With the absence of Glastonbury this year the festival calendar was predicted to have an empty calendar weekend. Luckily this wasn't to be thanks to O2 who have organized their second batch of festival dates in Hyde Park and, for the first time, up in Leeds. Going under the name 'Wireless Festival' the five day London event and the weekender 'up north' the event has pulled in a spectacular array of live music. We attended the London event and compiled our first review of what is fast becoming one of the best festivals of the Summer and a favorite for the celebrities!

WEDNESDAY - THE STROKES

With the builders at Wembley Stadium being slower than a snail with cramp the good old Summer concerts seemed in jeopardy. Thanks to Hyde Park this hasn't been the case, over the stadiumless years the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, REM and a small little gig organized by Bob Geldof last year the venue has seen the biggest acts in the world play on its grounds. Last year also saw London's first festival, OK some would argue that the lack of camping and the 10pm curfew doesn't make it qualify to be named 'a festival', but who cares? It's blooming great!
Day one was predominately indie with a stack of NME favorites playing across the five stages. The fourth being an exclusive area in the O2 Blue Room for 02 users who had won entry through a text ballot. Over the next few days we will venture out into the park to bring you more reports, but today was VIP day for us. (Take your bets now to see if we really do bother looking around the site!)
The XFM stage saw the 747's and Super Furry Animals, Cazals and White Rose Movement played the Myspace.com stage and the Rivals gave O2 customers an exclusive performance in the Blueroom, it was the main stage where our attention was drawn to.
Third time lucky? We have reported back on Carl Barat's Dirty Pretty Things twice in two months already and haven't spoken highly of their performance. Are we outcasts? Has our music taste deteriorated? every other publication rates highly of them, there's always a few stars after their releases in the back pages of music magazines. Maybe we are missing something ourselves country to our self belief that they are lacking a musical ingredient. So, we stood in the crowd, focused on the band for their short 35 minute slot. We then came to a decisive decision - No, they still haven't got it!
The White Stripes, great band all thanks to their original new sound which came to our shores few years ago. Jack White has had an interesting time since then, an accident which nearly broke his hand and a few fights which nearly broke his career. Now he has started his own band, The Raconteurs and they are exceptional damn ruddy good. You probably are familiar with their first release, Steady as she Goes and there's more great tracks to come as their slot today before Belle and Sebastian proved. Jack is brilliant on stage and the absence of Meg beating the hell out of a drumkit behind him is irrelevant to his new band. As White recently said in an interview The Stripes are still together, but this is a second band and not just a side-project. Good to hear it!
Red Bull had a book launch party in the guests VIP area after The Raconteurs and although we were invited we joined Natalie Imbruglia, Lee Ryan, David Walliams, Popworld's Alex Zane & Alexa Chung and Bob Geldof in the posh O2 Hospitality compound - which will be our second home for the next five days. Free bar, Sushi revolving table, Dessert stall, Bar B Q, Live acoustic stage and an evening disco makes a festival 'a little easier' doesn't it? Lee Ryan refused a photo from a paparazzi as soon as he arrived and Geldof managed to find a stage wristband for his daughter, Peaches and her friend ready for The Strokes.
The New York band finished the night with a frantic set. They told us how much they loved London - creeps! As well as the favorites such as 'Last Night' and 'Juicebox' Julian played for 'the last time' their rendition of 'Take a Walk On the Wildside' because according to him, it always 'flops'. This wasn't the case tonight! Drummer Fabrizio was as energetic as ever banging away standing up and at 10pm when the first night drew to a close we decided the construction at the Stadium can take as long as it bloody well likes, who needs Wembley when you have such a great venue slapbang in the centre of London. (Um, footie fans may disagree!)

