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The Big Chill has come a long way since 1994 when Pete Lawrence and Katrina Larkin organised a series of parties at the Union Chapel in north London. The following it began life as an outdoor festival with an event in the Black Mountains of Wales.  The Big Chill Festival has also been held at other venues around the UK including Lulworth Castle in Dorset and Larmer Tree Gardens.

In 2009 ChillFest Limited went into liquidation after poor ticket sales and was bought out by Festival Republic, the organisers of Latitude, Leeds and Reading Music Festivals.

The Big Chill Festival 2010 takes place between Thursday 5th and Sunday 8th August at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Malvern Hills, Herefordshire.

This year’s main stage (Deer Park Stage) headliners are Massive Attack, M.I.A. and Lily Allen with some top quality support including Thom Yorke, Roots Manuva, Paloma Faith, Magic Numbers, Newton Faulkner and personally favourites Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions.

The smaller Revellers’ Stage has some great acts too – Kruder & Dorfmeister, Layo & Bushwacka, Mr Scruff, Easy Star All-Stars as well as Kelis, Plan B, Tinie Tempah and Roy Ayers, among others.

Other personal highlights of interest appearing at one of the other 10 stages, tents or areas include The Hundred In The Hand, Liars, Caribou and London Elektricity.

Furthermore, there will be plenty of DJ sets including the likes of from Andrew Weatherall, Don Letts, Tom Middleton and Greg Wilson; and Peter Hook & Howard Marks, Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap’s Derek Smalls & voice of The Simpsons) and Paul Morley discussing Michael Jackson in the Words In Motion Tent.

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Taking time out from recording their next album with Queens of the Stone Age producer Chris Goss, the Zeppelin and Pink Floyd influenced psychedelic rockers are looking forward to playing in the UK again.

Lead guitarist Jules Shapiro said;
“We always love performing in the UK! Our first tour back in 2007 went way beyond expectations. To be asked to perform at the legendary Sonisphere Festival has really got us spinning around. Playing alongside legendary rock bands like The Cult, Iron Maiden and Iggy Pop, is really a dream come true! And to do all that in the UK, a country so influential in making rock music what it is today, is great.”

Full details of the UK dates are as follows:
28th July – Dublin Castle, London
29th July – Riff’s Bar, Swindon
30th July – The Wilmington Arms, London
1st Aug – Sonisphere Festival, Knebworth

If you are at the Sonisphere Festival be sure to check out the outstanding XtraMile artists Straight Lines and The Xcerts, who will be appearing on Sunday on the Strongbow Bowtime Bar.

Straight Lines are due onstage at around 2pm on Sunday and The Xcerts will be performing at around 7pm.

Steeped in history the event has attracted the best artists that the music world has to offer in its many years of existence, names such as The Who, The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, The Small Faces, T Rex, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple have all supported the festival over the years.

More recently Nirvana made their last UK appearance at the festival in 1992, Stone Roses played their last show together in 1996, and Metallica reached their full potential in 1997.

The headline acts at this years Reading & Leeds festivals include the return of Guns N’ Roses, Blink 182 and Arcade Fire, supported by Queens of the Stoneage, Paramore and The Libertines.

As with all music festivals it is not just about the headline acts and as usual at Reading & Leeds there is a stellar line up across all the stages at this years event.

LCD Soundsystem, Pendulum and Klaxons head up the NME/Radio1 stage, while Alkaline Trio, Bad Religion and Roots Manuva headline the Lock Up Stage.

Marina & The Diamonds, Ash and British Sea Power head the Festival Republic Stage, while the Alternative Stage will be home to comedians Emo Phillips, Stephen K Amos, Jason Byrne, Kevin Bridges, Russell Kane and Rufus Hound.

An incredible line up of support on all stages throughout the weekend is promised at Reading and Leeds and some forward planning may be required to fit in all your favourite acts.

As part of an agreement with Reading Borough Council made in 2009, to increase the capacity at the festival by 10,000 over three years, an extra 3,500 tickets for the Reading Festival were released for sale over the weekend.

If you haven’t done so already, there couldn’t be a better time to purchase tickets for Reading/Leeds Festivals.

Reading & Leeds Festival Ticket Information
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Despite spending so much time on the road The Xcerts will release their second album this Autumn, the much anticipated follow up to 2009’s In The Wind We Smile will be called Scatterbrain and promises a darker, dirty and earthier sound from the band.

