V festival

Gold Coast - 2009
The Do
We missed catching Duffy and the Howling Bells because we hadn’t realised there was NO ONSITE PARKING and we had to leave the car several kilometres (okay, maybe two) away from the entry gates. Grrrr. Our rage wavered, slowly subsided and then quickly turned to joy watching our first band of the day French/Finnish/English duo The Do. With a drummer in tow, they performed a very cool, diverse set of sweet folky pop songs, indie guitar freak outs and hip hop jams. Front lady Olivia Merilahti is smoking hot and had everyone swooning over her adorableness whether she was busting raps on 'Queen Dot Kong', accompanying herself on acoustic guitar to the gorgeously winsome ‘Stay (Just a Little Bit More)’ or rocking out next to bandmate Dan Levy - a bass-wielding vision in aqua. The set was a revelation and I came away with a New Favourite Band. Their caped roadie was cool too.



























Elbow
Mercury Prize winners Elbow broke into a ringing trumpet fanfare of ‘Starling’ to kick off their set to rapturous applause. For an unremarkable looking man, Guy Garvey is truly riveting on stage. His stunning voice had the crowd utterly captivated and in complete silence - something you so rarely see at a festival, and he charmed everyone with his easygoing manner and eye contact (“oh my god – is he looking at me?”). ‘Mirror ball’ and ‘Grounds for Divorce’ showed off the amazing musicianship of a band that deserves every bit of praise they’ve received. Unfortunately we left before the end of the set, but it was time to grab a free sample of LYPTON ICE TEA (insert trademark here) and run to M83.



M83
Thanks to some inconvenient scheduling M83 were competing against Elbow, Jenny Lewis and the Temper Trap, so understandably the crowd was a tad scarce, but those of us huddled enthusiastically against the barricades were treated to the most compelling set of the day. Opening with beautiful ambient atmospherics from central band member Anthony Gonzalez on synthesizer, M83 created an amazing live sound – very loud and melodic with everbuilding lush layers of rhythms, noise and the overlaying vocals of Anthony and keyboardist Morgan. Set highlights were ‘Couleurs’, the awesome Tears For Fears-inspired single ‘Kim & Jessie’, and the fact that in real life Anthony looks quite like Knickie from Grease. Je fantastique!




Razorlight
I had thought Razorlight’s fleeting moment in the spotlight was over, but their enormous crowd turnout suggested otherwise. Johnny Borrell is a very enthusiastic front man and rampaged energetically across every inch of the stage, but it wasn’t enough to stop us from snickering that he is more famous for dating Harry Potter’s female sidekick. The big singles like ‘Stumble and Fall’ and ‘In the Morning’ sounded excellent, but the awful ballad ‘Hostage of Love’ made us bail pretty quickly. “Say hi to Hermione for us!” Tee hee.

The Kills
Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart swaggered onstage to ear-bleeding screams from a swarm of indie hipsters. They basically plugged in their amps and burst straight into the pounding punk riffs of ‘I am the Fever’. Alison was looking very Aerosmith in leopard print shirt and gold snakeskin boots, and Jamie Hince was channelling classic British rock ‘n’ rollers in a polka dot scarf and waistcoat. We weren’t there for the fashion though. Both of them thrashed and stomped and hammed it up for the biggest group of photographers I saw in any pit throughout the day. While she loved playing up for the cameras, Alison wasn’t as keen on the lighting crew: “Turn the f@#king lights down! I feel like a f#%king science project.” You can tell she’s a mad bitch, but she is so rock ‘n’ roll and beautiful she manages to get away with it. I admit I kind of tuned out halfway while looking for Kate (Moss) in the wings. Alas, no Kate but I did spot Vanilla Ice watching from the back of the stage. I attempted to make some sort of nineties-hiphop peace sign to him and he nodded his head at me. VANILLA!




























The Human League
The chance to see the Human League perform their seminal 1980s synth-pop album ‘Dare’ in its entirety was like a fantastical dream come true. Dare was released the year before I was born, so I wasn’t surprised to see that the majority of the crowd were probably in their teenage prime when Phil Oakey was still wearing a full face of makeup. I felt a bit like the naive little sister trying to hang out with the cool older kids. In a puff of smoke* backup singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley came on stage to the robotic synthesiser opening of ‘The Things That Dreams Are Made Of’ and the keytar player cut ten types of sick. Keytar is awesome. Phil emerged, cool beyond words, and every female in the audience (and - I suspect - several males) felled a collective swoon. As the drum machine kicked out the first few beats of their glorious, phenomenal hit ‘Don’t You Want Me’ a sea of people came swarming down upon the stage, triggering a massive dance party / sing along to one of the most awesome pop songs of all time. I almost cried.
* I may have invented the puff of smoke





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The Killers
Brandon Flowers is totally dreamy... and the Killers really did sound great. They had an amazing stage setup that included an illuminated K, several fake palm trees, an amazing backdrop of choreographed lighting, and a giant bowl of flowers. They opened with a bang and pumped out a few of their recent hits and then, as if they had planned it all along, the heavens opened and it pissed down… just as they ripped into what is arguably their best song ‘Mr Brightside’. And the saturated crowd went ballistic.
All in all, the V Festival put on another well-run show with a great mix of artists. Til next year…


























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