V

Went to the V Festival on Saturday.

I was there with a bunch of friends, most of whom were there to see the Pixies, which gives all manner of rock cred and indie cool. They couldn't really care who else played, and the other bands there were either window dressing or in the way until the almighty Pixies got their gear on.

I was interested in seeing the Pixies, although was never a huge fan. No, I was there to go to That Stage (the 2 main stages were the This Stage, where the Pixies played) and That Stage, while the smallest was of course the Other Stage. Very cool and all, but those names totally suck when you are trying to scream down a mobile to be slightly audible to your friends who are looking for you in a crowd of about 35 or 40 thousand.

"WHERE ARE YOU?"

"THAT STAGE"

"OH, WELL I'M AT THE OTHER STAGE"

"WHICH ONE?"

"THAT ONE"

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE AT THE OTHER ONE."

"I AM BUT I WILL BE AT THIS STAGE AFTER THAT AND THEN AT THAT STAGE NEAR THE END..."

You get the idea. The sound system was pretty top notch though, as anyone living within about 3km could attest.

Anyway, I was at That Stage for most of the day, and saw a fantastic combo of Gnarls Barkley, Groove Armada and The Pet Shop Boys. I know I know, not a shred of indie cool among any of them, but it was fantastic.

I was curious about the Gnarls Barkley thing, as when 2 guys are pretty much a studio outfit it can not work so well live. So when about 10 people in full tennis whites (including headbands) came on stage, not least of all a 4 piece string section comprising 3 stunning girls and a token guy, things looked up. Then the 2 GB guys came out (with their distinguishing blue knit vests over their tennis whites) and got into an awesome set that sounded fantastic. Quite a big crowd for them, and Crazy in particular was, wait for it.... crazy. (thank you, thank you, no really, you are a great crowd, thanks, come on, stop it now, shucks).

Groove Armada were arguably the best act there. It was utterly packed, with much accompanying treading on of feet and pushing of everything else, but in the end their set was great and much dancing was done.

Pet Shop Boys were fairly understated (how exciting can your stage act be when you are a keyboard player/programmer and a vocalist?) but they had some singers and dancers too, so it was lively enough on stage. Everyone knew all the words to the songs though (ok, all the old farts like me did, and all the younger whipper-snappers were dancing along happily with no doubt little idea of who these Pet Shop Boys were, but they sounded good), and it was a pretty lively crowd for them too.

I then caught the end of the Pixies set, and I will claim vehemently that they rocked, just for the sake of some indie cred. Of course, they really did rock, and it was great to see them, but I still had more fun with Groove Armada and PSB.

Not so much fun was the walk home from Centennial Park with an initial crowd of about 5,000 of my best mates (all trying to steal my taxi), who slowly dwindled as we approached Camperdown. My taxi never showed, but then neither did theirs...

Did anyone (ok, either of the 2 of you who read this) get there, other than Mel who didn't return my text? If so, what did you see and was it any good?

On other important matters, the Gozleme rated a consistent 8 out of 10, the beer lines were of course too slow, and the free Eclipse mints came in handy, especially after the Gozleme...

So the question is, how are they going to top Pixies and PSB for next year?