Wolverhampton West Park
12th August 2018
£3.50

I seem to have gone hopelessly astray with my reviews, only writing this up one day shy of three months after the event. I also have fallen rather far behind on my photos too, but after spending 20 years documenting every "official" concert I've attended I would feel bad to stop now, also because the process of writing up the notes reminds me about the shows and gives me something to remember them by in years to come, whereas musicals or non-band outings I attend don't get a review, and as a consequence depart my mind much sooner after the event. When I caught wind of the biggest tribute music festival coming to Wolverhampton for a third year in a row, and more importantly that a Daft Punk act were part of the line-up, I posted about it at work to try and persuade colleagues to join, although everyone was pathetically flaky and unwilling to even commit to the £3.50 booking fee, and in the end I just got a ticket for myself, eventually buying a second one just in case, but as it happened there was only one friend I felt like going with as the event approached, and they weren't interested and the weather forecast was poor, so I lowered my sights to just show up, see Daft Punk, briefly wander around and then depart to continue enjoying my weekend. A few work people did attend but on the Saturday - which had a less interesting line-up - and rudely didn't invite me along, but it's exactly this kind of shitiness which is why I so often don't even bother to ask. The overall line-up was geared towards hard rock, but for me I'd seen the actual Guns 'N' Roses, and the lure of people going mad to artists who aren't the real thing just wasn't that great for me.

The reason I went was initially because I thought it would be a good social outing, but also because I've pretty much given hope of those lazy fuckers Daft Punk ever actually going out and touring again. Their pyramid shows of 2007 looked pretty much the greatest thing I've ever seen, and they'd failed to materialise for an Alive 2017 tour as so many people anticipated, and because their music is largely pre-recorded, and they wear helmets anyway - and as the real deal are unobtainable - it seemed easily justifiable to pop along to see a tribute playing a field so near me for next to no cost. I had never quite got over the annoyance that no-one wanted to see previous Daft Punk tribute shows with me, but in the end it was great to cross them off my list with such a local and cheap show, and I quite liked the fact that they were playing to a festival crowd and so I wouldn't get roped into unwanted dancing or moshing, and could check them out in front of a less enthused and more casual audience. The festival were repeatedly panicking people into thinking that the event would sell out months ahead of time, and I think in reality the tickets did go eventually. I printed out the running order and a site map at work and just decided in the end that I didn't want to hang around for hours and hours to watch Status Quo or Queen tributes, also as I'd already seen the real Quo three times, and as I refuse to watch Queen without Freddie Mercury, so my happily seeing an entirely fake Queen would feel a bit wrong.

It's amazing to think that part of my motivation for not attending for longer was so I'd have less stuff to write about and could do the review sharpish, but given the time elapsed I can only really remember what I've written down. The day before I'd enjoyed an incredible three tasting dishes matched with beer at the wonderful Head Of Steam in Birmingham, and on the morning of the show I went swimming and saw two episodes of Crusade, the Babylon 5 spin-off I was watching for completism purposes. Television in fact is pretty much the only thing I managed to catch up with in the three months after this festival! I inflated my car tyres and parked conveniently at work, walking to the park and round it to find the entrance as it rained, but luckily the shower didn't last too long. It turned out that the way in was on the exact opposite side of the park to what I'd hoped for, although they had fenced off a relatively small section of the park overall for the event. Would it really have been so bad to just let it be open access, and allow people to bring their own food and drink in if they wished? If security considerations are what prevented this then that's a sad state of affairs, but I can't help but feeling that protecting the profits of the food and drink vendors was the primary motivation. I don't think anyone would have begrudged a few extra pounds on the ticket fees either, as if it really is a quarter as over-subscribed as the organisers kept panicking the ticket-buyers into thinking, then why not just charge a perfectly reasonable £8 or so and make more money out of it?

I could hear Noel Gallagher's tribute AKA Noel Gallagher playing She's Electric as I walked round the outside of the arena, and also a snippet of Red Hot Chili Peppers, who I don't rate at all beyond Love Rollercoaster so I had no inclination whatsoever to see them. The fact I hadn't even bothered to watch Noel perform immediately before Daft Punk says it all about how keen I was in get in and out as quickly as I could, and also the fact I'd seen the real artist meant that I really wasn't fussed. Getting into the site was quite straightforward, with just a brief search and a fairly relaxed metal detector. There were ludicrous rules advertised saying that you weren't even allowed to bring empty bottles of water on site, but I'm sure I could have smuggled one in if I'd tried, and these stupid restrictions just put me off going to events like this, as protecting their profits is clearly the motivation. It was a shame that my second ticket went to waste, but I was given a green paper wristband when I got in, and I considered £7 (for both tickets) to be a more than fair price to finally (sort of) get to watch Daft Punk live! There were a few food stalls, benches for eating/drinking and fairground rides, and also the grass had been cleared and replaced with a sandy mud, which is a bit of a shame but I guess it stands up better to rain than the sludge that grass can become. The action I was interested in was taking place on the second stage, which was an indoor reasonably-sized tent, and as the sound had already drawn me in I was now quite keen to check out the Noel Gallagher tribute.

