The oxygen of publicity

News hot off the press: I have just returned from the O2 Wireless Festival. I hadn't actually been to a 'festival' before, and I am not sure I can honestly say this quite qualifies in the true sense. It's in the middle of London for starters and I am sure that half the vibe from those things comes from the whole communal camping and bonding over campfires and so on and so forth. Either way, I spent the afternoon in Hyde Park which was a pleasure. The forecast had been violent rain, but instead the sun shone and it was gorgeous. Perfect.

Here are a slew of photos. Kindly note I was right right at the front at the beginning for Robyn. Only about thirty people stood there, which was a shame because she was completely brilliant. The songs sounded superb in the sunshine and she put her back into it. Still, I don't know if electropop really suited the crowd. Here are my snaps...

She finished on With every heartbeat, which was a delight. I have a little video, but haven't time to upload it to YouTube today. Soon.

Next was something dreary called Cat Empire which I couldn't be bothered with. I need to confess at this stage that not only did I not camp at my first festival visit, I actually lounged around in Corporate Hospitality. Not exactly the real deal. My flatmate works for the sponsors, so hence I am 'in'. Anyway, I wasn't there drinking Pimms the whole afternoon as some other friends were around, so I went to join them and sat on the grass while Just Jack played. So I was waaaaaaaaaaay back. Here are the snaps of that...

They also made me go on some totally hideous fairground ride. I felt like I was shaken like a Pina Colada. It was deeply unpleasant. I will not be doing that again in a hurry.

Next up was Kelis. I was actually really very excited about seeing her. She's kooky. But -meh- she initially did a load of new material which the crowd didn't really respond to. However, her outfit was a marvel. Look on in awe...

Then she did Little star, which was brilliant. She also sat down, which means I got a close-up of her totally fabulous shoes...

Aren't they foxy?

She finished, thank heaven, with Milkshake and my favourite, Trick me. I was delighted. It was a major high point.

I'm zipping through these. Next was Mark Ronson. He's wearing the exceptionally perfect white shirt in these pictures. He also had a series of (very good) vocalists to fill in for Lily, Amy and whomever else, although the Merryweather guy was there.

Obviously the highlight was Stop me, which was just perfect and definitely the best musical moment of the day for me. But if I give the bronze to Kelis doing Trick me, Silver medal was most unexpected. It seems one of his vocalists, who sang his cover of the Radiohead track Just, was also the lead singer with the band Phantom Planet who were most famous for singing the theme to The O.C. And wouldn't you know it, Mark Ronson made him sing that song, California, in the sunshine.

It was totally fantastic.

Here it is...

It was a 'you had to be there' moment. Ronson is on the piano here (looking like Rufus Wainright!), but if you look just behind his head to the immediate right, you can see Caprice's sunglasses. I saw her in the VIP area later but I don't care about her, so decided not to sully my camera with a 'me and' shot.

Onward.

I saw Faithless in proper real actual full-length concert in sexy Bournemouth back in April, so, just like Rufus, I have seen them twice this year. Still great, still the ultimate live dance act. But they are oddly humourless. A few times I heard moments in their music where they could so easily have riffed into recent dance hits but yet they didn't spot that and just trucked on. I'm not asking for silliness, but Ronson segued into The Supremes and I wondered if Faithless couldn't go from one of their numbers into an old Erasure song (or something). All this talk of loving one another and peace (etc, etc) is all well and good, but we all need a giggle.

That last one really captures it. Well pleased with that.

As Faithless were finishing that song where they sing about how just under their skin they are screaming, for some reason the main gates to the show were opened and in streamed a zillion large-haired seventeen year old London females, who, like small rodents, darted into the crowd to catch the final bars. Honestly, I don't know what the point was. Faithless declared how grateful they were, departed and all that was left for them was overpriced poor-quality hamburgers. Strange.

And there you have it.

Comments

[ant]

Faithless were amazing, busting in with Insomnia and seeing Maxi jazz looking humbled by the crowds response to the first track, they will definately be recieving another visit from me.
The other highlight of the day were without a doubt the excellent Raisonneurs who played the XFM stage, i think at that stage i could have just lost myself in the drum kit which sounded unbelievable and the female vocalist, well lets just say "i would have kissed her"(in my best Alan Partridge voice).

[TRICKY]

I am afraid I didn't go to the other stages. I should have done, but the allure of the (fabulous) O2 hospitality was too strong. In many ways that was a shame because I would love to have seen Badly Drawn Boy, but it clashed with both my dinner and Faithless.

The latter are really great but I think I am slightly done with seeing them live for a while.