@ BBC RADIO 1 BIG WEEKEND

19/05/2007 - 20/05/2007

Radio One are fairly charitable. Sunday nights they air the Sunday Surgery allowing youngsters to confide their personal matters confidentiality in front of a million listeners. They raise money for the under privileged and give Jo Whiley a few hours each day despite her knocking on 80 years old.
Their generosity doesn't end there, two years ago the Big Weekend brought a chartload of acts to towns which are, without sounding rude - a few meters off being a slum! Back in 2005 they set up base in Sunderland, last year it was Dundee and on this continuing graduation slope of the UK's third world towns - Preston was blessed with the first ray of entertainment it's seen since Todd from Neighbors appeared in a Pantomime over a decade ago.

We arrived in the land that time forgot late Friday night and got customised to the annoying midland accent within minutes. The folks up there rarely say the the words 'The' or 'A'. For example,' oor room was up t' stairs through t' double doors with (slight pause) shower on suite'. With nobody at reception we decided to make our way to the bar where a Karoke from hell blasted our eardrums for over an hour with old fashioned songs even your Grandparents may struggle to identify. Hopefully the rest of t' weekend would bring us better musical entertainment!

Saturday and we have arrived in Moor Park for the first festival of the Summer. Two massive blue big tops promised us mainstream (Main stage) to diverse music (In New Music We Trust Stage) for the next two days. Each act was presented by a pair of Radio 1 DJ's working overtime. Outside the dance stage helped softened the grass with rhymic stamps from trainers belonging to those who wished to escape the shrieks of artists in the tents (Natasha Bedingfield, for example)

Picking out a few of Saturday's performances lets' start with Jamie T. A bad Mike Skinner? That is a double edged compliment from us, as where we would rather share a Preston council house than listening to a Streets album Jamie T isn't 'that bad'. A voice for Hoodies and Chavs having Jamie kicking off the festival in Preston was quite apt. A shallow dig below most of his numbers shines decent gleaming tunes and closing with 'Salvador' the backlash from The Streets faced up well with the early festival go-ers

Composing an almost parallel similarity with Jamie T, The Twang are a fairly new bunch of guys pushing the Streets bandwagon that extra mile towards Boredomville where the wheels will eventually fall off and collapse. Before we slate them too much though their current single, 'Either Way' is pointing towards the right direction in chartland. It also won't come to a surprise that the track has been given a remix from - The Streets themselves!

Next on stage is Natasha Bedingfield - what a perfect time to check out the rest of the site!

Being the first Summer festival of the year the return of cheap hippy clothes and over expensive food clutters the urinated infested walls around the site. A tent molded from the aforementioned Sunday Surgery helps those with love matters and the signing tent gives the queuing public a reason to invade ebay hours later with merchandise scribbled with permanent markers.

The guest area this year is smaller than those in previous cities. A star bar provides the paying bar and a couple of vans cater the guests with coffee, cookies and other small snacks. Situated on the right a cramped press pen ropes in the artists from backstage so they can be attacked from various journalists.

Later on we will guide you around the production area and dressing rooms, but at this very moment in time Manchester United and Chelsea are playing the FA Cup final and the Star bar is packed with smiles belonging to Man U fans - That will soon change from 6pm when Chelsea will score the winning goal in extra time!

The cheers we hear half an hour later could even be because another Man U goal was saved or Bedingfield has finally finished. Just to make sure we catch the end of Biffy Clyro over in the NMET tent which has already seen The Pigeon Detectives and Cold War Kids. Later Groove Armada will end the night giving Scissor Sisters haters a welcome alternative.

Next on the bill came The Fray - who were absolutely bloody brilliant. Despite roping Jo Whiley up on stage and giving her a tambourine for no reason whatsoever, the band following in Snow Patrol's footsteps won't need any extra help towards their journey destined for sell out arenas which we predict before next Christmas.

Imagine you are one of those fake Man. U fans living nowhere near Manchester but supporting the team because they have done bloody well over the past years. With the FA cup robbed from Chelsea how miffed would you be when The Fratellis strum up 'Chelsea Dagger' ending a furious rocking half hour and warming up for Kasabain.

