Hello!

Wow, where has time gone to? Is it seriously August the 25? really? When did this happen? School starts in a week and there are some worries to either be taken care of or unhealthily suppressed(most likely the latter). First, I may have finished my reading book in July, but as for the notecards, there is a significant amount of work needed to be done there. Summer has taught me to be lazy. I was quite the opposite last year. I was that one kid who *gasp* did all their homework at home. But hey, that was mostly ’cause I wasn’t so much concerned with entertaining myself as just getting through the days as best I could. I’m worried now there might be slightly more to do, then I’ll become more lazy and get worse grades and stuff. Orientation is today but of course I have to miss it(I’m at my grandparents at the mo, still). I have to got to the school the day beforehand for all that stuff, but still, I’ll miss out on a hell of a lot of stuff there. Of course, there’s the typical questions and worries in my head. Of all the homework. Of having to take the effing bus for the first time ever. But mostly, of, will this year be as miserable as last? God I hope not. I cannot deal with another 8th grade, really I can’t! Gah!

So anyway, I’m here at my grandparents in the rainy south-west in a rural village full of sheep, hills, public walkways. Monday was slow, food shopping and into town. Tuesday morning we stopped by my friends quickly. We went on the trampoline and discussed the absolutely incredible weekend we had had, and to jump ahead, V Festival. V also put tickets out for 2011 two days after the event in 2010 for a deposit or something, so my family of four got our 2011 tickets. It’s gonna be absolutely amazing. I love V and I love those guys. Anyway,the drive here too forever with a quick stop at Stone Henge but we’re here now.My grandparents aren’t changed, naturally. My grandmother keeps getting me in these dreadful conversations about education and things, her forte. I’m not sure of her faith in either the American education system(and rightfully so) or, me. Wow, her face when she asked “so will you be a scientist or an atsy person? A scientist, correct?” and I said “well…I’m not sure”. I have the rest of the family down at the end of the week, a grand total of sixteen of us. And oh, it will be scientists and education galore. I’ll end up running off to watch my beloved Libertines on TV from Reading and Leeds, knowing me.  but there’s a few days before that.

Not that you’d care about any of that. If anything you’re here for a description of the unbelievable, incredible, best weekend of my life ever that as V Festival 2010, right? well, for the record, it was in every way as good as I hyped it up to be. And trust me, it was VERY hyped. never was I a believer in the “V is too commercial” or “the lineup is terrible this year’ or “it’s too expensive”. No! V is amazing. And so this weekend proved. But anyway. Here we go. *strecthes fingers*. We could be here a while.

V last year, my first year, we had camping tickets, event though we didn’t camp. my mum’s decision, not mine. We didn’t this year. Also this year my dad wanted to come. Thus, my sister came too. Driving in was a bit crazy; left at 10:30, about a half hour drive plus a little added festival-related traffic. I was at Hylands Park, for those in the know. Chelsmford on V weekend is weird. Desolate but incredibly exciting at the same time. Kinda like going to a fairground on a March weekday. Stupid analogy. But anyway, after the little traffic backup we passed all the ‘punters’ and whatnot, arrived there and parked. Got our festival gear together, and went over to one of the gates. Gate One was packed; in fact, we didn’t get through until five past twelve. The silly festival doesn’t have one given time the place opens. People just sort of dribble in. That’s a faulty system in my view.

We were planning to meet a few old friends there, just as we had for Saturday last year. I’ve mentioned them before; their over-anxious mother, their 15-year-old metalhead, 14-year-old gentle giant, and chavy thirteen year old. I actually like them more than all like; besides, going with them to V last year was great fun(Specials, Razorlight, and Killers with them….lovely), and they set up a picnic up all day with bright blue lawnchairs that were the only way we found them at the end of the night. Anyway, we got in late and had to work our way to the area surrounding the main stage which was a decent way away, and going past I caught a few minutes of The Pretty Reckless. I like them; I even heard Miss Nothing that day. It would have been nice to hear more, but they only had a 20 minute set and the main stage awaited. The main stage was already stuffed full of people when we got there, plus the opening band, Feeder, had already started.

