T IN THE PARK BALLADO KINROSS 2008 - Review by Brian Nicholson Friday 11th July. Dave and I arrived by bus on Friday about 1pm only to be faced with a huge queue snaking all the way around the field, some 2.5hours later we were finally in with wristbands on and looking for a place to pitch the tent after a bit of wandering we settled down to pitch in the Purple zone and the first T passed our lips....many more to come. So next was a walk to the area only to be faced with more effing queues to show our wristbands we were starting to think of the phrase Queue in the Park !!!!! finally in and The Wombats were banging out their stuff but as this stage was the first to reach on entering the area by the thousands of campers we could get no where near the stage so at a distance heard a couple of numbers including the infectious Lets Dance to Joy Division before heading for a supply of beer tokens. After more queues for tokens ( Queue in the Park) we headed off to T Break to see unsigned Scottish bands and the first was The Down and Outs pretty catching tunes to get the weekend started and to follow was Luva Anna who were advised by a work colleague to be Gr8 but sorry i don't get them a bit too folksy so left early to get more beer before making our way to King Tuts to see The Music, well this really got the weekend off to a great start as they banged out tracks from the new album Strength in Numbers and the famous King Tuts was bouncing as the gig with fantastic, light effects and atmosphere was second to none. Next off to see the recently reformed The Verve as Richard and the Boys played a mix of old classics and newbie's to a huge crowd massed around the Main Stage but halfway through decided to head off to The Relentless Energy Stage to see Blood Red Shoes who are 1 bloke and 1 girl disco punksters and they had a small crowd of about 100 dancing all the way through the gig it felt so intemit when you consider the masses in the whole arena, well that was Friday over and we headed back to the campsite along with 60,000 other happy campers looking forward to Sat. Saturday 12th After an Ok night camping up to get a shower more queues (see the theme) so back to tent to get ready for day 2. Off to The Pet Sounds to see the first of a few American bands at T this year were The Whigs who put on a very good show playing stuff from album Mission Control, next off to T Break again to see Be a Familiar before heading down to the even bigger than usual NME Stage to see a trio of acts starting with Belgium's indie rocksters, Deus who played tracks from the new album Vantage Point and siting on the ground it was very chilling as it was still early in a long day, overhead the thick grey clouds threatened to spill all on us but the windy conditions kept us dry, following them was The Subways and boy do they know how to create good old fashioned rock n roll, they played a mixture of tracks both old and new from Young for Eternity and new album All or Nothing as the crowd at NME stage were enjoying the antics of Billy as he lept all over the stage even getting the crowd to join in and Charlotte (rock chick) bouncing around with head thumping energy..wow!!!!!!!!! next up was hotly tipped The Courteeners who played tracks from St Judes finishing with Not 19 Forever. Next was back to Pet Sounds to see 2nd American band MGMT perform a set which was enjoyable but I am not totally won over yet worth seeing all the same, next were 3rd Americans Band of Horses whom I have never heard anything before but decided to watch after realising they were standing in front of us during The Whigs and was pleasantly surprised with the light indie rock tracks but a great sound well worth checking out. Next was The Futures Stage to see Cajun Dance Party a young band with some catching tunes ...bigger times ahead? not sure but time will tell. Off to T Break next to see local Edinburgh band Isosceles another whom we had see earlier in the year and wanted to see them again even enjoying more second time round as they played their set to a good crowd in the tent even handing out triangles to get the crowd involved..excellent stuff !!!! Dave was speaking to a girl and asked if she went to see bands and she said it was her first time in T but she has seen a band at Harlem in Kirkcaldy before ... someone called No1SUN!!! Finally after a long day and many bands back to Pet Sounds to see 4th Americans Interpol play a great headline set in a packed tent and I enjoyed them more this year in a tent rather than the NME but that is my preference.. a great second day. Sunday 13th Up early to get a shower...the buggers had not even opened at the advertised time so a small queue to wait until they turned up blaming security. First off was Rob Da Bank in the Slam tent before off to Main Stage and down the fron to see original Brit Pop Shed Seven play some of the many UK hits from the 90's. Excellent to see Rick and the boys in action and looking forward to seeing them in August at The Corn Exchange some times you can't beat the old stuff can you? Off to King Tuts to see Delays play a couple of tracks before the Ting Tings hit the same stage starting with Great DJ, Fruit Machine some others that are a bit weak before finishing with That's not my Name but the tent was full to brimming and the atmosphere was great. Next was some time with beer n food watching Village Disco in the Healthy