Good Noise: Volume 32
This edition of GN is a V Festival special for you, celebrating the best of the bands that I saw when I first went to V, which was ten years ago. Again, belated by a week, this edition of Good Noise was supposed to be published on the weekend of 18/19 August, which is when the V Festival took place this year.
I went to the V Festival as a wee 17-year-old, in another millennium, when it still had numbers in its name….yes, I went to V97. I am so old skool I remember when the festival took place at Chelmsford and Leeds….before Reading grabbed the Leeds site off them for themselves. They still scored (in my opinion anyway) as the V Festival took up residence in Staffordshire (my home county, woo-hoo!) for its second site, retaining Hylands Park in Chelmsford. I should really go again sometime, seeing as it’s only a 30 minute drive from my father’s house. Ah well, maybe next year…
1) Now THIS makes me feel like a kid again when I listen to this….and that’s because it was released ten years ago on their second album, ‘The Colour And The Shape’, when I was 17. I don’t follow the band so much anymore – just too busy – but I saw them a few time in ’97 and ’98, and I also saw them at V97. An amazing set at the Chelmsford site, where frontman Dave Grohl also showed us his ability to both rock and duck…as someone lobbed a huge bottle full of p*ss at his head. It missed by inches. You can’t help but salute him : )
Foo Fighters - Everlong: www.myspace.com/foofighters
2) At V97, I left my mates and danced off to see a little known band perform on the second stage, who I’d seen supporting 3 Colours Red in May 97 at Wolverhampton and I thought were rather good…although the grebos at the Wolverhampton gig thought otherwise, provoking then drummer Stuart Cable into a near-fight with most of the crowd. The band were called Stereophonics, and I had a couple of their EPs, and I think they had just released their debut, ‘Word Gets Around’ on the V2 label. I watched from the back as it was too hot to dance around, but they were good. I think this was the last time I saw them, as since then, they’ve got rather massive and stick to the stadium circuit nowadays. A lot of people dislike them because they are a bit ‘mainstream’, but I think they’re okay, I definitely liked their early work. This song is taken from their second album:
Stereophonics - The Bartender And The Thief: www.myspace.com/stereophonics
3) I didn’t actually see this act at the festival, but I wish I had. This track is probably the most well known Lionrock track – a sweet cut of fun 90s style big-beat noise – love it:
Lionrock - Rude Boy Rock: www.myspace.com/lionrock2
4) Everyone loved Ash in 1997. I was pretty indifferent about them, but happy enough to see them live, I knew enough of their singles to have a good time. And I DID have a good time. This was also the first appearance of their then new guitarist, Charlotte Hatherley – who has since left the band. They played the hits, we danced in the fading sunlight, and it was great. And of course everyone went nuts when they played ‘Kung Fu’ : ):
Ash - Girl From Mars: www.myspace.com/ash1977
5) Me and my mate Sarah wandered into the dance tent to go and watch The Chemical Brothers, just in time to catch this song being played at the end of the Dreadzone set. Most people were off their t*ts on something, but us, being sweet and twee and just 17 (it was the 90s, remember, when kids were still kids) we just bounced around and around. We were quite upset when it finished. This song is SO much better live:
Dreadzone - Little Britain: www.myspace.com/gregdread