With Frattellis 'warming up' we were backstage with Razorlight where the excitement was reaching melting point. OK, it wasn't that great but it gave us a decent link into this paragraph, didn't it? The band had cascaded into the artist area hours ago apart from Johnny who arrived just minutes before taking the stage. Last year the band dominated our Summer coverage and with Borrell's diary inserts for Live Earth and The Carling Weekend just months away lets hope that today's show will set the standard. Bursting with energy and an A list persona the 'greatest hits' hour painted smiles and grins on even the die hard Rooney fans in the crowd.

Painting a different picture backstage were the Scissor Sisters where they face they face painted Jo Whiley showing their apperception for her playing their tracks on the radio before anyone else. Letting us in on this secret Ana Matronic told the crowd the makeover failed to make Whiley look attractive, yet it did succeed to make the DJ look fifthly. An ideal link into a song for the camp American band. We won't bother bleating on about their hits, although we were a tad disappointed with the lack of stageshow which normally goes hand in hand with their live performances.
The band are as gay as a secret affair between Prince Charles and a member of the Royal staff, apparently their name comes from a sexual position between two lesbians and they were nearly called, ' The Dead Lesbian and the Fibrillating Scissor Sisters'. The band play the O2 this Summer and gave a fab ending to the first day at the festival.

As the park emptied the 53 Degrees club in town hosted the after show Official party with Judge Jules.

Last night we bared the Karoke and tonight after the first day at the festival we were ready for anything. As we arrived back to our hotel we turned through the corridor in interpolation. What delights would the bar hold for us tonight? Bingo? A 70's disco? A Village People convention? It was none of these. In fact the only surprise we had when we arrived at the bar was a lock. Seeing an empty bar through the glass stained doors brought a tear to our eyes - We were craving alcohol. Strangely, despite the emptiness in front of us we could hear music and folks chatting.
To our left was a private room, full of middle aged northerners and balloons. Balloons with 'Happy Birthday' printed on, with the number 50! Oh, and there was a bar, a bar which was still serving alcohol - did we forget to mention - it was nearly 1am! So, we gatecrashed the party and managed a few pints before beddie byes! We still have no idea whose Birthday it was.

Day Two and Calvin Harris opens the main stage. Y'know Calvin don't you? The bloke who sang about something about being acceptable in the 80's and loving all the girls. (Apologies if that means nothing to you whatsoever!) On radio he comes across as this funky little dude - he's not! He actually looks like a nerd wearing out of place large glasses to represent his trademark image. A large proportion of his tunes reefer to 'Girls' and what must have been a lengthily full second brain-wave backstage the 'genius' manage to include a reference to 'Preston Girls' in one of his songs. Not since Zig & Zag released 'Them Girls' has a remarkable piece of song-writing regarding the fairer sex been heard in the charts. (If you sense a dose of sarcasm here - you aren't mistaken!). To be fair Calvin isn't that bad - it just that he has a face for radio with a stage presence to match!

Just before Christmas we slated a new act called 'Just Jack' which nobody had ever heard of. Well apart from his Mum, and the rest of his family and his mates and - Oh, you get the bloody picture. Anyway, fast forward a few months and Jack bounced on our music scene with 'Stars In Their Eyes' , not to be confused with a Saturday night entertainment show which used to be hosted be Matthew 'I never looked at Kiddie Porn, Guv' Kelly. But hey, let's compare the two for the hell of it. It's December at Brixton Academy and Just Jack is on the XFM Winter Wonderland bill. Our review read, . Just Jack aims to be a contender for one of 'the' bands to watch in 2007. Somehow, judging on his offering tonight we feel that he will be lucky to last until February! Um, we were completely wrong. The only downfall is that despite a few great tunes, some mediocre stuff was thrown in too. So we think Just Jack will be storming our charts until at least next February! (That's covered our backs for the next 12 months! - hopefully)

With Mark Ronson, Dizzee Rascal and The Klaxons playing in the two tents and Vernon Kaye battling against Pete Tong at the outside dance stage we made our way back to the Star Bay where Sarah Cox and Mika gave us a little acoustic number which was broadcast live on air. It has to be said that Mika has been open to criticism in more ways than one. The camp, limp-wristed young lad wishes to keep his sexuality a secret and we respect his privacy and feel it's wrong of others to insinuate or make judgment of his tenderizers. His fans stick by him and all had a gay time during his performance - well, they probably did - We were backstage!

