O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park

21/06/06

It's the big day! It's the day that I get to watch The Strokes live!!!

Alex and I went to London early so that we could enjoy the festival to the fullest. There was really a hippie feel about it, in spite of the festival being more punk rock.

The gig was opened with three sexy things from Los Angelos called 'The Like', they sounded good, a few tunes sounded very cool, I'll buy the album to find out more. They were followed with very entertaining Gypsie Punk 'Gogol Bordello' from New York, who were particularly popular with Italians.

Dirty Pretty Things and The Raconteurs were not as exciting as the CD, then again, I only like a few songs of theirs. I think Belle and Sebastian were the best perfomers of the day. Don't get me wrong, The Strokes were great, but out of all the gigs I've been to, the Festival was not that good, it is only memorable because of the whole festival experience, whilst Belle and Sebastian were solo gig quality good.

Finally the stars of the day, The Strokes, came on stage, we were very near the front so we could have the best view, but when they started playing the crowd went so wild that I just too busy trying not to fall and be stampeded to actually enjoy the music, so after picking up a girl on the ground (who was being stepped on), I walked a few meters away from the stage where the crowd was a bit better behaved. They played 'automatic stop', 'Reptilia', 'The End has no End' and 'I can't win', when the drummer played 'Three Lions', the whole crowd came singing the chorus, including me because it was fun! They finished the festival with Lou Reed's 'Take a walk on the Wild Side'.

We got home drained and strung up at the same time, on the journey home I was humming Queen's 'another one bites the dust' there was so much dust raising from the ground while we were dancing, that my face and hands were grey with dust, and my mouth tasted dusty, and my nice new trainer looked like I had run along Route 66 accross Arizona. One regret, we missed Guillemots, they were playing at a different stage, that's truly a shame, they are so awesome; I hope they have a tour of their own soon. Oh well, what a great way to spend the longest day of the year.

Next gig up July 6th Divine Comedy at Somerset House.