V festival 2012 - Weston Park Sunday Review
Day two of V festival brought a wet start to the Weston Park site but by the time we came to watch Emeli Sande the rain had all but stopped. Emeli’s strong female vocals bouncing all around the area and sparking the very large crowd to sing along to her hit “Next to me” amongst other songs in her set. We wandered around to watch Tim Burgess, sporting a fetching Dappy style hat which underneath saw a thick head of bright blonde hair, sang the back catalogue of The Charlatans hits to a wet but very jubilant crowd.
Moving over to watch Marlon Roudette play the undercover stage, we were greeted with a wonderful musician and vocalist. A former member of the band “Mattafix”, Marlon may have not drawn a huge crowd, but he certainly won over the crowd that was there. His vocals are smooth, clear and certainly unique. He doesn’t get to play much in the UK but on the strength of this set, I’d definitely like to see more of this young man.
On the 4 music stage, Tinie Tempah was rocking the crowds but we decided to go see Newton Faulkner, mainly to see what all the fuss about him is. With his long dreads and wonderful guitar playing I can see the attraction although I found the covers he played, detracted from his own music, and found myself wanting him to just do his own material which I found far superior. But on seeing him play I can definitely see the attraction and although I haven’t heard much of his recorded stuff I have the feeling that the live version is far superior.
With so much going on, its hard to see everything at V festival, but we managed to briefly catch some of Keane, with lead singer, Alex Ebert, looking a lot thinner than when I last remembered due to, as a woman next to me in the crowd proceeded to inform me, his slim fast diet. We also managed to catch a few numbers by Sub Focus. Sounding a lot like Pendulum, their amazing light show was matched with some high energy music but they should have been far further up the bill to really draw the crowds.
Tim Minchin, was starting his set at the same time as Sub Focus, so we shot across to see some of his set. We had caught him previously at Rockness were he had played solo. This time around he was joined on stage by a band. This, for me, took away a lot of the uniqueness and most of the time, drowned out Tim’s vocals and did nothing to add to the set itself.
Finally for us, we had the one and only Noel Gallagher to witness. With his high flying birds, this was a highly anticipated set and one he didn’t let anyone down on. Mixing his new stuff with Oasis material worked a treat, although as most of his new work is already full of sing-a-long and chant lyrics, it would be easier just to do a 30-45 min set of just that alone. But once again, hearing the crowd sing along to Noel’s lyrics was truly an experience I had missed since the split of Oasis and going by the reaction to songs like “Little by little” and “Supersonic”, I’m guessing most of the audience had to. Finishing on the inevitable “Don’t look back in anger” Noel rounded off a faultless set.
Review by Thomas Lennon
Moving over to watch Marlon Roudette play the undercover stage, we were greeted with a wonderful musician and vocalist. A former member of the band “Mattafix”, Marlon may have not drawn a huge crowd, but he certainly won over the crowd that was there. His vocals are smooth, clear and certainly unique. He doesn’t get to play much in the UK but on the strength of this set, I’d definitely like to see more of this young man.
On the 4 music stage, Tinie Tempah was rocking the crowds but we decided to go see Newton Faulkner, mainly to see what all the fuss about him is. With his long dreads and wonderful guitar playing I can see the attraction although I found the covers he played, detracted from his own music, and found myself wanting him to just do his own material which I found far superior. But on seeing him play I can definitely see the attraction and although I haven’t heard much of his recorded stuff I have the feeling that the live version is far superior.
With so much going on, its hard to see everything at V festival, but we managed to briefly catch some of Keane, with lead singer, Alex Ebert, looking a lot thinner than when I last remembered due to, as a woman next to me in the crowd proceeded to inform me, his slim fast diet. We also managed to catch a few numbers by Sub Focus. Sounding a lot like Pendulum, their amazing light show was matched with some high energy music but they should have been far further up the bill to really draw the crowds.
Tim Minchin, was starting his set at the same time as Sub Focus, so we shot across to see some of his set. We had caught him previously at Rockness were he had played solo. This time around he was joined on stage by a band. This, for me, took away a lot of the uniqueness and most of the time, drowned out Tim’s vocals and did nothing to add to the set itself.
Finally for us, we had the one and only Noel Gallagher to witness. With his high flying birds, this was a highly anticipated set and one he didn’t let anyone down on. Mixing his new stuff with Oasis material worked a treat, although as most of his new work is already full of sing-a-long and chant lyrics, it would be easier just to do a 30-45 min set of just that alone. But once again, hearing the crowd sing along to Noel’s lyrics was truly an experience I had missed since the split of Oasis and going by the reaction to songs like “Little by little” and “Supersonic”, I’m guessing most of the audience had to. Finishing on the inevitable “Don’t look back in anger” Noel rounded off a faultless set.
Review by Thomas Lennon
