we saw was Juliette & The Licks on the Channel 4 stage. No, we weren't just watching as she's 'famous' (honest!). For me though ended up being a real highlight of the whole weekend as they totally rocked and she proved she's as made as a fish up a tree. Quality set and now have all 3 albums in my collection thanks to the lovely people at Bittorrent ;) Juliette and The Licks get a solid 8/10 for me.
Stayed at the Channel 4 Stage to catch The Thrills and then The Fray both who were really good. The sun was beating down and the festival was getting busier now. Top sets from both bands and they get a couple of 7/10's from me.
Video: The Thrills, Big Sur
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwBbl8I0t9Y
I then left the rest of the crew to head over to the Main Stage for Kanye West. It was rammed! Jim and Alice were there somewhere but at this point the mobile network seemed to crash and my and everyone elses phones were offline for a couple of hours. Nice seem as the event was sponsored by Virgin Mobile....
Kanye West was excellent. The whole place was well up for it and he had the biggest crowd of the day so far by a mile. Diamonds were well in truly in the sky for the main man from Chicago. All the tunes were there, Diamonds from Sierra Leone, Gold Digger, Touch the Sky the Sky, a brief cover of the (missing) Amy Winehouse Rehab which got a few laughs, then finishing with the fucking brilliant Jesus Walks and Stronger, the latter being the first single from the new album Graduation (released Sept 10 2007). I know this is not everyone's taste at a festival but, like i said, Mr West was on the main stage and it was completely rammed. So festival goers do love rap after all. 9/10.
Video: Kanye West, Diamonds from Sierra Leone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdqmoq9XQO8
I then went off again this time to the JJB Arena (is there a more pikey sponsor for a music arena?) for a bit of grime in the name of Dizzie Rascal. Pretty good to be honest 6/10. I met back up with Pete, Suzanne, Julie and Laura for Ocean Colour Scene. They are just getting back in to the live then again with a new album, On The Leyline, and they proved to be another big surprise of the festival. Well, I mean, when you walk out in to a packed tent, people fighting to get in, you know your still popular right? Then you kick off you set with your most famous track ever, the mighty The Riverboat Song, cue place going mental, flying pints of beer and that's how it stayed through to the end and The Day we caught the train. Awesome stuff and someone we'll get tickets for when they are touring next. 8/10.
Heading in to the evening now and Julie and Graham were already off watching Pink. They (and others) thought she was great. Judge for yourselves below with the vid (Thanks Graham!)
Video: Pink, What's Going On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLs8ui5niTI
I wanted to see Happy Mondays next but choose to watch Snow Patrol in really just to bag a good spot to watch the Foo Fighters later. Snow Patrol were there normal good average steady set. Nothing amazing. One funny thing. Martha Wainwright came on to do the duet for the first time ever in the UK. What was totally poor was she had all the words written down in front of her on the stage. You could see them on the big screens and also saw a stage runner take the up when they moved her mic away after they had finished. She gets a 1/10 from me for being a joke, Snow Patrol overall get a 7/10.
So, the end of day one and Foo Fighters were up. Dave Groll came out on stage on his own and started singing on his own. That takes balls in front of 50,000 people. Thy completely rocked then from start to finish. Got to say most of our lot didn't like them and went to see The Kooks (who were also shit according to Pete) and Rodrigo Y Gabriela (who were amazing!). I really enjoyed the Foos along with Julie and Graham and I we're going to see them when they are back touring in November. 9/10 for Foo Fighters and the big stars of the day. Then it was a nice walk back to the cars with a cup of tea then all back to mine to get ready for Sunday.
Sunday 19th
Kicked off the day with Captain (7/10) followed by The Cribs (5/10) which was just the build up really to Mark Ronson.
