The Isle of Wight Festival Diary – Thursday + Friday
Lisa Gowling reports from opening few days of The Isle of Wight festival 2009.
Thursday - Camping Day.
Here it is…..another year has passed and I again wait in line for the Ferry to take me to sunny Isle Of Wight for a festival with a great line up that makes me want to burst with excitement. It’s 10am and the sun is shining and as I wait with the car with my very good friend Darren and two new comers to the Isle of Wight Festival I think it’s time to crack open a beer. As we get to Isle of Wight all the horns of cars are beeping with eager anticipation and we follow the crowds to the car park. We parked straight in, filled our sack truck up with four days worth of beer, clothes and toilet paper and headed to the entrance.
One and a half hours later after just queuing to get in we set off looking for a camping space, now we had nine tents to put up so needed a big space, we found a field completely empty (lucky us) and set up camp smack bang in the middle. Four hours and a crate of beers later the tents were up. Myself and a seriously crazy bunch of friends headed to the arena for a bit of The Human League. We were an hour late as the programs purchased in the car park were all an hour out (reminiscent of last year I believe)
The festival looked so much busier than the year before, it seemed that some of the 55,000 people expected had arrived early on the Thursday and everyone was queuing for a weekends worth of beer tokens. The woman who was taking substantial amounts of cash from festival goers in return for beer tokens told me that ‘tonight held a record amount of people entering early for this years IOW Festival’. The big top tent was packed and people were spilling out of the sides to see this 80’s rock band. For the young ones like Darren and myself, we only knew ‘Don’t you want me baby’ but in all honesty they were great, I enjoyed their set and so did everyone else it seemed. The whole band look great, especially Susan Sully, who at nearly 50 years old is still moving around like she did in the early 1980’s. Good for her!
The band played tracks like ‘(Keep Feeling) Fascination’, ‘Mirror Man’ and other classic Human League hits, and they went down a storm. What a great start to the Festivities. After their set we all had a gander of the smaller, unsigned acts that were performing on stage behind The Big Top Tent. Myself and the ‘young friends’ I was with tried desperately to get in the Strongbow (Bowtime) tent for a bit of drunken dancing but it seemed everyone had the same idea and after 30 minutes of deliberating we decided to head back to camp.
Day Two - Friday. Neon Madness.
The day most of us had been waiting for. Today’s line up included: The Ting Tings, Prodigy, Basement Jaxx and Penduilum. I was excited. The main arena was not set to open until 3pm, so until that time the 20 plus of us in camp drank, drank and drank some more…this subsequently led to us all dressing up in numerous garments of neon and somehow I was involved in wearing a pink tutu and florescent pink tights, amongst other things. It seemed a lot of the campers also had this idea and the neon seemed to outweigh the others dressed ‘normally’.
The Ting Tings were up first for me as I was late entering the arena. Jules De Martino was on drums and Katie White as well as belting out the classics, she occasionally played the guitar and keyboard. They both really got the crowd going. They Opened with the title track from their debut album ‘We Started Nothing’, and were backed up by a four piece brass band. Kate was dressed in a silver backless top and matching baseball boots, she had the crowd eating out of her hand as she sang through hits including We Walk, Fruit Machine and Keep Your Head. At the end of their first ever Isle of Wight appearance, finishing on No1 smash That's Not My Name, she told fans: "This song's about being invisible." The band where certainly not. It was a great start and the crowd loved them, even some of the older generation. They really are fantastic live and I would defiantly want to see them again, just to absorb some of that fantastic energy they give off. It makes you smile.
Without much time to go to the toilet and consume another beer pendulum were on. Darren had got out the glow sticks and it was time for some raving. Pendulum hit the stage, and from the first beat the unsuspecting crowd were taken back by the intensity of it all. The Main arena was jam packed from the front to the back and no one stopped once. We jumped about and danced with our neon attire and glow sticks as Pendulum played Showdown, Fasten Your Seat-belt, Mutiny and Slam. Lead singer Rob Swire gave it his all and you could see how much he and the other band members were enjoying playing. Granite closed the band’s amazing set and I would have been happy experiencing Pendulum as the head liner of the evening.
Basment Jaxx was up next. Already set to burst from the excitement I hoped that they could pull off a great set. With Pendulum producing such an energetic set, could Basement Jaxx follow that? Answer: Yes. It seemed to take a while for them to find their feet on the stage however after a shaky start, the band screamed out ‘Red Alert’ and the band looked like they were loving it. They followed this with a fantastic version of Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon. Then it was hit after hit and I was surprised by actually how many hits they had produced over the years. Jump ‘n’ Shout, Bingo Bango and Rendez –Vu to name a few, but it was ‘Where’s Your Head At’ which showed me why Basement Jaxx where so popular and known for great live sets. It was a fantastic and they had sped it up which really got the crowd moving and those sun-burnt arms waving those glow sticks (or was that just me?) Felix Buxton worked the stage on every song and made sure the crowd where enjoying it as much as the band. Great set, great band.
We waited a little longer for The Prodigy to come on, this was enough time to go to the toilet and grab a drink, during this time I also received abuse from my neon dressed friends…apparently it was my fault that they were all so drunk (due to a drinking game I had introduced in camp earlier that day) Stop moaning guys, carry on drinking and prepare to ingest some music from the Headliners.
The Prodigy who have been on the scene for over a decade always seem to out do themselves every time they perform live. They are good and they know they are good. They began by staring down the festival cameras projected on the big screens with stern angry faces: “All those eating at the back, wrong time. To the Isle of Wight warriors at the front here, sustain yourself!” Maxim Reality steadily stated. Unless you have seen the Prodigy, it is very hard to describe the energy that they ooze. They played a set which included some of their older classics, and tracks off there new ‘Invaders Must Die album’. Breath, Fire-starter, Voodoo People were fantastic. I was in my element, dancing on my own in front of my friends literally raving it up in a pick tutu and enough glow sticks on my persons to put any raver to shame.
After an encore of Smack My Bitch Up, Diesel Power and Out of Space, the band quickly leave the stage leaving the crowd gasping for breath and buzzing from the intense and memorable set. ‘I think they were better than they were in Brixton’ my friend Liam announced as we prepared to leave the arena. Keith and Leroy have been headlining festivals for more than a decade but still bring the same energy and enthusiasm as if it was their first ever gig. The Prodigy came, preformed and conquered, and the first evening of the festival had truly arrived.
Everyone left the arena quickly after The Prodigy finished, I was buzzing from the great music and maybe a little intoxicated, I lost everyone and me and my very good, also drunk friend sat down on the grassy verge and melted into the recent but now memorable set of what was dance night.
..... To be continued!!
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