THURSDAY - DAVID GRAY

He's going to kill us if he wins. No, seriously - he's going to go mental, the guy who was our guest at today's leg of the Wireless fest.
KT Turnstall is loved by thousands, especially the lesbians who promptly held their hands up high when the Scottish minx asked if anyone in the crowd was with somebody they loved. The dungaree wearing, spiky hair girl next to us made us all aware that she was with her girlfriend and danced along to Kt's fifty minute set. The singer is extremely confidence and chucked away all her familiar singles at the start of her set. She then gave us a few previews of tracks appearing on her second album which she will start recording on Monday. Conducting a hand-clapping crowd she gave a great set and her banter in-between songs only added to what an experienced singer she actually is. Telling us that this was her last performance in her thirties we look forward to celebrating her 40's with more live appearances such as the one we witnessed today.
Mind you, KT wasn't that good to keep us at the main stage until the end of her slot. We decided to explore the site and more importantly checkout the other stages. XFM stage was opposite the Pimms enclosure and a musical forest - which was basically scattered posts which played notes when hands were placed over them. In other words something which wouldn't look out of place at a Nordoff Therapy center for mentally disabled kids!! Anyway, the XFM stage was rammed packed thanks to the appearance of The Fun Loving Criminals who have been away for so blooming long you would be forgiven believing they had split up. They gave us a great show and the trumpet player brought their music to life. Huey was fresh and explosive as he whipped the packed tent into a good old frenzy - he thoroughly deserves a Scooby Snack!
If his name is pulled out the hat Sunday night he really is going to kill us! We really shouldn't had done it!
David Gray wobbles his head more than a sufferer who has wobbleyhead palsy. Hell knows why he does it. Maybe he was trying to catch the football which was being screened on a massive TV monitor towards the back of the site. Still, who cares - despite his poor reviews from some publication and today's concert selling poorly compared to other nights he is a joy to watch. The highlight came when he sang 'Babylon' which had Hyde Park clapping and jumping up and down for a good six minutes. You tend to forget just how many hits he bloke has had and his closing numbers which included 'This Years Loving' ended the day perfectly.
So, that's another day to be ticket off our Summer schedule list, but not until we tell you why we could be in a spot of bother with one of our mates..
Inside the O2 Blueroom, there's a massage parlor, a chance to be snapped on an album sleeve cover, a stage showing live acts ( we saw Ozzie songster, Lior today - but as the lack of an review shows - he was nothing to write home about) and also a chance to win a prize worth upto £5,000 when the winner is picked at the end of the weekend. You had to fill in a slip with your dream, conceal it in a ball and the winner wins their their dream come true. Our mate was stuck thinking what his dream would be, so he intelligently wrote down 'To have £5,000' and gave it to us to post in the entry box. Just for a laugh we added 'and give all the money to charity' before we posted his entry.
Still ABL2UK is a charity isn't it? Well it could well be one from Sunday night!

FRIDAY - MASSIVE ATTACK

The next paragraph could ruin our musical reputation. We are about to slag off not one, not two - but three well loved artists. Don't worry, we will give you advanced warning so you can skip the few sentences of harsh and bitter words. So if you are a Gnarls Barkley lover please look away now. We know we could be by ourselves here, especially as 'Crazy' is the best selling record of 2006 so far, but that leads us into our criticism. Imagine giving somebody a bloody great, whopping fantastic Birthday present - like a car, or a two week holiday in the Caribbean than following it up each year with tatty crap such as a five quid HMV voucher. This is what we believe Gnals has done to us. Granted, his new release 'Smiley Faces' is another triumphant hit, but when you see him live - he's rubbish. Maybe it was the wrong surroundings, in a club his set may had gone down a treat, but this afternoon he was flat and extremely disappointing.
Time to upset Pharrell worshippers next. What a bundle of tripe. In all fairness, we aren't drawn to this kind of sound, or as some people class it 'music'. We thought 'Can I Have It Like That' was one of the worse singles ever released. The song was probably put together within minutes and how the hell he managed to rope in Gwen Stefani still baffles us. Look, if we were back at school and our music teacher asks us to write a song for homework that night and we trundled in next morning, opened our rucksack, turned our textbook to the relevant page, place it own in front of Sir and he read the lyrics, 'shit pop ya bottles toast and scream cheers! getcha 2-step cuz it's the record of the year' and 'I control the mind from straight over the phone,
let 'em explore the words something like a tourist, they never get addicted unless the head is waping seris from Louisdales to Jimmy Choos is real' plus the most pointless, awful and damn right ridiculous chorus which, in case you have forgotten the words go like this, 'Can I have it like that? You got it like that Can I have it like that? You got it like that Can I have it like that?
You got it like that Can I have it like that? You got it like that' We would be marched straight to the Headmasters office in disgust. Pharrell we have no idea how you are famous and your 'secret gig' in Camden's Underworld last night must had been the worse 90 minutes we could think of spending.
So far we have degraded the most successful performer of the year so far and a friend of Jay Z, admittingly we are treading dangerous ground here. So lets do a journalist suicide and slag off Massive Attack!
We aren't going to say they weren't any good, just a bit disappointing. With a band who carry so many promises of giving their audience such a great night their set started extremely slowly. Maybe this was the plan and by 10pm the crowd were absolutely loving it. Good show, but from such an acclaim band they could had given us more.
News alert. We actually loved one of today's bands, totally loved 'em. The Flamming Lips are flipping brilliant. Showering the crowds with large inflatable balls and as flamboyant as a Scissor Sisters gay party organized by Elton John this was the best set of the entire week. Nuns, aliens, spacemen and other oddballs filled the stage and Wayne lifted his huge plastic arms into the air to claim victory on this weak day of live music. Don't get us wrong, today was great, but alongside the other four days of great lineups today was the one we could had skipped, but very glad we didn't - if that makes sense! To put it in Pharrell's lingo Did we enjoy today? We did enjoy today Did we enjoy today? we did enjoy today Did we enjoy today? (Repeat for the next twenty minutes 'til fade)