Feeder are a funny old band. I know that one song, the one everyone knows, yknow, he has a brand new car thinks it’s a Jaguar it’s got a CD playerplayerplayerplayer. And I think I’d heard a couple of the melodies. I was recommended Feeder a couple years back and I saw the singer on Buzzcocks once, but I hardly know a great deal about them. they seemed rather trapped in time, rocking the ripped jeans and the skater shirts where they have a long one and a t-shirt over them, or it’s supposed to look that way. Guys, it isn’t 2001.  That being said, they weren’t all bad. My mum and sister stayed back to wait for our friends, but me and my dad went halfway into the crowd. they made a great deal of mid-afternoon noise for a half hour and the crowd seemed into it, so so was I.

Afterwards, me and my dad crawled ever closer into the crowd, only about ten rows back in the end, for the lovely Passion Pit. I love how they come from Boston…and I seer them in England. I also love how the singer(Michael something, I think, right/) has the highest falsetto I’ve ever heard; and the balls to use it consistently. Also, I love how they’re the only people on the *cough* ‘scene’ right now who make electronic music that passes as good. Kudos to them. a main stage slot at V proves that. I like Passion Pit regardless, but they were better than they really deserved to ber that day. Though jetlacked, they did put forth some joyous, lively, lovely pop material; Little secrets, the Reelings, Let your Love Grow Tall, etc. Plus, the gorgeous Sleepyhead; that melody, I love it. Now that is a song you want to hear thousands of people singing along to in the middle of a field, right?!

After that me and my dad went back to my mum and sister, who had now found our friends. I was kinda gushing about PP while the group of us snacked on sweets and looked through the lineups we had bought. Luckily, everyone wanted to see Paloma Faith who as on in not too long and she has been the singer of my summer so it worked out great. Me and my two friends headed out towards the second stage and somehow got our way fairly close to the front, only two or three rows back. Neil Hannon was just ended a cutesy, if shambolic, set on piano and guitar. I got there just in time for At the Indie Disco and a few other numbers that I don’t know but was impressed by. Then he picked up his glass and bottle of red wine, top hat, cigar, and suitcase, and walked off. How great is that? While we waited, a total stranger started leaning on my friend’s shoulders, telling us she was tired. that proved for a good few minutes of conversation. But finally, the wonderful Paloma Faith came onstage. She opened with Stone Cold Sober in a long red dress(that she would later describe as being ‘Spanishy’) and enormous heels, theatrics but it worked well enough. Her band were immensely talented and provided that full, deep jazz-pop sound that makes Paloma work so well. She appeared chatty and bright and was good live; songs included were Stone Cold Sober, Smoke And Mirrors, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful, Upside Down, Romance is Dead, and New York. Plus, a David Guetta and Etta James cover. Not bad, Paloma, not bad. Even my father was converted.

After that my group of friends stopped back at our ‘base camp’ quickly. My mum had to stay with my mister most of the day, at the main stage, but she’d been collecting empty cups and bought a hat with the money so she was okay. My dad was doing the indie thing and going to see people he didn’t know, such as Jason Derulo and The Charlatans, and he was having a good time. A good moment occurred while we were hanging around there when my friends’ mum asked if we wanted biscuits and a group of drunk men in their 20s wandered by and said “oh, yes please!”. it was wonderful, so festival-like, you know? I had an empty gap in my schedule and my friend wanted to see Tinie Tempah, not that I wanted to of course, so we took an enormous walk over to the enclosed third stage. Third stage I’d never been to before, and it was enclosed, and it turns out somehow Tinie Tempah was pulling a huge amount of people, making the bottleneck entrance slow and claustrophobic so we backed out and hung around for a bit of Newton Faulkner for a few minutes, which was nice.

After that it was approaching the late afternoon and somehow we were just in time for Editors. One of my friends stayed behind our base camp with whoever happened to be hanging round there at the moment, so me and my other friend worked out way closer to the front for the drunken crowd of Editors fans. Turns out Editors were better than I’d expected. I mean, yeah, their most recent album is just growing on me more and more every time I listen to it, but they’re not a band really quoted as being amazing live, are they? Still, they were absolutely great. I was told by some guy in his 40s next to me to ‘not be scared, enjoy it’. I can’t imagine looking scared; it was a definite unexpected highlight of the day, with Tom’s gorgeous baritone smooth and unfaltering, and their dark-disco-indie perfect and beautiful down to a tea. Songs included Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors, Munich, The Racing Rats, Papillon, and a few others from their album. Very very good, highly recommended.

Paul Weller was up next. I’ll be the first to tell you Paul Weller is overrated, but I went with a few people far from the front for a little while. I ended up having to go back and forth several stressful times, like getting water ad finding my friends again. So basically, no Paul Weller for me. but I heard he was absolute crap that day so no harm done, eh? Also, Richard Branson introduced him. it’s like a double wammy of egotistical men with white hair and orange faces. To be avoided.