Video: Captain, Glorious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqyg4NRTv8w
We saw him at the o2 Festival a couple of months ago so we had big expectations. He and the amazing band didn't disappoint either. Started the set with an extended Diversion and with the sun coming out for the only time that day we got the full set with banging versions of Valerie, Apply Some Pressure, Oh My God, Toxic and finishing with the excellent Daniel Merriweather and Stop Me. Loved it all - 9/10
Video: Mark Ronson feat. Daniel Merriweather, Stop Me
Back over to the Main Stage for The Fratellis who were less than average. On the way home everyone was raving about them on the radio - what were you watching?!?! 5/10
Video: The Fratellis, Chelsea Dagger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJWqhXOUdoE
James up next and was shit. I mean totally rubbish. 3/10 max and a waste of video.
Home run now and, as i was not driving on the Sunday I was now having a really 'nice time' and totally ready for Kasabian. Saw them at Somerset House last month and they rocked that. Think this is the 3rd or 4th time seeing them but they did it again and put on an amazing show. First time I properly jumped up and down all weekend and lost it a bit. Proper good, proper loud, proper band. Havin' it we were! 9.5/10 (I hate giving half points)
So, V Festival was all over.....except for one more band. The Killers were playing their last gig in the UK for a while so it was always going to be something special. We've been trying to see them for the last 18 months but just couldn't get tickets. We were all well up for this and what a show. Just the best best best set of the weekend by a mile. I'm not entirely sure what they opened with as the old STM has kicked in by this point but what i do know is they did 2 encores. Final song before they went off first time was Mr Brightside and it was HAMMERING down with rain but no one's spirts were damended at all. There was easily more people there on the Sunday, I reckon 70,000. If you've seen the TV highlights then you'll know basement Jaxx had a massive crow too but I reckon 50,000 were watching The Killers and EVERYONE was singing every word to Mr Brightside. Pretty amazing stuff really. So off they went then came back on and did a Joy Division cover and made a 30 year old song sound like it was written yesterday. Signed off with a storming version of When You Were Young (which the oddly did earlier in the set). Final score for the final band of V festival 2007? 10/10 of course and well and truly deserved.
Brilliant brilliant brilliant weekend. Well done to the crew for making it the best weekend ever. Graham, Julie, Pete, Suzanne, Jim, Alice, Sheena, Housey, Julie, Laura (festival virgin!!) plus Nicky and her gang, Neil and his crew (where ever you were all weekend?!?). Nice one.
That was it for the 2007 V festival. All over for another year and, as this our last big year gigging, then I guess that's it for good.
Hang on, I've just had an email.....what this....Ticketmaster say tickets are on sale for 2008 next Tuesday. Well, maybe one last 'big year' in 2008......
posted by Henry Alfred Allen at 4:00 pm
4 Comments:
Good blog Phil. V festival is always my favourite time of year. Few disappointments this year though. The 2 hours beer queue that Phil mentioned was actually 3 and a half hours!! Ended up in the strongbow tent ordering 20 bulmers - could not drink them fast enough. I spent hours in queues all weekened for beers, toilets, food and then to get out of the campsite.
However, did not ruin the weekend. Could not choose between Kasabian, Snow Patrol, Basement Jaxx and Mark Ronson. L.S.F was my top tune of the weekend though. Nice one lads.
Missed Killers for Basement Jaxx - worth it. Missed Foo's (as seen them before) for Kooks - so not worth it. They were crap. Luke was pissed.
Missed a few bands on Saturday because of the earlier mentioned beer queue and then being very drunk but Sunday was much better.
Shame I did not get to meet up with more friends due to my phone going crap on me. Thanks for your call Phil with your EXACT location, good to meet up with at least one friend. To those who were with you - nice to meet you.
My feet ache from jumping and my throat hurts from singing and I looked and felt like shit at the end but a top, top, top weekend ;o)
On a severe festival come down now
Nicky x
BRILLIANT weekend!!
This was my first V and I loved it.
Highlights for me had to be The Killers, Mark Ronson, Kasabian and Ocean Colour Scene.
Ocene Colour Scene were a big surprise, top marks.
Only disappointment was that we missed Just Jack on Saturday due to my flight times.