SATURDAY - JAMES BLUNT

After reading the last few sentences regarding Friday being the weakest day for music and then casting your eyes over the name 'James Blunt' you would be forgiven if you conclude that this writer has spent a day snorting cocaine and injecting more heroine into his bloodstream than Pete Docherty does for Breakfast. Rest assured we haven't, well not much anyway - today's lineup regardless of Blunt was ruddy good and the first great band we heard was Nizlopi. The JCB Song is a gut wrenched about how great Dads are and their wasn't a dry eye in the park, well except from the people who come from broken families and the ones who were beaten up from their fathers. On a happier note over at the XFM Stage Freestylers thoroughly entertained us and the tent as a buzz of electricity with a consecutive play of thundering beats pulsing out from the speakers for 40 short minutes.
The Eels deserve much more recognition than they deserve. Their latest album, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations has received a bouqet-full of praising reviews from countless magazines. Except Gardeners Weekly, because - well there a bloody garden magazine. Maybe they should have a monthly article 'Songs to listen to in your back graden' so even they could rant on how bloody good the Eels are. Their classic 'Goddam Right It's A Beautiful Day' still sounds as delightful as watching the Sunset on a warm Summery evening, which leads us into our next band under our reviewing eye, Zero 7. Let us explain,
It's early September 2005 and we are at Cafe Del Mar in Ibiza having the best holiday anyone could wish for. It's around 7pm and the daily congregation of families, tourists and those about to venture into the club scene are gathered to applaud the sunset backed by Zeros 7 's 'Come Away With Me'. It was with this personal memory we can selfishly give Zero 7 a good review. If we never stepped on that plane to the White Island last Summer who knows what our verdict would had been? Maybe we would be over at the XFM stage watching Chic or the Myspace.com stage where King Cerosote were headlining. Wee could even had been had been sitting on a deckchair at the acoustic stage taking in 'Smoosh' or opting for 'Crash Concevtion' in the O2 Blueroom. Of course, in reality we would had been in the O2 VIP area chilling out with the celebs and watching Mexico being thrashed out of the World Cup!
At school quite a few of our friends were given nicknames here's a sample. Chris Litt - 'Twit', Casey Bagg -'Slag', Robbie Natt - 'Prat'. Today's headliner was James Blunt.
It's so easy to give Blunt a bad review as his reputation of being an annoying public schoolboy turned singer has kept journalist busy for the past twelve months degrading everything he does. But, deep breath, he was bloody good. It was pretty interesting acknowledging the crowd today as well who ranged from various age groups and sexes.His banter between songs are funny and apart from hearing 'Your Beautiful' for the upteeth time their wasn't much opportunity to crictise - Damn you Blunt!

SUNDAY - DEPHECE MODE

Time to confess, for the second time the World Cup was a too greater temptation and distracted us from the live music today. Nested on a beanbag in the O2 compound with a cold beer and the delights from the Barbie we watched England take another step towards a replay of 1966. After 90 minutes of another dull game we left the VIP area to make the most of the final hours of the great festival. Football fans had watched the match on the large screen towards the back of the Hyde Park in the fairground area. The only disappointment must had been for Thomas Dolby and The Dears who had the misfortune to be billed at the same time of the match which was a kick in the teeth for them!
The easiest set time was given to the Mystery Jets who played to a field of delighted England shirt wearing blokes who seemed very pleased with today's result. The Jets are 'jetting off' to the Isle Of Wight in September to headline the Sunday night and if today's set is an indication on what we can expect than the 2007 festivals could see these lads making welcome appearances in evening time slot. It was as expected that their most recognized and radio friendly release 'You Can't Fool Me Dennis' became a little mini anthem for the evening.
How many times are we going to mention Goldfrapp this Summer? We would like to point out that we aren't sleeping with any band members, don't work for the band in anyway whatsoever and aren't hidden behind any daft mask at any of their top performances. Although we are very much open to any of these offers and if the band want to get back to us on any of these points we will see you on a weekly basis up until September as you play any festival offer given to you - and that's a good thing!
And so our review finally comes to an end with the only UK appearance from the legends which are Dephece Mode. They had a stunning set with TV monitors impressingly lined up center stage and a back catalogue up their sleeves to keep their devoted eighties fans happy. Their set really took off when the first beats of 'Personal Jesus' powered out of the amps and from there on in the crowd were gripped and were taken back a couple of decades for the next hour. The mode also had tight security in their sealed off dressing room area backstage.
The O2 Wireless festival is amazing and its a great pity it will clash with Glastonbury in future years. Our only gripe is that the disabled platform is situated a bit far back and at an angle and earlier on each day when there was a shortage of general public and the platform seemed isolated. This was also the case when David Gray played! However the actual position of the platform allowed easy access to exit the park. Other than it we we cant wait until another five years time when Glastonbury has another rest and we can thoroughly enjoy another five days of great live music.

Wireless Festival
The Strokes
David Gray
Massive Attack
James Blunt
Dephece Mode
O2