The site actually felt rather quiet, meaning perhaps the rain had put people off - which would have further undermined the super-cheap ticket price - or that fans would be showing up later on, or that they'd lied entirely about the popularity of the festival, or simply had kept the capacity low in any case. It was rather sad that people were going to miss out on Daft Punk, who seemed so obviously the best draw of the day, and even accounting for different tastes, it does seem shameful that they only had an afternoon slot at 5pm on the much smaller second stage. But Noel Gallagher was still doing his thing in front of a large crowd, and as I heard Don't Look Back In Anger was well underway I didn't try to venture inside the tent, figuring it would all be over soon. But Noel then surprised me by finishing off with a cover of All You Need Is Love, which encouraged me to go inside the tent towards the back and listen properly for a bit. He wore sunglasses, looked and sounded the part, and I did wonder if he'd focused more heavily on Oasis material then Noel himself would have done. Also it was an interesting choice to pay tribute to the solo act rather than just go a little bit further and do the full band. Perhaps this was testament to the fact that Noel's solo material has actually connected and done genuinely well, rather than being a pale shadow of past glories? Noel did miss the chance to do a snippet of She Loves You at the end of All You Need Is Love, but I shot a brief video anyway, capturing some fans singing along and bobbing their heads. The sound quality was pretty decent too, and the open side of the tent meant that it was easy to get in, although this could have been problematic if anyone proved to be a bigger draw than the organisers anticipated.

The tent quickly emptied after The Chief though, so I also went back outside to pop to the loos before easily securing a position at the front towards the left. There were even some seats toward the back and the bar was rather empty, and the tent was sponsored by Planet Nightclub, where I'd enjoyed an especially messy night out a couple of months before this. The DJ impressively played Burn Baby Burn and Everything Now, as a small Daft Punk banner was hung in front of the sound desk onstage, and the stage was set for Daft Punk tribute act Daft Punkx, who appeared just as the DJ played Something 4 The Weekend by SFA, rudely cutting it off to allow their entrance. I'd posted a Facebook status proudly declaring that I was about to see Daft Punk live, and the fact that it was rudely snubbed by everyone just reminded me why I keep seeing these things by myself, and made me feel frustrated that getting someone along for an almost-free concert to see such a wonderful band - albeit in tribute form - was so difficult. But the tent was filling up again and gradually got fuller as the show went on and people heard the wonderful sounds coming from within, and Daft Punk were pretty punctual despite Noel having overran a little. There was strangely no applause as Daft Punk wandered onstage with their helmets in place, but the guys defied this lacklustre welcome with a genuinely fantastic start, and one that took me nicely by surprise.

I'd obviously been hoping for One More Time to kick things off, but the loud techno sounds of the relentless Robot Rock confounded my expectations by actually being even more awesome! It was a perfect opener and a tune I barely recognised, and I shot a video capturing pink lights and the strobes in the background, plus the guys bobbing their heads. One was pointing out to the other what he needed to press and they were both in white shirt and tie, but amusingly below the waist they had made zero effort, with one guy in shorts and the other in jeans. I guess they took the attitude that buying expensive helmets that looked the part was sufficient, and who could argue with such logic? The helmets were clearly hot though as they kept rubbing their faces within the masks, and for all I know this could have been the actual band fucking about and playing live, which is the kind of perverse thing that you'd think the real Daft Punk would be totally up for. I felt good to be enjoying dance music and to think that I'd appreciated Daft Punk for a full 20 years, and when they got to Da Funk my camera captured green lights and a lovely tease of the music before letting the song hit its stride, which was fabulous but not quite as long as I'd have liked. However the tune I really wanted was One More Time, and it was a tragedy that the guys completely fucked it up, totally ignoring the glorious instrumentation to loop the vocals over some anonymous beats.

If they'd been building into the real song after a tease it could have been incredible, but One More Time finished prematurely after meandering around pointlessly for a bit. I shot a video capturing the purple lights, and it is devastating to think that not only may I never get to see the real Daft Punk live, but that my big chance to enjoy a perfect rendition of their best song had been pissed away. And the tragedy is that the rest of the set was wonderful, with most things spot-on, so I can only hope that eventually I get to see the real band in action and this moment is made up for in the best possible way! The crowd were getting into it though, with a little dancing and enthusiastic whooping, creating a pleasant nightclub vibe which was also sedate enough that I could fit in at the front taking photos and videos, nodding my head enthusiastically but not going mad. Around The World was great but too short, although I doubt that the real band would have performed it to its full length either so I was kind-of braced for this. The video I shot captured purple lights and the incredible repetition of the tune, making me wonder just what trick enables Daft Punk to make great dance music where so many people fail? I think a great underlying tune coupled with a perfect sense for just how much to vary the song as it progresses is the key. Get Lucky was enthusiastically received but I've always felt a little irked by how it has become more popular than their better earlier tunes, although getting us to clap our hands reminded me that this was a genuinely good song, even if it does receive an unreasonable level of attention.

