V Festival - Our Review

So we were V-Virgins, but we got the full VIP treatment - picked up in a golf buggy and driven around the site, breakfast brought to our tent and a quick tour backstage and then getting to see some cool bands. Not bad for a competition I only have vague memories of entering.

We managed to see all our fave bands, Nine Black Alps, Franz Ferdinand, Scissor Sisters, Magic Numbers and Kaiser Chiefs.  The new stuff from the Franies sounds good - you've probably heard the new single (which to me sounds like My Sharona by The Knack).  The Magic Numbers and Kaisers played to huge crowds and both seemed to enjoy the crowd they drew.  The happy hippy Numbers couldn't stop smiling and thanking everyone for turning up, whilst Ricky is living up to his new status as a proper pop star so that even having his foot in plaster doesn't stop him jumping around the stage like a loon.

Our new finds for the festival were Emiliana Torrini and Goldfrapp.  Torrini has had a couple of singles and some radio airplay but that’s about as much as we know before she takes the stage.  We can report that she’s a little Icelandic mouse like creature, stiff as a board in front of a reasonable size crowd (given the time) but the songs are just so beautiful that she melts our cynical indie kid hearts and since getting back we’ve been out to get her album, Fisherman’s Woman.

We’ve come across Goldfrapp before but to tell the truth, the first album Felt Mountain was enough to put us off.  But Alison Goldfrapp has been away and reinvented herself as a sleezy electroclash vixen complete with sexy stage dancers.

Away from the bands V isn’t actually a bad festival.  All the stages are pretty close together, which means you can get between them pretty fast and catch bands you might not see otherwise.  Also, it’s also not as corporate as we thought it would be.  Obviously it lacks some of the bits that Glastonbury has – no greenfields or lost vagueness, just a funfair with some pretty scary looking rides.  But there are a few things V could learn from Glastonbury, for example, there are NO bins.  Apparently they litter sweep the arena area every morning, but  obviously this goes straight into landfill and its really nasty walking around on a see of rubbish at the end of the night. Also, the toilets.  Apparently V has more loos than any other festival, but they’re obviously in the wrong place because the queues are about a mile long, which means the arena fences are turned into public Urinals - nasty.
- posted by Nigella @ 9:21 PM