Area play some cheesy disc stuff while acting the goat but fun to watch while taking time out chilling, after a while we just jumped between T Break and Future Stage taking in Fife's own Fangs and The Vivian's at T Break (including small stage invasion as usual) and Sergeant and Black Kids in The Futures tent, in summary Fangs good worth checking out, The Vivian's ok, Sergeant not for me seen before but still don't get them and hard to get away from similarities to The View and lastly Black Kids worth checking out. In between this off to Main Stage to see Amy Winehouse play a few tracks before ending with Rehab that was disappointing as she is a great singer but obviously totally f**ked up. More time drinking and chilling before finally heading off to the Relentless Stage to see The Presets, never heard before but as the headliners were not for me just went for it and was more than surprised by a great sound of dancy catching tunes that had us dancing to the beat, excellent stuff. Next was more beer and while chillin to songs at the Relentless Bar a fav of mine Strasbourg hit the floor and we could not help ourselves dancing about to the track followed by a couple more before heeding back to the camp site and more beer but i was feeling the lager fuelled pace and long day so back to the tent about 2am i think. Monday 14th. Up , pack, walk to bus collection point and back to Dave's before heading back home. All in all another great weekend had by both of us. Would we go back to a bigger better T next year, probably not. Lots of other smaller festivals worth checking out next year so we'll wait n see. THE BOYS HAVE A WEEKEND OFF AND TAKE IN SCOTLANDS BIGGEST FESTIVAL T In The Park 2007 Ballado, Kinross The band had a weekend off so we made our way to this year's T in the Park with mate Brian. After sitting in the hour long tailback on the Friday we finally got to the car park, or was that swamp, glad we were in an unenvironmetally friendly Land Rover!!! Unpacked the gear and the heavens opened up. I didn't know going to T involved a cross country ramble through foot thick mud carrying tent, bag and beer (important), well just think I will somehow be able to justify the extra refreshment intake after this work out. It was so wet at one point the box of beer I was carrying started to disintegrate and I felt like a juggler trying to keep all the cans in place. After some food and beer we headed into the Arena and settled down to watch local guys THE DRAYMIN who played a rocking set, a good tight band and a great start to the weekend. I am not a big fan of BLOC PARTY, for me they seem to flatter to deceive and never really have that killer single that will propel them to anything but ordinary (apart from the backing vox on the prayer). Artic Monkeys were a bit of a blur, sorry! Back to the campsite I think. Saturday started well with a trilogy of good bands, BLOOD RED SHOES, DOGS and LITTLE MAN TATE back to back on the NME stage and didn't dissapoint. First time for BLOOD RED SHOES and although it was a WHITE STRIPES combination of just guitar and drums the sound was superb with memorable riffs and stomping tunes, definitely ones to check out again. Seen DOGS before and they played through songs like London Bridge, this was shaping up to be a great festival. Over on the Futures Stage was the much hyped REVEREND AND THE MAKERS. One fantastic single but the lead singer had bags of attitude and swaggered around the stage like he owned it, there is always a fine balance, just a pity the music wasn't as distinct and we left half way through. CSS were good but were lost on the big NME stage. Crowd pleasers ARCADE FIRE and the KILLERS were amazing and filled the Main Stage with a soundscape of familiar tunes that had everybody dancing. Oh RAZORLIGHT had a big sign made from lightbulbs, they thought it was cool apparantly! By Sunday the weather was el-scorchio. Burnt ma knees to buggery but I was never meant to be tanned, I'm Scottish blue colour and proud! YOU SAY PARTY WE SAY DIE! didn't turn up, strange!!!, so first band we saw was THE PIGEON DETECTIVES. I was positive the lead singer was going to fall on his arse at some point as he launched himself from the drum kick time after time (not sure if Brian the drummer would apporeciate it!!) They were very good though and up next were THE TWANG with the favourite "Wide Awake" single and were a lot better than I thought. Band of the weekend were SWITCHES, I wanted to see them most of all and we were right down the front. It's strange, there are 80,000 people on the site and most of the tents are pretty empty before the bands start then get really busy. Cracking set and everybody agreed they were excellent and so were SHINY TOY GUNS with their dance guitar cross over. They didn't have a bass player on some songs through!!!! When MAXIMO PARK came on the NME stage I thought F***k it I'm away down the front and jumped about with the crowd, excellent! Sort of got lost from the guys and ended up at the main stage to see SCISSOR SISTERS but were too far away so ended up at the futures stage to see THE SUNSHINE UNDERGROUND and ended the night there. Kyle from THE VIEW joined the band for a rendition of "Borders" (I think it was anyway) and we ended back at the campsite. Needed two days to recover but it was an excellent weekend and the tickets are in the bag for next year already. T in the Park 2007 