Finally after some espresso – some fry up – more espresso – and a bacon roll – its time for the off. I actually enjoy the feeling of packing my rucksack with water for the day ahead – feeling like we are off on an adventure. One can of T has been left from last night in the cool box surrounded by ice. It may be the last cold can in a mile's radius for the next three days, so I feel compelled to take advantage of it. Even if it is only midday.
With this we march off on our new adventure, backpack and can of T in hand.
When we get close to the gate, we realise that everyone in the campsite has had the same idea as us; They want to go to T in the park as well. This comes as a surprise to some of the crowd. After retrieving wristbands for the remaining wrists we join the masses in a line to the gate. Although I'm up – the heat – the hangovers – the joys of camping – and the fact that theres other people at T in the park starts getting to some people. I'm determined to rise above it and enjoy myself – much to the annoyance(I suspect) of some of the rest of the party. The crowd are hungover as well. They are trying to stay up – but the hangovers, the heat, and the sellotape holding the bottles of alcohol to the inside of kilted and skirted legs are putting a damper on things. Theres a few attempts to get a rousing chorus of “Flower of Scotland” - the people's anthem, but nationalism is at a low at the moment. People are more concerned with calling for the fence to come down and shouting at the security. Eventually the crowd starts slowly chugging through. Theres the usual security to make sure people aren't taking in glass bottles or cans – I'm never sure if this is to ensure that proceeds from the bars are kept to a maximum, or to ensure that the man who was in Busted is not knocked out by an over zealous fan of alternative music.
Even arriving in the park feels good again – you know that everyone is here to party and have fun. My water supply for the day has been depleted in the queue, so we start by topping this up. Luckily we didn't need to use my first aid kit or mountain whistle, but should any band decode to play at the top of a munro – I'll be ready.
Since there are no band's which I/we am immediately interested in, we decide to go up the ferris wheel to check the lie of the land. I'm most interested in doing this to get a photo for the blog.
Thats Joss Stone you can see on the main stage from the bog wheel. There are still people flooding in. I later think it would have been a good idea to get up there when there was a big band on, but I'm not that keen. After the ferris wheel – it's time for food. The food stall's at festivals are wonderful – you have almost every cuisine represented and served from small chip van like structure. I opt for Vegitarian, on the theory that more effort has went into making it tasty – my theory is wrong.
Now is the start of the bands. It's a really hot day. The girls are all sitting on the grass refusing to move. I'm toying with going to see Audioslave.
I LOVED Soundgarden. No Seattle grunge can do wrong in my opinion. In terms of Chris Cornell solo efforts, "seasons" from the singles soundtrack was wonderful.(I would have loved a full album exploring this facet of what he did.) Temple of a Dog goes down as one of the greatest side project/tribute albums/bands of all time. Euphoria Morning(post-Soundgarden solo album), took me a while to get into, its not a wonderfully strong album, but is worth a listen..
Rage against the machine – I quite like, The first album is a classic in my opinion. After that – I can take them or leave them – but I have a lot of respect for them. Audioslave – I can take or leave. I find the melodies a bit obvious – cheap almost – theres not enough of the hooks which make me love Soundgarden and rage against the machine – but I respect them and give them a chance.
Initially, I considered not going to Audioslave. Everyone sitting doing nothing on the grass was bringing me down, and I didn't think it was the right mood to go and see musicians you like play songs you don't really feel, then I remembered that this was Chris Cornell. This man sang Jesus Christ Pose. This man wrote, sand and played on temple of the dog. This man sang and wrote burden in my hand. This man is good mates with Pearl Jam. This man wrote and sang seasons from the Singles Soundtrack. Theres no way I'm not going to see him.
Luke Skye-Trekker comes along with me. I think he's ready to see a band(We've been in the venue about 2 hours).
So – we wait around in the crowd. Quite near the front, cos as I know better than most people that Seattle grunge was never that popular in Scotland. Pearl Jam's Glasgow concert sold out in minutes in 2000, but this is more of a cross section of Scotland – some not even music lovers– which makes it more interesting. It feels good to be standing in a crowd again – waiting for the band to come on. The suspense is wonderful – it's not like going to a one off concert – this is much more different. You are more carefree about seeing bands, cos they are never the be all and end all of a weekend. I'm wondering how much I will enjoy Audioslave. After a few songs the novelty of who these people are will probably wear off – but if the manage to keep the energy up – i will probably enjoy it.
Out the come – and that sound which sounds like a ruler being played with on a school desk tells us that they are opening with Cochise – Audioslave's first single, and in my opinion, they're only great song. Its emense – the crowd, including me, go wild – not only am I seeing Chris Cornell, and Tom Morello for the first time – I'm seeing a band of the quality of Led Zeppelin. It really makes a difference – this is one stogn sound – you can describe the feeling you get, but you know that while I'm going to listening to British indy rock bands all weekend – it's a rarity to find such a high quality band.