Work started on Scatterbrain at the start of the year with US producer Mike Sapone in his home studio in New York, the first single Slackerpop was released back in June, watch it here performed live at the Borderline from their performance in May.

The Xcerts – Slackerpop

The Xcerts UK dates:

JULY
24th Rhythms of the World Festival, Hitchin
27th Harley’s, Bathgate
28th King Tut’s, Glasgow
29th Da Vinci’s, Livingston
30th The Doghouse, Dundee

AUGUST
1st Sonisphere Festival, Knebworth
10th Deaf Institute, Manchester *
11th Borderline, London * 12th Rock City Basement *
13th Electric Circus (The Edge Festival) *

SEPTEMBER
18th Southsea festival, Portsmouth
26th Underground Festival, Gloucester
* with Get Cape.Wear Cape. Fly.

For further information visit The Xcerts MySpace page.

The Croydon Summer Festival returns for its tenth year and is now bigger and better than ever before with a compelling mix of acts from across the music spectrum and entertainment for all the family… and all this for free!

With a special emphasis on ‘Made in Croydon’, the line up for the main stage on Saturday includes local punk rock legends The Damned, family favourites The Lightning Seeds, Motown legends Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and Croydon’s new soul/reggae sensation Rox. Other live acts include the afro funk outfit Nhasfariti and the renowned IDMC Gospel Choir.  This year the stage will be compered by DJ Ritu  who hosts a weekly show on BBC Radio London.

Saturday’s World Stage, compered by DJ Cal Jader, presents a wholly diverse mixture of sounds from around the world including Peyoti For President who encompass the spirit of punk and the heart of the sixties in Hispanic grooves. Also appearing are one of the very few UK female Muslim hip hop crews Poetric Pilgrimage, tropical psychedelic rock band Los ChinChes, the 21st century hillbilly anarchists Cut A Shine and winner of Croydon’s unsigned artist of 2010 Joe Hood.  As well as music there are workshops in flamenco, Mongolian overtone singing and beatboxing. A great new addition to site is the Club Soda Pop Tent hosted by Croydon adults with learning difficulties – a chance to dance the day away and see the world’s No.1 Michael Jackson impersonator!  Pull up a hay bale for the Green Dragom & Black Sheep Bandstand which will showcase a cross section of Croydon’s finest musicians from fiery folk to Croydon dubstep.

Sunday brings the much loved annual Mela featuring on the Main Stage Jassi Sidhu, Taz, FAZE BLACK, and Raghu Dixit.  A special highlight is the premiere of Baluji Shrivastav’s Rhythm Of Life Percussion Orchestra who will be joined on stage by local amateur musicians. Some of the leading lights of the Asian Music Circuit will appear on the ARCC Classical Stage and the popular Community Stage will feature back to back Asian influenced amateur performers. There will also be the Betar Bangla Folk Bandstand of new folk and Baul music from Bangladesh.

Other activity across site with the global market, fantastic street theatre (including a giant helium balloon and outsize whale), a huge kids’ area, youth zone, tug ‘o’ war, funfair, Green Village and the motorbike daredevils Wall of Death in their only London show in 2010!

For regular updates on confirmed acts please check www.croydonsummerfestival.org and don’t forget it’s only 15 minutes by train from London and 40 minutes from Brighton.

Florence & The Machine @ Latitude Festival 2010 photo: ryanmasonimaging.com

The Latitude Festival is much more than a music festival with a broad range of arenas, stages and tents offering theatre, poetry, film, dance, literature and music.  But for this review I will concentrate on my Latitude Festival 2010 music highlights.

As with previous years, many festival goers and keen campers began to arrive on the Thursday, but more so this year, possibly caused by the late additions of Nigel Kennedy and Tom Jones opening the Latitude Festival with Thursday performances.  Unable to attend I can only go on what I heard.  The festival was noticeably busy and Nigel Kennedy’s set on the Lake Stage was well received whereas many were disappointed as they couldn’t get near the small Sunrise Stage, set in the middle of the woods for Tom Jones’ midnight performance; and furthermore were bemused when the set introduced songs from his new album and did not include any of his classic hits.

With seventeen stages, tents, arenas and other impromptu performances over four days it was always going to be difficult to timetable seeing everything we wanted to, even for two reviewers; and some attractions were so popular, such as the Inbetweeners press conference and screening of Four Lions followed by a Q&A with writer, director and comic genius Chris Morris that we couldn’t even get into the Film & Music Arena to review!

