There now follows an attempt to sum up, ooh, nineteen hours of day into one LJ post. It's gonna be long.
Woke up highly tired at 8am. Lounged around in bed for a bit before preparing for the first music festival I've ever been to in my life, the 2008 O2 Wireless Festival. This is the day I've been waiting for since I first saw the advert for it on I think one of the London papers, way way WAY back at the start of April. It's been that long since I booked my ticket as well - hot, sunny July felt like an age away at the time, an extremely cold April with snow and everything, but now here we are. Checked I had everything: Ticket? Check. Passport? Check, need ID for booze. Money? Check, can't get any without it. Fleece? Check, need something to carry everything in. Camera? Check, freshly formatted so can squeeze in zillions of pics and video. Umbrella? Check, forecast said heavy rain all day.
Although there was a tiny bit of rain on the way to the station, when I got to Hyde Park the heavens opened and the sun shon. In the event, I didn't open the umbrella once that day as there was no significant rain at all. But best to be safe than sorry.
At midday we were finally let in. With two hours to go before the actual music started. the first part was very leisurely as I chilled out with some chips and cider, and familiarised myself with everywhere so I knew where to go for the big acts. I am so glad I had that passport as every time I tried to get a bottle I was IDed, at one point the bartender said "You're 15, aren't you?" Not quite!
As I said in the last post, the four acts I was determined to see were Sam Sparro, Robyn, Underworld and the headliner, Fatboy slim. Here's a report of all four.
Sam SparroUniquely, he played two sets on two different stages. The first was a 'secret' one which wasn't billed on the website or programme, simply listing a 'special guest' to play for a few minutes between acts, but judging by the crowd shouting his name a few minutes before it must have been fairly common knowledge eventually. This was outdoors on the small O2 Stage and was a very quick, three song acoustic session as a teaser of his full set to come later on, and it sounded great and really whetted my appetite. Loved the huge cheer after he said "Good job it's not pissing it down, eh?", even though I'd been silly bringing my umbrella I was enjoying the sunshine immensely and so was everyone else. Here's a great picture of him I snapped during the set.
An hour later came the biggie, in the red tent that made up the Sandisk stage. I wasn't expecting
too much here, because he's only had one single (with one to come) and one album, but he realised this and got round it in a brilliant way. After a few album tracks including his future single "21st Century Life", he shouted "Are you ready to go BACK!" - and, brilliantly, launched into a late 80s/early 90s dance medley featuring his own versions of Black Box's 'Ride On Time' and Crystal Waters' 'Gypsy Woman'. The crowd, most of which Australian (mirroring Mr Sparro himself) went crazy and the whole place was singing along. Then in a brilliant finale he played his huge selling #2 single 'Black & Gold', and afterwards I left completely drained but madly in love with Sam Sparro. Unbelievable performance and this put me on a big high, and topping and tailing the performance with two classic rave songs (Baby D's 'Let Me Be YOur Fantasy' and Liquid's 'Sweet Harmony') was also inspired.
RobynBy this point I was worrying a bit. I wanted to see Robyn's whole set because I knew her best ever song 'With Every Heartbeat' would surely be the last of the set, as it's her biggest hit and only number 1 in this country, but I also did NOT want to miss Underworld, who was starting almost immediately after in the Sandisk Stage. Robyn was performing on the huge outdoor Main Stage and while the walk to the Sandisk is brief, it's not when you've got thousands of others doing the same thing.
But in the end I let that not bother me as Robyn gave a fantastic performance. From big hits 'Handle Me' and 'Be Mine' to the criminally underrated 'Konichiwa Bitches' to new songs, it was very varied and her energy was captivating, she literally bounced around the stage. Like Sam Sparro, she also had a couple of old classics with her, with her choices being Neneh Cherry's 'Buffalo Stance' and Salt N Pepa's 'Push It'. And yes, she ended with 'With Every Heartbeat' which is one of the greatest summer songs of all time and sounded perfect in the sunshine. Here she is at work, if you can make her out.
As soon as she finished, I literally ran through the crowd and speeded towards the Sandisk Stage to catch Underworld. But what happens when thousands of people all try piling into an area too small for them?
You get a crush.
UnderworldI was literally about a metre away from the tent opening, but a huge barrier blocked my path. Horrifyingly, I'd gone on the wrong side, the queue to the entrance was on the left. I didn't know that and neither did the hundreds of fans behind me who were wondering why the hell they couldn't get in.
Having got right to the front, thinking I'd get in quicker, hundreds of people were trying to push through, pressing me and the entire front row up against the metal barrier. As the cries of pain from everyone increased, me and everyone else were begging the security guard to just get rid of the barrier and let us in, as we were highly in pain here. He said no, he'd been told under strict orders to make sure no one on the wrong side gets through, which thinking about it now is fair enough I suppose. The pushing increased.