It was approaching the evening and as always one wants a good place for the headliners, so I found my friends(eventually) and we worked our way reasonably far forward for Stereophonics. Now, let me tell you, ‘Phonics were pretty damn good. Better than they really need to be. I’ve often found most of Stereophonics work a little dry, boring, and Kelly’s voice grating from time to time. They’d get one of my “another post-grunge band?!” lectures if it weren’t for a.)them being the only one of those bands not being from the deep south and b.)having written Dakota. Dakota is seriously one of my favorite songs ever. Those lyrics, Jesus, they’re just great. After an hour or so if songs that you can sort of sing along to bot not really love, those thrilling synthesizer notes at the beginning followed by the clash of everything else…you have to know it to understand. “You make me feel like them one, you made me feel like the one…the one”. Oh my God, I want to marry this song. I was just getting into it so much, creaming along like I thought I was too inhibited to do. I could barely remember all the other words! An absolutely astounding performance. 10/10 for Stereophonics, no question.

Ah, Kings of Leon. That band you’re supposed to love, the band whose Cock Rock lyrics you’re just sort of supposed to ignore, the dry and frankly annoying warbling of Caleb Followill that you’re supposed to think is great. I don’t think Only By the Night is bad, but I’m hardly the biggest Kings of Leon fan ever, you know? We were fifth row and things were getting very rough. For two hours literally, I could not move, and that was without the constant pushing of girls trying to get to the front, and swaying, and beer being tossed everywhere, and singing, and men in dressed as gorillas trying to run past for no reason. God, it was claustrophobic and irritating. But during the opening notes of my favorite Only By the Night song, Closer, all was forgiven. I wouldn’t necessarily say the festival is where Kings of Leon feel most comfortable. To the untrained ear, their music can be seen as same-ish, slow, and relentless. My ear isn’t exactly trained beyond their most recent album, so while I got into the swing of things best I could, why all the old material, boys? I thought we’d come to the conclusion that people only cared about two of your songs, anyway? they performed perfectly well and once it had got going, the atmosphere down the front was absolutely wonderful(except the guy who decided to go to the bathroom ten and there, not discreetly either. Charming.) While they didn’t play Charmer, sadly, songs did include Molly’s Chamber(nach), On Call, Be Somebody, Notion, Revelry, Crawl, a rather wonderful rendition of Sex on Fire, and a slightly lackluster Use Somebody. I may not seem excited, it’s not like the band were either, but hey, they weren’t bad, pretty good in fact, and a definitely great show if you’re a super fan. All in all, a rather brilliant Saturday.

Sunday got off to a slow start. Getting in was significantly easier, seeing as a significant amount of the 90,000 people at this festival were hung over from the previous night. the weather was even approaching hot, somehow! Getting into the actual arena was easier, too, and Pixie Lott had only just started by the time we got there. I can’t say I like Pixie Lott…at…all. She’s tall and she’s blonde and she plays pop music and has an Essex accent. Okay then. But I got an ice cream(America needs Mr Whippys!!) and it made her set bearable.

Skunk Anansie were up next on the main stage. my dad, although he went all-out-indie the day before, likes what’s considered ‘heavy’ at V and I really like Skunk Anansie, so we headed up close to the stage for them. Pixie Lott and Skunk Anansie’s audiences, for the record, couldn’t be more different. Pixie’s are about nineteen and wear too much mascara. Skunk Anansie’s try to be gothic and are generally in their 4os(an abundance of eyemakeup here, too, but only to look scary of course). And somehow in all of that movement, I worked my way to the front! Weird, right? I touched the effing barrier. Once in a lifetime experience at a festival! The band itself were absolutely brilliant and put on such a racket! They opened with Charlie Big Potato(which I could listen to all day), and Skin came on like it’s 1999 and I love how she shaved her head again. She’s great live too, always jumping around, I was worried she was gonna kick the guitarist! At one point, she even jumped from the stage to the barrier and walked by and was RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and I could have touched her but I was the only one around me who reached out, so how stupid would I have looked? But that was amazing! All together, they played Ugly White Boy, I Can Dream, Hedonism, the ‘just because you feel good’ song, weak, Because of You, and others. Wow! Amazing!

