Back to civilisation

[Ross78]

Well another year over.....had a mental time...loved Example, Robyn, Faithless, Feeder, Prodigy, loved chilling between acts in the Strongbow tent, especially the garden...What bands/acts did you enjoy? any embarassing stories?

[tom taylor]

Hey just a quick question to anyone who was at Chelmsford when Shaun William Ryder played, Why the hell were everyone booing him and swearing at him and bottlling him constantly??

Was quite funny, but I felt really sorry for the women in the band, she sang quite well bless her! He was just abusing the crowd but I'm not suprised with a reception like he got!

Why did people hate him??

Cheers, Feeder Stereophonics Calvin Harris and Kasabian were amazing!

[joshi]

Shaun Ryder Heckled by Andre Fans

Only at V

[mfeltham]

Faithless, Phonics, Calvin Harris, Magic Numbers and Boy who trapped the sun

[The Fly]

Only did the one day but dam The Courteeners set at Stafford was pretty special. Feeder kicked off the day great, but should have definitely been higher up the bill. Stereophonics as expected was the highlight for me though, but i'm a big fan. Weller was good, especially the first half and the surprise town called mallace! KOL seemed out to prove themselves mentioning news reviews. Would have liked more of their early stuff but enjoyed their set anyway. Only downside to the day is the usual chavs throwing piss and bottles around... I swear there is more of these idiots each year!

Overall though enjoyed it more than last year, better complete line up.... Look forward to the forum speculation on next years line up to start now

[Riggins]

The Courteeners at Stafford was extremely good. Frightened Rabbit and Detroit Social Club were also highlights for me. Thought Kasabian were awful though, really bad.

[luckysalt]

Can't believe the Shaun Ryder story, f**ks sake Peter Andre's name was down on the programme, they dumb or something, twats, wish I'd have seen his set going by NME's playlist though, looked a gud un!

V was like a different festival this year, soooo many 16 years olds there and much younger crowd in general, and the chav factor was off the scale

Highlights for me?

best perforances I saw were

*Skunk Anansie - who were breathtaking, outstanding performance, Skin was amazing

*The Pretty Reckless - seems like they've been going forever, for a new band, first on the stage at midday, they were immense

*eels - great performance by the bearded five, was a fun set and was a nice change of music on the bill

*Paloma Faith - I don't think Id heard anything by her before the set, went along with the mrs, what a performer! Great tunes, danced, band was excellent, the whole set oozed of charm, was very happy I saw her

*Editors - setlist wasn't perfect but, they performed with passion and were well up for it,

On the rest on the line up...

-Phonics sounded great, only saw first half of set, and it was all I needed

-Florence, although not a fan put on a great performance, sang beautifully.

-GLC were a great laugh as usual

-Madness, were possibly the act I was looking forward to the most but, their setlist wasn;t in the best order, and they kinda showed their limitations, still were good, but I wasn't blown away

- Kasabian, grabbed the headline slot and made it theirs, great performance, although the set dragged a bit in the middle so much so I headed over to

-Pet Shop Boys, saw 4 or 5 songs, were alright, but crowd was pretty dead, sound was too similar, surberbia was fun to see live though, but then headed back to Kasabian

- Kings of Leon, too much from recent albums, set dragged, they're at headliner level, but im KOL'd out, I'll give them a miss for 5 years at least now

- Mika, this guy and his band put on a great show, Im not a fan at all, but he was enetertaining and can really hit the high notes, altough as I told the other half sometimes I felt like I was at a kids show

- The Coral, hits filled set, great stuff

- The Courteeners, they seemed a bit dull to me, although I was watching very far back, seemed polished though

- Daisy Dares You, not ready for the stage she was on, couldn't follow the Pretty Reckless

- Chew Lips, great stuff from this guys again, they should get huge

- The High Wire, small time tinny indie, was alright, when they said the set was gunna get rock, it nosedived

- Gentlemans dub Club, were excellent but only caught the very end

- Kate Nash, doesn't seem to know what she wants to be, the bubblegum pop she came out with pretty much sucked these days, her newer stuff seemed loads better, quite punky, tshe should focus on this direction, she shoutred, screamed and swore her head off, must be the influence of her man from the Cribs, who joined her on stage for the end of her set