Of the music stages I mainly frequented just three: the Obelisk or Main Arena, the Word Arena and deep in the woods, the Sunrise Arena.

The Obelisk Stage is big and open and on Friday night was headlined by Florence & the Machine.  It was their first major festival headliner and Florence’s performance, voice and stage presence was very warmly received.  At the same time The National headlined the Word Arena.  Set under canvas, in a more confined space the music was darker, deeper and altogether more compelling.  The audience was clearly divided between pop mistress and the broody baritone vocals of Matt Berninger and the post-gothic but surprisingly upbeat sound of The National.  For me, The National won the day with a great set including songs from their new album, High Violet.

One of the highlights of the whole festival was witnessing The National perform of their current single, Bloodbuzz Ohio.  More than merely watching or listening, this was all about ‘being there’. The sound, performance and atmosphere were perfect.

Before Florence & the Machine, Empire of the Sun gave a larger than life performance on the main stage complete with dance routines and various costume changes. While the Sunrise Arena hosted a lively performance from the wonderful Tokyo Police Club who were well received by a large crowd, many of which were familiar with songs from their 2008 debut Elephant Shell and the new album, Champ. They finished the set with a seismic version of Your English Is Good.  At times Tokyo Police Club remind me of Luna, The Pixies and The Strokes.  And yes, they are that good!

On Saturday the main stage played host to the return of Belle & Sebastian, though The Word Arena won the battle of the stages with performances from Noah & The Whale, The Horrors and The XX.  I was looking forward to seeing The Horrors after missing a low key show in June.  But I have to say the sound let them down; an engineer who had too much bass vibration and not enough vocal or noisy guitar in the mix.  That said The Horrors still put in a good performance.

The problem with the full-on bass was accentuated with The XX.  One of my sons decided not to stay for The XX.  He explained afterwards that he had left early because the bass was so loud it was stopping him from breathing!

The Word Arena was too small for The XX and the crowd was heaving and not helped by a constant stream of drunken teenagers constantly pushing through and treading on my toes.  As far as I saw, The XX played to the largest crowd in the Word Arena, while the biggest crowd for the main stage goes to Mumford & Sons for their massive performance on Sunday afternoon.

The Gentleman’s Dub Club played a late midnight set on the Sunrise Stage in the woods with a great energetic dub reggae set with some good time ska pick-me-ups.  It drew a large crowd of all ages. Teenagers’ pogoing to the up-tempo ska beats while middle-aged men reminded themselves of the skinhead moonstomp, from back in the day.  A great performance, coupled with a perfect sound.  Pockets of strange smelling cigarettes kept people smiling and dancing well into the wee small hours.  Loving dub reggae as I do, Gentleman’s Dub Club was a real highlight for me and a band I must go and see again, soon.

By Sunday I was becoming weary and needed something light and easy listening.  For that, Midlake performing their 1970s flavoured laid back country rock was a perfect anecdote; and was a pleasant surprise as this was an introduction to their music.  But before them were Mumford & Sons followed by Dirty Projectors.

I can only assume Mumford & Sons were booked to play Sunday afternoon way before their success blossomed.  I knew they would attract a crowd but the main arena was solid. They played songs from their Sigh No More album and the crowd jigged and sang along.  Their contemporary brand of English folk music was appreciated as much as the cider and was loved by pretty much everyone present.

Always looking like drawing the short straw, The Big Pink played the Word Arena while all but a handful of people crammed in to watch Mumford & Sons.  They were plagued by sound and technical problems and though they were making an impressive noise, the songs appeared lifeless and empty of quality.  Something was missing, and it wasn’t just an audience!

Following the folk and cider sing-a-long of the Mumford & Sons set was never going to be easy, but could not have been more of a polar opposite than the challenging anti-pop music of Dirty Projectors.  I have to be honest the album didn’t do much for me at all on first listen and so was not given a second; and I was only here as I was at a loose end and a friend was keen to see if they could pull it off live.  And they did.  The crowd may have dwindled to about a third of Mumford & Sons but that was to be expected.  They gave a stunning performance, considering.