Yes, that's right - back bloody stage. AAA. Well, c'mon do you think anything less of us? Being the only press allowed full access we can let you in on the backstage antics. Firstly there was an artist bar, but this stayed extremely quiet over the weekend. Despite the comfy sofas and a TV guests and artists opted for the guest area for a few drinks and more importantly, a few helpings of ego boosting from the VIPs. A bit further down the track behind the two main stages was the catering marquee, there's roughly two large catering groups which set up camp during the Summer at various festivals and you will be hearing more stuff about them over the coming months right here on ABLE2UK. Finally backstage was the dressing room compound. Security was extremely tight for this area, but we managed to wangle ourselves in and met a few famous friends. Having a sneaky pathway to the artist bar celebs could take a quick wander through and grab a pint before taking the stage.

There probably wasn't any need for Rihanna to put her hand in her pocket for a drink after she came off stage. This was thanks to her current single, 'Umbrella' reaching Number One on downloads alone and the breaking news came on stage! Her fans in the crowd applauded her and waved their free promotional 'Umbrellas' in circles of joy. The rest of her act sounded fairly decent as well. Mind you, with Mika queuing it up afterwards any comparison made with the lanky mincer would receive a rave review.

OK, we have to admit something here. We didn't watch Mika and dare we admit this...we actually thought his first two releases weren't bad. So later this Summer we are going to review a Mika concert and give you a fully honest opinion. Just please don't tell anyone.

Two bands now we can share our love with now without being gaybashed or poked fun at. The first are a few lads who we caught earlier this year at The Teenage Cancer Trust shows. The View. Last year they opened the Radio 1 Weekend in Dundee and within 12 months these Scottish folks have leapt forward huge steps edging towards the headline slot currently swiped by the Kaiser Chiefs tonight. When The View first came to our attention we raised doubts to weather they could last, but they have proved they ruddy well can. Could we be seeing a headline billing next year from them? Maybe, just maybe this will happen or could the band quiet down for a few months and make a sudden unexpected comeback? Why do we say this? For no other journalistic reason other it's an ideal link into our final band of the weekend, The Stereophonics.

A few years ago the NME slated Kelly Jones and his Welsh mates down to the ground. Kicking out the drummer and returning to the live arenas later this year tonight gave a warm welcome back to the 'Phonics. Their new stuff is more rockier and you know what? We bloody like it. Of course the classics such as Bartender and Just Looking still sound as strong as they ever were. We will leave you with a bit of trivia, when the band first started out their three favorite bands were Tragically Hip, Mother Love Bone and Bad Company. Taking this into consideration when the lads were 'just looking' for a band name they came up with 'Tragic Love Company' and played in various working mens clubs (known as 'arenas' up here in Preston!). Realising their name was pretty crap they changed in to The Stereophonics after their now deceased drummer, Stuart Cable showed them a gramophone belonging to his Grandma which was made by a company with the same name. Interesting eh?

Another great year for Radio 1 then, breaking us in for our busiest Summer yet. Who knows which rundown city will be lucky enough in 2008. Residents of Birmingham - Start crossing your fingers now!

Should Mika be
allowed on this
planet?

Look at the ponce, we haven't seen
anything so gay since Prince
Charles had that secret covered up
gay experience in the grounds of
Buck House.

Don't get us wrong, we aren't
homophobic in the slightest, but
when a tall, lanky bloody annoying
prat attempts to release a few
records - it can be painful to our
ears .

But, do we actually like him? Email
us your thoughts about MIKA
throughout the Summer.

DISABLED ACCESS

Top marks for helping out with
the disabled guests Radio 1 this
year.

Car Parking right next to the
site, but quite difficult to find
with unhelpful road signs and
stewards who didn't have a clue.

The platform was broken into
two one half for VIP's the other
for wheelchairs and those who
make us laugh when they walk
funny.

Past Big Weekend coverage on ABLE2UK

Sunderland 2005