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Day two and the 4music gazebo is dripping. Garden furniture has its place - and that would be in the garden. As a place of work, it tends to be unreliable and susceptible to the weather. So, we're underneath the T4 platform. If you can hear the hammering of soggy fingers on a keyboard during Alexa and George's links, that'll be us.
Today boasts arguably the greater line-up of the two days this year. Unlike yesterday, we might actually get to see Basement Jaxx, while Robyn plays her first post-number one summer date, and the day is further bolstered by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, KT Tunstall, Mark Ronson, Lily Allen and The Killers. If you brought the kids, you've got McFly to look forward to. And if you brought your big-boned sister, you've got Mika to cheer things up with. Scintillating showbiz gossip #72: The Killers have banned anyone in Chelmsford taking photos of them while they are on stage. We'd like to see them try and enforce that... Today's Road To V winners, The Brightlights, have northern charms not a million miles from the Arctic Monkeys and with a strong set including 'Do It Again' there seems no reason why The Brightlights couldn't follow in the footsteps of previous winners, Mercury nominated The Young Knives. The honeyed tones of bitter sweet singer Nik Young from Lena Rez lure us into the JJB tent where she and her band are putting a nice vocal glaze over some pretty morose guitar-led pop. Think the Cardigans having a bit of a strop and you're not far off. Perfect for a wet Sunday lunchtime. The day's rain is a good thing for tent-based bands, and quite by accident we end up in one such tent watching Seth Lakeman. We know we are watching Seth Lakeman because he is not Vanessa Mae and she is the only other violinist we've heard of. David Jordan has a touch of Mika about him. He is also like a younger, cooler, camper Lenny Kravitz, strutting around the stage in the tightest pair of trousers we have seen all weekend - zebra print to boot. Like a one man Unklejam - who we are missing in favour of Jordan - he does funky pop but with a heavy rock twist. All things considered, there is no reason why his first single, 'Place In My Heart', should not venture into the Top Ten. (Apart from the obvious reason that we are almost always wrong when we make such predictions!) After amazing Brazilian metal lunatics Bonde Do Role's blistering set yesterday things continue in the South American lunatics stakes as Mexico's Rodrigo Y Gabriella open the main stage. "We're gonna play some crazy sh*t for you!" shouts Rodrigo. And that they do. The unaccompanied duo specialise in fast-fingered flamenco madness interspersed with covers of rock and metal classics (they met while playing in a thrash metal band) and the crowd clap along enthusiastically as the band dazzle us with a deft version of Metallica's 'Orion'. We're not sure how many of the audience are familiar with Metallica's mid-eighties output, but that hardly seems to matter. The rain pours down on Kanye's inflatable bear who is looking increasingly forlorn behind his shuttered sunglasses, his master having long since left the site. Aw.  We finally manage to kidnap Mr George Lamb for long enough to get him to write his blog before the evil TV producers he works for demand we give him back. Here's George...  I've been running back and forth doing the Road To V links for the bands who get to open the V festival and so yesterday we had Rosalita and we had The Brightlights today and they were both really good. I've been doing it for two or three months so they feel like my little brothers, kind of, and it was really nice to make it happen and see them on the big stage doing it. It's great to be here, it's a very privileged job but you don't get to see much. All I've seen is the back of a lot of buggies and not much in between. And I haven't managed to bump into any of my pals yet but, c'est la vie. C'est la V!! I managed to see Lily Allen earlier - she's a friend of mine so that was nice. And I had a chat with Nicky from the Manics. Apparently he's got some very saucy outfits for tonight - including a white miniskirt! I asked him if there was any kind of droppage but he said no. Steve and Miquita have got it easy - they were finished by midday. We've got another nine hours to go. But they've had the worst weather so far; they got the brunt of it. Steve had a very fetching mac on, so he was weathering the storm pretty well. We've also had some genuinely not bad food. I mean, you wouldn't be too happy if you had it served up in a restaurant, but you know it's decent. If you were in a fairy mediocre three star hotel and that was the buffet, you wouldn't mind. When you're comparing that with the grease-ridden hell that everyone out there is queuing up for, for a horrendous amount of time, then you feel very thankful and it makes life a lot easier when you can eat nice food. I've been blessed by the artist catering. Tonight, I'm hoping I have a little break to see Lily and Kasabian. Bye!" Bye George. What a lovely fella. 
Ahh, Sophie Ellis-Bextor. We can't think of a bad word to say about her. And judging by the number of people who have shown up to watch her set, neither can the V crowd. Watched by various members of The Feeling, Sophie splits her performance between tracks from her new album old hits 'Groovejet' and 'Murder On The Dancefloor'.
The favoured festival attire of the day is mostly of plastic origin, although several overdressed daytrippers are struggling with their expensive looking weekend garb as the ground beneath the Chelmsford site turns to a muddy paste. On the face of things, McFly are an odd choice for this post-lunch Chelmsford audience. Fortunately, however, this lot are either huge McFly fans or they've had their Shreddies, as there's no slumping in the crowd. Nor is there any slumping on stage as Danny and the boys crash around whipping this corner of Essex up in a McFrenzy. 'Room On The Third Floor' and 'Don't Stop Me' draw whoops and cheers from grandmas, teenagers and cold-hearted journalists alike. Thank you, McFly. So why are we so keen to see KT Tunstall? Well, it's possibly because we know something you don't - yet. Her new album is quite brilliant, and we've become quite the converts. In fact, so good is 'Drastic Fantastic' that KT is able to mix new with old without anyone wandering off to look for something good happening elsewhere. The only downside is that KT is so very tiny that she reminds us of an hilarious joke. Are you ready for the joke? Here goes: What do you call a woman in the distance? Dot. Thank you very much. Anyway, KT is so wee that it's just as well that when she opens her mouth, something enormous comes out. New single 'Hold On' is a standout, and you can't beat a bit of 'Other Side Of The World' to make you wonder what your 'respective other' has been getting up to over the weekend in your absence... Over on the Channel 4 stage the sun is threatening to come out, so it's understandable that Daniel Merriweather, singing with Mark Ronson, has got his sunglasses on. Less understandable is the multi-coloured day-glo tracksuit top he's got on. We don't know who dressed him today but they need the sack. After 'Toxic', we're treated to Ronson twanging away to The Shadows' 'Apache' before he gets Chelmsford and Stafford mixed up when trying to gee up the crowd. Must be hard work wowing festivals every day. Must also be hard to know what to do when you're the main attraction of a live act but you don't actually do anything in some of the songs. For 'Ooh Wee', his old Ghostface hit (and possibly the best received song of the set), the most the producer can muster is a few bashes on the cow bell. He is the man of the moment though so we'll let him off. No Lily Allen cameo unfortunately - she is of course in the area - but we're treated to Candie Payne. So we can't complain. Read on... |