Dirty Projectors are an experimental rock band from based in New York and led by Dave Longstreth. The music is best described as Captain Beefheart in its complexity and multi-faceted cacophony of simultaneous rhythms.  While the guitarist and main singer Dave Longstreth showed nervous twitching mannerisms of Tom Verlaine and the deranged stares of a young David Byrne, vocals also come from the three female voices of Amber Coffman (vocals, guitar), Angel Deradoorian (vocals, keyboard, samples, guitar, bass) and Haley Dekle (vocals).  The Dirty Projectors line-up is completed by bass and drums. Looking back on the weekend this performance, along with Midlake was two of the best for me as I had no expectations.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart didn’t disappoint.  I love this band.  Four young kids from New York who admit to have listened to jangly 1980’s British indie pop until they were able to perfect the sound of the debut My Bloody Valentine album.  Their set at the Sunrise Arena was another lesson in perfect pop. Three minute bubblegum pop led by thrashing buzzsaw guitars, manic drumming and sugar-coated twee vocals with boy- girl harmonies.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart mixed a couple of new tracks in with songs from their much-acclaimed self-titled debut album which appeared in many end of year ‘best albums of 2009’ lists.

They were my music highlights from the fifth Latitude Festival. I don’t have much to say about the other main stage headline acts Belle & Sebastian or Vampire Weekend.  I’ll leave that for someone else.

On reflection the festival was as good as ever if not at times too busy and soured by the constant stream of pissed teenagers that appear to have come with mummy and daddy, only to be left to wander round the music stages treading on toes and pushing through attentive crowds while their parents were probably in the literary or poetry tents sipping wine.  It was also shocking to hear while driving away from the festival that the police were investigating two charges of rape on 17 and 19 year old girls, felt not to be connected.

Each year Latitude is a success it becomes more popular.  But personally I believe the festival organisers, Festival Republic, should consider what will be lost if the best small festival in the UK outgrows that category.

In case you have not heard Reef reformed recently and as a consequence of their reformation a new band is also born, as Reef members Gary Stringer and Jack Bessant release their first album as a duo, Yard which was released this week.

Both Reef and StringerBessant, as the duo are known, will be hitting the road to promote their respective new material over the coming months, the duo are in Newquay tomorrow.

Justice Force Five are a group of Superhero rockers who have just released a video single or vingle if you will called Fight the Fight. The video can be seen below and the band will be performing live in London and Bath this month if that takes your fancy.

In addition there are live dates announced for Frank Turner and Fighting Fiction as well as two of my current favourite bands Straight Lines and The Xcerts.

Full details of upcoming XtraMile artists live dates in the UK:

STRINGERBESSANT
16 July KOOLA BAR, NEWQUAY
17 July MISS PEAPODS, FALMOUTH
21 July THUNDERBOLT, BRISTOL
23 July THE VIC, SWINDON

JUSTICE FORCE 5
20 July – 93 Feet East, London
23 July – Belushi’s, Bath

FIGHTING FICTION
25 Sep Frog Fest @ Frog and Fiddle, Cheltnham
13 Nov The Royal Oak, Ipswich

FRANK TURNER
16 Jul 2000 Trees Festival, Cheltenham
17 Jul Latitude Festival, Southwold
19 Jul iTunes Festival, London
1 Dec Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
2 Dec ABC, Glasgow
3 Dec 53 Degrees, Preston
4 Dec The Plug, Sheffield
5 Dec The Regal, Oxford
6 Dec Corn Exchange, Cambridge
7 Dec The Guildhall, Southampton
8 Dec Lemon Grove, Exeter
10 Dec The Academy, Leicester
11 Dec The Academy, Liverpool
12 Dec O2 Academy Brixton, London

REEF
4 Sep Bingley Music Live, Yorkshire
18 Sep Racecourse, Devon
26 Nov Hall For, Cornwall
27 Nov Portsmouth Pyramids, Portsmouth
2 Dec Kentish Town Forum, London
3 Dec Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
4 Dec Rock City, Nottingham

STRAIGHT LINES
22 Jul Buffalo Bar, Cardiff
30 Jul The Empire, Abertillery
1 Aug Sonisphere Festival (Bowtime Bar Stage @ 2pm), Knebworth
30 Sep Camden Barfly, London
13 Oct Arts Centre, Norwich, UNITED KINGDOM
14 Oct Rock City Basement, Nottingham, UNITED KINGDOM
15 Oct Sugarmill, Stoke, UNITED KINGDOM
16 Oct Sound Control, Manchester, UNITED KINGDOM
17 Oct Cockpit 2, Leeds, UNITED KINGDOM
19 Oct IronWorks, Inverness, UNITED KINGDOM
20 Oct King Tuts, Glasgow, UNITED KINGDOM
21 Oct Newcastle 02 Academy, Newcastle, UNITED KINGDOM
22 Oct Masque, Liverpool
23 Oct Leicester Academy 2, Leicester
23 Oct Leicester Academy 2, Leicester

