Day 4 at the O2 Wireless Festival. The rain has held off. Spirits are high. The lovely thing about this festival is you don’t need the Dunkerque spirit you reserve for Glastonbury et al. Most people have only popped along to one day, and then popped home to their comfy bed.
I really want to see Mumm Ra. I want them to wow me and for me to run off and tell everyone that they’re the next big thing...but they’re not cutting it. Perhaps if they were in a smaller forum on a smaller stage they would seem bigger, but they’re not really filling the space. I’m happy to hear ‘She’s Got You High’ but nothing else is jumping out at me. It’s lovely, jolly, jaunty but just not enough for the giant expanse of people before them.
The Cribs. Purveyors of upbeat rock that gets everyone’s heads wagging. They play so vehemently that you’re sure they must be more famous than they are. The Cribs’ frontman Ryan Jarman can’t really sing but he doesn’t care a jot and no one seems to mind as they stomp through the set. He stops between songs to speak to his crowd about his dislike of corporate sponsorship. Not exactly leading the revolution there mate, under a 50 foot sign reading O2 Wireless Festival. A couple more bouncy rock tunes and he’s off again, now condemning the indie corporate machine. Bless him, he probably hasn’t got another care in the world so this is his chosen rant-subject. Chances are he won’t be so miffed 2 years down the line when that corporate monster has bagged some huge brand sponsorship deal and he’s bonking Kirsten Dunst in a 5 storey house in Primrose Hill.
Bringing it down a notch, The Editors are a mark more sombre than the earlier acts, but then they are one of those bands. The music is totally energetic, but in a haven’t-eaten-for-days-adrenalin-kicking-in type way. Depressing yet engaging. Watching the audience is a bit like seeing everyone getting sucked into a cult that you’re not quite sure about but you can’t bring yourself to look away as they succumb to the brainwashing. Don’t get me wrong, they’re a great band, their set is really tight, but it’s just dragging the mood into too darker place for my liking.
Ah, the headliners, the good ol’ Kaiser Chiefs. Singalonga party band. Not snobby or aloof or clever, they simply write boot stomping rock numbers with amusing lyrics. ‘We Are The Angry Mob’ gets the crowd cheering, but in reality everyone is waiting for a song they really know. Sure enough when ‘I Predict A Riot’ kicks in everyone leaps up and starts singing along. Ricky is great to watch, running up and down energetically, trying to shift those last few pounds, and he’s thoroughly enjoying himself.
Lead singer of Polysics Hiroyuki Hayashi joins them for Na Na Na Na Naa. Everyone is still leaping around until they launch into the next track which no one knows so it’s time for toilet/bar break again. This is the thing – they’re not a band where you sort of know all the songs, after you’ve heard ‘I Predict A Riot’, ‘Oh My God’ and ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’ you’re over it. ‘Heat Dies Down’ just seems a bit too melancholy for tonight. The atmosphere in the crowd reflects this – it’s very up and down. Even when they launch into ‘Everyday I Love You Less And Less’, they start, stop then start again.
Thankfully they finish off with ‘Oh My God’. The mosh pit spreads a little bit further out and we end the day, and the 2007 O2 Wireless Festival on a high.
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