So it was all in all awesome. The weather was in general pretty damn good. Arrived on the Thursday to sweltering heat. Sweat was actually dripping off me as I put up my tent. It was almost too hot. So as soon as that was done, there was a need for a cold drink. As I was there with a number of people from Somerset, there was only one place to go, the Somerset Cider Bus. Yes, it’s a bus with cider, and it was really nice. Proper cider for those of you wondering, none of that fizzy stuff. So that night there was a lot of drinks and a few smokes leading to a nice hangover on Friday morning.
Sleeping was all in all pretty good. We had a really good camp site and there was enough space for everyone. Woke up cold a couple of nights to throw on a jumper but that was about it. A bit of rain on Friday afternoon for about an hour lead to a bit of a bad time but this was soon shrugged off and a good mood began.
Friday
David Grey was allright I guess, thinking that while I like White Ladder, he is less and less my kinds of music these days. The cover of Whiskey in the Jar was funny but that was about it. As he finished the crowd surged forward. I found myself at least 10 feet closer to the stage and it had already been crammed!
The R.E.M. set list:
‘Begin The Begin’
‘Imitation Of Life’
‘Drive’
‘Animal’
‘The One I Love’
‘Daysleeper’
‘Bad Day’
‘What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?’
‘The Great Beyond’
‘Fall On Me’
‘Losing My Religion’
‘Finest Worksong’
‘Electrolite’
‘She Just Wants To Be’
‘Little America’
‘Walk Unafraid’
‘Man On The Moon’
Encore
‘Everybody Hurts’
‘Final Straw’
‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’
A strong performance with the crowd well behind them.
Saturday
The Flaming Lips
The pit was in a word scary. I was up there from the middle of Supergrass as I wanted to be close for the last two acts. It was a little cramped for the Flaming Lips but easily bearable. They played a great set and do a wonderful live show. So very much worth seeing.
‘Race for the Prize’
‘Fight Test’
‘The Gash’
‘Yoshimi part one’
‘Lightning Strikes The Postman’
‘One More Robot’
‘She Dont Use Jelly’
‘Do You Realize??’
‘Waitin For A Superman’
‘Happy Birthday’ (this has to be seen to be believed)
‘Breathe’ (Pink Floyd cover)
Radiohead. The pit for this was scary. I was well up the front and it was crammed to hell. I was standing there pretty much unable to move and then it started. Boy did it start. There There is such a great show opener. But as soon as it kicked into high gear, so did the crowd. I was quite worried I wasn’t going to be able to stay standing, the movement was madness. By the end of the show I had moved at least 15 feet to the right and back and forward all night. Once I just went with it, it was all fine but to start off it was scary. A great set tho 😉
‘There There’
‘2+2 = 5’
‘Lucky’
‘The National Anthem’
‘Talk Show Host’
‘Where I End And You Begin’
‘Climbing Up The Walls’
‘The Gloaming’
‘No Surprises’
‘Fake Plastic Trees’
‘Sit Down Stand Up’
‘Go To Sleep’
‘Sail To The Moon’
‘Paranoid Android’
‘Idioteque’
‘Everything In Its Right Place’
Encore 1
‘Just’
‘Karma Police’
Encore 2
‘Street Spirit’
The first encore was introduced by Thom walking up to the mike and very shyly saying “rock”. Well the did just that. The second encore was brought about by Thom singing a couple of lines from Karma Police acapella to get the crowd going as they left the stage. This just kept going and after a few moments the lads returned again to do a blinding Street Spirit.
Sunday
Sigur Ros. This was stunning. The best live performance I have seen ever. Full stop, end of story. There was so much power and so much beauty behind this, it was just stunning. ‘Hafssol’ in particular was mindblowing. Actually I’m wrong, it was beyond stunning.
‘Untitled 1 (Vaka)’
‘Untitled 3’
‘Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa’
‘Olsen Olsen’
‘Hafssol’
Untitled 8 (Poppalgid)’
Doves weren’t bad, but they didn’t seem like a headlining band. There good stuff was good, the rest was blah. Perhaps it was simply following Sigur Ros killed them but it just didn’t work.
Posts to follow about the Spree, the fantastic Jimmy Cliff, The Frames plus many more.