This weather is shit.
Within a minute of getting here I am massively regretting the fact I only turned up in some nice woven leather trainers. What an idiot. Thank god for the little camping stall who can’t have believed their luck.
Ankle deep, really slippery mud was what the previous night’s storm had left behind and the rain was pretty much incessant all afternoon. Why is there always that idiot who jumps head first into the mud on the first day of a festival. Don’t think he realised there
It is so bad, the festival site proper didn’t actually open until after 3pm and that meant no one got to see Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong… Never mind eh? They finally let the crowd in and Rob Da Bank had somehow got about 500 tons of wood chippings to stop everyone sinking.
The Wedding Present – Leeds-based The Wedding Present were given the task of opening the weekend’s festival, announcing themselves as a ‘semi-legendary’ band. They played a storming set playing loud and proud, and ripped through songs like ‘Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk’ and ‘Brassneck’. This is a band I can’t believe I haven’t listened to more. They might be getting on a bit, but they’re proper rockin’ it. Lead singer Dave Gedge going through guitar after guitar as he snaps the strings with his frenetic strumming. Brilliant stuff.
The BBC Introducing stage promised a great line up and had graduated from a tent to an actual open-air stage. Which was pretty unfortunate because it had to be shut down because of the rain. Being that it was at the bottom of a very muddy hill it’s sitting in a deeper and deeper puddle of the brown stuff. Lykke Li, and Black Kids didn’t get to play. Which is shit. And really not worth the trudge over there!
Luckily the Big Top isn’t too far away and Chromeo are on. This is a band you really need to go see live. I won’t lie, they weren’t my number one choice to go and see at this festival, but that’s kind of the point about going to Bestival, you go check out stuff you might not normally. The 6000 capacity Big Top is full to bursting, leaking people out of the exits. This band has so much fun on stage. Their filthy bass lines and joyous demeanour means you can’t help but be entertained by them.
I Am Kloot – How I Am Kloot aren’t any bigger is just weird. They’re great live and watching them at the big top stage early doors is a nice way to ease out of a hangover, back into a hangunder. The Manchester group are impossibly nice guys and their music and fit the Bestival way perfectly.
Sophie Barker – Over at the band stand the tiny stage was nowhere near as crowded as last year because of the weather, but Sophie Barker struck up an acoustic set. The singer, who’s sung with Zero 7, Cocteau Twins and The Egg, braved the elements to bring the crowd a cheery set with her amazing voice. Go get her album.
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip – I saw this pair play to around eight people about two years ago and now they’re up on the main stage playing to thousands. Beardy Scroobius is a natural show man and chats to the crowd as if he’s friends with every single one of them.
‘Letter From God To Man’ and ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill ‘obviously went down well, but ‘Beat That My Heart Skipped’ and ‘Look For The Woman’ are both amazing songs. Time for a bit of spoken word from the front man, which is where his roots lie, and he got right down the front to make it up close and personal. ‘Love will defeat terrorists; is the message he proclaims in his amiable, but sincere way. Increase the Peace, says the massive sign hanging along the top of the stage, and with Scroob’s lyrics, it’s all about the love in the audience.
Hot Chip – We were somewhere around the main stage on the edge of the crowd when the drugs began to take hold…
From a vaguely solid vantage point and surrounded by two sailors, a dolphin attack victim, Davey Jones from the Monkees and his locker and a polka dotted jellyfish, this was set was pretty surreal and fun, fun, fun. This was the best performance of the whole weekend. The entire festival appeared to have turned up to see the geek-chic electro-popsters. The band, making their fourth, and largest, appearance at Bestival really threw everything into it. ‘Bendable Poseable’ and ‘Over and Over’ really standing out, but ‘Ready For The Floor’ was way the best song of the whole weekend. Easily.
In one of the weirdest encores I’ve ever seen, the band came back on to play a rousing rendition of Sinead O’Connor’s nothing Compares 2 U. Not the most uplifting of songs to finish with but it somehow worked. The audience yelling every single word right back at them. Ace ace, ace. I heart Hot Chip.
