V festival 2012 - Weston Park Saturday Review

The first day of V saw everyone basking in a whole lot of sunshine while soaking up all the different musical genres on offer. With four different stages covering new, popular and a few all out legendary acts, you could say that at times you were spoilt for choice for who you wanted to listen to, but ours started of with The Enemy, who rocked the 4 Music stage to its core with their indie rock sound, including "Had Enough" and "Away From Here", which had the crowd bouncing and singing along, despite the heat.  

Next up was Tom Jones, who hit the Virgin Media stage doing what Tom does best, blasting his way through a 50 minute set of his vast back catalogue. With his Welsh lilt cascading across the arena with opening number, "Mama Told Me Not Too Come", crowd sing along favourite, "Delilah" and a dirty blues track, originally by Howlin Wolf called "Evil", which he collaborated with Jack White on earlier this year, Tom Jones certainly still knows how to whip that crowd up into a frenzy and definitely crosses over to any age group that was there and you can clearly see he still loves every single second of it.  

Off we trotted then to the Arena tent, to get a bit of a break from the sunshine and see a lot of people coming along for an 80's electro pop nostalgia trip with the Human League. I have to admit, I was never a big fan and for me personally, their music is very similar, so much so, that I thought they'd played the same song twice, but their fans loved it all. With them taking to the stage all clad in black and to be honest looking quite severe and futuristic, think Matrix crossed with Demolition Man outfits, they soon ditched the severe look for a bit of glitter and glitz while taking us back in time with "Fascination", "Mirror Man" and what seemed to have one of the best reactions from the crowd of the weekend, "Don't You Want Me", the only song that received a bigger response was "Don't Look Back In Anger", who'd have though eh!!! 

Snow Patrol were finally back at V for the first time since 2009 and started off their set with a few slower, more melancholy numbers, which I think gave everyone a chance to have a bit of a breather, thankfully, that didn’t last for too long as someone through a giant inflatable penis at Gary Lightbody, who immediately broke down into a fit of giggles mid song, and then the rock started. The set was mixed with new and old including, my all time favourite, "Cars" and "Run", which I can now listen to again, after Leona Lewis managed to destroy it for me for quite some time. 

The Happy Monday's were in the Arena tent and it was one packed out place. With the legendary Bez introducing them, they played a set full of favourites and some older more obscure tracks, but got the biggest response from the crowd with "Step On" and "Kinky Afro", which saw Bez doing what Bez does best and I think that’s what some people turn up for!! With Suggs from Madness stage invading, being escorted off and sneaking back on to be dance support, he really does like doing this now a days, and Rozalla on fine vocal form as usual, it was just unfortunate, that Shaun Ryder's vocals were a bit muffled and you had to really strain to hear him at times, but he did take everyone back to the "Beefa" days when hedonism was second nature to the Monday's, but even though their full on partying days may be behind them, they still manage to capture the hearts of all us 90's kids that remember their heady days and what they brought to all of us, including making maraca's cool again!! 

As dusk was settling over Weston Park, LMFAO, took to the 4 Music stage to headline the Saturday night, and whether you love them or hate them, you cannot deny that they put on one hell of an energetic show, with zebras running across the stage and a big pink bear pretending to play DJ decks and so much neon it started to hurt your eyes. Opening with "Sorry for Party Rocking" they continued on the same full on party thread and had the crowd hooked, unfortunately, they clashed with The Killers so we missed the last part of their performance and the two most famous songs, "Sexy and I know It" and "Party Rockers" which I was dying to see them perform as well, but judging by the noise from the crowd they went down an absolute storm. 

  

Final act for us was The Killers, who gave one hell of a performance to end the Saturday night at the Virgin Media stage, with a massive turn out, they did their crowd proud. Playing all the crowds favourites, including "Mr Brightside" and "Read My Mind" and covered Oasis's "Don't Look Back in Anger" which had the biggest response of the night. The 90 minute set passed by with a flash of an eye and before you knew it the main stage was in darkness, and we were left there wanting more, and The Killers did to as they came back on amid huge applause and cheers to perform "Jenny was a Friend of Mine" and "When You were Young" amid a backdrop of fireworks. The only thing missing was Brandon Flowers feathered shouldered jacket!! 

Review by Alison Goggin