Daft Punk did not talk to us and had an Apple laptop onstage to generate their sounds, and I did wonder just how much of the material was created by them and how much was the original pre-recorded Daft Punk music being played right back at us. There was a really interesting song I didn't know at the time which I thought referenced monsieur in the lyrics and had a "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha" hook, but at the time I couldn't find anything on my Google search to shed light as to what it was, and as I'm so far behind with my reviews I must resist the temptation to try and find out now. I eventually discovered it was Psycho Killer by Talking Heads though! Daft Punk had blown most of their hits so then surprised me with a rendition of Blue Monday, which went down a storm and made me wonder if they'd depart from the source material altogether and just play Air's greatest hits while they were at it! I shot a video capturing a nice call and response of some whooping, with the guys putting their hands to their ears to encourage our participation. It was a cheeky misappropriation of an unrelated dance record, but it felt like the kind of thing that the real Daft Punk either would do, or should do. The crowd was pleasantly enthusiastic but it was far from rammed, with some very young kids even running around near the front without any restrictions from the people. It was at a perfect level of enthusiasm and it felt good to know that if anyone had been open-minded enough to have joined me that they'd had enjoyed it just as much as I did!

A recurring trick was launching into snippets of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger throughout the set, but Daft Punk eventually delivered a proper version of the track, and by now even the bouncer had started to dance! I shot a video capturing more purple lights and strobes, and the cheeky setlist impressed further as the guys then launched into Music Sounds Better With You, which has always spiritually been a Daft Punk song, although only one of the two guys were actually involved in it. Aerodynamic went down nicely, and the crowd showed their general enthusiasm by giving a cover version of Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) by the Eurythmics perhaps even more attention than any of the Daft Punk songs. The guys had blown most of their hits at the outset of their 1 hour plus set, but had done it in a crowd-pleasing way, probably much more so than the real band would ever have done. Perhaps they showed their own indifference for the new material by performing practically nothing from Random Access Memories besides the big hit, but it was a shame that the brilliant Tron Legacy soundtrack had also been ignored. Daft Punk vacated the stage to my right, ruining the magic a little by immediately removing their helmets before they'd even left our sights. They'd absolutely won us over, with Robot Rock storming the award for the best song of the day, but the piss-poor rendition of One More Time was particularly grating, as it took the shine off an otherwise fabulous set.

An announcement was made that Bon Jovi and Happy Mondays would be swapping stages, but this meant I had to depart swiftly in case the guy who seems to soil himself every time Happy Mondays take to the stage extends his little trick to tribute versions of the band too! I left the tent and by now the rain had gone and the sun even started to come out as I was driving away, making me realise that this was one of the only music events that I've ever departed from by car rather than public transport. I got a chicken wrap at a reasonable-looking food stall, but was annoyed that they'd ran out of potatoes, while in the background Foo Fighters tribute Fu Fighters were playing Breakout, which I shot a quick video of. I don't know if it was them or my camera but the sound quality was really poor, although the strobes and smoke looked quite cool. Even though by now it was dry there were still lots of umbrellas up, but the large outdoor main stage dedicated to a tribute act who were blatantly not the real thing felt a little bit sad, and even more so to think that these guys had been oblivious to the wonderful performance taking place in the much smaller tent. The heavy rock focus had likely attracted a more closed-minded crowd, and I think if they'd had more fun and gone for a truly eclectic line-up, with different genres being represented on different days and different stages, then a more varied clientele would have materialised.

Even though I'd been onsite for less than three hours I made my way to the exit, being hugely annoyed by a security tosser trying to interrogate me as to where I'd got my wrap from, probably suspecting me of having outside food. As I was literally leaving the site when he asked his dumb question it was none of his business anyway, and he was very fortunate I didn't just tell him to go fuck himself. Twat. Also the outside of the arena was overran with Wolverhampton's pathetic gang of fake homeless people pestering everyone, so the focus of security should have been on keeping those people out of the park so they couldn't harass everyone. My notes are a little unclear, but they indicate that I purchased a second wrap and a drink because I was still hungry, before I got in my car and drove back home. I hoovered my flat and watched Hotel Transylvania 2 once I got back, and although my ears were whistling at first as I'd been standing in front of the speakers, they soon recovered. It was very fortunate that I wrote up such comprehensive notes at the time as it has meant I've been able to recall so many details despite the three-month gap! Although it wasn't the fun social occasion I'd hoped for, I'd ticked my desired box of watching Daft Punk live and I reckon the inconsistent line-up and rain would have sabotaged any greater plans of mine in either case, so the day had proved to be a success!

SONG OF THE DAY: Daft Punk - Robot Rock