THE XCERTS
16 July 2000 Trees Festival, Cheltenham
17 Jul Guilfest (Rocksound Cave stage), Surrey
18 Jul Wimbledon Calling, London
20 Jul Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
21 Jul Le Pub, Newport
24 Jul Rythms of the world festival, Hitchin
27 Jul Harley’s, Bathgate
28 Jul King Tut’s, Glasgow
29 Jul Da Vinci’s, Livingston, Scotland
30 Jul The Doghouse, Dundee
1 Aug Sonisphere Festival, Knebworth
10 Aug Deaf Institute, Manchester w/Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly
11 Aug Borderline, London w/Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly
12 Aug Rock City Basement, Nottingham w/Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly
13 Aug Inn On The Square, Barnstable w/Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly
13 Aug Electric Circus, Edinburgh w/Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly
18 Sep Southsea festival, Portsmouth
26 Sep Underground Festival, Gloucester

Latitude Festival - The Horrors, The National, The XX, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Mumford & Sons, Frank Turner, Temper Trap & more

Latitude Festival returns for an incredible 5th Edition on 15-18th July 2010 set in the beautiful countryside of Henham Park Estate on Suffolk’s Sunrise Coast.

Latitude is dedicated to giving you only the best and most eclectic ensemble of music, theatre, comedy, literature, film, poetry, dance, art, fashion and cabaret for three spectacular days and as ever, this focus has delivered a line-up like no one else.

As with all good festivals Latitude has a great and diverse range of music across several stages.  What I like best about Latitude is that it isn’t too large, like Glastonbury, but big enough to attract a great line-up.

So if you’re lucky enough to have tickets you might be thinking of which performances you want to see over the weekend.

The three headline acts on the main Obelisk Arena will be Florence & the Machine, Belle & Sebastian and Vampire Weekend.  None of those really take my fancy.  But when I look at other acts performing on the main stage there are a few I’m already looking forward to, including Mumford & Sons, Frank Turner, Temper Trap and the wonderful Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Furthermore, there is plenty of music on the other music stages.  Highlights for me are The Horrors, The National, The XX, The Big Pink, Wild Beasts and Grizzly Bear all appearing at The Word Arena.  On the Sunshine Arena I hope to see the wonderful Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Girls, Tokyo Police Club and a late night performance by the Gentleman’s Dub Club; while Beth Jeans Houghton will be performing on The Lake Stage.

In all there is no fewer than 17 stages offering music, dance, film, art, poetry, theatre and comedy.

Spread throughout the site, just waiting to be discovered, expect the highest calibre of art.  Building on its reputation as one of the most respected and highly anticipated events of the season, 2010 promises to be an inspirational and entertaining, sophisticated and scintillating weekend; another spectacular slice of unadulterated cultural fun and adventure.

Celebrating its fifth year, Latitude continues to lead the way as a bold and pioneering festival cherry-picking the very best from the worlds of music, theatre, comedy, literature, film, poetry, dance, art, fashion and cabaret and bringing them together for one glorious weekend. It is a place like no other; an intimate world away from reality that encourages you to be all that you’ve ever wanted to be whilst indulging in the spirit of exploration and discovery.

Latitude Festival is on Thursday 15- Sunday 18th July 2010.  Tickets are sold out.

Paramore add UK tour dates

Due to popular demand Paramore have added two brand new dates to their November UK tour schedule, treating the good people of Nottingham and Manchester to their very own Arena shows.

Nottingham becomes the new start date for the much anticipated UK tour, kicking off on November 8th at the Trent FM Arena and Manchester will become the penultimate night in the UK for Paramore, on November 19th they will perform at the MEN Arena.

Tickets for the two new shows will go on sale this Friday (July 9th) at 9am through www.gigsandtours.com or from the 24hour credit card hotline at 0871 2200 260.

Paramore release the fourth single from their number one album Brand New Eyes on July 12th, it will be one of singer Hayley Williams live favourites, Careful.