Cheers for letting us tag along.. even in our drunken state
Julie :) x
As ever Mr.Allen a fantastic blog entry well done mate so thought I'd do something slightly different and come up with some festival awards for the gig gang. Not sure what you reckon of these comments debate can ensue:-
1. Band of the Weekend - has to be the Killers as we've wanted to see them for such a long time.
2. Disappointments of the weekend - 2 really here 1 about the festival too busy maybe I'm old bit lot busier than we've seen before the organisers being greedy bastards methinks so queues queues queues zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and 2 the killers - sound was shite not their fault but doing the same song twice ...hmmm and maybe just not big enuff at the moment but that's me being churlish.
3. Festival virgins award - if only it were true - shout here to Alice and Suze.
4. Bands we should go and see again - Editors ,mark ronson,rodrigo y gabriella, mummra and newton faulkner.
5. the old timers award OCS well done fellas you rocked James are you listening???
6. You are shite award ... the Kooks pissed twats
7. Overrated band award Fratellis
8. Best shout of the weekend (1) Aiyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - still the all time classic
9. Best shout of the weekend (2) - Put that fucking brolly down you twat - The ever shy and retirng Sheena
10 . Most bands watched and buzzy award - got to be Sheens again.
11. Biggest moody face - Jools - I dont like Mark Ronson.
12. I really like this award - Graham at the Foos
13. I gonna get wankered award - Housey I missed Sat so I'm gonna party!!!!!
14. Best Shapes cut award - rhino - at mark ronson, killers etc etc
15. New gigers - Julie and her sister
and finally may I suggest a new category inductees to the gig guide hall of fame with a double entry
1. Mr Phillip Allen - for continuing greatness in getting tickets anyway and being totally on the ball for gigs - Respect!!
2. Mr. Graham Chalmers - OI MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HR he should be in PR - AWESOME SUPPORT MATERIAL!!!!!!!
Thats it from me - bit more effort on the blog site from me and bring on the autumn/winter gig season
Pete xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Brilliant blog Phil.
What a great weekend the Festival was. On the first day, Editors and Paulo Nuttini were enjoyable, as me & mi burd had little or poor expectations, and they put in a tip top performance. Kanye West was excellent, he is a clever lyricist and the tunes are mega too.
It went pretty blurry for a few hours after that but I know that I saw a bloke who I used to work with in 1994. After a refreshing cup of Rosie, Me & Mrs R saw Snow Patrol, who put in a decent shift, and the Foo Fighters, who I don't really like, but that's OK as I don't think they like me either.
We left the festival and headed back to Phil's. I was welcomed into his gaff by the coldest bottle of Bud I've ever had in my life and MOTD on Sky+!!!! Awesome, and I don't often use that word. Cheers mate.
When I saw the rain on Sunday morning, I thought we were in for a drenching but the rain held off for most of the day. Visual gag moment of the weekend - Peter / Frank getting his arse out, outside Phil's house - which could be connected to a spate of 'For Sale' erected in Phil's street yesterday.
We saw Graham, Julie & Mark when we got there, then met my mate Will from work and tried to follow United's disaster at the Council House. We caught the end of Mark Ronson, but the bigger crowds on Sunday, meant it was more difficult to move around. I still think he's top.
I thought the Fratellis were poo. Watching James gave me mixed feelings; it's like seeing a bird that you used fancy, who used to be really fit, but she's totally let herself go. You're gutted when you see her now, but still excited by the bird from the past. Tim Booth was like an epileptic Gavin Peacock, which can never be good. The songs are part of the fabric of my life and briefly remembering the good times associated with those songs gave me a buzz.
By this time we were all gathered together and we were having a really good craic. Kasabian were brilliant; Processed Beats was my high point of the Festival. As Phil said, this was proper jump around time - fuck the weather, fuck the crowds, let's just have it here and now. By this time, the rain swirling in the lights made the atmosphere, rather than dampen it and The Killers were a great band to close the Festival.
We really enjoyed the weekend, it was great to see everyone and we're definitely up for it next year.
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