Well I am back home after a long weekend – on the Isle of Wight and close to nature! In my tent! After a very smooth cruise-liner type crossing courtesy of Red Funnel and a short drive to the mother of all car parks!
Pink flies at the Isle of Wight 2010
As I blogged about last week, I went to my seventh Isle of Wight Music Festival. This is the highlight of the musical calendar! I go with my old mate Jeremy – and we do this properly!
In the preceding six years we had minutes of rain – but the record was bound to be broken. It rained when we arrived and on the last night – leaving Glastonbury type mud in the ‘high traffic’ areas.
The portable luxury hotel (mine has two rooms) is home for four days. Showers are sponsored by Evian. The toilets at the festival site are not exactly ‘Fairtrade‘. They are quite basic – actually just below basic. Think hole in the ground – but worse. So the top gear top tip is to walk into Newport and get a healthy breakfast at Quay Arts – and use their fine facilities!
As for the music – the brilliant included The Members, Squeeze, Suzi Quatro (utterly brilliant!), Spandau Ballet (no really!), Florence & The Machine (barking mad), Bombay Bicycle Club, Biiffy Clyro, Vampire Weekend, Blondie and James.
Blondie struts her stuff
The average included Crowded House (who despite having one, lost the crowd) and The Editors (who were a bit too sure of themselves). The very average, for me, was Jay-Z. I did listen for 10 minutes and that is my ration for a lifetime!
There has always been a surprise at the show – and the surprise was Pink. It’s not my kind of music, but I have to admit that the ‘show’ she puts on is amazing. It is pure theatre – and she clearly has some issues with getting a ‘rush’. The show starts when she drops out of a box suspended above the stage, she comes out into the crown in a giant hamster wheel and then at the end of the show ‘flies out into the crowd! Great fun – I have no idea what the music was like though.
The headline was Sir Paul McCartney. After a slow start he seemed to hit the spot with some Beatles numbers and the show then got going. The high point was ‘Live & Let Die‘ which was fantastic. I promised myself not to come away singing ‘Hey Jude’…
The whole line-up was an eclectic mix, but overall one of the best.
Oren, Ginger and Jez at the Isle of Wight
The great news is that although we are a little bit older than the average person there – we met a great couple who were over from Mexico. They were staying on the Island with friends – and had pushed their way to the front before Spandau Ballet. It was Oren’s 80th birthday – and his stainless steel knee and ‘pinned and screwed’ spine didn’t stop him and his wife, Ginger, dancing around.
Fantastic – and there is hope for me (and Jez) yet!
2010 – the year of the ageing rockers – and their fans?
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