Saturday 19/08/06 Day 1 @ V Festival, Hylands Park, Chemsford

Ah V. Usually derided for being the most commercial festival, you can now look at the others and point out that in fact V festival was simply leading the way. So we grab a bacon sarnie and get stuck in.
 
Gigwise witnessed Kula Shaker a couple of months back in London, and were completely overwhelmed by their reformed performance. Today, while old tracks like 'Hush' and 'Govinda' will always be writhing with electricity, new offerings from their forthcoming album such as 'Dick-tator' are well formed, and make you excited for future offerings. If Kula Shaker are your kind of thing.
 
After two minutes of the criminally average Orson, Gigwise decides there are too many Americans and too many screaming girls. We meander towards The Young Knives, and are most disgruntled to find that there is no possibility of getting in the tent. Bloc Party have a dedicated following for a band that never seem to put any choruses in their songs. They certainly show they're a live force to be reckoned with with performances like ‘Helicopter’ and ‘Banquet’ captivating even the pissheads meandering at the back.
 
This hack has a mild fear of Art Brut. Well not them as such, but of Art Brut fans who tend to stand on people rather intently. However, this gig somewhat changed our mind about the whole affair. Eddie Argos is his usual charming self, and seems to be morphing into a modern day William Shatner who can't quite believe that he's managing to be famous for speaking songs, albeit very whimsically. 'Formed a Band' and 'Bad Weekend' create an obvious stir, and the set really endears you to them, particularly when they ask for requests. Clever lyrics dot the music as Eddie reminds you of the would-be poet at school who actually made something out of it. Is it a gimmick or is there an appeal beyond poetic yelling? The question is, how do they get away with it and do it so well?
 
Regina Spektor is so much better live than on her album. The spontaneous nature of her undulating voice flattens once committed to vinyl. She's still an artist well worth investing in, but if you do, make sure you get to a gig as soon as possible. The tail-end of Beck is the background for our 'Radiohead or bust' argument. Fortunately, Gigwise has several very special powers, including the talent to split in two. Since half of Gigwise thinks Radiohead are over-indulgent and the other thinks Kasabian are a gang of over-arrogant leather-clad cocks, we agree to split up for the good of the publication. By which time we have largely missed Beck's set which involved puppets (never mind...).
 
Radiohead are the kind of band who are shrouded with words like 'seminal' and 'inspiring', and yes they are groundbreaking on many levels. But, wedged in-between two groups of blokes, one drunkenly belting out ‘Clubfoot’ and the other screaming Captain's ‘Glorious’ at the top of their voices, one half of us watched Kasabian steal the show on the Channel Four stage. (Don't worry, if the other half of Gigwise were writing this, they would declare Radiohead genius and ridicule Kasabian as Rolling Stones' rip-off merchants). We even have time to run back to Radiohead for 'Fake Plastic Trees' and 'Creep' - only the second time the latter has been performed live in eight years. However, Gigwise can't help but feel it enjoyed the bounce of Kasabian's thug rock, in a different way of course. As the rain that starts falling, 'Creep' helps you realise you wouldn't have missed this for all the Clubfoot's in the world.