The Electric Picnic 2007

An Electric Picnic at the end of the rainbow.

Friday

Left Dublin at 11.30. real easy drive down, took John Mcs extra special route and met hardly any traffic 'til the carpark! (John, you are a legend) This route held for everyone throughout the day so once again (John, you're a legend)
Pitched the Tent, we had a Barbecue and then went to check it all out.

In some ways Friday was the best day because the fact that most things hadn't started meant it was easy to catch a little bit of everything.
The Ukele Orchestra Of Great Britain were a good start, Ex Orbital man Paul Hartnolls The Ideal Condition were new to me and I liked them. Oppenheimer were terrific and energetic, great snappy short set. The Manics were predictably good, though I'm not a huge fan, It was the first time I saw Scott Matthews, Cool. Bjork was a bore and unfortunately I stood around for too long being bored and then couldn't get in to Modest Mouse (doh)
I was really tired (bad week) so retired early, I'm going to make a real effort to be in a top state of awakeness next year, no matter what!

One of the few shots I have where I can make out who was playing.

Saturday

We were camping in the Quiet Campsite, which was actually The Quiet & Family Campsite (like these things go together?) At 7am I woke to the sounds of a 3 year old practicing Cock a Doodle Doo (mammy I can do it louder) I'd swear her parents put her up to it.

Wandered around Body & Soul, it really was cool, and then went off and saw loads of stuff so I won't list them all, but the best and worst....
Super Extra Bonus Party : Great, really energetic, really got the crowd going, fantastic (they need to work on the banter between tracks though, saying F**k a lot sounds a bit ridiculous - mental note somebody tell that to Tommy Tiernan)
Marelena Shaw sure can sing.
The Magic Numbers are really confident on stage now and can hold a big crowd, but need better new material.
Younger bands could learn an awful lot about quality tracks and putting on a show from Jarvis Cocker and Erasure.
The Dhol Foundation are a happy funny band to see.
Having dinner being serenaded by The Polyphonic Spree is a good thing.
Duke Special and Fionn Regan are a bit boring.
A lot of the hyped stuff all sounded the same....so I won't comment on individual bands.
I am no longer interested in Nouvelle Vague

Had a nice snooze in the middle of the day, great idea!

The Body & Soul area was cool at night, Le Bien were great.

There was an unofficial rave in the carpark which (from what I can figure out) could only be heard from the quiet campsite, I think they may have been so medicated that they kept playing the same bippeldy boppeldy track over and over, bummer to sleep to!



Happy Drummers The Dhol Foundation

Sunday

Lisa Hannigan played an early morning set as a guest of Donal Dineen on The Chill Stage that was due to kick off at 11am but Donal Dineen was late (apparently he'd had a bit of a late night) so we were treated to a few false starts as people randomly plugged things in and then waited for Donal. Her set was worth it though, Paul Noonan from Bell X1 got up and joined her on stage, and it was all really laid back, I was not a fan before, but I am now and I'm looking forward to her album (2008)
Nothing else on Sunday really made an impression, The Beastie Boys were dull enough ( though they did inspire a big Garda presence - fans maybe?) I had to leave early but caught a bit of Rilo Kiley, Rocking. (Sonic Youth are not sonic good)
Next year I am taking Monday off as the whole taking down tent and putting stuff back in the car is a pain, you miss loads and you have to leave early so lesson learned.

Random stuff.
75% of the toilets i used had Toilet Paper, amazing but true!
The queues for loos were never bad!
If Pieminister was a little more organised the queue wouldn't have been so bad, 45 minutes to serve 10 people............zzzzzzzz
There just isn't enough time.
None of the drink in any of the bars was any good, in fact it was all rubbish, but there was a good wine place up where the market stalls were, Willheim Wines?, and the 2.5 Litre bottles of Scrumpy Pieminister sold were fairly OK, Moral bring your own, not just for cost but for quality.
I am already excited about next year.
Blow up beds are a necessity.
Overall the branding was not TOO bad except for Nokia and Bacardi...kudos to Heineken for not being obtrusive. (!!) - but not for the poor quality of your pints.
The O2 network is useless
The €3 eco cup idea kept the place cleaner and made a few people richer (I reckon someone out there made back the price of the ticket)

Helen And Her Haul