This year was V Festival’s 10th anniversary, and I think that one way or another I’ve been to the last nine of them, starting with V97 and Blur (featuring Phil Daniels doing his Parklife stuff).
This year was inevitably our biggest ever effort with some fabulous music in the Virgin Radio tent making it harder than ever to get out and watch the bands perform live around the site.
The undoubted star band of the entire weekend were the Kaiser Chiefs. They performed on Saturday in the Virgin Radio tent and were simply awesome. (Check out our site in the coming days, or the station on-air to hear some of their set).
Having completely won over the crowd in the Virgin Radio tent, they went on to do the same on Channel 4 Stage later in the afternoon, and I was priviliged to be there.
This was the first year that I’d camped at V Festival. Actually it was the first time I’d camped at any festival at all. I’ve always fancied Glastonbury, for example, but the scare stories about mud and stuff are enough to put the fear of god into me. This time around, we had some quite poor weather in the sense that it was both muddy on Friday when we setting up, and Monday when we were shipping out. But overall, I had a really good time.
On Saturday, it was undoubtedly the Kaiser Chiefs as I’ve said. I even picked up the album on the way home this evening. Later on in the evening, Oasis were headlining, but to be honest I couldn’t have really cared less. In “VIP” terms (and that phraseology should be treated with caution), Saturday was far more popular than Sunday with the likes Mickey Rourke and Abby Titmuss as guests.
I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to see Big Brother “stars” (I think that should be “contestants”) in the area, but far be it from me to complain. Tabloid coverage is tabloid coverage.
Of course, when I was instructed to rush and get a camera to take pictures of Abby Titmuss in our jacuzzi, I didn’t muck around, but then neither did the security guard that I happened to mention it to.
Sunday was a much more refined affair. There was the hilarity of discovering that two of my colleagues had got into their tent the previous night and only “discovered” the porch of their tent before going to bed for the night… They only found “the other room” when they woke up the following morning.
Best celeb spot in the Virgin Radio area was not a member of the cast of Eastenders, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale or Holby City, but “England” cricketer Kevin Pietersen – KP to his mates (I’m not one obviously). He hung out for ages and was much better value for money than either Charlotte Church or Billie Piper (no Whovians in attendance seemingly).
It was painful getting back into work today, but I picked up the new Goldfrapp album and the aforementioned Kaiser Chiefs record on the way home. Alison Goldfrapp also performed superbly as did the Scissor Sisters, although I do question whether or not one album with a handful of singles really constitutes enough songs to headline a festival the size of V.
One final thing – the security at V really wasn’t what it might have been, and I was able to get into places I really shouldn’t have been able to. But I should keep quiet about that sort of thing…