Oxegen. Greatest Gig Ever.

Oxegen was, officially, the greatest day ever, in the history of anything. It pissed rain for the whole day. Non-stop. It was cold, wet, and by 3 o clock my hands and legs were numb. It was like Glastonbury

The first band we saw were the Marshals. They rocked. They played a great gig. The were the first band on, which must have been shit for them. They played four or five songs……Sofia, Frank Miller, and the great Make Her Cry were played. Indeed they are a great band.

Of course, soon after they finished, Sandi Thom came on and it pissed rain. and Didnt stop. So we got some foods……

Then we went to see…..The Blizzards. Some unknown band I’ve never heard of, although People seemed to know them. The rain was heavy at this stage but twas grand. We watched them for about an hour or more, they were really good. Kind of Pop/punk. Reminded me of Fallout Boy a bit. I basically stood in the same position for the hour, in the pissing rain, so by the time they were finished I could barely walk.

There was shite all on next so we said we’d go to Republic of Loose to see what they were like. And oh my god. What a load of fucking shite. I swear the lead guy was stoned. And his songs all had one line each. One song being “I’m going to Fuck you girl” or something. Absolute shite.

So we said fuck that and went wandering aimlessly for a few hours. We could hear Damien Dempsey in the background. From what I heard, his gig was basically him quoting verses from the bible……

So, yeah. Twas about 3.30 and we were fucking drencehed. We seemed to be the wettest of the 80,000 people there. So we got these plastic bag things to wear which was grand. We were sort of dry again….

Then, The Magic Numbers. It had stopped raining at this stage. The Magic Numbers were great, really good. Except one of the singers started laughing in the middle of a song. Twas fine though. We pushed our way up closer to the front and this weird drunk guy started talking to me about a Referee or summat while spilling his beer on someone else……So I just smiled and nodded.

Next up were Hard Fi. We knew Arctic Monkeys were on after them so we decided we’d have to get up close to the front now before everyone started coming in. We got in grand and Hard Fi came on. And wow. They were shit. Absolute shit. The lead guy, whoever he is, was an arrogant fucker to say the least. His mouth organ thing didnt work, so he kicked it away in a temper. And when he did play it, it sounded shite. the Bassist sounded like a bit of a prick too. The played shite music too. The only half decent song was “Living for the Weekend” which got the crowd going.

A Big Disappointment.

But next were the Arctic Monkeys. But so were the Dirty Pretty things. Some retard made it so they’d clash. We said we’d stay for the Arctic Monkeys, and then run over to the DPTs and watch the last couple of minutes of their set. The Monkeys were about 20 minutes late, which wasn’t good considering we knew the DPTs were on time. and I could see Alex behind the curtain waiting to come on. So we started waving frantically to see if he’d wave back…..but he didn’t. Anyway, they came on. I thought to myself “Fuck. Thats Alex Turner….like 50 feet away from me”. It was also Jamie’s 21st birthday so that was cool. The Opened with “The View From….”. Which was fucking great. They went on to play the whole album except “Riot Van” and “Red Lights Indicate…..”. The also played “Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys” and their new single “Leave Before The Lights Come On”. So…a total of…..13 songs . The crowd went fucking mental when “I Bet You Look Good…..” came on. Great Stuff. And Alex started the “Fuck The Sun” campaign 2006. Great Stuff indeed.

When The Monkeys set ended, we ran all the way over to the NME stage where Dirty Pretty Things were playing. Just as we got there, They Played the last chord to “I Get Along” and walked off stage. Which was annoying, seeing as we ran for about 10mins through mud. However, we can safely say that we saw them play. Swish!

I think we got some more food after that…..and watched the Strokes, from a distance. They were probably good, we just didn’t bother…..

We went into the Green Room for a while to get out of the rain. It was about 10pm at this stage so it was Darkish inside. We were waiting for The Who to start. So we said we’d watch The Go! Team to see if they were any good. But They were late on. So were just hung around there for a while, watching this Drunk guy in a poncho thing. Just standing there. All he did was stand, and smile to himself. Everynow and then he’d doze off and then when the lights from the stage shone on him he’d wake up and start smiling again. It was fucking hilarious. Anyway, The Go! Team came on, sounded crap. So we left and went over to see The Who. We were lucky to get into the pit which was cool. The crowd was absolutely massive. The played a great set, including “My Generation” which is a great song. They played loads of others too. Pete Townshend was unbelievable. They played about twice the length of the set they were supposed to, because James Brown was late or summat.

Then we went over to see Kasabian for a while. Who were eh. Reminded me of Snow Patrol a bit. So yeah. We didn’t bother with James Brown for reason unknown to me now that I think of it. It probably would have been woth staying around to see the legend himself. But bleh. I’m not exactly a fan of him.

Yeah. We went home after that.

Twas the greatest gig ever. Every second person was Drunk. And there were people going for a piss behind those portable toilet things. I mean…what the fuck? Why didnt they just use the friggin toilet? And that Drunk guy was the highlight. He just stood there. Haha. Great Stuff.

Wow. Did I just write that much?