The Sun Sets on the V Festival for Another Year!
V's been going for a few years now and is well renowned for being the cleanest of the summer festivals, with more portaloos than any other (which I'm sure you'll agree is v important!). Some may have a dig at the V festival for being a little too clean cut and not exactly being the rockiest of festivals...but when all's said and done, the music at V speaks for itself. Each year the festival has one of the most diverse lineups around and this year was no exception! This year you could rock out to the sounds of The Strokes, The Pixies, Kings of Leon, B.R.M.C., shake your thang with Faithless, Basement Jaxx, Groove Armada, the Freestylers and Audiobullys, and get your pop and r'n'b' fix with N.E.R.D., Pink, Big Brovaz and Beverley Knight - amongst others! There's a tangible friendliness, open-mindedness and true summer spirit at V, and as the good weather held over the weekend, a good time was had by all! It would take donkey's years to go through all the acts with a fine toothcomb, but here's the pick of the bunch:
The Music Choice stage played host to up-and-coming bands like the Delays, The Stands, The Concretes, The Bees, and The Crimea. As always, The Delays put on a cracking show and put us in the mood to ROCK! The Bees provided an eclectic mixture of sounds, including of course 'Wash In The Rain' which was a highlight. You may have caught The Crimea on tour with Ash recently, and that experience seems to have stood them in good stead as they rocked us to our cores and made sure they were a band to watch out for in the future.
The queues to get into the JJB arena were huge as usual, and no wonder with the range of acts performing...inside the tent it was a great atmosphere and you feel like you're in another world...the setting is more intimate than the other venues at V. Groove Armada created a perfect summer festival vibe, and Basement Jaxx put on an exceptional show and got us all dancing with their vocalist's fantastic performances . It was a welcome return for the Audio Bullys as they paced the stage, and gave us a taster of what's to come from the new album...Beverley Knight was an awesome presence and put her all into songs like 'Shoulda Woulda Coulda' and the storming 'Come As You Are'..you got exhausted just from watching the lady! Kelis cooled us down with her brand of milkshake whilst Amy Winehouse took the notch down a couple with her performance full of soul and of course a little of the back chat we've come to expect from Amy!
At V this year there were so many great acts it was difficult to choose where to pitch your spot...and this year most people seemed to be darting between the NME stage and the V stage for the best of the best! The Killers put on a storming set which drew a large crowd, as by this time the word has definitely spread about this L.A. band who've emerged with a distinctly Brit-rock sound...Brandon Flowers and co. have stripped the most loved elements of Britain's rock history and fused them together in a thrilling sound that lit up the NME stage this year. "Here come another couple of disasters..." announced Flowers, as the sun shone high over the part-baked muddy field in Chelmsford. Cue the final two songs from the Killers' blistering set...'Mr Brightside' got the crowd bopping and 'All These Things That I've Done' rang out across the delighted crowd. |
About Petrol Records
About Petrol Records
