Oxegen 2008

Made it down to Oxegen for the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday, used the park ride and shuttle service and it all worked out fine. Gig wise the Saturday line up suited me better.

Music - Saturday
We popped into the Brian Jonestown Massacre to watch them self combust but they were pretty together, tighter than I thought they'd be and other than that not much to report. Newton Faulkner was on the Main Stage and for a guy with an acoustic guitar he held a good crowd closing with a cover of Bohemian Rhapsody which went down well. I ended up seeing a bit of My Morning Jacket in the Pet Sounds Tent because it was pouring rain. They were well into the performance and having fun, but ultimately boring. Legged it over tho The Ting Tings and had to fight our way in, they were playing in the Green Room Tent which apparently has the same capacity as the Point Depot and they were thronged. They played the tightest set, I loved it. Caught a little of The Wombats on the O2 stage just after, Snore Bore. I meant to go and see Holy F**K then but I forgot or got distracted or something. We went to Amy Winehouse on the main stage, probably for the wrong reasons really, I felt a bit cheap showing up just to see if she showed up. She came on and sang away fine, didn't really engage with the crowd (would you?) and left. Her kind of music is not really Main Stage stuff, she suits a more intimate setting better i think.
After that we popped in to Seasick Steve in the Pet Sounds Stage, swigging away on a bottle of Jack Daniels and busy blowing everyone away. I think it was a mutual thing, the more he played the more the crowd responded the more blown away he was. It was one of those occasions where you really believe the guy when he says "You're a great crowd" It was my festival highlight.

Music - Sunday
The weather was warm and sunny for the most part. The Feeling, on the Main Stage belted out covers, including A-HA classic Take On Me, which had everyone dancing. I popped into Prince influenced David Jordan, who was throwing himself into it to a tiny crowd. we caught The Stranglers too, just to hear Golden Brown, and fitted in a little bit of The Blizzards.

Festival Thoughts.
The festival overall was organised enough in so far as I could see. There seemed to be a pretty hefty Garda Presence and loads of Stewards.
The food offerings were pretty grim, most people opting for AbraKebabra, who had a lot of concessions stands, better the devil you know I guess.
We opted for Chicken On A Stick and had to bring it back because the chicken was raw.......
The Eco Cups kept the place clean enough which meant less rubbish underfoot when moving around, a big improvement on previous years.
The age profile seems to have gone up, yes there were loads of kids, but there were loads of thirtysomethings too, the line up maybe....?
The line up was really male orientated, very few girls on stage either as musicians or singers, it made the whole thing feel a little hey ho same ol'. I think that might be why Seasick Steve was so rockin', it was something different in a sea of boys with guitars singing identikit songs.
There is not a lot to do at Oxegen if a band you are interested in isn't playing, there is a funfair I guess.....
Lot's of cover songs knocking around.....I got the feeling a lot of bands had a better chance of getting the crowd going if they played them stuff they know (ie not there own stuff)
There are no more super groups.