V Festival; Day One!

Hello!



As mentioned yesterday in my blog, the past weekend I went to something called V Festival, which is a fairly big music festival over in the UK...And, considering this is actually an important event in my life as apposed to my usual topics of school work and bying CDs, I thought at least some of you might want to hear about it, right? Well, if you do or you don't, I must record this for "later reference", so, enjoy...?



We'd expected the traffic to be a problem on Saturday, so we had to leave a little earlier than I would have hoped. But unfortunately the roads turned out to have no problems at all, considering the campers had already set up Friday night. We were lead into the wrong car park for our tickets, and then walked to the first gate, two hours before we'd actually be let inside the arena.



With plenty of time to burn, we thought we'd walk all the way over to red campsite(We had to get camping tickets, though my mom didn't want to camp), mainly so she could complain how unkempt everyone else looked. It was huge, the campsite, and no matter how far back you looked you couldn't really see an end to it, which must've been a problem for the people in the very middle. In typical festival style there was a line of ten or fifteen tents selling, most commonly, boots, stripy socks, gloves, hates, and sunglasses. I got a pair of big green glasses, the ones with the bars across, before we walked to our closest gate, gate Six, and waited in line. As mentioned yesterday, we were there with a few friends--Under the names of C, G, and B, who came with their mom, step-son, and a couple of friends--J, and A--and their mom. (Disregard the names, as I'm guessing they ll be of no use whatsoever.) Deciding to meet up at this point was a huge mistake, and it turns out they were at Gate Three, the exact other end of the park.



For about an hour we stood, squished up around two or three hundred other people. We'd bought a timetable of who was playing where--Several cards on a string, designed to hang around a person's neck, which wasn't a terribly good style. We were eventually let inside at about 11:50, and we walked with the flow of the people, which turned out to be partly towards the bar, and partly towards the main stage.



McFly was the first band playing at the main stage. Surprising, considering the average McFly fan is too young for their parents to let them go to the festival. But our currently un-found friends wanted to see them, and we'd got to the 5th row, which was pretty cool. After setting up all the cameras and things(Some of the festival is aired on TV), they finally came on at 12:15. After the first song, the singer(Tom, I think his name is), thought the best way to open was "Hi. How are you?", and then the guitarist deemed that too boring and said "I think the real question is how many people are going to contract a sexually transmitted disease this weekend".Um.They played a half-hour run of mostly awful pop songs, including Star Girl, Lie, It's All About you, and a Beastie Boys cover(Yes, I can dislike a band and still know nearly all the song titles), before randomly bringing out two giant inflatable balloons, throwing them into the audience, announcing that we're "all touching McFly's balls", and ending with Five Colours In her Hair.



All the fifteen year old McFly fans in way too much mascara backed out and I moved forward to 2nd row. Starsailor were playing next, and I found out I was at least 20 years younger than their rest of their fans that day. Because they were early on in the day it was only a fifteen minute wait to set-up. They were actually fairly good live, and I liked the singer's jacket. They played Tell Me it's Not Over, , Four To The Floor, Alcoholic(Afterwards the singer--Who's name I've forgotten--Looks into the audience, Laughs and says "I never thought I'd see anyone crowd-surfing to Alcoholic. Well done to that girl."), You Never Get What You Deserve, Hurts Too Much, a couple older songs I didn't know, before ending with Good Souls.

During a far too short half hour of them, we'd got a text from our friends' mother explaining where she was located, as she didn't want to go into the crowd, something along the lines of "We're between the main stage and the Union tent". Since 11:50, four or five thousand people were now just sitting down around the main stage, and under her basic instructions there were a few problems. But several panicky texts later, and their mom dragged one of her children--"C"--out of the crowd, and we finally met, and were taken back to their picnic set up few hundred meters way from where we were standing for Starsailor, for cupcakes and orange juice, while watching Taylor Swift play a few songs on the stage(You Belong With Me, Our Song, Love Story, etc.). A man next to us started talking about The Killers, and after their mom offered him a snack we'd presumed it was the step-son we've never actually met. Turns out it was just a random stranger and his girlfriend, who were quite keen on the same music as me.

After Love Song was played and an unhealthy amount of candy was consumed, me, my mom, and my friend walked around some of the stalls before going to check out the 2nd stage. Other than "the God Shop", these were all more or less the same places with different names, selling the same strange rubbish, including a few places selling tutus. We got to the stage to hear the Noisettes play a couple of songs. Other than their singer having an amazing voice, she does have a lot of stage presence, even if we were too far away to experience the full effect of it. They ended with Don't Upset The Rhythm--The only song by them that most people know--and after that we walked back to our picnic set-up, and got to see G for the first time that day.

The Script were about to start when we got in line to about the 15th row. This was a very similar audience to Taylor Swift for the most part. the three band members came on slowly, one at a time, and opened with Talk You Down. They later played Break Even, Rusty Halo, We Cry, The End Where I Begin, and the Man Who Can't Be Moved. Singer Danny O''Something Irish' had by the time of that song regained his confidence from a previous incident of nearly falling over on camera("Sorry", he says "I was just having a drink with our drummer". Good on ya, Danny, that's how we demolish stereotypes!), and gave an absolutely amazing performance. He seemed genuinely awe-struck when he didn't even have to sing, but simply listen to several thousand people sing every single word back to him.


