My V Festival 2014 Experience Episode 3
Here it is the third and final episode of my V Festival 2014 Experience. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried and I think all of us want this odyssey to end. It was Sunday, a Sunday I should have been working at the castle but was instead in a field watching pop music, winner winner chicken dinner.
Sunday kicked off with All Saints. It was all very mumsy karaoke till it erupted with their 1997 hit ‘Never Ever’. I always associate this song with feeling very car sick in the back of my dad’s rover when I was a small child. However, I can appreciate a good song when I hear one. Although, I’m more of a fan of 2000 single, ‘Pure Shores’ it makes me feel high and is also a quality addition to the GTA V soundtrack. We strolled over to the MTV stage to see the up and coming George Ezra. It had a very chilled vibe and one I really enjoyed. I laid on the floor and followed my Dad’s theory of “as long as I can hear it, I don’t really need to see it” which I don’t fully understand but I was tired from the night before. The crowd loved his single ‘Budapest’ and it is a song close to my heart as I had visited the city for a weekend for my friend John’s 21st in July. I have drunkenly rolled down the streets of Budapest after one too many vodka lemonades and it was glorious. I have great memories of Budapest and very much hope to go back some day. I’ve been wanting to see Pixie Lott for a while and she didn’t disappoint. However, I feel Nina Nesbitt won the battle of British female singer songwriters that weekend for me .
Kaiser Chiefs were up next and I was surprised by their early slot on the main stage. They are the ideal festival band and I couldn’t help but think they should have been booked before The Killers the previous night. Kaiser chiefs’ indie rock anthems were delivered with much aplomb by a very energetic leadman Ricky Wilson. I saw a lot of similarities between myself and Ricky when One Direction is played in Crisis. He is one of my favourite frontmen and will inspire many of my notorious antics on a Wednesday night this year. The Kaiser Chiefs set was also memorable as I saw a girl throw up in a pizza box, yea festival vibes! We had a wee break, I had chips with gravy. It was very nommy and made me appreciate how much I love gravy. Bastille followed, I first saw them in my first year at uni as I queued for a ‘secret’ gig in the student union. They were very good and have got better since. I fear the pressure for them to avoid second album syndrome but I have faith in them. It started to rain but like a good rain that cleans your head. The rhythm of the night had me dancing and a naked man helicoptering his willy.
Up next was Example. I really like Example and I think he does his job very well. I lived very much in his 2010 album Don’t Go Quietly and I like the music. He gets me jumping. My biggest regret of the weekend was not going more crazy like I had done at Rizzle Kicks the day before. I will hopefully rectify this in the future. Ed Sheeran’s set was certainly a highlight of the weekend, however it made me realise that I don’t have a good a singing voice as I thought I did. I was doing a thing where I was trying to remix my voice/lyrics if that makes sense. Anyway, I was singing the loudest. 2 more men helicoptered their willies but they were eclipsed by a middle aged woman who had taped E and D to her breasts to spell ED. The camera saw her and she was greeted by a unanimous eww by the crowd, but fair play getting your baps out though! It is a festival after all!
The time had come, it was time for Elbow to headline the MTV stage. I left my party who opted to watch Justin Timberlake and took my position looking on centre stage. I love Elbow, they’re euphoric, lyrically fantastic and personify everything I like in life. Guy Garvey is the man I want to become. More importantly, they wrote the official anthem of Eldangeotopia in the form of ‘My Sad Captains’. To quote George Churchman, “My Sad Captains is a requiem for the hedonistic years of one’s life. It’s message should not be overlooked.It is a song that leaves your soul feeling enriched with the memory of moments in the past, and urges you to appreciate every little moment”. The set was beautiful despite a middle aged man near me telling Guy Garvey to “F off you fat prick” every time he spoke to the crowd. Why are you here? You’re no spring chicken yourself and to use the words of King Curtis, “you don’t have to be mean, you can be nice”.
So that was it, the weekend of pop music was over and one I enjoyed and feel better for experiencing. Will I appear on the festival circuit next summer? We’ll have to wait and see.














