Tut tut, it looks like rain!
TUT TUT IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN!
It really is a dark and moody sky that is covering Benicassim and Castellon this morning, which I suppose serves me right for joking about packing Wellington Boots and a plastic mac. I promised all my readers it would be sunny and they would not be needing such plastic attire, but the weather forecast did say rain for Sunday so I guess its time to start believing what you hear.
Last night, however, the sky was clear as can be, as we wandered into the festival with the fit, healthy and hungover, fresh off the beach and many with shirts off. Not complaining at all. It seems to me this year, that even though Bob Dylan and The Stone Roses are headlining that the fibers are younger than ever. They are certainly more British than ever, poor El Enfant Terrible gets addressed in English by everybody even though he's Valencian, but thats probably because hes always standing next to me with my freckles, red hair and green eyes...
Once we reached the site, the sun was setting behind the mountains and it was time for Jessie J. As the years go by, its true that that this festival is opening its arms to a far broader spectrum of artists, and over the past few years has welcomed far more urban and perhaps even mainstream performers onto its 5 stages than ever before. When David Guetta and Jessie J were confirmed for the LineUp, there was more than a mixed reaction, but this lady from Lahn-dan more than proved herself worthy of her slot on the main stage - Escenario Maravillas. She warmed up the crowd nearly better than anybody else, and standing near the back, it was obvious to see that she is more than loved as they belted out the lyrics to all her songs, and she seemed quite emotional as she closed with Domino, squealing Yes! Yes! Yes! as she jumped up and down with excitement.
The biggest pull to last nights LineUp for many was The Stone Roses, knowing that this tour is probably the last chance most of us will get to see them together and live, ever. Just in from Portugal as part of the reunion tour, we heard Dizzee Rascal was not happy to have been put in the same time slots and on different stages as he was dying to catch them too. Opening with I Wanna Be Adored and covering all of their 90s hits, She Bangs The Drums, This is The One, The Stone Roses weren't the first Mancunians to grace the Escenario Maravillas last night, as Noel Gallagher followed Jessie J. When it comes to charisma, we reckoned she was a hard act to follow, but its not like he's known for being a nice bloke, so when ex-Oasis frontman came on, even a Hello Benicassim gave him hundreds of brownie points, and he gained hundreds more when he broke into Don’t Look Back In Anger after his new hits with the High-Flying birds like The Death of You and Me.
Maverick Sabre on the main stage was a complete contrast as we went from Northern Soul to a bit of London soul, and although his female vocalist came very close to upstaging him for the majority of the songs, backed by a live band he played a set divided in two - the first half to ease us in to his style with These Days, and I Used to Have it All and the second to "make us bounce", with some of his "heavier stuff".
Talking of heavier stuff, it was Dizzee Rascal who, despite two major technical hitches where the sound went completely after which he said the F word many times - my mother would not be impressed - he was not put off and even promised to "make it all worthwhile". I don't honestly know why I thought he was the type to have a tantrum, I dated a rapper once for a while who had many a hissy fit in the time we dated, so maybe that's what it is. He certainly went out with a bang after giving the audience Bonkers, twice. Lets go f***ing bonkers, let's go f***ing bonkers, nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah! So we did.
Alice Glass spent 90 percent of Canadians Crystal Castles' set in the audience, much to the dismay of the Security in front of house who kept having to prise her out of the audiences clawing hands as they tried to swallow her back up. Loved her blue bob, thinking of changing my hair myself but probably won't be going in that direction, to be honest. Their ferocious electro-noise was the perfect close to the main stage for Saturday night, paving the way for more Mancunians; New Order, David Guetta, Ed Sheeran, The Vaccines, Cooper, and The Secret Society.