Hayley says of the song: ‘So psyched to release Careful as a single. It’s one of my favourite songs to play at shows… Heavy, fast, and just a really intense song. Hope people get into it!’

Paramore – Careful

Paramore will be in the UK to headline at the Reading/Leeds festivals in August before they return for the Arena tour in November.

Paramore UK Dates November 2010

Mon 8           Nottingham      Trent FM Arena         NEW DATE

Wed 10          Liverpool       Echo Arena              0844 8000 400

Thu 11          Sheffield       Arena                   0114 265 5656

Sat 13          London          O2 Arena                0844 856 0202  SOLD OUT

Mon 15          London          O2 Arena                0844 856 0202

Tue 16          Birmingham     LG Arena                 0844 338 8000

Thu 18          Newcastle      Metro Radio Arena        0844 493 6666

Fri 19          Manchester     MEN Arena                NEW DATE

Sat 20          Aberdeen       AECC                     0844 4999 990 SOLD OUT

Day 1 – Wednesday 23rd June 2010.

So we set off at 7am hoping to miss the traffic and the majority of the queues to get into Glasto. We were extremely mistaken…hitting traffic as soon as we entered onto the M3.

Six hours later we arrived at the Glastonbury car park and parked up in East 7.

The weather was actually AMAZING the whole time we was there…but when you’re queuing for two hours to get through to gate C to get your wristbands, and the only drinks you have are cans of cider…it quickly becomes very difficult.

5pm and our tent is up! =)

We camped in the dance field opposite the Other Stage…we had a very good spot. Not much was happening on the Wednesday so we just took the evening to find some food, have a look around get lost and find some food  fun times.

Day 2 – Thursday 24th June 2010.

Today we woke up nice and early, due to the insane heat inside our tent.  I had quite a good sleep, considering. We finally found The Queen’s Head Stage after walking past it five times and got straight to the very front to watch My Luminaries, The Howls and Two Door Cinema Club; all of which were amazing!

After seeing these we found something to eat, grabbed some Strongbow and Sambuka from the tent and went over to the Pussy Parlour…I LOVED IT IN THERE! It was just like a night club everyone was raving it up and the DJ’s were awesome I think they was either DC Breaks or Elite Force…can’t remember what time we actually got in to The Pussy Parlour.

After our first amazing day, I accidentally deleted all my photos 

Day 3 – Friday 25th June 2010.

The festival kicked off today with Rolf Harris. He was just amazing he turned 80 this year and he’s still playing huge gigs – Today he played on the Pyramid Stage to a crowd of thousands.  It must have been quite overwhelming looking out onto a crowd that big. His set included Two little boys, Sun-a-Rise and Stairway to Heaven. He definitely knew how to get the crowd going.  He had the didgeridoo and the board thing he uses =)

I text my mum to say that we had just watched Rolf Harris and how good he was. She said she thought he was ‘too old for us’, lol. Everyone knows his songs! I think everyone watching him just had nothing but admiration for him.

Lunchtime we go back to the tent to cook a pot noodle…oh camp life how I won’t miss the food.

Actually the food at Glastonbury was very good.  Being a vegetarian I thought finding food for me may be a little difficult but there were tons of vegan and vegetarian stalls and most of the meat selling stalls had vegetarian options too.

At 1.45pm we saw Corrine Bailey Rae she was very good, I like her music; quite chilled out…good for a daytime slot.

By Friday we were starting to see the tan lines…or they could have been dirt lines! The ‘no showering’ was hard and you never really are that clean when using baby wipes…just gives the dirt a nice scent. HA.

We went over to the John Peel Tent to watch Bombay Bicycle Club. It was so busy we couldn’t get inside so we just listened to them from outside for a while.  But the sun was so strong we only stayed for about 15 minutes.  Big shame but we had to find some shade.

So after leaving the John Peel Tent we went to the East Dance tent ready for Example. OMG! they were by far the best band we had seen yet! “..and the love kick starts again!”

Friday was quite hard because most of the people we wanted to see were all playing at the same time. We went on to see La Roux and Florence and the machine on the Other Stage.

Florence and the machine were up there with Example, so so SO Amazing! Her outfit was pretty cool too, I have thought for ages of how I could describe it but I can’t so just Google it and look at a photo! It was a white leotard with one side that had white fabric in layers draping over to the end of her arm.  It’ll make sense when you look at a photo.

