Isle of Wight Festival Review Sunday 2011
There was a new addition to the lineup, but Wet, Wet, Wet had definitely arrived. The sun-cream and ray bans were no longer needed, the wellies and brightly coloured cagoules have never been more welcome! The plan of action was to grab some food, shake the all too familiar killer hangover and catch as much music as we could!
On our way home after the Foo’s we saw a lovely Hog Roast stand… that was still on our minds and we nailed down a lovely Pork baguette – decent! We then braved the Portaloo’s to ensure proper preparation for a whole day at the main stage! We then perched ourselves on the front of the railings dead centre and stayed all day in spite of the rain never stopping! We saw every act of the day…
First up was Stu Collins, I hadn’t heard of him before! But the young singer certainly justified his slot on the main stage, only performing to around 150 people, im sure everyone would agree he definitely has a lot of promise! Starsailor Frontman James Walsh you is a familiar face at IOW followed by legendary guitarist Jeff Beck and his funky band put the both put in very entertaining shifts!
It had reached 3pm and one of the bands I had been looking forward to all weekend came on! The small crowd behind us had rapidly turned into a massive sea of people braving the harsh weather! The Irish trio headed by strawberry blonde (polite way to say ginger) Sam Halliday belted out their debut album Tourist History! ‘Undercover Martyn’ ‘Something Good Can Work’ and of course ‘What You Know’ were all huge crowd pleasures! Glimpses of new material also got their fans gigging around the harsh weather! It was the bands second time at the festival, I wouldn’t expect to see a third next year!
Pixie Lott was up next, the Weather may have not been hot to Trot but her in her tight blue Hotpants and Top definitely were! A sight for sore eyes indeed! Surprisingly not only did I enjoy the view, I may have been converted to a Pixie fan… She worked the crowd confidentially, strutted her stuff awesomely and played to her strong points. ‘Cry Me Out’ and ‘Boys n Girls’ were both extremely impressive, so was her singalongs, were she sampled Adele, Aloe Black and Chris Brown! Defintely got a little crush going!
Following Pixie was Plan B…What a talent this guy is! He has come a long way since introducing himself to the music world as a grime artist! He is now easily one of the best Male Solo Acts in the UK. Opening with ‘Writings on the Wall’ finishing with ‘Stay to Long’ all his hits were welcomed with raptures of screams and moshing as encouraged and displayed by the man himself what a nutter! In between he also played hits like ‘Love Goes Down’ and ‘Praying’ and a fantastic medley of some Ben E.King, Seal and Dr Dre……. I must also mention Faith SFX who warmed up the crowd before Plan B with some Beatboxer… He was immense! Check him out on Youtube fast, he’s unreal!
Next up was a band I had heard a fair bit of but never really gotten into! The Script I tell you now, albums have been ordered and dispatched and I am a follower on Twitter! One of my favourite performances of the weekend!
The Northern Irish fellows were simply awesome! Danny O’Donoghue and Mark Sheehan’s enthusiasm and sheer delight to be playing to such a vast audience was amazing! Crowd interaction saw, Danny rushing along the front of the crowd putting the mic in for people to sing along to ‘We Cry Together’ what I got to sing to nearly 100,000 people yep that’s right… cheers Danny (we kind of have a bromance going on)! They also displayed so much versatility going from raps to heartbreaking melodies! ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’ and ‘Nothing’ were personal highlights!
The second to last band of the festival was Beady Eye… also known as Oasis minus Noel. From that line there you can probably tell that I wasn’t a huge fan of the set. Liam was his typical self, acting the tough-guy, with Oasis I loved this! It was a cool type of arrogance, which was backed up by Huge, Huge hits! Similar to how Cristiano Ronaldo is. But with Beady Eye it’s a bit like hold on, your acting like an idiot are you that good? A bit like Nicklas Bendtner! In saying that The Roller was a bloody good performance and did get me going! And it did seem as though the majority of the crowd was loving it, particularly the chick next to me who threw her knickers at him/the steward in front (it was a bad throw)! I have to say the jury is out for me! Maybe if I knew more of their tracks, maybe if Liam didn’t insult our cagoules haha that’s right “I’d like to see you boys in them in Manchester” What was he talking about!? He was wearing a huge Union Jack Jacket…. Hmmm famously worn by let me see Tom Meighan hahaha maybe a little bit of idolising there Liam!
To close the festival it was the Mighty Kasabian!!! The one they had all been waiting for! Opening with Empire Tom, Serge and co were electric from the start!!!!! Squashed up against the rails at the front I couldn’t care less as I was jumping up and down frantically screaming and dancing away to all their hits! Underdog, LSD and Clubfoot were all legendary! Samples from their new Album Velociraptor all went down like old favourites! As far as the eye could see the 70,000 strong crowd was alive with movement, moshing and melody!
Vlad the Impaler, what a track! This saw Noel Fielding unexpectedly even to Meighan run onto stage, maybe being chased by the fashion police considering he was sporting a rascal poncho and some typical dodgy glasses! This just added to the performance! That would have been enough but and encore including Shoot the Runner and then to quote Tom Meighan “you will need a f**king Army hat and helmet for this next song, its called, FIRE” and he wasn’t lying it was a stomper!!!! This really cemented Kasabian as HUGE and supported why exactly Giddings chose them to see out the festival!
Despite being a trio of drowned rats we wee buzzing on our way back to our tent! Stopping on the way in the appropiatly named ‘Last Chance Saloon’ avoiding the nutters who were diving in the mud hahah crack up! It was little a mud bath!
A mention has to go to both Lewis Locke, and Andrew Cattanach and in the words of my hero ‘Alan from the Hangover’ “We are the three best friends, that anybody could have” Ahhh Yeahhhh
Top 5 Acts for me:
1. Kasabian
2. Kings of Leon
3. Chase and Status
4. Foo Fighters
5. The Vaccines
In Summary Isle of Wight Festival is Awesome…. See you in 2012, screw the Olympics (controversial)
