It's all glam and Roxy Music at Lovebox Weekender

After trekking across half of London and being confused by endless underground closures I arrived at Lovebox - dazed, stressed and covered in sweat. With no time to lose I ran through the gates and made a b-line for the main stage to check out Wild Beasts. Already making their way through their slot, the Mercury nominated group had gathered quite the crowd. Their red faces glowed as they puffed their way through the set, playing the better moments of their sophomore album. Although dynamic, they were missing personality and any real stand out live tracks. Midnight Juggernauts were due on in ten minutes so, I thought I'd have a mini tour of the surroundings before heading over to the second stage.

Lovebox comes across like a condensed Bestival, fancy dress, themed mini venues and an overall dance tinge, although I doubt they will ever have an HMV at Bestival. The most noticeable difference between this festival and any other commercial one, is the lack of queues! Even the toilets had soap. The retailers still charge near illegal prices on food and water but at least they actually acknowledge you.

The little stages are cute and more vaudeville than rock or dance, even Stavros Flately were there (though sadly they cancelled the evening slot), the other stages are really gay discos. Lovebox is the campest festival I have ever been to, it took time to notice, but after a walk around it's hard to not notice that most of the festival goers are gay men and gorgeous women. The dance areas have near naked men dancing on stage and there's even a drag queen New York City club.

At the Gaymer stage there was nothing but stressed roadies quickly preparing for Midnight Juggernauts, already 10 minutes late. They get a wild reception and blame traffic for them nearly missing their set. Other bands should try being late, they seemed more galvanised to put on a show and are one of the best new bands I have seen this year.

Back over to see the new Diva of quirk. Paloma Faith, on the main stage. I catch the last 3 songs of her set and get to see her rip into 'New York' dressed as some sort of green disco butterfly. If only her songs could match her personality.

Another big personality was next up on the main stage, the one and only Mark Ronson with his new band The Business International. The new band are all about original tunes, but could Ronson cut it as a songwriter rather than just a producer with some talented friends. Well no. The new singles 'Bang Bang' and 'Circuit Breaker' are quality, and the retro electronic stage set of 5 keyboard banks with Ronson on top of the pile certainly spelt out style. But other than the covers of the last albums 'Version' the set was flaccid and forgettable. Bringing out my least favourite singer The View's Kyle Falconer as a guest slot just allowed me to take more interest in the argument in front of me. A lady leaned too far back into another girl whilst taking a picture. Apparently this is the worst thing in the world and nearly led to a 6 man brawl, where was the love?

Thank the Lord for Duran Duran (yes, again, Ronson has to rely on friends) Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Kaiser Chief sticks man Nick Hodgson head onto the stage to sing the new single 'Record Collection'; finally the masses can party. Ignoring Ronson's terrible singing, Lebon takes over for the chorus and worked the crowd into a frenzy, before bringing on the rest of Duran to play a storming version of 'Planet Earth'.

Knowing that Ronson couldn't top that, I made my way back to Gaymers to check out the stage headliner Empire Of The Sun. The glam Australian outfit can certainly put on a show. The stage seemed far too intimate for a band and the 4 backing dancers (sporting some very creative headgear), but although cramped Luke Steel showed that he is quite the superstar standing in his own stage area. It's hard to know exactly how much was being played live, a drummer and two guitars seemed inadequate. But once they stage playing 'We Are the People' with the dancers strumming their makeshift guitars all is forgotten. It seemed that over half the festival had rammed themselves in to see Empire of the Sun.

This was proved to be correct as when I left them early to check out Roxy Music, they had way less of a crowd than Ronson had. I have never walked to the front with such ease, and to think this was the headliner! Brian Ferry et al hadn't changed since I last saw them 5 years ago, all in designer suits and a few more pounds added to their waistlines since their 70's hey-day. It was quite understandable why all the youngsters had rushed off to other venues, Roxy aren't exactly the festival friendly band people would have hoped. I wouldn't say that I'm the biggest Roxy Music fan, but I own a few CD's and had never heard of half of their set.

They chose to stick to the latter day Roxy lounge-room sound, rather than the fantastic, glam-stomp of the early 70's. The endless jam sessions may have been a treat to the faithful, but I couldn't stop myself drifting off, possibly thinking about Simon Le Bon again. I was woken up near the end when they decided to cram the last 20 minutes with all the hits. By now the Empire of the Sun crowd had joined us, and the party began. 'Love is the Drug', 'Virginia Plain', 'Jealous Guy' were played back to back, ending with 'Stick Together' and 'Do the Strand'. I got so excited I was dancing with someone's mum near the end. Glorious. Just a shame they couldn't pace out their show, they still had so many hits unplayed.

As I made my way out of the festival, I walked past Mystery Jets chatting up some very attractive young ladies.

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