The Friday passed with moderate drinking and little excitement. For some reason (probably James Bond related) I'd purchased some Martini and it was horrible. I finished off the bottle though and it didn't even get me drunk which was lame. Also we invented Vodka & Irn Bru before the stuff became big in the shops! We spent some time in the dance tent but the quality of music was enormously inferior to the previous years and I just couldn't get into it. The only notable incident was the playing of what I initially thought was a brilliant mix of the (awful) Plug In Baby by Muse and the (awesome) Sexy Boy by Air. It turned out that Muse had just ripped the song off and somehow no-one else had noticed! And, of course, Nick was first to get to sleep at a truly lightweight time! Some insomniac! But now came Saturday and the music...

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It must had been a slow start to the day as Witness opened up our festival. And they were awful. Truly offensive indie wank I recall, and we were very quick to move on. It may had been all three of us at this point, the memory fails.

It was off to the second stage now for a fairly enjoyable set by Santa's Boyfriend who were some American rock act added to the bill at the last minute. They had a cool name and were actually pretty good, so we were happy to sit around and watch.

For some reason I daren't recall, we then went off to see The Bush, The Tree & Me who were absolutely fucking awful. They're some girl band who never caught on, being too shit for even the average pop fan to fall for. They were singing (or should that be squealing?) at an incredible volume too, and we left quickly before any permanent mental harm was caused.

I think I then found myself on my own and returned to the third stage for a bit of Alfie. They were really good too, with a nice bit of Mancunian charm and tunefulness I was surprised by. Best set of the day so far.

I stuck around and worked my way forwards to witness a novelty performance. By being tucked away down the stages, Atomic Kitten received what could actually be termed a warm welcome. They may have got bottled at Chelmsford, but here they were treated well. Singing was, believe it or not, in tune. Whole Again was the first sing-along of the festival and was surprisingly nice. Eternal Flame was the only other tune that registered. It was short and sweet since they finished before it became boring. Despite them being Scouse one-hit wonders, they provided a genuinely OK show, I'm surprised to report.

I believe I then wondered off, probably witnessing the scary group of men going around dressed as Spider-Man, before yet again returning to the JJB Arena to get in very early for the big two: Grandaddy and Ian Brown. Firstly though I got to see Sparklehorse who, despite being slightly miserablist, weren't that bad at all, with a few turbo-charged spells of intense guitar.

I was now thrilled to walk straight to the front but firstly had to contend with Tricky who I recall as being unspectacular and a bit boring. He wore a vest, which is about the only notable thing that comes to mind here. The crowd seemed quite indifferent.

Next up were the band who'd made this a festival worth going to: Grandaddy. Sadly they were clashing with Dave Grohl's so-so pop act so no-one else came along. They opened in stunning fashion with You Are My Sunshine, and even the bouncers just had to stop what they were doing to look at the stage and enjoy the show. Not that the crowdsurfing was that intense! There was a fantastic video screen (reminiscent of The Flaming Lips and the Best Show Ever of the previous year in the same place) that changed with each song, most notably to the windmills during Hewlett's Daughter and featured the band in action through a camera. Summer Here Kids and AM 180 rocked just as hard as I imagine Foo Fighters were doing outside, and the moshpit got going a little! Two songs I'd never appreciated before were Non Phenomenal Lineage and Everything Beautiful Is Faraway, which were truly astonishing. The Crystal Lake and Beautiful Ground were also stunning. The gig ended and the video screen froze in a glorious cinematic moment. Grandaddy had comfortably walked away with the title of best band here.

SETLIST

You Are My Sunshine/Chartsengrafs/Summer Here Kids/Everything Beautiful Is Faraway/AM 180/Hewlett's Daughter/Non Phenomenal Lineage/The Crystal Lake/He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot/Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)/Miner At The Dial-A-View/So You'll Aim Toward The Sky

(This may not be in the correct order. They also played two songs that I didn't know...)

It's something I never quite understand. Perhaps it's the laddish nature of his music, which fits in with the festival vibe. But once again, despite having absolutely no desire a few days before, I found myself looking forward to seeing Ian Brown with almost frightening intensity. So long Red Hot Chilli Peppers! But there can be no doubt I made the right decision here as it was raining outside (and leaking slightly into the tent), I had a place right at the front and Monkey Man was on awesome form, as were the crowd! In a truly glorious festival moment, after keeping us waiting for ages, Ian Brown rode onstage on a bicycle. It was simple but genius!! Note the pic above: I captured the moment, and in the corner of my pic is the NME photographer who took the exact same pic as me that made it into NME and is shown above too. Thus I got a photo of him taking his picture, and he's clearly smiling at the antic it must be noted.

So, after going a few laps on the bike and whipping the crowd into a near dangerous frenzy, Ian then got down to business. The highlight was My Star. Or should that be highlights? It could have been a mistake caused by the excitement of the moment, but the song was played TWICE! And, despite several songs by Grandaddy being delivered with almost life-changing awesomeness, this was the tune of the day! We also got new single F.E.A.R., which I'd never heard before but it was enormously catchy and I think the bike had something to do with the video of the single. I believe he omitted Corpses, but most other hits were delivered in triumphant fashion, with someone even throwing a banana onstage! The crush may had been unbearable, pushing me towards the right, but Ian Brown went one stage further to assuring his status as a living God. This was wonderful stuff.

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But my first day was effectively over, as I wondered towards the main stage and caught literally the last ten seconds of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers who were strumming their guitars very slowly and I guess their whole set was similar as that was the thing they were into at the time.

But it was back to the campsite where the big festival chant of the year had really started to take off: "TIMMAH!" Sheer genius from South Park, and a fantastic one-off chant. One or two people were singing "heads and shoulders, knees and toes, KNEES AND TOES!" which made me think for some reason that Turin Brakes had performed it but they hadn't.

We also invented the fantastic game of foothat to go with the "hilarious" novelty hat that Nick had bought. We strapped it to the ceiling of the tent then kicked at it. The rules (if there were any) are long forgotten but it was fun fun fun! I then got rather drunk, hung around with some schoolmates who were camping near us, and ended up passing out in the tent (after Nick had fallen asleep naturally). I also unravelled some toilet roll out of curiosity and it was quite astonishing just how short it is!

SONG OF THE DAY: Ian Brown - My Star