V Festival Day Two

The line-up for day two seemed much more appealing than day one. We started off again in the comedy tent to see Canadian single mom Katherine Ryan. Always good value, waspish humour. Nice go at Taylor Swift this time

We only caught opening moments of the splendidly named Funmbi Omotayo for the usual bit about being of African heritage before heading out for music.

The music was supplied by Travis. One of the standout performances of the weekend. Lots of grey hair now, and more on chin than head, but they were the perfect mid-afternoon band to get the crowd going. Nice lecture to the crowd at the end over what a guitar is. "Because you are the generation where you expect someone to come on stage, press a button and shout "let's party"."

But their set had everything. Obviously sing a long indie anthems like, well, Sing, Sing, Sing, plus lots of good-natured banter with crowd. Went down very well, and not just with me.

  

A sharp change in musical styles for Example on next. Clearly aimed at a younger crowd (although he is not exactly a spring chicken either). I don't mind the music, indeed enough of an interest to have bought an album, but do get a bit bored of his shouty swearing instructions to the crowd to do this or that.

But even more popular with the younger crowd were Years & Years. Now first thing to say is how popular the very openly gay Olly Alexander is with a young female audience, This is no boy band crush. And Olly does camp it up. Note the backless red dress he wore for the show.

I have seen Years & Years a couple of times before and my problem with them is they are still playing exactly the same stuff. And much as I like their first album, Communion, it is a bit thin on quality. Frankly they don't have enough good songs to produce a really good set, but seem content to trade on what they have. For all that they do have some truly excellent numbers, notably Desire and King which they finished this set with, plus the ballad Eyes Shut. And Olly puts on a decent show - especially as a dancer with a good troupe of dancers along with him. Special credit for his performance given how hot it was. Was a bit of a physical test too.

This is where we cut away from the main stages and went to V Street Stage, the smallest of the four stages, to see the Lightning Seeds. Now the Lightning Seeds are one of the best bands that are little known. They produced lots of great tunes throughout the Nineties, although Ian Broudie's best known hit is the Euro anthem "Three Lions". The band now just has two original members, Ian Broudie himself and Martyn Campbell, now assisted by a much younger drummer and guitarist, and indeed I think the lad on guitar is Ian's son.

For me this was the best performance of the weekend, or what I guess I mean is that for me this was the most talented outfit on show. Just great indie songs throughout. Also possibly just the act that would most appeal to my generation. And they aren't "worn out" by over exposure and familiarity. Refreshing. And I rather liked the inter-generational mix on stage.

After the Lightning Seeds we dashed off to the second stage to catch the end of Tom Odell. More my mate James' taste than mine. Clashing with Little Mix on main stage Tom had a fairly small audience, which suited me as could get pretty close to the front.

Getting close enabled me to realise (a) that he is a good looking young man and (b) that he really is too bland for my tastes. I think he may be better suited to a more enclosed intimate venue than a festival outdoor stage. Which is where I will see him next in the autumn.

By now it had got quite cold with occasional showers and James was getting sore standing. I had left him to sit at the side while I went into the crowd for Tom Odell. So here he is doing his hobo impression. Very convincing if only he was holding up a handwritten sign attesting to his homeless and hungry status.

I left him there again and went back into the crowd for penultimate act on second stage, Jake Bugg. Another young singer songwriter who should be comparable to Tom Odell. I much preferred Mr Bugg. Its just the drive and pace he has. Much stronger performance, and does work at a festival. A good engaging set.

Finally cold and wet, we circled away from the front and decided to watch Kaiser Chiefs from afar. I have seen them many times, but had forgotten how much I liked them live. Ricky Wilson can really run a show. And got the crowd cheering loudly at the beginning to make the Rhianna crowd at the main stage wonder what they were missing. Well as I understand it they were missing Rhianna, who thought it would be cool to turn up late for the audience waiting in the rain.There is really no excuse for all that. If you are Rhianna you are hardly going to be able to claim you were stuck on the train or in traffic.

What it looks like from the back on the hill.

As you can see, my zoom lens is pretty effective when you see how far back this was taken from!

All in all Ricky was putting on a great show, but even so we decided to call it a day before the end to beat the crowds and get home before midnight.

While this festival stuff is fine for a vigorous seasoned festival goer such as myself, it can all get a bit too too much for some young ones...Aww.