We headed back to our camp after there. And we’d found our friends again–the same group of people plus a few of their chavy friends. and, amazingly, an ex-olympic athlete. Weird, huh? Anyway, the place was boiling and as packed as the day before, and my friends had gone off to the NME signing tent so we went to find them. We walked half the way round the wretched place, me and my Dad, before discovering it wasn’t where it was supposed to be at all. We then had to walk back against the Plan B crowd and find them in line, and it turns out they didn’t get any signatures at all. what a shame! We walked back to our Base Camp and Seasick Steve started. And, oh, Seasick Steve is so lovely, not that I really care for the whole country-blues thing but he was so nice and fitted in surprisingly well on stage, and he even grabbed someone from the audience for a little bit and out them in stage with him, lucky girl. We didn’t catch the whole set though, we were too busy planning out our day and stuffing our faces with food. We figured Plan B was worth seeing so we worked our way down there. The place was packed full, and we only got there for like two songs. My other friends were more concerned with finding other friends in the crowd(not possible). In the end we found them back at base camp, and snacked out a little bit there before the place was filled with Madness. in the mean time I bought a V 2010 t-shirt  and came back. Madness was, as I said…madness. The place was packed like I’d never seen it before.  It was ridiculous. And, I heard they were really good, too!(“I’d like to apologize to that prick Calvin Harris. Sorry Calvin Harris”), but I only wanted to see one song.

One of my friends went into the crowd for Madness but the other wasn’t bothered really, and I hadn’t been to the 4th tent yet and was itching for some indie, so we took a detour through the crowd and the amusement fair bit, but find our way there we eventually did for Kirsty Almeida. It’s sort of the smokey-room jazz that’s so ‘in’ right now that my mum would love. She wasn’t bad really, I knew one song, and we were second row and got special Kirsty Almeida stickers so it’s all worth it. But, Eliza Doolittle was up next. Next time Eliza’s at V she’ll be four o’clock on the second stage so I figured it was a good opportunity to see her while she’s still small. Eliza’s the latest It Girl in cutesy pop music, her band are male and wear matching shits and trousers, she likes neon colors, and she looks about twelve years old. It’s all good. Go listen to Skinny Genes–I like that one. She played it too. Was okay live. it started raining so the tent was crowded, she also played Rollerblades, and a cover of Baby(THAT takes balls!) that wasn’t half bad, and a couple others, but my friend didn’t seem outstandingly impressed and it stopped raining, so we headed back to our stuff.

Palo Nutini was on by the time we got there. Not a huge fan, except Candy isn’t bad. He seems to play V a lot for some reason. Everyone, even my Dad, were around there at the moment. One friend had bought some curly fries so I waited in line for a while humming along to that, and it was amazing to sit in the sunshine, greasy food and acoustic music and friends and all on a lovely August evening. Absolute bliss for no reason! however, that couldn’t stay that way for long, because the general consensus was that night everyone was taking Prodigy on the 2nd stage over Kasabian on the 1st, and our parents feared for our lives as it was, let alone us fighting the flow of the crowd after a Prodigy gig. So, to calm people’s nerves, we packed up all our stuff and found a place by the fence over on the second stage, where Eels were just finishing, where a tree was placed conveniently between us and the stage. But no matter.

Somehow me and one friend got separated from the other, and my parents were down at La Roux. So the next few hours were good, but a bit stressful. Me and one friend tried to find them, which involved pushing our way through the Jamie T crowd. I only saw a few songs, not enough for Chakka Demus and Sticks and Stones, but he was okay. A few songs in and I was pretty annoyed at my friends’ half-hearted attempts to find everyone else and how I was left to the job of constant communication, so I decided, screw this and screw my credibility, I’m going to see the Kooks. Frankly, I don’t care what the NME thinks. I like the Kooks. And honestly, they were significant better than I ever could have expected. they played Naive, She Moves in Her Own way, My Sofa, Eddie’s Gun, etcetera and they matched the late afternoon sunshine and the dancing and the beer perfectly and screw it, they’re cute and Luke gets less and less annoying every time I see him, I swear. A definitely good choice there, going to see the Kooks. If ever you’re at a festival, go and see them, no question about it.

The Kooks ended and it was approaching evening and me and my friend headed back once again to the second stage. His mum was in a panic because his sister had run off somewhere–her fault, not ours–but she got in a mood about it and we stayed there waiting for her to come back, but we needed to go into the crowd too and Calvin Harris was on. We got in the crowd for two songs, one of them being The Girls. I really like that song. But at V, it’s the perfect party song and the whole crowd was jumping up and down to the chorus and it was perfect. Go see Calvin Harris sometime, sounds fun, and I heard the rest of his set was really good too.