- Professor Green, guy put on a great show IMO, good at what he does

- Plan B, decent performance, the beatboxing at the start was great but when he actually started to do his songs, I wished he'd have gone back to the beatboxing, still was alright

- Shed Seven, awful performance, sounded washed out and dated, sorry guys, i like you as well but wasn't your best day at the office

- The Kooks and Weller I heard from the campsite as I went back for drinks, both sounded really good. Faithless I heard the start and walked through on their performance, sounded same old stuff and pretty dated now truthfully, maybe I just wasn't in the mood for them on the day, as V's ive seen them in the past they've been awesome

Think thats about it!

I doubt I'll be heading back to V again for some time, as I enjoyed a lot of the smaller acts and new takent and the big headline sets and big names disappointed, plus the crowd just doens't seem my crowd anymore, time to get back to some smaller fests for a while

On other things, toilets weren't cleaned enough and there simply wasn't enough, why the ones by the strongbow had been cut down to so few I dunno

other than that I can't really complain about anything

Prices seemed so high this year though

Hope you guys had a blast!

[Trani on 10]

Highlights:

Skin from Skunk Anasie was awesome. Proper show woman.

Seasick Steve.

The stone baked pizzas from the V Healthy area.

Lowlights:

Too far to walk from campsite to car park.

Queues in and out of the site.

All the Scousers. Annoying chavvy bastards.

[WelshBadger]

Highlight

- Shaking Seasick steves hand when he came down to the crowd.

That really made the weekend complete.

[jimmyd93]

Highlights...

Feeder - Far too low on the bill, but a great way to start the weekend. Arrived just as Buck Rogers started and ended up about 2 rows off the barrier by the end of the song

Chase and Status - I'm not sure how much of it was actually live, and how much was just played off a tape or something...But I don't care. Crowd were amazing

David Guetta - Didn't plan to see him, but ended up not being able to find the V stage, so I went here instead, he was so much better than I was expecting

Example - He was great, saw him come on for Prof Green just before too

Plan B - Love this guy, and he's so good live!

Jamie T - Didn't really know that many songs, went along with a mate, but he now has a new fan!

Faithless - Although I did leave halfway through to get a spot for the Prodigy, what I saw was great

The Prodigy - Best gig of my life. Will take a lot to beat it, too.

[danlen]

Best bits, where do I start!!

The Prodigy!!! omfg, the best performance I have ever seen.

Faithless, Phonics, Feeder, Tinie Tempah (shocking I know ) The Kooks, Madness, Scouting for Girls, Plan B, Temper Trap

A group of blokes camping next to us, one of which we renamed hulk, who tried to pick a fight with all HIS mates when i was completely wasted (Yellow camp, chelmsford)

Bad bits,

KOL, possibly the most bored i've ever been!!

Shaun Ryder, shocking, wasted and reading autocues when performing, but to be fair he put up with a lot of sh1t from the crowd, all deserved due to above. (although the programme did stay The Hoosiers were playing his spot!!!)

Paulo Nutini (see comments about KOL)

All in all a quality weekend, my first full weekend at V. bring on next year

[Vogue]

Highlights....

Kasabian were great, and interacted with the crowd really well.

Hurts- very small crowd, which was expected as they're relatively unknown, but the singer (can't remember his name) has an excellent voice and they were brilliant.

Paul Weller- hearing him play Town Called Malice was incredible.

Bad points....

The walk from campsites-areana-carparks was just too much.

The people didn't seem to be as nice as I remember. I managed to end up on the front row for Stereophonics, and then Kings Of Leon, but really considered asking to be lifted out several times. There were so many huge drunk men trying to force my hands off the barrier and grabbing my waist to pull me away, and getting a group together to all lean forward at the same time just to crush me against the barrier and probably hoping that this would make me leave, which they all found pretty funny. I know getting a bit battered and bruised at the front of any gig is normal and it wouldn't usually worry me, but I found it really frightening that several people were purposely trying to injure me just so that they could take me place at the front. Luckily the stewards at the front were very friendly and were watching out for me, but I'm a massive KOL fan and the whole experience really put a downer on the performance.

