V 2001 Review (Festivals & Mud)

Weston Park Staffordshire Sunday 19th August 2001

The Mud The Rain The Sun and The Charlatans

With The Reading Festival just a weekend away me and phil decided to represent the Indie element of us lot and attended the indie day of V 2001.

Having to get to Derby bus station for 8:50 wasn't something that appealed to us though we made it only for the bus to turn up an hour late it isn't that far to stafford though and we were their for about 11:15 we had a quick walk around the outside of the main arena the gates opened at 12 and we headed in the first surprise was having to buy beer tokens before we could get beer it was a good thing for us because their was no queue for the tokens and so it made it easier to get beer later on in the day however 2.80 for a pint of carling is a bit to much i reckon.

Had a walk over to the get a programe bit steep at six quid and that was without one of those things that go around your neck with the times on however it did list when the bands were on inside the programme so that was somthing.

Jimmy Barnes was first on the main stage we hadn't heard of him but he had a bit of a following their were a few with Jimmy Barnes T shirts one of the funniest being When Elvis died god created Jimmy Barnes. He was preety forgetable though and certanley not the next king.

Having enough of Jimmy we had a walk over to the second stage caught the end of Ben's Symphonic Orchestra who told the crowd they were french perhaps they wanted things thrown at them anyway we were more intrested in sittin down and restin the legs but as Snow patrol came on down came the rain shelter was found under a big tree Snow Patrol brought a good bit of Indie music and sounded a lot better than the shockin rap rubbish on the main stage that was Spooks.

Next on the main stage was Nelly Furtardo not exactly classic stuff I must say and she played for a bit to long 40 minutes durin Nelly Furtardo I decided to test out the porterloo's it being the last day I was fearin the worst however their seemed to be about triple the amount they have at Reading and the one I went in was unberleavably clean thank god.

The Main stage finally gave us the first good band Embrace pulled in a big crowd and played some good new songs with some old classics a highlight being All you good good people.

Faithless on the main stage meant time for some grub we were close to the stage that had atomic kitten on so we got a mixture of Atomic Kitten and Faithless sounding a bit like dance pop in other words terriable the mud was deep and walkin around meant almost losin me trainers a few times did see some bloke covered head to toe in mud mind he must have thought it was good for his skin or somthing we had a walk over to see Wheatus on the other stage Im not a fan of them and we couldnt make out if the crowd liked them or not due to some of them loving it and some throwin things constantley at them one bottle of piss almost hittin their singer which he didnt seem to impressed with.

Headed back to the main stage for Coldplay I never realised Coldplay were so popular with the ladies their were loads watching them one bloke behind us got pissed off with a girl who decided to get on her friends shoulders she quickly got down mind due to the heckiling. Coldplay played the majority of their last album with a few new songs the lead singer also decided to ring his Mum & Dad during his set well very Rock & Roll eh.

Went and got a beer before the highlight of the day The Charlatans who knows how Texas are above them on the bill because they should easily have been headliners How High And Just Looking stand out and their new songs also sound very good The Charlatans are one of the last great Indie bands around and played like it as well.

Finally we caught a bit of Muse On The Second stage. enough to hear Newborn then decided to have a walk back to get the bus the bus is close to the exit so a quick exit or so we thought the bus pulls away onlt to get stuck in the mud this was one of those big national express bus's as well not only was it stuck but it was stuck in the way of all the car's trying to get out an hour later the tractor pulled us out of the mud and we finally made it out.

Got back to Derby a good day out bring on Reading 2001.