2006-08-30

V Festival 2006 - Saturday

The bacon roll and tea at the campsite burger van were disgusting, so a lesson was learnt there. Having failed to show anybody our tickets last night we set off in search of wristbands and programmes so we knew who was on when. And I had £10 burning a hole in my pocket, which was lucky as that's exactly how much it cost.

 

We had a beer in the Carlsberg tent, and singing along to the DJ was our first taste of music. Back to the tent for a lie-down to wait for the bands and the rain to start.

Our flag was nicked on Sunday, but by then I knew where the tent was and Wen nearly did.

First up were The Rifles, who were very good. Planned next were Hayseed Dixie, but everyone else thought that too and the Cider House was too small.

 

The RiflesHayseed DixieWe briefly saw The Dandy Warhols while we wandered around and a band called Lorraine who came on while we sat in the JJB tent to escape the rain. The Feeling were excellent and we liked The FeelingHard-Fi a lot. Then the rain made us seek out a Teepee for a cup of tea and a sit-down until it was time to head back to the main stage, pausing to hear a couple of songs from Starsailor, Faithlessand work our way to Starsailorthe front for Faithless -superb as always and bouncing up and down is required.

We needed beer to recover and we walked past Morissey (as did almost everyone else) to see Morissey RazorlightRazorlight, who disappointed even though it finally stopped raining - too late for the paths which were now Glastonbury- style mud.

2006-08-26

V Festival 2006 - Friday

This is the first festival I have been to since Reading in 1979, and it was Wen's first. Faithless were the main attraction, and with Radiohead added we were sold. We couldn't get into Chelmsford, it sold out before we could get onto the website, so we set off to Weston Park in Staffordshire after lunch on Friday.

 

Too late, as it happens. We got close to the junction on the M6 at about 6pm. 45 minutes later we reached the roundabout.  Amazingly, there were touts walking up and down the queue trying to flog tickets. Do people really drive all that way and queue for hours when they don't have tickets?

 

Then they cheekily charged another £7 for car parking, which was just a nearby field. It took us almost an hour to walk to the campsite, and that double airbed got mighty heavy.

Still, the tent was pitched, the airbed inflated and the beer (via tokens) purchased. And it wasn't actually raining.

If the bloke in the next tent hadn't wittered on in a ludicrously loud voice until 6:00am in the morning we might even have had a good night's kip.

2006-08-03

TV Star

I got a message on YouTube, entitled "Enquiry from the BBC":
"Matt here from BBC Look East. Can we use your pictures of the Cottenham field fire for a piece we're doing tonight on the field fires which hit the region over July? If so, could you call me on 555 953 852?"

So I rang him, he explained that the piece would be on that evening, concentrating on the financial effects on farmers and insurers, and they wanted some background shots of the fires. Could they use my video if they gave me credit?

Of course I gave permission, but I fully expected the item to be dropped if a cat got stuck up a tree or something. But they ran it - and they used my video for the local trail during the 6 o'clock news, at the head of the programme and in the article itself with the voice over announcing "these pictures taken by Derek Law in Cottenham".

Fame, if not fortune. Still, colour me chuffed.