The Calvin Harris crowd on mass rushed over to see Faithless on the main stage, so it was fairly simple to move further in for the lovely Doves. My friend was being irritating and inconvenient though.  Throughout the day my friends had this idea that “I’m just gonna go over here, I’ll find you again in a minute”. and they never learned that that simply is not possible. the place is filled with 90,000 people as I said, once you’re lost, you’re lost and it’s bloody irritating how no one understood that and kept walking off. We tried finding our other friend. I turned around, and he was gone. Great, right? So I was gonna wait their for the Prodigy and everyone’s lost so I called my mum and she came back from Faithless with my friends’ mum at base camp and everyone was panicking because their children were goodness knows where and they had to go into the small crowd for Doves to look for them and frankly I was tired and needed a break from pushing into crowds for a while, so everyone eventually surfaced one way or another, and we stayed back with our bags and listened to Doves. I only knew a few songs but they weren’t bad, my mum was more impressed than she thought she would be, and I read through some leaflets and ate a lot of sugar as it got dark and started to rain and the lights eluminated the crowd and I couldn’t really see the stage but my friends were laughing and talking about how excited we were and it was a really wonderful moment. Our legs rested, and There Goes The Fear going off, we headed down into the crowd.

Oh, The Prodigy. Just so you know, writing about this is an enormous task and I’ll tell you now, I have neither the time or the writing abilities to do the mad experience justice. I’ll compile something crappy and I’ll tell you if they ever put up some Prodigy V 2010 clips up, you go watch them, because that will show a million times more just how incredible it was than I ever will. Okay? Good. We were upper-middle, crushed together. One friend backed out. Me and my other friend were the only people around us who weren’t totally drunk(or shirtless, for that matter). Before it even started we had limited movement, and this relentless dance music was pounding and it made everyone dance, but you didn’t have space, so you just ended up bumping into everyone and being pushed to the ground time and time again, and saying how excited you were and hoping you don’t get too close to someone’s ciagrette. It was intense before it all began, already twice what KoL were he day before. Me and my friend couldn’t see and we just talked to this girl next to us about how it would “be carnage”. And we waited. And then, eventually, the rain was pouring and we were already soaked by boiling at the same time, and jut as you thought you couldn’t take such chaos anymore, it started. The crowd jumped. I tried desperately to stay close to my friend as the crowd screamed along in the pouring rain and jumped up and down to the beat of some song I didn’t know Just imagine…well, I don’t even know, it was unreal. Bedlam, really. That’s how the whole concert went. We got into it, too, just jumping up and down and falling over and screaming and head banging until you thought you legs were just gonna crumble out of fatigue beneath you. Somehow, there were two moshpits on either side of us, trying to merge together, and we were RIGHT in the middle so for most of the concert the smashing into each other was multiplied a hundred times! It was amazing! Someone lit a firework right by us! it was really amazing too! And the rain, oh the rain. never have I loved rain more than that day where our hair was soaked and the water flew everywhere as you moved, but you didn’t care, it was crazy and made it soo much more fun. From what I know, they played Breathe, and Omen(which was absolutely phenomenal), Poison, Warrior’s Dance, Firestarter(which, from the first notes terrified me. Oh, if I were to break every bone in my body it would be during a live rendition of Firestarter), Invaders Must Die(“invaders must fucking die, fucking die, fuck you invaders, go die!”..imagine eing screamed that again and again while you’re being shoved around. Kinda scary and amazing, right?), Smack My Bitch Up(best thing ever? Um. YES. The whole crowd were asked to “get down, get fucking down”and imagine a whole crowd kinda squatting on the ground and then on one beat everyone to just kinda explode upwards at the same time. Kinda genius), Take Me To The Hospial, Their Law, and an odd ending in Outer Space. Constant, relentless, wonderful rave-rock, jumping up and down in terrible weather, being screamed at, screaming back, forgetting everything except that. The best moments of my life to date. Bliss.

And, here’s no good way for me to end this, as you can see. We kinda went mad after that, talking about how incredible it was. I hear my smile coming back was worth 800 pounds for my family to come to V. With a few mishaps and madness after and lots of goodbyes around, V, in a sense, rocked. Once again, I don’t care what the NME said. I love V. And will go again and again, if that says anything about it.

- Naomi