We'd moved up to forth row for Lily Allen, somehow. At this point everyone was pushing against each other a lot and several people backed out. By this time backdrops were getting somewhat more elaborate, and she had giant models of the letters in her name behind her. A huge fuss seems to be made nowadays about what female musicians wear on stage, as if Lady GaGa doesn't keep people occupied enough from that standpoint, so if you're interested; Black tank top, gray short-shorts, black sunglasses, huge black heels. Nothing too fancy. She did take her glasses off, revealing a random blue stripe across her forehead. Between announcing the latest cricket scores and taking out a cigarette(And lighting it. How typically fake and annoying and same as always), she played Littlest Things, The Fear, Not Fair, 22, Every one's At It, He Wasn't There, Fuck You, Smile, and LDN. That's the best thing about pop songs such as hers; You can fit in a lot into a fairly short time-space relative to what these artists normally get.

After this mass chaos ins sued. I thought it was time to finally face those notoriously disgusting festival toilets, so while my friend went to get a snack, I spent 20 minutes in a line. They did of course live up to expectations, but this wasn't the problem. This happened when trying to get back into the crowd. I couldn't see my mom's head from where I was, so blindly maneuvered myself back in.This would not have been a problem any other time in the day, but The Specials were up next, and their fans are late-20s drunk party animals who I simply couldn't work my way into. I tried a couple of times and failed, still looking for my mom. I walked back to our picnic area, thinking she might've just walked out. I got my friend back into the crowd to help look as he's considerably taller than I am. He thought it was a good idea for him to brave the toilet ques, and by this time The Specials were just starting. I was starting to panic, as at this point I had no one to rely on. I kept looking back into the crowd three or four times, before actually seeing her, looking for me. She'd deemed the crowd too unmanageable--It wouldn't be once inside, and we'd just lost our place, so understandably I was rather annoyed at this point.

We somehow made it back to what seemed to be the 20th row to watch the end of their act. I was trying to get a better place in line by waiting through, but let me tell you, they were terrible. Every single song sounded exactly the same, and people were very drunk indeed. Part way through my friend's brother and sister--Previously mentioned as B and G--worked their way through to find us, as they'd just got back from watching N-Dubz on the 2nd stage.

We'd moved forward to the 5th row for the next act; Razorlight. At this time I hadn't properly sat down for about five hours. Maybe it means I'm unfit or something, but my legs and back were really hurting at this point, and that was the longest set-up wait of the night. I wasted time by listening to my friend's stories of mosh pit mayhem during The Wombats, who I'd have loved to had seen, and sending texts into the festival's number(They have two screens on the sides of the stage and sometimes the texts get through. Most of which consist of inside jokes, drunken marriage proposals, and "Scream if you love V"!!). The man next to me said to B he'd seen The Killers five times that year, which made me jealous even though it's not like I've done/own few things when it comes to them. The band themselves were actually quite good live, and I do like them, but I was just eager for them to get off most of the time...But they did play Somewhere Else, In The Morning, America, Wire To Wire, and North London trash, among others I didn't know. Tabloid Lover is so unbelievably underrated. That would have been great live!

I moved up one row for the one and only, The Killers, but I did get the six and a half foot gentlemen in front of me to move out of the way, at least partly. Everyone was really pushed up tightly against each other at this time, all of course desperate to get to the very front, which caused quite a lot of madness during the concert. Said tall person and the girl next to him started arguing, while a couple beside me with strange west country accents basically broke up(Go 'ome then, I warna see tha killerrrrrs" she says repeatedly, almost unbearably), and two people behind me were apparently looking for their friend. One of them looks to the left, the other looks to the right, and then is followed by screams of "Oh my god, I thought I'd lost you". Wow. Strange.

It was such a relief for them to finally come on. It was totally dark by now, so I was looking forward to a good ol' Killers light show. This isn't, of course, my first Killers show, look back to January 27th and May 10th if you want to see the excruciating details of this. It was pretty similar, except for some reason they'd brought on a giant plastic cactus. Boys, it might have worked during Sam's Town, but it looks really cheap and tacky now. Brandon came on in the usual attire, plus the traditional feather-shouldered jacket, looking as marvelous as ever. I guess he'd have worn some 'liner for the camera too, always a bonus. Mark looked exactly the same. He's strange in that, since the beginning of the band, he's neither changed in weight, aged, changed his hair, or shaved or grown the beard very much at all. Ronnie looked the same as always--Terrible. Don't gel your hair back! Get rid of the mustache, it's worse than the My Name Is Earl one from several years back! And Dave, who I'd had the best view of, seemed to be no longer bothering with wearing a shirt under his waistcoat--A bad idea, considering the weight he's quite clearly gained. They played Human, Spaceman, A Dustland Fairytale, The World We Live In, Joy Ride, This is Your Life, Mr Brightside(Unbelievable live!), Jenny Was a Friend Of Mine, All These Things That I've Done, Somebody Told Me, a piano-based Smile Like You Mean it, For reasons Unknown, Read My Mind, Bones, Shadowplay, and closed with When You Were Young("Are you ready to receive this as hard as possible?" screams Brandon beforehand).

So, they ended amazing as always, and we tried to work our way through what had become an ocean of empty beer bottles. Me and my friend got separated from my mom and other friend, and spent a very long time trying to find his mom. In the dark. It took a long time, but we eventually found them, and it was amazing to sit down. Also, one of my favorite conversations in my life took place

Friend; Hey
His Mom; Hey. Where's your brother and Naomi's mom?
Friend; He took his shirt off.
Mom; Why is he naked?!
Friend; He took his shirt off.
Mom; Just wondering, Naomi, but did you mother take off her shirt too?

Well, anything can make you laugh at that point. They did eventually find us, my mother with all her clothes still on her. We parted with them once we finally got through to the cars, waited for half an hour to get out, and were home by one in the morning. It was amazing.

Stay "tuned" tomorrow for part two!