Parklife proves to be a bargain as Labrinth impresses on Sunday

The day started with a couple of novel ideas of which I don't usually have the luxury at many festivals, The first was waking up in a king size bed with a shower and bathroom on hand. The second? A cloudless sky with superb sunshine, the number 41 bus beckoned, we jumped on and arrived at the site at 1.30, half an hour into the warm up DJ's set, before the grime/hip hop/rap collective known as Murkage took to the stage in front of a sparse crowd.

To give them credit where it is due they pulled off a very good set getting the minimal crowd really involved by pulling them all up close to the stage giving it a feeling of a packed intimate gig on an outdoor stage, which was very impressive to say the least. Being my first festival of the season, and with the sun belting down we decide to commit to a day mainly in front of the main stage in the sun with a few cooling ciders.

Next on stage was Delilah, with her beautiful velvet voice floating out on the summer breeze it was to prove a delightful 45 minute set, real nice music to sit outside and relax to, and very pleasing on the eye she is too.

In-between the acts on the main stage they have a DJ set up shop front of house to keep the atmosphere buzzing so you never really hit a lull which is a nice touch.

Mistajam's set will stick in my memory for a long long time, to be fair his tune selection was immense from start to finish but this is not the reason I will remember it. We found out mid way through this hour long set Mistajam doesn't like moshers, he was playing a dub step heavy set when a young bunch of lads started up a circle pit amongst themselves, Suddenly, the music stopped, and Mistajam took to his microphone stopping the set to berate the young moshers and threatening that if the moshers didn't stop ruining the vibe he would play Dolly Parton instead! This was a serious threat!!! Sure enough the next heavy drop kicked in and the lads got excited again. They started moshing between themselves, I'm pretty sure it was out of bedevilment to se what reaction they would get this time. Again the music was cut, this time Mistajam got the whole crowd to boo the lads and all point and led a chant against the lads. He pointed out that if they were good boys and didn't mosh again he would play them one moshing song at the end of the set. All in all it was a very weird 15 tyrannical minutes. Rumour has it Mistajam was later seen backstage trying to turn water into wine!!!

Taking to the decks next was Annie Mac of Radio 1 drum and bass mash up show fame. She played a very safe set, nothing to write home about just very commercially safe, not that I expected much more. She slowly won the audience over, they were now in full on party mode, with the beers in hand and the sun shining she bowed out at the end of her set. But, this time there was no DJ to follow her. The site went eerily quiet as all the sound systems powered down...

It turns out that just behind the main stage there is a neighbouring church, and part of the stipulations of the licence for the event state that there cannot be any amplified music between the hours of 6pm and 7 pm on the Sunday, as the church holds their Sunday service. So, the field was populated by a scene that reminded me of 'Sean of the Dead' with zombie like casualties looking for phat bass lines. They slowly work their way around the tented venues, but to no avail. Instead the food stands see the maddest hour on records, with no music going on people decide to load up their stomachs.

However, inside each of the larger tents there are a couple of acoustic bands and samba beat bands keeping the party going, all be it a lot more quietly, we found a steel drum collective, playing a blinder in the one tent with a crowd of 1,00 plus singing along to the melodies, it was a rather unique quirky hour which I must say didn't kill the atmosphere which I was worried it could, yet again well done to the booking team.

As the sound systems slowly surge back into life De La Soul are due back on the main stage, however in true American hip-hop star style they take to the stage 30 minutes late. But the are not taking a page out of Kelis book and hit the ground running. They soon win over the huge crowd they eventually run over their allotted time by 15 minutes. I cant help but think Kelis may have been afforded this luxury yesterday, had she actually put in a good performance.

Labrinth is the penultimate act of the weekend. Stepping up 25 minutes after his billed time due to De LA Soul's overrunning. This was to be one of the surprises of the weekend. I thought he was just going to be your 'run of the mill' young rapper. How little did I know - to back up his growing list of feel good summer hits this lad has the skills to pay the bills. Picking up the guitar and shredding out some very impressive solos, and also taking control of the keys on many of his tracks, and when not playing these instruments I don't think there was a single inch of the stage and pit he did not cover, bouncing from post to post. He finished his set with a mighty rendition of his signature tune 'Earthquake', which left the audience bouncing.

Unfortunately due to the late running on the stage the headliner Dizzee Rascal clashed with the 10.23pm last train home, so IO miss his set. If I could make one request I'd ask if please could Arriva trains Wales put on a later Sunday service.

All in all I would recommend the Parklife Weekender to anyone. A truly great little festival and for 60 odd pounds for a weekend ticket it really is a bargain!

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