[Bennyjp]

I was at shaun Ryder, nothing to di with peter Andre fans it was tinie tempahs mob who were giving him all the w*nker signs. I got speaking to one fella who must of been about 19 or 20 and he said he'd never heard of ryder before! A real shame Cos ryders an absolute legend.

Tinie tempah was quality got the tent jumping big time.

Calvin Harris was mental

jamie t sounded good but the crowd were shite

faithless put on a top show

wellar was a bit boring really!

Editors rocked!

Kasabian? What can I say they were just on another level to any other band over the weekend.

One last mention to the pretty reckless, I'd never heard them before but they had an amazing live sound. Definately a band worth seeing In the future

[jimmyd93]

Ohh! Missed off the bad points.

Being in a queue for 3 freaking hours to get my wristband after getting off the bus :angry: Sort it out Seetickets.

[dizzy_telford]

For me it was Faithless and Feeder! These two were just AMAZING and I had such a great time at both! Feeder should have had a longer set!

In terms of fun, I thought Madness were awesome...just so much fun to have a silly dance too! I thought they were good entertainers!

Then Kasabian were pretty awesome...I especially loved all the lighting...it was fun to watch...

Everyone singing to 'Sex on Fire' was pretty good too...I thought it was a great atmosphere...

I can honestly say there was nothing awfully bad all weekend for me...except my feet hurting (which is just cause Im a wimp), and the 3hr queue to get through securty on Friday morning...but i was with my mates and we just had a laugh and a giggle!

Obviously there were some trampy things, like throwing pee, and people pooing in the showers is pretty rank...but I just got on with it...it wasn't gonna change if I moaned about it!

The weekend was awesome, it was my first time and not one thing would put me off going again...

[wilko8]

Highlights:

Skin from Skunk Anasie was awesome. Proper show woman.

Seasick Steve.

The stone baked pizzas from the V Healthy area.

Lowlights:

Too far to walk from campsite to car park.

Queues in and out of the site.

All the Scousers. Annoying chavvy bastards.

[csd01sdr]

Highlights:

Saturday (Hylands):

The Coral - superb.

The Courteeners - average

The Temper Trap - excellent - Sounded great.

Paul Weller - legend

Stereophonics - good

The Charlatans - superb - Great set - classic after classic.

Sunday:

Rachel Furner - Good - Really enjoyed this young lady.

The Boy Who Trapped the Sun - Superb - Good start to the day.

Shed Seven - Excellent - Hits set

The Kooks - Excellent

Faithless - Excellent

Kasabian - Superb - sounded immense - great headliner

Low points (Hylands)

1. Not enough toliets. Seemed alot less than last year.

2. No exit gate, from the union side of the arena

3. Bottle neck trying to get to the Nissan Juke Arena.

Overall a great weekend which I really enjoyed. Probably one of the best I have been to in recent years.

[pixxyy]

What a Weekend loved it

Highlights:

Mainly the people, everyone was so friendly.

Stereophonics, The Kooks, Paloma Faith, Scouting For Girls,, Kasabian Paul Weller, Plan B, La Roux, Pixie Lott. And think it was Jack McManus in Union.

All the people dressed up, especially the 'fat baywatch' outfit

The Weather! yeah it rained abit on Sat but was that hot the coolness was nice.

Spent most of Yesterday sat near 4music stage sunbathing.

Garlic Bread from opposite Arena, yummy and massive all I ate all Weekend lol

Lows:

Leaving last Night took forever, Sat though we got out straight away.

