Radio One: onebigweekend (Krioma.net Blog)

Today was Radio One's: onebigweekend. We (me, Kat and Tom) got tickets to go to this free gig last week. It took place at Perry Park, by the Alexander Stadium - haven't been that way in years. This was the second day of the gig and the lineup was:

Sunday 19 Sept - Bands Day

Main Stage
Lost Prophets
Mouldy Lookin' Stain
Joss Stone
Goldie Lookin’ Chain
Razorlight
Damien Rice
Natasha Bedingfield and Estelle
Broken Dolls

Second Stage
The Music
Kasabian
22-20’s
13 Senses
Skinnyman
The Departure
Exist

Mostly it was quite easy to decide who to see, especially since the two stages didn't finish at the same time. The big one was Kasabian against GLC (Goldie Lookin Chain).

The day started with a bright an early start at 8am and then the bus journey to the site, not too bad - quite easy. The first thing to do once we were inside was to go to the toilets!

Toilets: excellent. They were clean, could flush them and even had stuff in them to clean your hand with. Excellent. I could not believe it. :-)

Exist: I had not heard anything by them before today and I was very impressed. They played well and their songs seemed catchy and well written. I have to say how professional they were as they had loads of technical problems. This started with what seemed like resonance on a speaker (from the action the techincians putting a sheet underneath it). This continued with the drummer nearly getting knocked over by the back stage curtain. They then had various problems with the lead singers guitar connection to the speakers. They were good though, well worth a second listen to.

The Departure: Again I have never heard anything by this band and like Exist they played excellently. They did a great set. Very enjoyable. I think I would like to see them play again, they had some catchy tunes. They were wearing a mismatch of clothing but it seemed to work. Their lead singer was wearing a rather smart suit with a neckerchief like thing. His mannerisms reminded me of Morrissey - especially since he wasn't playing an instrument as well. There base player was wearing a vest like sweater of the top of a T-shirt and hardly moved through out the whole set. A different matter entirely for what I think was their lead guitarist who was jumping around all over the place in pink socks, bit of a punk feel to his outfit and he looks like Ant (I think the right one) out of Ant & Dec!

Natasha Bedingfield: Awful. Only saw the end of her "set" which involved 3 songs and a cover of "This Love" by Maroon 5 with "I can't sing at all" Estelle. I actually like this song, I don't think I can listen to it now without her useless little noises. Thank god it was short. Oh yeah the reason we even went over was so we could get a good place for the next act, Razorlight!

Razorlight: This is the second time I have seen them play, they played excellently at Reading (see http://www.krioma.net/blog/archives/2004_09_07.html). Again they did a cracking set, but the atmosphere wasn't right. Katherine said she thought it would be like this because of the "radio one crowd". There set was very enjoyable really rocking hard to "golden touch" - the only song most people seemed to know. They were definitely worth seeing but I really wasn't liking the atmosphere in the main stage.

13 Senses: We caught the last 3 or so songs from their set. I actually even knew 2 of them. They were excellent, I think I may buy their album. Yes you heard me - buy not download! When I got to the tent I initially thought what the hell is Ashton Kutcher on stage singing for! From a distance their keyboardists / singer looks like him (maybe not be it was dark!).

22-20’s: I caught a few of their tracks at Reading, at the time I wasn't impressed. On a second listen I was a bit more impressed but still not over the moon. They are good but not sure if I enjoy them. I guess if I listened to them at home my opinion my be different. Better get that album when it comes out I guess.

Kasabian: Excellent. Well the songs I know / like were the rest I just found a little strange and no edge. Musically they were good but spent too much time arsing around with effects. LSF was good. Gonna give their album a listen to and I shall see what I think of the rest of their music in a bit more detail.

The Music: I find these boring. We listened to a few songs and then left. Problem was we then headed over to the main stage were Joss Stone was playing.

Joss Stone: BITCH!!! Sorry I will calm down now. I have one major problem (apart from the fact that she is shite!) - she ruined "Fell in love with a girl" by the White Stripes. She covered this - changed the title to "Fell in love with a boy", put a stupid beat on, slowed it down and did lots of irrelevant noises with her voice to give over the impression she can sing. I can remember thinking where the heck are the bottles I want to throw one at her! The really awful thing is that the White Stripes actually like it being played slower and so do this live, thus killing a once great song. Idiots. Oh the only reason we saw her was so we could get a better spot for the next few bands.

Mouldy Lookin' Stain: Ummm, not sure what to think. I was expecting a proper tribute like band. No we got bloody Chris Moyles. They did on song "Guns don't kill people rabbits do" a piss take of a piss take by GLC's (Goldie Lookin Chain's) "Guns don't kill people rabbits do". It was ok but annoying and meant we had to wait for the the lostprophets.

Lostprophets: Wicked! They did an excellent set. At times, especially for songs that you didn't know (in my case only 1), the vocals could not be heard well. Like always they put on an excellent show. Telling people there was not enough energy and making everyone jump for "Last Train Home". This was excellent. But it went from good to bloody excellent. Not the word bloody.

They did a cover of "cry me a river" by Justin Timberlake and then it was onto the wall of death. They did this at Reading and I was annoyed I missed out. I didn't think they would do it at a Radio 1 gig, especially since on the tickets it says no moshing. The basic idea with this is that the crowd are split into two halves - Shinobi and Dragon Ninja. We were Dragon Ninja. The crowd is then split into two halves. The smaller / more fragile people I told to get out of the way. At this point me and Katherine were a long way from the gap. Then we are told when this song kicks in (the song being Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja) to have a battle. Shinobi go to your left, Dragon Ninja your right. The guitars starts then, bang. THe drums come in and it goes! Everyone pushes and a wall of death is started. Me and Katherine (she following behind me - guess I make a good battering ram) move about 30foot in a few seconds. It is hectic. Then all of a sudden the music stops. A big pile up has occurred. The instructions the band gave before was to help each other out. This obviously failed. They then called people to show their injures and there was quite a few people with blooded arms. Then they asked do you want to go again? Of course we did. They spilt us in half, this time I was a few people from the gap. Of it went again. Loads of fun. They finished on "Burn Burn". During this song I launched 3 people up to crowd surf out of their and had about 5 people go over my head one kicking me by accident. I have a headache now! There was a huge mosh pit form. It was excellent fun. But so damn hot.

After a quick pit stop it was back to Tom's as he was being nice and giving us a lift home. On the way I got a Kerrang Radio sweatband and band. Excellent. Cheeky people grabbing us on the way out. Not that I am gonna complain. Good marketing tactic by them really. "you just went to a radio 1 gig but we are giving you free sweatbands!".