mkjones

I was WRONG

I take it all back…

Festivals and Animals

In the summer of 2003 I was asked by someone at the v2003 music festival the inevitable question of:

“So who is your favourite band?”

I answered, quite unreservedly “Athlete“.

It was, for me, a very confusing answer. You see, my musical line has for many years began and ended with Ben Folds Five, yet, sadly, they had split and although Ben Folds still carries the torch he is no longer part of a musical group.

I pondered on the answer to the question all of the festival weekend and thankfully my answer was backed up when the band performed a flawless set in the summer sunshine.

For a long while after this I lauded the band as an musical gem. Selling them to all of my friends and anyone else who would listen.

Their first album “Vehicles and Animals” was a triumph. I loved every song and played it half to death. Its the perfect feel-good exciting album, with more to boot. Intelligent, well crafted and excellently produced.

Never Meet your Heroes (or Athletes)

Sadly, cracks appeared in my Athlete love affair a couple of years later when 2 things happened:

1, they released a new critically acclaimed, but somewhat watered down and IMO bellow par 2nd album (Tourist).

2, I met and interviewed the band before a gig in Sheffield.

The first issue is clear. I did not and still do not like the ‘Tourist’ album. I have particular distaste for ‘Wires’ the bands first real big hit single. Its boring, bland and for me sells a false representation of the band. Instead of the vibrant, exciting Athlete I had fallen for ‘Wires’ shows them off as a bland sub-par-indie-rock mess.

Meeting the band should have been a truly wonderful experience for me, but I couldn’t suck up the fact that they had given me a DOA 2nd album.

Killer Question

Among the many questions (most of which were designed to cut through the clear tension the band gave off) I asked something along the lines of:

Your first album is a triumph. Excellent from start to end! For ME its the perfect album. So, why does the new album feel so drab and uninspiring?

The band were stunned to silence. The manager, who had sat in on the interview appeared open mouthed as he sat behind his laptop. (Keep reading)

For me, the 2007 festival season is over. Glastonbury and V is enough for an ageing relic like me.

This year was my 10th year as a festival goer and my 16th festival, others include:

• v97
• Glastonbury 98
• Reading 98
• Reading 99
• Reading 2000
• Reading 2002
• v2003
• Glastonbury 2004
• v2004
• Glastonbury 2005
• v2005
• Leeds 2005
• Glastonbury 2006
• v2006
• Glastonbury 2007

Wowzers! Only when I list them all I realise just how many hours I have spent in a strange field surrounded by tents and burger vans over the past decade.

This year has been hailed as the best V festival ever, high praise indeed. I am as yet unsure if it will sustain this accolade once the memories of previous years re-surface but it has defiantly sustain the moniker of the wettest V ever.

Rain Pains..

The rain has changed the festival dynamic like nothing else. Over the years I have expected it to rain at Glastonbury and then bask in sunshine at Reading, V or Leeds as they are always deeper into the British summer calender.

However, not since v2005 have I felt the sun on my face while a small vile of room deodorizer is slipped under my nose during the mid-afternoon lull while a not-quite-good-enough-for-the-top-20 band plays their singular hit. Ahh, happy days.

Alas however, climate change cannot effect the enjoyment factor of a festival. Over the years my friends and I have grown used to not having fully functional toilet facilities or even running water, we can surely embrace the rain in the same way.

10yrs of Photos

To celebrate my 10th year I will attempt to publish ALL of my previously unseen festival photos to the web. Most of them are pre-digital-camera and so will require the arduous task of individual scanning, a task I already see me putting off for a while.

For now I will dig up some from more recent years, with comments:

v2005: This is Ramone, my and Tony looking weary after a long day in the sunshine.

Glastonbury 2005: The rain. These are my girlfriends fashionable wellington’s which I got her as a joke for Christmas, they turned out quite handy in the end.

v2006: The ‘Festival Jumper’ makes an appearance.

(Keep reading)