And I start with a regular grump. I hate the queues to get in. This year particularly humungous, more than half an hour. And totally unnecessary - just open another gate. But they retain a totally inefficient system. I would have a good mind to complain. Except there is no one to com-plain to. Nothing on the V website encourages comments. Tickets are acquired through ticket agencies that themselves are almost impossible to contact. Attitude is take it or leave it. And this year they didn't sell out, so more people have clearly left it.
The queuing wouldn't have been quite so annoying were I not next to a bunch of teenage girls who sounded like extras from Made in Chelsea. Like, literally every sentence they uttered had to include the words "Like" and "Literally". Literally. After half an hour of it I could cheerfully have slit my wrists. The subject matter of the conversation seemed largely to do with belly-button piercings. Navel gazing had such a different meaning in my day.
Stranglers
Anyway, I still managed to get inside in time to catch most of the opening act on the main stage, the ever-reliable Stranglers. "We're the oldest bastards you'll see all weekend" they shouted. (Actually suspect not.) But they are terrific. They weren't the trendy, frenetic, fashion punks. Not like the Sex Pistols who wanted to change the world, introduce anarchy and eventually sell butter in commercials to show their true rebellious nature. So unlike Mr Lydon, you don't squirm with embarrassment as soon as you see them. They are just wonderfully cynical with instantly recognisable deep riffs off things like "Peaches" and "No More Heroes". And of course the sublime "Golden Brown".
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| This is what the front row looks like |
Kodaline
Next up, in stark contrast were the young Irish band Kodaline. They were col. You could tell by the mandatory sunglasses. And the hoodies. But nevertheless a perfectly pleasant sound and I enjoyed their set without being blown away.
Tom Odell
I am afraid I am much less impressed by Mr Odell. To be fair I am perhaps not his target audience and if I was a teenage girl I might have been more taken by the young man's charms. He reminds me in looks of a very young Jamie Oliver. But to me he is just a pianist trying desperately to seem like a rocker. And failing. Wrong setting apart from anything else. He needed a lot of support from his band members.
Then we had a little army airshow bizarrely chucked in behind us. Was a bit windy for parachutists to try and land in a crowded area.
Kaiser Chiefs
But then came on the ultimate pick me up Ricky Wilson's Kaiser Chiefs. Now there was a time a few years ago when I feared the Chiefs were turning into Britain's answer to the Monkees. There is all the difference in the world between not taking oneself too seriously and being a joke. They were veering into the latter category but I think now are back into the former. Ricky has lost weight and looks younger and fitter athan ever. He proceeded to steal the show, both by his personality and by bouncing around the stage like a maniac. At one point he not only sprinted from one side to the other and then headed off into the audience - not too unusual, but actually sprinted off to the side and invaded the St John's Ambulance tent. He is just a bundle of energy and perfect festival fodder. The only downside is the more he grabs the limelight the more the rest of the band disappear. The guitarist now looks like the sort of bloke that if you saw in the street with a polystyrene cup you would be tempted to pop 10p in it.
Of course the Chiefs now have a large number of anthemic songs to play, and can add a few bits from their latest album too. They seemed ridiculously low in the billing, but then maybe they were just the tonic you needed mid-afternoon.
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| Not everyone appreciates good music |
Bastille
Now, the only band of the day I intended to see whom I hadn't seen before. Only one album behind them, some good songs but didn't feel I had missed too much by not seeing them before.
Miles Kane
Where to my surprise I found it easy to reach the front. I had expected Miles Kane to be on. But I learned from a couple of more senior ladies (not everyone here is a teenager), that second on the bill, Manic Street Preachers, hadn't turned up (their plane was delayed in Hungary), so the other acts would play marginally extended sets with much longer intervals to paper over the gap.
But I do like Miles Kane. Not any particular songs but his general enthusiastic rock guitar sound. Looking around, he is a distinctly boy taste, it was all young blokes down the front chanting his name compared to the more female audience I had left with Bastille.
Blondie
Now I suspect Blondie really are older than even the Stranglers. But Debbie Harry, even though now a bit tubby and in her sixties, is still a striking performer, and even if the voice can't quite get to the highest notes anymore, this was a more than listenable set. Even the new stuff from their latest album was ok. But the old material is just so amazingly strong that this was one of the stand out sets of the weekend. They may be 30-40 years old, but the songs still sound fresh. Would happily see them again, although Chris Stein does look rather decrepit now.
Elbow
Then to finish the night for me, Elbow. Possibly my favourite band. I was happy to leave Justin Timberlake headlining the main stage and settle down with these familiar sounds. Guy Garvey offers such warmth (unlike the weather as it was freezing by this stage!) and the songs are all just so well crafted. A thing of beauty. Quite a few tracks from the latest album (nothing sickens the heart of a festival audience than the dreaded words "Here is a new one". We want the old ones.) but also enough favourites. Noticeably, unlike say the Chiefs, they took nothing from their earliest two albums (which are great albums) but now things like "Birds" , "Mirrorball" and "Grounds for Divorce" have taken over as singalong tracks. And they finished on "One Day Like This" as they will probably do now for the rest of their lives. Although they are getting on a bit, this is a band that will have a very long shelf life.
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