Tag: Iggy Pop

Second T in the Park Festival

Having previously commuted from Edinburgh for the 1999 festival, we made a conscious decision to identify some accommodation nearer to the site for the 2000 version. As a result, we found a B&B in the little village of Glenfarg just off the A75, Gill attended this festival for the first time.

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Glenfarg Hotel. Image Credit Undiscovered Scotland

One element we had no control over was the weather and what we were confronted with was the most persistent monsoon rain I have ever encountered; it just never stopped the whole weekend. We were fortunate to be able to leave the site and I had unbounded sympathy with punters who were camping.

I recall seeing the reports of the weather at one particular Glastonbury being so inclement they encountered the first cases of Trenchfoot for around a century, they must have run close to that in 2000. When we see torrid weather nowadays, we acknowledge it is raining but can verify it is indisputably not T in The Park rain!    

On both days of the festival, we headed into Ayr for a couple of drinks before grabbing a taxi down to the site. In one of the boozers on the Saturday, I think it was called This Old Hoose, we encountered a couple of older ladies, christened the ‘Golden Girls’ who were happily imbibing Gin and were good company.  I kept looking out the window consistently echoing the refrain ‘it’s getting brighter’ even though it patently was not!   

There was a fine bill on Stage 2 on Saturday, and it had the humungous additional benefit of being in a marquee and therefore under cover.  The Wannadies produced a great guitar heavy set before some softer soothing tones with the excellent Morcheeba.  Following them was the erstwhile singer songwriter Beth Orton.  In the Dance tent we caught a portion of David Holmes.

In King Tuts Wah Wah tent we watched Lapsus Linguae and Looper. On the main stage we saw segments of both Ocean Colour Scene and a reprise from the previous year from Fun Lovin Criminals.  We watched the whole of Moby’s headline set where you could witness a sea of yellow temporary T in the Park macs providing sparse cover in the conditions. Moby was good but provided a carbon copy of the Glastonbury set from a couple of weeks earlier, knew I should have swerved that to keep a fresher outlook.

Me and Gill lost Uncle George and John at one stage due to a miscommunication and this was in the days before we all had mobile phones, we luckily found them a couple of hours later prior to the taxi back to the digs.  

On the Sunday morning, there was a brief one-hour respite in the weather, so we went for a local walk but were instantly surrounded by smidges on the motorway bridge, so that exercise was soon curtailed.  

In the Dance tent, we caught Darren Emerson and a part of a banging set from Leftfield. We also watched a terrific more dance-oriented set from Death in Vegas. Elsewhere we saw a very early performance in a side tent from Coldplay and also witnessed A, Dum Dums, Dark Star and Embrace.

There was a hit laden set from Supergrass who followed Idlewild on the main stage. There was a fun performance from the indefatigable and timeless Iggy Pop and we stayed for some of Travis’s headline act.

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The irrepressible Iggy Pop. Image Credit Gigwise.

We then squelched off to the taxi pick up point and got summarily ripped off by the taxi firm, but to be honest I didn’t care as I would have paid 10 gold bars to depart the site by that stage!

When we landed back, the lad on duty at the hotel ordered boots off and he graciously opened the back bar for us. He served us soothing brandies and whiskies and we could watch the festival highlights on a little portable in the corner of the bar. What lucky people we were, and it provided a warming end to the weekend’s activities!

Manchester Venue 16 Academy 3 – Part 2

In totality, I have attended Manchester Academy 3 nineteen times thereby placing it in 6th place on my most populated venues list.  

Early in 2001, I began to become aware of the Strokes who released their terrific first album ‘Is This It’ later that year. I adore the way that record is recorded, sounding like they are in a New York basement, in a good way. I read in the NME they were playing Manchester and was fortunate to obtain four tickets from Piccadilly Records to a much-touted band for a sold-out gig.

John, Uncle George and Gill were in attendance on a filthy Thursday night in June. Walking up the steps to the top floor we passed Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy). He was later ensconced adjacent to us at the bar where a cliched fanboy approached him with the snappy refrain ‘love your album dude…’

The support band was Moldy Peaches followed by the main act who looked nervous initially, but they were excellent and had such admirable poise beyond the tender years.

I was perfectly content in the mosh pit when out of the blue somebody unseen threw a haymaker catapulting me halfway across the pit. Even the band looked taken aback. The assailant must have had a ring on as I had a proper bruise the next day.

Now I am a very chilled chap, but I was incandescent with rage at the sheer injustice of this unwarranted attack. There are unwritten rules for mosh pit etiquette and they were emphatically breached by this muppet!

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The Strokes. Image Credit NME

In April 2005 John Peel faves 65 Days of Static were in town. They had a couple of entries in the previous year’s Festive fifty and were supported by Sons of Slaughter. They were decent live but a tad Mogwai lite.

A couple of years later we headed over to see Goldblade supported by the punk poet Ted Chippington. Everything about that gig was loud including John Cooper Clarke booming out of the speakers in between acts.

Goldblade were thunderous with John Robb vamping it up in his inimitable style. I had imbibed a few sherbets, so when they offered ‘Iggy Pop’ style for punters to enter the fray I grabbed a rare opportunity and leapt on stage with many other like minded folk.

Implausibly, it was even louder up there, and I found myself next to the drummer so proceeded to assist him by slapping away at the drums for one track which was very exhilarating! Another new nickname was christened – ‘Jimmy the Sticks’.

On 22/11/07 an exceedingly rare event happened, namely me driving to a gig! The reason for this unusual anomaly was that we were driving to Centreparcs at Penrith the following day for the weekend.  

We landed in the venue just to catch the last two songs of a rather poor support act Son of Albion and somewhat cringingly for the band you could hear a pin drop when they finished, not even a polite smattering of applause!

The main band was the Raveonettes, a duo from Copenhagen with their fabulous names of Sune Rose Wagner on guitar and Sharon Foo on bass with the assistance of a drum machine. They excel in fuzzed up Mary Chainesque (made up word but describes it perfectly!) sound with gorgeous harmonies but with the additional bite of razor-sharp lyrics.  

To exemplify those contrast shades, they have in their cannon a sugary sounding track in the vein of Strawberry Switchblade, but it then contains contextually the understandingly brutal title ‘Boys Who Rape Should Be Destroyed’. They have produced a suite of excellent albums across their lineage.

They were a captivating experience in the live setting and were immensely enjoyable.

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The Raveonettes. Image Credit Ents 24.

When approaching my 42nd birthday I fancied attending a gig on the day so instigated a search and found that Against Me, a Florida punk band, were playing that night. Uncle George, Dave Keane and I sallied over on the quick train.  

This remains one of the four gigs I have attended on my actual birthday, Neil Young on my 19th and I saw a band in Liverpool and Manchester respectively on my 43rd and 51st birthdays.

They were one of those bands that seem to instil intense loyalty from their fans and that was evident in the fervent atmosphere at the gig. They had an individual sound and it was a fun night.