As I'm sure you recall our intrepid adventurers were chilling in the Big Top dressing room.
Even though they had two more sets to do on the Sunday we'd all said The Big Top was one the one and after that the band could party. We'd underestimated The Hard Rock Cafe stage. More of that tomorrow though. BBR had a couple of interviews to do then we'd been invited backstage at the This Feeling Jack Rocks Stage by Mikey Jonns. Mikey is the driving force behind This Feeling, the UK's premier indie nights. No one works harder for up and coming bands and if you see a gig with the This Feeling tag get on it. You will not be disappointed. And if you see a bloke in a red and black chequered hat just say thanks for all he does.
Found our compadre Ellen Offredy (BBR's still photographer), briefly shook hands with Mikey and chatted with Sheffield promoter Aaron Procter about the sadly no more Dexters. A bottle of Jack Daniels was thrust in our general direction and we just kinda hung out, man.
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| A photographer, some Bang Bang Romeo and a Hidden Charm |
I'd got all my timings wrong and went over to see The Damned at The Big Top but watched The Dolls and Buzzcocks instead whilst everyone headed Main Stage for The Kills. I should have stuck with them. Nothing against Buzzcocks, just that I've seen them loads. Dolls I can do without. Getting a crowd to sing 'I wanna be anarchy' just seemed a tad ironic to me.
We met up at the Main Stage (to the left of Chinese, Thai & Japanese) for Iggy Pop. How that man is still going I have no idea. I was struggling to keep going after half a bottle of Jack. Mr. Jimmy Osterberg still has it though. Nightclubbing was wonderfully filthy, I Wanna Be Your Dog is still one of the greatest songs ever and new songs Gardenia and Sunday were just pure Iggy. There's just one thing Dude, do you have to use so many cuss words?
Richard Ashcroft next up delivering what for me was the Main Stage set of the weekend. Me and Sam (Flat cap when stage teching, baseball cap when partying and just a thoroughly all round decent human being) had decided that at some point during Ashcroft we had to get back to the tents for more beer as we wanted to catch The Who from the start. No chance. From Verve classics to songs off latest album These People every song was an absolute gem. His stage presence was a masterclass in holding a crowd. His voice was immaculate. Lord Ashcroft was loving it. We were loving him for loving it. We had to get closer and ended up (reasonably) stage front with the BBR posse. Set closer Bitter Sweet Symphony (dedicated tongue in cheek to Allen Klein - google the story of Klein and Bitter Sweet. It sucks) was simply one of the greatest live performances I've ever seen.
Time to yomp back to the tents (follow the orange hat), quick freshen up, grab beers and back to the Main Stage (meet to the left of Chinese.... you get it now I guess) for The Who. Hot footed it back pausing briefly to watch Adam Ant blast out Antmusic at the Big Top to a massive crowd.
I saw The Who about 2 years ago and blogged then as to whether without The Ox and The Loon they could still be classed as The Who. I'm not going through it all again. But if you're gonna replace two legends you can't do better than Zak Starkey and Pino Palladino.
If there are two people who could rest on their collective laurels it's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend but they really don't. Daltrey's voice struggled a couple of times but proved that it can still be a force to be reckoned with, a 22 song set ending with Won't Get Fooled Again and he still nailed the scream. Townshend still windmilling like it's 1965. The Who are synonymous with The Isle Of Wight Festival and Townshend regaled us with historical anecdotes throughout. (Hendrix was crap when he played here - too much acid). We were throwing some serious shapes by now. I truly lost it during Join Together, You Better You Bet, See Me Feel Me, Love Reign O'er Me, Baba O'Reilly. Scrub that. I truly lost it during their entire set. Two hours that just flew by.
So where next? I know Sam, Starsie, Charlotte (Mrs. Starsie) and myself ended up in the Hipshaker tent dancing to some serious cheese. I remember Y.M.C.A. Not much more. Some Welsh guy took a shine to Charlotte but had so much going against him. Most notably the fact that he has a penis. He was also very drunk. OK we all were but he was on a different planet. At one point he grabbed my arse and I can only presume he thought I was Charlotte. That will give you an idea of his level of drunkenness.
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| Identical right? |
That all ended I think at around 2am. Starsie found somewhere to lead a Fleetwood Mac singalong to a group of people who it seemed had no idea who Fleetwood Mac were.
Then we wandered off to find a party. I should point out that we had been invited. We weren't just gonna find a party and say 'It's OK. Dave invited us'. The main problem here is that we had no idea where said party was. Me and Sam called it a day, grabbed a burger and headed tentwards. Stars and Charlotte carried on to find what they would later call 'the worst party ever'. No idea where the rest of the team were. Joel certainly wasn't back as his leopardskin pop-up tent was no longer popped. I'm sure no-one had flattened it deliberately.
And so ends day two. Tune in tomorrow for the third and final instalment which includes the set of the weekend and me finally crashing and burning.
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