with No1SUN's Dave and Billy. Spent my first ever full on camping experience this year with Dave from No1SUN and met Billy on each day for a lager fuelled music extravaganza. Friday 6th. Arrived before all the hassle that a lot of folk experienced got tent up and after a few tins headed into see the first ever Friday show, not too much on but seen a set from hotly tipped THE DRAYMIN from Rosyth in Fife , never heard their stuff before but the atmosphere was great with a local following getting the party rocking and they finished the set with Rise Up which was fantastic after that just stood at Main Stage and BLOC PARTYwere playing but I am not into them so did not pay too much attention as I was mainly waiting to see the ARTIC MONKEYS, they came on a played a brill set to end the Friday night then a struggle through the mud back to the tent for a couple of hours kip before the Saturday show. Saturday 7th. Started off at NME Stage with a 2 piece called BLOOD RED SHOES and after only hearing a couple of songs before T this is a great discovery with girl on guitar with top quality vocals supported by an energetic drummer and what a sound they made , one for the future in my opinion, they were followed by DOGS a band seen previously in King Tuts but they had the early revellers rocking to a mix of classics inc Feathered and Tarred my fav from 1st Album and a mix of newbie's from 2nd album they were followed by LITTLE MAN TATE who sing quirky and simply put together lyrics in classic indie style and again got the crowd onto a great start to a long day. We then ventured off to the Future Stage to see a band REVEREND AND THE MAKERS who recently have been getting a lot of air, other than Heavy Weight Boxing Champion of the World I was not impressed at all so we left to head back to NME to see disco chicks CSS but atmosphere was not as good as previous Liquid Room gig but I suppose that happens to some bands. We then headed back towards Main Stage as floods of folk were heading to see Pete Docherty at NME. How does he pull such popularity? ARCADE FIRE were on but we stood on top of wee hill and watched them go into their mix of songs from both albums , OK but I prefer older stuff as new stuff a bit too much of a religious undertone for me, by this time we were feeling the pace so we just sat on the grass chatting to other folks as RAZORLIGHT hit the stage. I was not interested as we were trying to secure a good spot for headliners THE KILLERS who put on a great show and at this point fuelled with larger and red wine (grape and grain pun) we made our way through the crowd as far as we could to really get into the spirit and we hit a fence that in the heat of the moment as the lager took it's toll. Before I knew it I had launched myself over the barrier and was being marched out to the far right hand side, Shit need to get back to Dave and Billy so more crowd navigation and yahoo I found them, amazing !!!! what a day .. Sunday 8th. Again met Billy and Derek from work and we were off again with many bands to see. 1st up was PIGEON DETECTIVES and as usual singer got everyone in excellent mood as they thumped out a load of favs from their well publicised first album so good first set to the day, we then moved to Future Stage to see SWITCHES, a band that I wanted to see as their album Heart tuned to d.e.a.d is fantastic and with a nice number of fans we were right at the front as they hammered out a selection of crackers inc Drama Queen, Snakes and Ladders and Lay Down the Law, check them out. At this time we had some free time to chill out on the grass drinking lager and just chillin we were joined by my mate Woody and his pal Roddy as we chatted in the sun decided to head off to see locals from Edin The VIVIANS, some good songs but will need to check them out again as this was the first time that I have heard them, at the end they were joined on stage by what appeared to be pre-planned crowd invasion but none were removed so assume they are mates or something. With a bit time to kill before what was for me a great 3 bands on NME we went to Future Stage to see SHINY TOY GUNS as I have heard some stuff before and this band totally blew me away, what a discovery with a mix of male vocals on some tracks a female on others a very clever trick to give a different sound , this was one of fav's over the whole weekend. Now the main event down to NME for MAXIMO PARK, what can I say FANTASTIC all hits played and the crowd reaction was a merit to Paul's energy. Next Interpol another fav of mine and Woody so Dave , Billy Derek headed elsewhere as Woody ploughed down towards the front to see them hit us with an hour of classic new and old then at long last KASABIAN hit the stage for the final gig, the place was bouncing and at one point I felt I was in the middle of a rugby scrum rather than a gig and spending more time trying to stand up than watching Tom and the boys, eventually the excitement calmed down and we could all enjoy the whole set, what can I say other than absolutely brilliant, everything was spot on, this is what it is about I am sure all who saw KASABIAN will know what I mean. Then a walk back to the tent to have couple of beers with Dave before hitting the sack for one more night then up early to pack stuff and off to home comforts. All in all an excellent first full on camping Festival experience.....again....quite possibly. Brian. |