He said if we wanted to get in, we should move to the other side and join the queue, to which our response was We Can't, We're Pressed Together And Can't Move. So he suggested we leave by going back the way we came, to which our response was We Can't, We're Pressed Together And Can't Move. I'm sure I heard someone in the queue mention Hillsborough at one point.
It was here I struck up a conversation with a very friendly Asian girl called Bel. A massive Underworld fan, she had come with her cousin from SINGAPORE to be here today, only for this to happen and for her not to be able to get in. I really felt for her, I thought I had it bad with paying over £50 for the ticket only to miss out on one of my most eagerly anticipated acts, but travelling across the world, yikes. Being crushed against a barrier at a music festival isn't always a good way of meeting new people, but in this case it was. So with this still going on, what do you think is the least likely and most unexpected thing to happen next?
The answer is Bob Geldof suddenly appearing. He was having a quick photoshoot, but was seemingly unaware of the cries of "SAVE US, BOB!!!" the whole crushed crowd were shouting out. While the vision of him yanking open the barrier and us all cheering and flooding into the tent sounds like the most amazing thing ever, sadly in a flash he was gone again. By this time the crush was disappearing, so I was finally able to grab my camera and snap a picture - just in time to catch the back of his head. Wonderful. Everyone's going to believe it was him.
With Underworld now having started, the crowd realised they weren't going to get in and we were able to move again. Understandably Bel was fairly upset at not being able to be in there, you could *sort* of hear it outside the tent but mainly just the boom-boom-boom-boom of the beats, almost impossible to tell what actual songs they were playing. It was here I met her cousin and friend, and brilliantly, as well as being incredibly nice and friendly to me given that they'd only just met me (they'd said they were sick of drunken chavs trying to chat them up, so I guess I was the exception even though I'd just finished my third bottle by this time), they were still determined to find some way, any way of getting in. Our hearts sank as we heard them play their biggest and most famous hit - Born Slippy - and everyone left, as that was surely the end.
But hang on, no it wasn't!! They still had a couple of songs left to go, but most of the crowd, now they'd played probably the only Underworld song they knew, had moved back to the Main Stage to get a good position for the forthcoming appearance of Fatboy Slim. With things now less busy, we managed to persuade them to let five of us in (us four plus one more) just to see the end. When we got in there, we were all absolutely elated - "WE DID IT!!" screamed Bel, her arms in the air with triumph, and in some brilliant timing they then immediately started their next song and the whole place cheered, as if they were cheering us for finally getting in. Even though it was only two songs I went absolutely mental over them, including the absolutely ace 'Moaner' and I was so, so happy that I managed to see them live if briefly. Just in time to catch...
Fatboy SlimAfter bidding my goodbyes to the lovely Bel and co, it was time to see someone who I'd liked since I was 10 years old, Fatboy Slim. I used to record his videos off 'The Box' in 1999, so to actually see him live was very, very incredible.
Only problem was that I was expecting him to play some of his singles, but, erm, he didn't really. He came close...an opening medley had modern electroish remixes of 'Praise You' and 'Right Here Right Now', one of the songs was a mix of 'The Rockafeller Skank' and I think 'Everybody Needs a 303', and he played about three seconds of the opening of Going Out Of My Head. But no Gangsta Trippin', no Bird of Prey, not even a Slash Dot Dash.
But he did play one single, the expletive-heavy 'Star 69' with the unforgettable sight of the F-word in huge red letters being flashed all over the huge screens, and Cornershop earlier on in the afternoon played their original version of 'Brimful of Asha'. Everything else seemed to be just random electro stuff, which was a shame as I love his early Big Beat and was looking forward to hearing how it was going to sound live. A nice surprise, though, was him continuing the retro theme found with Robyn and Sam Sparro and playing the early 90s classic 'Jump Around' by House of Pain, switching between the original and his electro remix.
After a further burst of 'Praise You' (again, electro-remixed), that was it. No encore surprisingly, I didn't realise it was the end of the evening so was expecting him to run back on and play all of his singles one after the other. But after a while I realised it wasn't going to happen, so, not being sure whether I was tipsy or just tired, headed off to Marble Arch station.
Which was closed. Due to the thousands of drunken chavs coming back from the festival, one had set off the fire alarm and had therefore shut the entire station. I waited outside the gate for a few minutes wondering how the hell I was going to get back now (during which someone forced open the gate and got into the station, causing them to be quickly ordered out again by the staff), before the staff realised it was a false alarm and opened the station again. Got back home, typed about half of this entry, watched Doctor Who (which was good, would have been better if it had actually had a cliffhanger rather than just the Doctor looking glum for 10 seconds), and am now finishing off this entry.
It's been a busy day. I could make tomorrow busy but to be honest, right now I feel like I need a 24-hour sleepathon.
Current Mood: 
tired
Current Music: House of Pain - Jump Around
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