Cochise – The only truly good song by Audioslave. The silly buggers have started with a climax. They can only go down hill from here. Setlist suicide – if you open with your best song – you better have some high quality stuff planned for a follow up. They can't do it – no way.
What happened next cannot be described in words. I have jokingly shouted “Jesus Chirst Pose”(An old Soundgarden song) a few times. The good news is people joined in. I never expected that follow such a high start as Cochise they would go higher.
With the opening riff, I come close to fainting:
SPOONMAN
If you don't know I can't describe – very rocking – very good soundgarden song, which because of it's easy – but wonderful sounding riff – I play on the guitar every time I test that my dropped D tuning is close-ish. Its amazing – different from Soundgarden – but still very powerful. The crowd go wild – I'm chuffed to bits. The crowd still understand good music when they hear it. There's come young people singing along etc. Scotland's music taste is doing okay while I'm away. Okay – It's spoonman – a single, and on MTV quite a lot. Lets see them go wild for Outshined or something. But I'm so high on adrenalin.
These guys are pros – we now get like a stone. If they'd opened with that – I would have sang along, not that interested, but given the hit of music they have just given me, it has suddenly become a deep meaningful song that the whole crowd sings with all it's heart.
We then get a few Audioslave songs, including the one form the new album which opens with a G and then A(I think – same interval), and I can't listen to without wanting to sing Hey hey hey hey as it sounds like “Don't you forget about me” by Simple minds.
Tom Morello is wonderful. I loved his stuff – he is out there on his own – one of the few people who are still innovators. Luke – not a guitarist – several times asks me how he makes certain sounds. The truth is, I have no idea.
Eventually they get onto doing Bulls on parade. Chris Cornell leaves the stage, respecting that this is his time – either that or he needed a piss. Chris cornell can hold his own on the guitar – but seems to have decided on keep it in it's case for this project. Every person in the crowd is bouncing. They are just phenomenal. I wish Audioslave were more like this. Tom Morello encourages the whole crowd to put a fist in the air. His guitar says “Arm the Homeless”
Chris Cornell comes back on – to do some more Audioslave and introduce the band. The largest cheers comes when he announces that the Bass player is of Scottish stock on both sides of his family. We're such a cheap crowd – say Scotland and we cheer. He tells to keep our chin up concerning the bombings in London.
Chris Cornell comes out on his own – wearing a 12 string guitar – and does a wonderful rendition of Black hole sun, including getting the whole crowd to sing the outro repeatedly about 20 times in a row. This is real music, when you see acts like this and nine inch nails and QOTSA, you realise what a large difference there is between people good at their jobs and people bad at their jobs in the music industry.
Chris Cornellreally plays the crowd. He starts doing call and answer chanting “yeah” “yeah yeah” “Yeah oh yeah oh” then he does the trademark Chris Cornell scream which goes on for about two minutes. No way can the audience match it – but they all try. Very cool.
On comes RATMSS(Rage against the machine sans singer). With one opening chord and cymbol crash the crowd knows almost before the chord is half way through that we are now getting “killing in the name of” for people who have never been to a rock club since 1993, this is track 2 from RATM's first album. It is an anthem, and is played regularly in all but, the really really trendy rock clubs. It starts with the line “some of those who were in forces, were the same who burn crosses”. It suggests that many policemen in America are the same people who are involved with the Klan. It builds to a rousing call to arms until at climax(If you don't count the solo). The crowd, night club, house party, teenager in bedroom, is/are jumping/headbanging with all their energy and chanting “fuck you I won't do what you tell me” about 40 times in a row. It has ensured that RATM will always be music for very angry teenagers, and also ensures, that until the rock fan's of my generation are to old and frail to get out of bed – there will still be a dance left in us.
RATM have also ensured that they are one of the most radio banned groups in america.
So having had a pulled muscle in each calf from nine inch nails less than two days previous – I found myself ditching my bobble, and jumping as high as physically possible for the 10 minutes that the song lasted. The pain in your chest from the aerobic exercise can not stop what the music puts in you.
Now that was a set!!! T in the f*king park.
Its back to the grass dwellers, who seem to have enjoyed it from where they sat. I had played killing in the name of when we drove up in order to point out how important these people were – but I never thought they would play it. I realise that the four people I have just seen have over 10 platinum selling albums between them, and managed to play a set which almost nothing but hit singles and classic songs.
We now wander again – spirits are still low, but I have stopped noticing cos I'm still buzzing from Audioslave. Its is pretty difficult to get beer, because the queues for beer tokens are so long. Instead we walk around the shops. I want a vest top because it's so hot, and also my shirt is soaked from Audioslave. I can't find anything, but I buy a bandanna, to save my scalp from sun burn. Coming your hair with a sun burned scalp is horrible!! We manage to hear a little of Jimmy Eat World while some people are off to the toilet. I only know/like the song “Bleed American”, so I'm quite chuffed to hear it.
