The first incident was our setting up our tent in the car park by mistake. It was the first year the fest had made it to Staffordshire and organisation was appalling! We also visited the dance tent on the Friday which was playing some incredible music such as Nirvana and The Stone Roses, and the size of the arena was overwhelming to us at the time. No other memories spring to mind except how incredibly loud our campsite was, the big chant being "apple pie!", and also that at some point early on we met up with some school friends and hung around the fairground area. So now I'll soldier onto Saturday and the first bands!
---------------------------
First up was the second stage and One Lady Owner, who we may have been seeing on Joel's recommendation. All I remember is that they were crap.
It was then off to the main arena for the rest of the day. The Cardigans truly were mediocre, the stereotypical V band. Fortunately I stayed awake throughout!
Oh dear... I hope I didn't see all of Gomez. Can't even remember if I did or not, but they were their usual whiny selves I'm positive.
And now the day started properly at last. The great big twat John Power came onstage and said "hello Chelmsford!" which immediately set off some hilarious anti-Liverpool heckles. My first great festival moment! And I must admit that Cast were a really fun live band. I moved further and further forwards and, in hilarious festival incident number two, lost Joel in the moshpit and didn't find him again that day. From what I hear he's still moaning about that skank today, but it was funny so I don't care. I know Cast are about as popular as Toploader now, but this really was an enjoyable festival show (especially Walkaway) and here I now was, towards the front all by myself for the rest of the day...
If you take the absolute awfulness of this band (in their 1999 incarnation at least), and also take The Menace by Elastica into consideration, everyone on Earth would be scared off drugs for life!! This truly was dire stuff by the Happy Mondays. The one song of theirs I knew at the time was Wrote For Luck but I don't think it was played. All we got was Shaun Ryder drawling and Bez acting like a twat, waving his maracas around in slow motion (it's hard to explain his dancing). Well... in fairness Bez was quite funny and I've duplicated his dancing on many a night out but this really was a poor show that could have been performed by any druggy band in the world. My opinion of the Mondays has since softened, but all that mattered was that I had worked my way to the very front, although it really was smelly there! I think someone had had an accident...
At the time I liked them and enjoyed it. The Stereophonics came on to Hurry Up And Wait which was a perfect low-key opener and they probably played their other hits. They actually rocked quite hard in those early days. I also got Richard's attention at one point, which was nice. The crush was quite obscene by this time.
Yes, it's true. In retrospect it was a fairly sparse day. But one thing cannot be argued. And that is that Suede were absolutely fucking awesome! Words almost fail me at just how great they were on this one night. The crowd were insane - by the end my knees were being pressed violently into the barrier as it seemed those behind me had simply died. The sound quality was spot-on. The setlist was great. The stage was nice, with large pillars for some reason. But it was Brett who stole the show, with the most insane routine of handclapping ever seen. He really was mad for it and everyone loved them. The highlight was opener Can't Get Enough that rocked just about as hard as anything else I've ever seen. They also reminded us it was Saturday night before closing with the song. Suede could never have been this good again, but on this night they truly were kings of the universe!
---------------------------
And then it was back to the tent and it seemed everyone else had actually seen and appreciated Suede too which is a testament to their brilliance. Joel was very pissed off at my skank, and became more and more mardy as the festival progressed and I pushed harder and harder for him to see SFA, guaranteeing he'd love them if he dared give them a try. After digging himself into a ridiculous hole, he (and everyone else) failed to see them, being scared of proving how right I was. I digress now, but the Super Furries were so awesome that anyone who had the open mind to see them would became a rabid fan and burn all their old records. But I'm surrounded by frigging idiots so nevermind. Roll on Sunday...
SONG OF THE DAY: Suede - Can't Get Enough