Loos, even though I kept getting the niceish ones

Kings of Leon, not their performance but fact I spent most of it lying down in North Carpark. Felt rank 2 songs in still could hear set though and lots of nice guys/gals asked if I was ok, as people I was with stayed watching lol

[seby1230]

Very good weekend, much better than last year. apart from mate getting so pissed on friday night he had to miss most of saturdays music. But still great weekend and music was very good. The Prodigy were by a country mile the best band I have ever seen and it was an awesome gig. Tinie Tempah, Calvin Harris, Stereophonics and Paul Weller were also very good. Not going to lie was dissapointed by the kings of leon. Also thought the treatment towards Shaun Ryder was a bit dissapointing, seemed like alot of people just went to get a good spot for tinie and wanted to heckle him. I have to admit the set wassnt the best but still was very harsh and credit to them for continuing the gig

[flossy_]

Highlights:

* Imogen Heap= Although she had 3 power cuts throughout her whole set (!!) which were nothing to do with her but V's fault, she was still amazing, her stuff is SO good live. The ways she handled the disruptions were very professional, obviously it came as quite a shock first time round for her, and there was confusion as to what was going on for a while, but then she did a quick question and answer session while all the technical stuff was being sorted out. After a while it seemed the problems weren't going to get sorted, so she did a crowd version of Just For Now which was very beautiful as everyone participated and sang along. Power got fixed, then went off again during the next song. To cheer us all up she did a beautiful Accapella version of Hide and Seek, which again was lovely Although there were some disruptions, it was so worth the wait to see her because it proved to be quite an intimate and special performance with the way she ended up performing the songs.

* Air= What a tiny crowd! Literally only a handful of people, but I guess they were up against Kasabian and The Prodigy so this is probably why. Their set started off a little dull, however it did get better once they started to play the hits like Sexy Boy, How Does It Make You Feel and Cherry Blossom Girl. They ended with a superb version of La Femme D'argent which really got the crowd going, but shame it came last really. The only thing I would say needed improvement was there light show, I know they couldn't really do anything spectacular on that stage but it was still really basic and didn't really work well with the music apart from the last few songs.

* Also, Chew Lips on the same stage, who I have seen a couple of times before, they are getting better and better everytime which is always a good thing

* Basically I enjoyed spending my time in the Virgin Union tent, I have been to V twice before and haven't bothered to spend any time in there, but now I'm older and can't be bothered to be in the thick of crowds at the main stage anymore, this stage was perfect because everyone I saw there had really small crowds and you could get right to the front without any trouble/having beer/urine chucked on you or you could sit down and chill at the back and still get a really good view. Thumbs up to this!

Furthermore...

*I choose Groove Armada as my headliner on the Saturday, who were very very good, I had a really fun time. I went by myself but I had a good dance to them, especially during Get Down which is epic live and My Friend sounded fantastic too, really hyped me up. Again, surprised at the lack of people there? I was quite near the front but had lots of space to dance around, was just generally a really good atmosphere for them

*Other acts: Skunk Anansie were very good, hadn't heard much of their stuff before but went because I quite like Skin and I knew the hits, really enjoyed myself and will be listening to them again and looking forward to the new album. Seasick Steve, Madness, La Roux, Faithless, all really good too. Madness should have played higher up, they drew a MASSIVE crowd at Chelmsford, it seemed like everyone wanted to see them. Faithless, too, should have headlined. I think they are too big to play second on the stage, again it seemed like everyone was there for them.

Basically, no one I saw was disappointing and it seems like the sound is so much better on the stages now as well compared to previous years!

* VIP area. At first I felt like a pretentious T*** being in this area (i won my V tickets in a competition so i was quite lucky to have access to the hospitality bit.) When i entered, felt a bit weird being in such an 'exclusive area'. however, the food is a bit better in this area, the dj was really really good and you could just generally chill out when you'd had enough of all the crowds and stuff. appreciated it at night when I didn't want to go back to the tent straight away, gave you something to do.

* 3 pound garlic bread near the main stage. very tasty!

Negatives:

* Missing Feeder. was quite up for seeing them, left camp about 30 mins beforehand but there were huge queues so ended up missing them. Which leads me onto..

* General V chaos. I was really concerned by the general safety situation at Chelmsford. I didn't understand why during arena opening/closing peak times, there were huge crowds queuing up but then general site traffic EVERYWHERE, trying to get past/zooming around all over the place. didn't feel safe at all! did anyone else notice this? I think V need to have general pedestrian and vehicles areas, and not combine the two. I've never witnessed this at any other festival and hadn't really noticed it that much in previous years

* to anyone who actually pays for hospitality/vip tickets, i would say it wasn't worth it. yes you get your own separate camping bit and some showers, vip area, which is all nice and everything, but you do pay an extra 20 quid for this when you get there plus extra ticket cost, and the toilets aren't any better. there was also only one snack van in the camping area which only seemed to serve bacon in the morning and burgers/fish at night, so it sorta sucked if you're vegetarian.

