This year I travelled from Liverpool, by way of Nottingham to the Isle Of Wight Festival 2011. I was accompanied by my girlfriend, for this, my second music festival.
The festival took place from Thursday 9th June to Sunday 12th June 2011. Here is a rundown of the acts I seen and what I thought of them!
Thursday 9th June 2011
Acts @ The Big Top- ABC, Boy George
When we arrived at The Big Top, we were greeted with an incredibly enjoyable DJ session, courtesy of Rusty Egan, The Big Top in-house DJ. Perfectly fitting with the evenings bill of 1980’s music, the playlist included brilliant mixes of New Order, Visage, Eurythmics and David Bowie. The sound had a marvellously cold, industrial feel, making me wish there were more nightclubs that played sets like this. Rusty Egan was to become a much adored companion throughout the weekend, his sets an anticipated link between acts that made the interval almost something to look forward to!
ABCKicking off a marvellous campers only night were Martin Fry’s ABC. Hopping through hits off the excellent Lexicon of Love album, they managed to cover all the bases and make a thoroughly enjoyable opener to the festival. I am pleased to confirm Fry still sports that amazing white-yellow hair colour.
Best Song- The Look Of Love
Awesome Moment- As a parody of the over excitable audience, myself and girlfriend decided to go wild, much to our surprise we seemed to start a wave of similar madness in the crowd around us.
Overall Enjoyment- 6/10
Boy George
Worried about the Boy? Don’t be. He seems to be doing fine. Never the wallflower, arriving in a typically garish orange top hat and a quirky suit that looked like a shot up gangster who bled red glitter. Bizarrely brilliant.
He was also quick to show his unhappiness at the stage situation, obviously complaining the sound set up wasn’t to his liking. I had to feel sorry for him during this, he was obviously quite irritated. Yet the problems never shown through in his performance, putting on a really entertaining show that had me singing along throughout.
Best Song- Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?, Karma Chameleon, Starman (cover version).
Awesome Moment- Boy George showing off that crazed 1980’s ego, with various comments such as “It’s very boomy in here...boomboomboomboom” and “This isn’t fucking X-factor”
Overall Enjoyment- 7/10
Friday 10th June 2011
Acts @ Main Stage- Big Country, We Are Scientists
Acts @ The Big Top- Edei, Sharon Corr, Imelda May, Eliza Doolittle, Alexandra Burk, Joan Jett
Big Country
Described by the announcer as his favourite band, I still find myself wondering just how big this band are. I have seen their albums in HMV and the crowd seemed to like them, but I just wonder how big they are! Anyway, Big Country opened up proceedings at Main Stage.
Best Song- N/A
Awesome Moment- Made me laugh seeing the lead singer get over the barrier to hang out with the audience.
Overall Enjoyment- 4/10
We Are Scientists
They are from New York don’t you know? You would be foolish not to guess this with their constant neurotic, Woody Allen-esque statements between songs, “somebody stop that fucking big wheel turning; its extremely off-putting”. This wasn’t cutting it with me, so I decided to move off to The Big Top for “Ladies Day”.
Best Song- N/A
Awesome Moment- Walking away to The Big Top
Overall Enjoyment- 4/10.
Edei
Can Timberland boots look good with a frilly dress? Maybe. Edei would have you believe so, wearing this ensemble while confidently yet modestly rolling out her catalogue of songs. Such graciousness to her audience combined with a performance of single “Loved”, that I had been looking forward to after hearing on the radio, really got me on her side.
Best Song- Loved
Awesome Moment- Realising I had turned up bang on time to hear “Loved”
Overall Enjoyment- 5/10
Sharon Corr
This quarter of pop band The Corr’s turned out to be pleasant surprise. Playing songs of her own and also crowd pleasing hits by The Corr’s, I quickly found myself really enjoying Sharon Corr’s set.
By both reminding me of her talent as a violinist, and with a voice so sweetly performing Corr’s hit “Radio”, I quickly found that late 1990’s crush saved for Andrea Corr transfer itself to this wonderful violin playing sister.
Best Song- Radio, So Young
Awesome Moment- Sharon’s thanks to the audience for instilling her growing self confidence as a solo artist.
