Hey, an open-air gig; so the weather Gods decide to take the piss and deposit vast quantities of rain on us all. Bah! Still, undeterred, I travelled up in "Posse Car 1" with Veronica and the Bevans, meeting up with "Posse Car 2" (Rich, Jared, Soke and Mrs. Soke) as soon as we got into the stadium. I rather brusquely brushed Rich's greeting aside, however, as KINGMAKER had already taken the stage. Another excellent set by Hull's finest young blades, these lads are going to be big with their energy and driving pop tunes. I enjoyed their set immensely from the moshpit!
Made my apologies to Rich and then had a wander around the stadium, meeting other Swindon day trippers during SWERVEDRIVER's unmentionably poor set. I'm afraid I don't hear even a semblance of a tune from this lot... Took a seat during SPIRIT OF THE WEST's fiddly diddly set, which I found very poor as well.
Had a wander out onto the pitch for the NFADs set, but beforehand we were treated to some onstage foppery from the Novelty Island duo of VIC REEVES AND BOB MORTIMER ("the reason I've gathered you all here today is... that I'd like to announce I'm combing my hair to the left from now on"). The dual MCs then introduced THE NEW FAST AUTOMATIC DAFFODILS, who played an excellent sounding set of their manic dance, which would've gone down better in a small sweaty club. Still, I liked the vocalist saying his goodbyes to the studenty grebo crowd with, "enjoy yourselves... and get y'fuckin' hair cut!"
The 2 fops again declared the arrival of headliners and organisers THE WONDER STUFF, who predictably held the audience (if not the weather, which was still drizzly) in the palm of their hands. The set was littered with mechanical and technical problems, but also witty anecdotes and diatribes from charismatic frontman Miles Hunt. The body of the set consisted of material from their more disappointing 3rd album "Never Loved Elvis", however they saved the best until last, with second encore (after a set only an hour long) introducing Vic and Bob again for a crowd-pleasing "Mr. Songwriter", and the 3rd encore delving right back to the Stuffies better loved early numbers to round things off brilliantly.
"I've had a fucking great day," announced Miles at the end, and at the end... hey, so did we!
no mention of Swervedriver...criminal. Good day though i agree...bloody wet !!!
ReplyDeleteI thought I mentioned that I thought they were poor...! I've since come to appreciate them a little more, but they didn't do much for me on the day, I'm afraid!
ReplyDeleteOh god that was a great day. I remember the rain.. but it didn't bother me too much, because Stuffies! And the rainbow near the end was a nice touch..
ReplyDeleteOh god that was a great day. I remember the rain.. but it didn't bother me too much, because Stuffies! And the rainbow near the end was a nice touch..
ReplyDeleteI remember having a carrier bag full of cans on the bus. Then we got told no cans inside. Everyone drank with the sense of the typical 18 year old. The buses were driving over crushed cans as we walked in. The Wonderstuff were great. Great day.
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