After about an hour of donnering about, its time to get stuff together to see the killers. I'm not too bothered, but they are the “in” band at the moment, so everyone else wants to see them. Unfortunately – the everyone includes the whole of T in the park minus diehard fans of the Coral. We stand quite far away at the side. The sound is terrible. In order to be sociable, and not to get split up going to see an unknown band. About half way through I realise what a strange experience it is watching a band with about 60,000 of your countrymen, and being the only one who doesn't know all the words and hasn't heard the songs before. It's strange being that far from your own home culture. It also says a lot about the geographic nature of success in the music industry. This said I wouldn't actually know any words to Dutch pop music. Maybe I'm just not cool.
They end with a song which has a refrain; “I got soul, but I'm not a soldier” or something along those lines. It's the chant of the weekend with people shouting it out randomly at each other – the only rival is something by the kaiser chiefs which i've forgotten already. The killers ain't bad. They are good at what they do – far too British for me – even tho they are American. I can't help thinking Audioslave was better.
I do however get the chance to take a look around and get a photo of someone's “who the fuck is Mick jagger?” flag:
We now have the first time of the weekend where the crowd is in the same place at the same time. We try to get to the bar, but its not our choice, we move with the crowd, carried.
We now have a more free time until the next band that people want to see – keane. I get a well needed beer and some thai food. It is the best food I've tasted from all the cuisines, but it does pretty much guarantee that I won't be able to make it through the weekend without having to use a festival toilet.
It's now time for Keane. I'm on the fence with Keane – i think they write very good pop songs with some nice hooks, but they very much redefine boring. This said it's pretty good live act. We're near the back – but I still finmd myself really enjoying it.
The singer is quite funny. He was very genuine in his thanks for how much he likes Scotland, and how they have supported them. You kind of want to give him a cup of tea and tell him everything would be okay. Basically – not bad – I'll look forward to their next trick in sustaining it. Album number 2 should be interesting.
Now we only have the headliners left. The option of going to see James Brown exists. Most of the people there have already seen him, and it is also in the tent. If you have ever been in a rubber tent on a hot summers day packed with 10,000 drunk scots, you'll know it's not that nice an experience. I'm pretty sorry I'm missing him, but you can't see everything.
I decide that the foo fighters are a better option
As a teenager, I loved Nirvana, then the media killed them for me. I return to them every now and again, but generally, I can get the same kick off several other bands. It does however mean that I can return to Bleach and love it because I've been away for so long. Anyway, this has nothing to do with Nirvana, it just serves as the reason I bought foo fighters first single on the day it came out.
I watched with baited breath as "this is a call" was released. It was breath of fresh air, I quite liked it. The following album was good, but not groundbreaking. It established the Foo Fighters as something greater than a Nirvana follow up, but it wasn't until "the colour and the shape" that I really thought they were great. I have played almost every track on that album in various bands. They are great songs to play... Monkeywrench everlong, etc.
After this, I stopped listening as much. I don't mind someone putting on one of the albums, but they didn't have any standout tracks to me.
About this time, Foo fighters became this stadium rock band, who wrote pretty high quality, intelligent, 70's influenced rock. Dave Grohl has achieved what very few others have achieved. He's managed to make you forget that he was in one of the most influential bands of recent times. Congratualtions!!!
The truth is that I don't remember much of the Foo fighters at T in the park except to say that they were really good. Often by this point you are looking at your watch waiting for them to finish – but the time flew by. They played the new single “Best of you” a song that really grew on me over the past few weeks. They also played monkeywrsench – this is a call, breakout, everlong – I couldn't reallly have asked for a better set.
I saw them once before, when they were touring for the first album. They were supporting the Prodigy. This was sometime in Late 1995 early 1996. Dave grohl had far less confidence back then – he was hiding under a beany hat. Now he is the all conquering Dave Grohl – who plays drums on so many good stuff. Dave Grohl is one of those guys that gives you a reason to read the liner notes. He crops up on everything from Queens of the stone age to nin. He's alos played with Pearl Jam before – making him a very lucky guy.
In the foo fighters he passes the tub thumping duties over to the extremely adept Tayler hawkins. Tayler Hawkins and Dave Grohl are the foo fighters – I couldn't tell you anything about the other two.(Or three – who knows). Near the end – Dave Grohl announces that a far better singer than he is going to come on stage. It's Tayler Hawkins. He switches places with Dave Grohl to sing a song. Tayler Hawkins is such a show man. He has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. He says that he needs to warm up - so he does the freddie Mercury eh oh stuff calling and answering. Maybe it's to prove that he can do a chris cornell – he ends with a scream. Since Dave Grohl almost definitely knows Chris Cornell – I would imagine that the two bands were back stage together.
It works magic! The crowd can't get enough of Tayler Hawkins. Even when he's back at the drum's he's shouting “ehhhhh oooooohhh” They then close the show(With breakout I think), and it's time for home.
Not a bad day - Audioslave were the highlight for me,a nd it's hard not to enjoy the foo fighters. We have a burger on the way back to the tent and then sit with a few beers and some JD's and coke, ready for our next day of T.......
No comments:
Post a Comment