The next day we emerged from our tent to a queue at the burger van and the portaloos and the realisation that the tent surrounding us that had been pitched the night before couldn’t be any closer if they tried. We debated festival chic and I decided to wear a skirt. When I say debated, I mean Corinne told me all about festival chic and I coordinated my outfit with this in mind.


The weather wasn’t looking too good so we donned our wellies and went for a wander. We looked round all the stalls and then men in white tutus came and took the barriers away so everyone could filter though to the stages. We wandered some more but then since the weather was crap we went to the JJB/Puma arena to watch some of Seth Lakeman’s set since we’d at least heard of him. I thought he was good actually – I’ve never heard any of his music before. The tent was filling up, due to the rain outside, so we decided to stay put for a bit and watch the start of Mutya Buena’s set. I thought she was good. I am not a huge fan of the Sugababes and Corinne and I have been known to walk off when they are on stage but I rather like Mutya Buena’s music. We then headed over the Channel 4 stage, caught the end of Captain’s set, a band I would have liked to have seen the whole set for, before wandering over to the main stage for James Morrison.


I like James Morrison. I haven’t actually seen him live before but me and Corinne have a soft spot for him after he supported Corinne Bailey-Rae on tour [even though I didn’t actually go see her on tour]. Plus I stole his album off of Corinne. I thought he was great live. He got a good crowd despite the rain and rubbish weather. We then wandered over to the JJB/Puma Arena and caught the absolute end of Sophie Ellis Bextor’s set, which sounded great and everyone was dancing along. We then moved forward to a suitable place and waited for McFly. Whilst we waited we amused ourselves with wondering how many guys in the arena had been dragged in by their girlfriends.


McFly were brilliant as always. They did some new song, which was good until Corinne and I realised that this meant that they weren’t going to do Star Girl. Let’s just repeat that. They. Didn’t. Do. Star Girl. This is sacrilege. Simply writing “ooh ooh ooh so wouldn’t you like to come with me?” in messages that flew between the ND has entertained us for months. And they didn’t do Star Girl. Still, I’m guessing when you have so many songs that people will recognise, it’s hard to choose four or five.
Still in shock over the lack of Star Girl, Corinne and I wandered back to Main Stage catching the end of KT Tunstall’s set [I rather like this whole catching the end of sets thing] and found a good spot for Fratellis. I have seen the Fratellis on so many different stages ranging from in store gigs to big stages like that at V and they never fail to disappoint. Chelsea Dagger, as usual, had everyone jumping up and down and singing along.
After they finished their set, we headed over to the Channel 4 stage to see Mika. I had told Corinne implicitly that we had to see Mika because I heart him. We found a good position and waited. Some drunken guys near us were messing about. One tried to put a sticker on the other and he fell backwards, almost into me.
Soon after this Mika takes to the stage and I am wearing a sticker that says ‘girl’ and another one that says ‘boy’. Mika was absolutely amazing live. He interacted with the crowd and for the time he was on stage, it didn’t rain.


He promptly took out a pair of kids pink sunglasses and put them on. I sang along to his whole set and then had a slight sore throat afterwards. Ergo singing along to Mika is not advisory.
We caught the end of James’s set. They didn’t sing Sit Down. Corinne was annoyed. They sang Laid. I was happy. We then watched a bit of Kasabian’s set before heading back to our tent for a toilet break and a bit of a rest.
We made our way back to main stage excited about seeing the Killers live. A crowd was already gathering. We found a spot giving us enough room to jump and dance but still being able to see the big screens either side of the stage. They were putting up amusing texts that people had sent in and we settled down to wait for the Killers to take to the stage. Everyone who has told me that Brandon doesn’t interact with the crowd much was right. But as much as I thought that would detract from the overall experience, it didn’t. Well not as much as I thought it would anyway. They were on top form and sounded amazing. The atmosphere of the crowd and the sound of everyone singing along just added to the experience. It was amazing. I loved hearing tracks from both their albums live. Some people don’t like the new album but I love it and it was brilliant to hear it live.

That night I fell asleep to the voices coming from our neighbouring tents.


They never did fall over our tent though.

Labels: camping, fratellis, gigs, killers, mcfly, mika, music, v festival