Overall Enjoyment-7 /10
Imelda May
Within this set came one of the greatest surprises of the weekend. Imelda and her band put on a massively enthusiastic and energetic performance that was just a joy to be a part of.
Imelda May has surely found a new fan in me, purchasing one of her albums yesterday, it seemed a real shame when this band had to leave. A funky bassist, a massively authentic 50’s looking guitarist and Imelda May’s amazing Batman design dress, made this show just so irresistible.
Best Song- Not sure of any song names. There was a lot of good stuff though.
Awesome Moment- Discovering that the design on Imelda May’s dress was actually lots of little Batman symbols!
Overall Enjoyment-8/10
Eliza DoolittleWhat followed next was yet another incredibly entertaining show. This seemingly pleasant individual Eliza Doolittle really earned my appreciation throughout this show, with her playful songs and brilliantly enthusiastic backing group.
Best Song- Mr. Medicine
Awesome Moment- When I shook Eliza’s hand! As she bounced down the stage steps to greet her audience, I was only expecting a quick hand slap, so was pleasantly surprised to get a full friendly handclasp. Watching that backing group was also great fun.
Overall Enjoyment- 7/10
Alexandra Burke
The show put on by the X Factor winner was unfortunately a slight spoiler of the incredible pace set by the previous acts. Without a doubt, Burke seems like a lovely, genuine person, but sadly, just seems a little packaged as an artist. With almost a false American accent plus the occasional, seemingly forced on stage swearword ("this shit is live"), I couldn’t help but feel this wasn’t second headliner standard and that both Doolittle and May should have been above her on the line up.
But I liked Burke on the X Factor so I will give some credit here; she is a great singer, and should be allowed to break free as a performer a little more. She has won the X factor now, so it would be nice if she could show off that voice a little more, with an actual backing band, not just a stodgy backing track. Her on stage backing dancers provided some hilarity in the form of deliberate six pack rolling and theatrical gurning. But sadly, this overly polished performance, just doesn’t hack it at festivals, especially after performances of Imelda May’s standard earlier on.
Best Song- Bad Boys
Awesome Moment- I allowed a little girl and her minder to take my place at the front barrier for this performance. It obviously would have meant more to her and seemed to make her night. As a result, I became the crowd hero for a short period of time. Some of Alexandra’s dancing was OK too.
Overall Enjoyment-5 /10
Having spent nearly all day in the company of Rusty Egan, his quality DJ sets, entertaining miming and generally just making us happy by being there, he had officially become a festival hero for myself and my girlfriend. So I had to make sure I shook his hand as he left the stage for the last time that day and offered him a handshake as he passed. He shook my hand with a big smile (Dude).
I have read up on him since and he is quite prestigious on that scene: he was in Visage and also DJ’d at the iconic Blitz club. But I loved him before I knew any of this. It was a pleasure to be in your audience Rusty!
Joan Jett & The BlackheartsBringing things back to festival land was a marvellously rocking show by Joan Jett, who played with a real hardcore energy that was needed to blast some life into this late night audience. There is still something weirdly attractive about Joan Jett, which I really cannot put my finger on. I think it might be that she is just really punky and cool.
Sniffing and spitting her way through the catalogue of ladypunk hits, Jett still seems amazingly rock and roll. Put it this way, unlike Debbie Harry recently, I really couldn’t see her on Something for the Weekend.
So Joan Jett brought to a close what had been Ladies Day, and I have to be honest it really was a brilliant days entertainment, providing a wonderful alternative to the laddish braying of Kaiser Chiefs at Main Stage. Corr, May, Doolittle and Jett all managed to contribute to this wonderfully odd mix their own unique slant on the proceedings, providing the quirky, sexy, funny, sweet, classy and cool atmosphere that was the Friday at The Big Top. Bravo ladies.
Best Song- I Love Rock ‘n Roll
Awesome Moment- While performing The Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, Jett was looking right at me while singing the line beginning “Now I’m ready to feel your hand”. I have to be honest I found this exceptionally unnerving, and for a moment I think my girlfriend did to!
Another highlight was Joan Jett going “Sorry” for incorrectly timing her audience guide for clapping to a song. The goofy little smile and laugh before continuing, a perfect example of that strange hotness.
Overall Enjoyment- 8/10
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