V2010 Day Two - a BlackLOG pictorial

Sunday morning and the BBC weather site predicted a damp start turning to beautiful blue skies for the afternoon....hmm don't give up the day job, that was the worst prediction since Decca told the Beatles "Guitar groups are on the way out" and "the Beatles have no future in show business".

For the second V day day we took our friends' Teach and Hugh's son John and his friend Michael, both from Lincolnshire. We had hardly got through the gate when Michael found himself being arrested by a police dog. (OK, that’s a bit of an over statement as the dog didn’t do the actual arresting but it did sidle up to Michael and got his colleague to do the arresting bit). Michael was marched off for some interminable time and returned to us a little later more than a little disheveled…..When asked, he said he had not been worried about it until the rubber gloves came out…..fortunately they were for searching through his pockets and not making him walk like John Wayne just after getting off a horse….. Turns out it was a mistaken drugs bust brought about by a faulty police dog. Now that’s something for a young man from Lincolnshire to have sweet nightmares for the rest of his life.

Teach had a pop at me and the Beast for not taking any pictures of the boys at this year's festival….but how could I?…From Michael’s release to meeting both boys back at the car, when it was pitch black, we saw them for approximately 35 seconds.  34 of those were the back of their heads disappearing into the 60,000 crowd…..Sorry Teach, the Beast was still hiding at the bottom of the rucksack so it was never going to happen.

It was just as well the Beast did hide, as during the Faithless performance we had managed to get a great position in front of the sound desk (good cover from all that beer throwing and a bit of respite from the rain – thanks for nothing BBC).  With no one behind us it allowed us to stand on the chairs (oops sorry Kirsty and Joe those might have been the ones we borrowed from you).  After I had taken a couple of shots I got a tap on my shoulder to find the head of security glaring down on me:

Head of Security - “Have you got a license for that?”

Me - “No!”
I said busily putting the camera away

Head of Security - “Well people pay a lot of money to take shots from a position like this”

Me - “OK”
I kind of got the impression it was a "Don’t do it right under my nose" type of warning, so all shots after this were taken only after I risked life and limb pushing my way towards the front of the crowd.

This did allow me to get a bit closer just without the ability to hover magically above peoples' heads. Dragging the Beast through the crowd is bad enough, clobbering said crowd with a collapsible chair and then climbing up in front of them would probably put me in with an excellent chance of a good lynching. Oh, the joys of trying to bring you lot a few fuzzy snaps….

It’s also interesting to note the bigger the Act the harder it is to photograph them.  Not only do they draw more people for you to fight your way through but they come on later in the day - just as it starts to get dark. Not a problem if you are professional photographer, given free run in the open space in front of the stage but a nightmare when you are 20 rows back and being constantly jostled by over-excited fans.  No complaints mind, it is the music that we are all here for after all and it just adds to the joy of the challenge as well as giving me an excuse for not coming up with the perfect shot each time….

The Music

Matthew P
A bit of a surprise this one.  I had wanted to see either Tiffany Page or Pixie Lot (yes Cynical, I missed Pixie  but since she is about 5 that's probably not a bad thing....) Mrs B was happy as she had already stated that she had no intention of watching anyone called Pixie or Tiffany, this was despite me giving her a warning for being namist in the extreme....Not sure I will ever hear of Matthew P again but it was entertaining enough for such an early act.

Take A Chance on Matthew P

Professor Green
A bit too much rap for my taste but it was entertaining watching the crowed bouncing about. Why on earth do these Artists think they have to talk like they are black and from Harlem.  He's obviously white and, from the odd dropped H,  from Ackney in East London........He evidently didn't have a lot of faith in his own ability as he dragged on different guest artists for each of his songs. He even introduced someone from Bishops Stortford. Oh the shame, Bishops Stortford has a rapper. I'm not sure we will ever get over it.....

An impressive crowd for the 2nd act on the

2nd stage...We had never even heard of him.....

I'm pretty sure that didn't worry him though...

The Proff, so excited he looks like

he's going to pee his pants.....

Saw Doctors
 They seem to be the Irish version of the Proclaimers, a bit of fun.

The Saw Doctors give away their day jobs.

In between music festivals they are

airport ground marshalling staff

Plan B
Now strictly speaking he has alway been a bit of a rapper, but there is enough cross over to other music genre and he has such a great voice he gets away with it...

A bit of a long shot this one, as the crowd was just

manic, so I decided not to try and risk The Beast as

he can get a bit snappy when people jostle him....  

Has he got a licence to take The Beast's picture?

Shed Seven
I've always had a soft spot for The Sheds, even though there are clearly not 7 of them.  Perhaps they own 7 sheds between them or something? They suffered a bit as the huge following for Plan B dispersed before they hit the stage and so the atmosphere went a bit flat. Mrs B is not a big fan and we had never seen Madness whose set started part way through so we left early. I did feet a bit of a cad abandoning them....

Rick 'Two Sheds' Witter - lead singer of Shed Seven 

"Out Of My Way, I'm Going For Gold" 

Paul 'Three Sheds' Banks

"She Left Me On Friday and

ruined my weekend...." 

Madness
It started to rain really hard just as we got to the back of the Madness crowd.  The music was such fun and we were so busy dancing that it didn't really matter.....

 The Return of The Los Palmas 7

Paulo Nutini
He was OK on his faster numbers but his ballads left me wanting to slit my wrists...

Looks like Paolo's New Shoes

might be giving him a spot of bother

The Kooks
I like The Kooks.  They have some really good songs and they were certainly good live, the only problem was they let themselves down a bit between tracks. Not a lot of chat and too much faffing which kind of lost the momentum of the set. Must try harder....They also seem to have a few feuds going with the some of the other bands including The Artic Monkeys and Razorlight....

 It was possibly naive to dedicate their song Naive 

to Johnny Borrell (Razorlight), hardly helpful in

 ending the feud between the two bands....

I don't think Luke Pritchard really needed the XXXL

He has a lot of growing to do to fit into that shirt .....

Faithless
I was not that keen, having listened to a couple of their albums. It was mainly because we had bagged a good position ready for Kasabian that we stayed. Certainly glad we did, though as I guess dance music just works so much better live than in the sometimes sterile environment of a CD or I should say MP3 these days....

Evergreen

I'm not sure it was worth being told

off by security for this shot....

Kasabian
Kasabian more than made up for the Saturday night headline disappointment that was Kings of Leon....

This could be Fire or even Orange

Not a great picture but it does demonstrate the accuracy

of the BBC's dry 'Ah hem' weather prediction.... 

Tom Meighan looks like Vlad the

Impaler may have got him...

Fantastic and a real high to end a great weekend on. So Good we have already got tickets for next year

If you missed out on day one

 A record of the week
A fair number of artists to work with this week

Kasabian - Fire
The Kooks - Do you wanna (Acoustic Version) -
Shed Seven - Going For Gold
Plan B -  'Writings on The Wall'
Shed Seven - She Left Me on Friday
Kasabian - Vlad The Impaler
Shed Seven - Chasing Rainbows (Acoustic Cover)
The kooks - Naive
Kasabian - Shoot The Runner (Acoustic Cover)

Photo Finish

Bee-have

Teach if you look closely the boys are just out of shot...

My God the Geeks are nicking the

stage equipment....

He must be Scottish if he is still standing after that lot....

Mrs B looks more like she is ordering a hit

I guess she really didn't like Shed Seven...

Sometimes it's better to just get wet rather than

 looking like an extra from a condom advert....

It's never good when you get so drunk that

you lose the use of your arms...