SUNDAY

So it seems that on the final day of this year's O2 Wireless festival, proceedings are definitely 'indie'. Which means the uniform of today is one of two options: the 'humorous' Kaiser Chiefs T-shirt bought at one of their gigs; or, for those a little adventurous: trilby and skinny jeans combo, finished off with a mop of curly hair. Either there are a lot of young boys dressing like their idols, or The Kooks are omnipresent.

The first band we head to see are the wonderful Good Shoes. So big is the crowd for these boys that they stop letting people in the Xfm tent. 'Blue Eyes' begins, the first solitary crowd surfer emerges. Unfortunately, the support she receives is considerably lacklustre, as she is passed across to one other person before she hits the floor.

Frontman Rhys tells us his plans for the day: "I'm off to see the Pigeon Detectives, The Rakes, Kate Nash and The Cribs." We might see him there, give or take a few bands. Good Shoes play a set that keeps momentum high, includes a little bit of banter, and all from a very polite frontman who thanks us all for watching more than once, and wishes we all enjoy the rest of the day; what manners!

Arriving on stage, a clearly excited Mumm-Ra announce to the audience: "This is the biggest stage we've played to by far." Mainly, we feel this is due to the fact that 'She's Got You High' is all over the TV in that advert, and the fact that the sun is out, but let's not rain on their parade.

There's something very amateur about the performance; from the guitar feedback to singer James 'Noo' New's dancing. He isn't quite sure what to do with all of that stage, so resorts to enthusiastic thrashing to win the crowd over. We're not impressed. He does impress us, however, by climbing up and balancing on the drum kit whilst hitting the cymbals, which takes real practice. As the set finishes, he has some final words for us: "If you like it, for god's sake, please buy the album." These bands have to pay the bills, after all.

As The Cribs emerge, we know it's going to be 'mental' - no, not just because The Cribs are known for the rock 'n' roll injuries they accrue, but because we see a man walking through the crowd with what looks like blue paint splattered across his face, and through his hair.

At one point Ryan jumps into the crowd as Gary shows off with his two guitars. But unfortunately Ryan can't seem to get back out of the crowd and onto the stage despite security staff at the front doing their utmost to pull him over. When he does finally get back over the bar (now shirtless) he falls to the ground and lays there motionless for a couple of seconds, as the crowd panics. He finally manages to scramble to his knees and make his way on stage, to a loud cheer. Yep, The Cribs have the crowd in the palm of their hands, playing everything they wanted to hear ('Hey Scenesters', 'Men's Needs' and 'Mirror Kissers' among them) and doing it all with so much passion that we're so wrapped up in the performance, we fail to realise that The Twang are just about to begin in the Xfm tent!

These Birmingham boys are so darn popular; they've shut the doors to the Xfm tent (again). We're situated right at the back, but that doesn't stop us from observing that The Twang have won over their hardcore following with their live show. The music sounds fantastic and the energy of lead singer Phil and backing vocalist Martin fires everyone up. We have to say we do find the way they gesture at every moment a little too much to bear as they bound around the stage with their heads in their hands like they really mean what they're saying man [But they do! - Ed]. The Twang write anthems, designed to be heard live and this is where they excel, even if we've heard their like before.

Editors decide to win us over with a few classics, so a rapturous crowd is treated to starting with classics such as 'Bullets' before throwing in new tracks from the forthcoming album, 'An End Has A Start'. For the first today, the sound on the main stage is completely overwhelming, and we are transfixed, not just by Tom Smith's triangular eyebrows, or the way his intense delivery makes EVERYTHING SEEM SO DAMN IMPORTANT.

Although we have been engrossed up until this point, we have somewhere else to be. The Rakes are on in ten minutes and we're envisioning a mighty queue. As they starting with 'Terror', we rush to the front and three songs in are getting a little bit carried away, what with all of the Alan dancing, when another beaker of liquid hits us. However, this liquid is warm: yep, it's freshly-squeezed urine, and its all down our back and in our hair.

As 'Violent' begins, a bunch of lager louts rush to the front to cause mayhem, you know, because they're so violent. A fight breaks out, and Alan asks everyone to calm down a bit, but they don't seem to listen. When they end with 'Retreat' and 'Ten New Messages', we're completely exhausted, and as we filter out, we remember the Kaiser Chiefs are on the main stage - now!

We sit down to watch the headline act, and realise we smell of a combination of urine and sweat. Ricky Wilson likes to talk. In fact he seems to spend the same amount of time talking as he does singing. As well as being the hilarious guy he is, he also manages to get all political: "Everyone give a big boo for everyone having a war." "Just sing," our friend interjects; we couldn't have put it better ourselves.

A Japanese dancer in a red jumpsuit joins the band onstage for 'Na na na na naa'. As he and Ricky do star jumps together, we realise we don't get what's going on anymore. At least it saves Ricky the hassle, who it seems has decided his energetic live performances are over, and he doesn't do much more than shake the tambourine.

We've watched the Kaiser Chiefs numerous times in the past couple of years and they've clearly honed their act, but although it seems polished it's also very routine. Now it resembles a successful pub band who have been drawing the crowds in on the circuit for a while now, with their catchy melodies and humorous banter and that old favourite - crowd participation. As 'I Predict A Riot' begins, a crowd member is taken away in a stretcher - we don't think these two instances are related. A guy in front of us climbs a flagpole while his friend dances on the top of a rubbish bin. It's a very eventful minute.

It's at this point we find ourselves engaged in the most bizarre conversation of the day, when a woman marches up to us and asks:
Random woman: "Who am I?"
Us: "I don't know"
Random woman: "Do you watch Brookside?"
Slightly scared us: "It isn't on anymore."
Random woman: "Do you know Jennifer? I'm her sister."
Us: "Who?"
Random woman: "Jennifer Aniston."
Us: "Jennifer Aniston or Jennifer Ellison?"
Random woman: "Yeah. Do you want my autograph?"

We establish it's time to leave.


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