A few yards down the road from the main entrance of the IOW Festival there's a rest home for elderly folks. Many have lived through two World Wars, had posters of the Rolling Stones on their bedroom walls through their late Teenage years and can recall when England won the World Cup back in 1966. Another memory these pensioners may have is that they witnessed the Isle Of Wight festival in 1970 when Jimi Hendrix played his legendary performance. Today, 36 years later history may repeat itself. This weekend Prodigy, Foo Fighters and Coldplay have all been given the chance to give us a performance which could go down in History, as for England winning the World Cup? Well, only time will tell...
FRIDAY
Reading
is home to Morning Runner, the 'afternoon' band that kicked off this years
festival. The familiar tale of a 'good band' still trying to make the
crossover to a 'successful band' is the best way to describe these guys.
With hidden hit numbers such as 'Have A Good Time' & 'Can't Get It
Right' fingers are crossed that an evening slot as opposed to an afternoon
one for Morning Runner! The stage was then swept away with 'The Rakes'
a band receiving high recognition thanks to Word Of Mouth and a contract
with V2 Records. After two 'new' bands the evening was set for three bands
we are all familiar with, Goldfrapp, Placebo and the mighty Foo Fighters.
So, we took our seats in the Carling VIP enclosure nicely situated on
the left side of the arena with three food stalls and a bar selling a
certain brand of Beer and made our journalistic notes.
That's a lie to be quite frank, we never make notes. Well we did 6 years
ago at our first two parties. One being at a party at Stringfellows where
we looked quite shady taking down particulars on paper whilst having a
lapdancer a mere few meters away and the second being at a gay website
launch where we looked dodgy as hell because it seemed as we were taking
down phone numbers!
Lets reiterate, we were having a seat in the Carling VIP area watching
the bands and making mental notes while having a few pints!
Did Alison Goldfrapp stop off at the New Forest, murder some wildlife,
cut off their heads with a great big knife, store them in a huge carrier
bag then jet off 200 mph in a high speed getaway car and force her dancers
to wear the aforementioned massacred animal heads on stage tonight? Um,
probably not to be honest but she certainly made a good impression this
weekend. This was the best performance yet we have seen from the band
and the fact that it was one of the bands largest ever crowd they have
played for made things even more special. Placebo have been fairly quiet
recently so when they played their first festival for ages it certainly
was something to celebrate. Coinciding quite nicely with the release of
their fifth album, 'MEDS'. Brian and the lads delighted their fans and
showed that their were one or two hit singles ready to be released this
year. Despite Placebo & Goldfrapp giving excellent sets the night
belonged to another band who made a comeback to the festival scene, the
original Firestarters!
Who ever hammered the fence to the Carling VIP tent did a bloody good
job as it was pretty blooming sturdy and strong enough for a grown man
to stand on top of it. This was proved by a certain 'Keith' who jumped
into the pit racing past security and climbing the fence. The same 'Keith'
also offered us to Smack his Bitch Up, but we politely declined. Maybe
he wiIl have some volunteers later in the weekend when The Prodigy play
at Download!
FANCY A WANDER?
Back in
2002 when the festival returned for it's new generation of audience the
IOW Festival (Which was then called 'Rock Island') a description of the
site would had taken a matter of brief words. Something along the lines
of - One Stage, 6 bands, 2 bars. Not anymore, the IOW Festival has expanded
immensely with a huge second Glastonbury style chill out field. Barcardi
and Strongbows both have large tents with live music. Sponsors, NOKIA
have their fantastic New Band arena which was a favorite fore those practicing
for the coveted headline slot in ten years time, there were more food
stands then you could shake a French loaf at and a dazzle arrangement
of fairground rides where you could loose all the change you have in your
pockets. The 'Pussy Parlor' which we first saw at Glastonbury last year
gave late night entertainment until 2am and relaxation tents gave those
who were hyper with so much fun a chance to chill out and take it easy.
The two sponsors, NOKIA and Virgin Radio had premium VIP areas - with
NOKIA being the finest laying on food and drink all weekend as well as
bringing their guests to and from the festival via helicopter! How they
will top this next year is anyone's guest! Maybe rescuing Concorde out
of retirement?
Maybe a second stage would be a welcome addition over the next few years?
But apart from that missing factor the site looks extremely welcoming
and in fact quite colorful!
SATURDAY
There was
a little football game on today. You may had heard about it! Tomorrow's
Sunday Mirror will show photos of the M25 and Lakeside Shopping Centre
deserted. With news reaching festival goers that the match wouldn't be
shown on the site the nearest town centre of Newport was as busy as physiotherapist's
hands working on Wayne Rooneys leg!
Being a professional website we had to boycott the game to continue our
music reviews from the festival.
Kick off stated with The On-Offs having a good kick around practice for
this time next year when they should make the Premier League. Next on
the pitch were the 747's. The team supported the Foo Fighters at the Astoria
last year so today they were playing at home turf as the Foos would be
performing later in Extra Time. For the second half The 747's passed to
Suzanne Vega who has left the limelight for so long it's a surprise we
haven't seen her on a Celebrity Reality TV show. Luckily Suzanne has proudly
kept her dignity and refreshed our memory on just how good she was with
vintage hits such as 'Luka' - Who are we trying to kid? We didn't see
any of these bands! We were in the pub with a pint watching England beat
Paraguay 1-0. After victory was claimed we caught The Proclaimers digging
up their legendary hit '500 Miles'. After the duo came off stage they
met Dave Groul backstage outside the dressing room and had their photo
taken with him. They even took photos for other Foo Fighters fans who
were lucky to be roaming around the area at the same time.