* my biggest problem is that we came to site not bringing everything, hoping to buy some things from the camp shop, which were in red and yellow, not being aware at the time that we weren't allowed in the other camps to access the shops, which personally i found silly cos i'd always read on here that if you have vip tickets you can still get in the other areas, but you cannot. was frustrating cos we bought a lot of food to cook but the stuff we were after for cooking we weren't able to get hold of.

* Knobby men. nuff said.

Overall, I was quite surprised. I don't really have a wild time at festivals anymore, but I still really enjoyed myself and saw some acts i wouldn't of seen before, and i was surprised V had stuff on the lineup like Imogen and Air and Skunk Anansie which made it a bit different and sorta makes up for the copious amount of pop on the lineup this year!

[oscar]

I only went Sunday Chelmsford.

Highs.

Skunk Anansie right down the front.

Seasick Steve surprised how much I enjoyed him.

The Prodigy The best I have ever seen them was totally blown away.

Faithless didn`t actually mind them considering I don`t know any of their stuff.

Spent time between Strongbow and Bacardi and the bar and got very drunk.

lows.

I don`t know why as I have been a fan since the beginning almost but I really could not get into Madness.

Boys and girls peeing everywhere no matter where I stood someone peed next to me or at least it seemed that way hence why I missed bands as I got a bit for want of a better word pissed off with it.I know there was large Qs for the loos but be a bit discreet.I have been going to V every year since 2003 and have never known it to be that bad.

Chavs was over run with them.

Rotten hangover today self inflicted

[phil the shrew]

Weston Park for me

Highs

Florence and the machine - great show, liked the way she slightly reworked songs to keep them fresh

Neil Hannon - mocking the people who go "wooh" when they see themselves on the screen - "You get the same affect with a mirror"

Boy Who Trapped the Sun - not seen him before but was impressed

Pet Shop Boys - forgotten how many songs they have done and the stage show they put on was great and included really good dancers

Temper Trap - great energy in their set and Sweet Disposition was a lovely festival moment

Shaun Ryder - Despite the drugs he's a legend. Loved the Tinie Temper fans asking who he was - bless their cotton socks

Seasick Steve - getting the girl on stage and singing to her was actually quite sweet.

Ostrich burgers - tasty and apparently low in fat so quite healthy

Free muller rice and kit kat chunkys

Lows

Madness - Great tunes but felt they were slightly going through the motions

People wearing football shirts to the festival - I like footy but come on a wolves shirt is not festival fashion

Kings of Leon - Good set but once they had done Sex on Fire I nearly got trampled by people leaving to head home - despite the set lasting another 20 minutes.

People shouting Alan and thinking it was funny

Sugarbabes - Really? Come on that cash cow has bolted.

Having to pay £3.70 for warm wine or flat carling. I know there is money to be made from the festival licence but come on let people take reasonable amounts of their own beer/wine into the arena. Treat people like idiots and they will act like it as shown by the wee throwing on most stages.

[Funkyfairy!]

Didn't travel around a lot due to broken foot, so ended up being static and just 'seeing who was on' but

Highlights - Stereophonic- awesome,

Feeder - great start and should be further up the bill,

Newton Faulkner a real surprise for me and good,

Pet Shop Boys - really good, twas raining and didn;t want my cast getting too wet and PSB put on a great show

Skunk Anansie - Awesome and what a woman :-)

Lows - the crowd for Doves - they were awesome as always - the crowd just didn;t get it which was gutting :-(

Passion Pit - just a bit nothingy !

[Riggins]

Funkyfairy, Passion Pit weren't great, but I'm sure there was something up with the singer's voice, the sound sounded way off, anyway they're brilliant on record so don't write them off

[seby1230]

One low for me was when people next to me were chucking coins about into the crowd. As much as the chucking bottles is a bit annoying its just about bearable(as long as its not piss) but i really think throwing coins is well over the top and you are risking knocking someone out if it whacks them on the head