Next we went over to the Pyramid Stage to watch Dizzee Rascal and of course Florence came onto to sing ‘You’ve got the love’ at the end! =D

Gorillaz headlined on Friday, and we were like 4 rows from the front in the middle! We actually got right near the front for almost all of the people we saw, happy days.

Gorillaz were good, but they played a lot of songs off their new album.  That wasn’t the best move they’ve ever done. But when they played ‘It’s dare’, ‘Sunshine in a Bag’, and ‘Feel Good Inc’ the crowd went crazy because they’re the ones everyone knows. At the end of the set Damon Albarn introduced Snoop dog who sang ‘Clint Eastwood’ – that really saved them.

Later this evening I met up with another friend who was at Glasto too and we went over to Shangri-La. It was just crazy!  There was a massive like claw thing in the middle where the DJ’s played, and off of the top of the lanterns surrounding the claw they kept flame-throwing. The heat was immense! =) I liked here A LOT.

Day 4 – Saturday 26th June 2010.

Saturday – OK so we are beginning to feel quite tired now.  We woke up really quite late today.  By hanging out of the tent we managed to sleep until about 9. That’s a lay in if you’re camping!

We started the day off by watching Two Door Cinema Club again by our tent as were getting ready and then we walked round to see Lightning Seeds.  We wasn’t really sure who they were but after watching them on the Pyramid Stage we decided they were quite good =)

I suppose I should mention the toilets…to be honest, they really weren’t as bad as people make out. It was my first time at Glastonbury and the thing I was dreading most was using the toilets.  But they had people cleaning them all the time with these massive poo suckers being pulled along by tractors constantly clearing them.

My friend Beth’s back was now really burnt but we managed to find some factor 30 so began slapping that on!

We saw Imogen Heap, Kate Nash, Chiddy Bang, Tinie Tempah, Foals, The XX, Jamie T and the encore of Muse, then we went over to Shangri-La again so that Beth could see what I was on about.

Jamie T was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! I couldn’t actually speak about my excitement of seeing him he really does put on a good performance!

And while we were watching Foals, the lead singer jumped into the crowd and landed on our heads! I personally thought he had climbed up the scaffolding that held the tent up to throw his drumsticks…but no, he launched himself into the crowd!! Hahaha was so funny!
Muse were good. I’m not a massive fan of Muse but we saw their encore and they must have played all the songs I knew then.  I really don’t know that many, they would have been a good band to see the whole act, really got the crowd going crazy.

Day 5 – Sunday 27th June 2010.

The last day of an amazing weekend!

We woke up and packed all our bags and put the tent down, then took them along to the lock up where I had previously put my car keys so I didn’t loose them.

I have liked Paloma Faith’s songs for ages that have come out, but I didn’t realise it was her who sung them! Luckily for me we went for a walk and saw her playing on the Pyramid Stage while eating a massive pot of ice cream from the frozen yoghurt stall.  Next on was Norah Jones so we stayed to watch her too.

Being the last day we thought about what time we were going to leave and the best way to avoid traffic leaving Glasto.  I think the fact that we parked in the furthest car park away from where we camped helped because by the time we had walked to the lock up, got our belongings and trekked for about an hour to the car park the traffic really wasn’t that bad…happy days =)

Before leaving we also saw We Are Scientists, Temper Trap and MGMT – the singer was so cool! He had all the VIP people dancing on the stage and for some reason was throwing oranges out into the crowd =/

We then saw Faithless and Stevie Wonder. The singer in Faithless has got one the most amazing body’s ever and he looked pretty old!

Stevie Wonder aawwwwww… everyone liked Stevie Wonder! He was so funny making little jokes at different things. He also said what he was thinking too, wasn’t afraid to hold back.  If he wanted to comment about something happening around the world, then it didn’t matter how controversial it was! It was quite overwhelming just being part of that crowd watching him.

Lastly, we went back to The Queen’s Head Tent where it all started with our first band: My Luminaries, to watch Dan Le Sac.

About 1.30am we got back to the car to start our three hour journey home.

I would just like to say GLASTONBURY I LOVE YOU AND CANNOT WAIT TO COME BACK NEXT YEAR IN 2011!! THANKYOU FOR GIVING ME ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING WEEKENDS EVERRR!!!!!!!!! =D

Nichola Woolmer – No longer a Glastonbury virgin!