With the footie out the way we 'really' did leave the pub to catch the
rest of the band and what better way to start an afternoon with one of
'the' bands at the moment -The Kooks!. Despite having just two released
singles at the moment the 'Eddie's Gun' & 'Sofa Song' these lads have
nothing to worry about. Every track felt like we had heard it ten times
before and when the band tour in September the new songs could have become
'old favorites' by being played constantly on iPods during the Summer
months.
Attention then drew towards Dirty 'we are playing every festival going'
Pretty Things. Although much better on form than their Carling 24 performance
(however, in fairness we had stayed up all night when we saw them) they
still have 'something missing'. Editors on the other hand, the next band,
took another step closer to their arena invasion which must be looming
up within a year, absolutely superb band which never disappoint.
Last year Bobby Gillespie gave us a legendary performance at Glastonbury
- he was awful. One of the worst ever acts seen all the Summer. So, it
came with some interpretation that we watched Primal Scream take to the
stage. Backstage in the artist pub friends of the band told us that when
the 'Scream are good, they are on top form and by goodness gracious they
were right. Bobby didn't play up - on stage, but what the crowd didn't
see was what happened after their set. We still don't know the cause,
but there was quite a kerfuffle afterwards related to a family incident.
Hours later in the posh NOKIA VIP suite a journalist from a leading tabloid
asked us if we had any gossip. We just smiled and told her we hadn't!
We wanted to keep this scoop to ourselves. Granted, if we knew what the
fight was about this would had been a great story, so lets quickly move
on before we embarrass ourselves anymore and tell about the headline act.
Foo Fighters!
We managed to sneak our way onto the stage and watching from the wings
we fully understood it what Dave meant when he told the crowd that they
looked amazing. The coolest man in rock did a guitar riff and swapped
places with Taylor to beat the hell out of the drums. All the classics
from 'Monkey Wrench' to 'Hero' and a dozen more filled the island with
thundering beats and Dave even had to time to congratulate England with
their win. Taylor Hawkins drum solo was unbelievable and could only be
matched by Animal from the Muppets! The set was just a realm of hit after
hit after hit, Oh and a few new ones thrown in for good measure and it
was the second best 90 minutes of the day. The band played three more
gigs after the festival in the UK ending up at Hyde Park where they were
joined by Roger Taylor and Brian May.
SUNDAY
Skyline
Heroes, The Windows and Cathead. All have a couple of things in common
1. They all opened today's IOW Festival today and 2.We've never heard
of them!. Maybe our eyes caught their titles in the Radar section of NME
one week, maybe we picked up a promo flyer one night when we were drunk
staggering out of a gig or maybe we have actually seen them play supporting
a band. The trouble is with bands which open festivals you don't normally
take much notice until they actually become more well established.
Still respect is due for any new band which manages to secure a slot at
a main festival and it is for that reason and that reason alone each bands
deserve a brief description..
Skyline Heroes - Local band from Newport. Won a Battle Of The Bands competition
at their school.
The Windows - Another local band. Formed when M.J. Champion fell off
his horse and had nothing better to do.
Cathead - a Canadian fella called Tim Phillips who has, in the past,
been compared to Dyan. (We think Bob Dylan, but it could be the snail
from the Magic Roundabout)
If an athletic 'winning platform' was thrust down in front of these novices
Cathead would be awarded bronze, Windows silver and Skyline Heroes standing
in the middle with a gold medal around their proud necks.
Their was then a delay in the schedule. Well, four of them who hail from
Southampton. The delays ferry trip was worth the wait and, speaking to
a band members parents backstage, this was their largest crowd they have
ever played to. Good band!
Procol Harum formed in the 60's, but we still recognized their aging hit
single 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale'. Gary Brooker, the lead singer kept the
old folks happy for an hour and even sang a song relating to a disabled
person he used to know with no arms or legs. But seeing as most of our
readers don't need colostomy bags yet we are pretty sure you are more
keen on more recent bands, such as Kubb who played next!
OK, so Kubb are a poor version of Keane, but Maximo Park brought some
life into this laid-back Sunday afternoon. Paul Smith live is a treat
in itself and with releases such as 'Apply Some Pressure' under his tight
belt this was the first highlight of the day.
When we think of Lou Reed we automatically think of 'Take A Walk on the
Wildside' when Reed leaves his most famous song out of his set we automatically
think we were robbed!
You know Richard Ashcroft? Do you agree with us that he needs a councilor?
We think a weekly hour with a shrink would do him the world of good, there
he could discuss why he is so bloody miserable. On second thoughts his
depressing songs are masterpieces, lets cancel his appointments and as
long as we keep him away from sharp objects everything will be fine. What's
that we hear you cry? There's a deep river right near the festival and
he may be so down he could consider drowning? Quick, call a lifeguard
- this guy's recent album, 'Keys To The World' is so ruddy good we can't
let anything happen to him!
The festival came to a close with Gwenth standing on the side of the stage
watching her man belting out his finest songs. They also covered 'Walk
In The Wildside' as Lou asked them to backstage! Coldplay stole the whole
weekend and are closing in on U2's territory as the best band in the world.
The songs sent shivers down our necks and as Chris leapt all across the
stage we couldn't think of a better way to end the weekend. As the fireworks
display marked the start of the aftershow party backstage where, incidentally
was attended by Mel C and her ten tatoos we knew that this year would
take some beating. IOW 2007 - You need to be good to exceed this years
event, very good!
Read our 'above average' interview with a NOKIA representative here!