A pair of River Island sunglasses the richer, I caught the train to Hemel Hempstead which on the way up filled to overflowing with squeeing fangirls en route to the Take That concert in Milton Keynes, and my thoughts turned to
We got into the festival site quickly and without too much fuss, even though
We managed to snag us a fantastic spot to the side of the main stage and staked our claim there with the pink blanket that
The first band onto the main stage were OK Go, who had played a venue in Madrid the night before and hadn't slept, but who gave an electrifying performance and closed off their set with a choreographed dance of the video for their latest single A Million Ways, which went down a treat with the audience. They're a fantastic band live and I've now added them to my favourite artists list.
Next up were The Fratellis, a Glaswegian post-grunge band; quite interesting, though I think a smaller venue would do them more justice. As it was, they sort of got drowned out in a lot of white noise.
Then, the biggest surprise of the festival: Thomas Dolby, resurrected. I didn't recognise him immediately, but when he took off the goggles, the years just melted away. 14 Years he's been away from the music business and the charts, in which time he's set up home in California with wife and 3 kids (who up until a few months ago never knew their dad had ever been a 'rockstar', or so he told us) and eked out a living making film scores...but now he's back, touring the UK again. If you get a chance to see him, do. He's funny, modest, entertaining and still just brimming with talent. Though some of his material may be a bit dated, with the new arrangements and intros the songs are still well worth listening to, and the video projections are great, too. He closed his set with Hyperactive!, never one of my favourites, but in the new version it just won't leave me alone. Pity I only have the old one here...
I didn't care much for the next two acts: The Dears and The Mystery Jets, and I'm hard-pressed to explain their apparent popularity. I found them dull and uninteresting, and mystified as to why they'd had such prominent billing. Still, they seemed to have brought their own crowd, who did enjoy them.
Goldfrapp were on next, and I was pleased to see Alison Goldfrapp has excellent taste in shoes! She also has an amazing voice, esp. for one so tiny as she...Although the PA let them down on occasion, esp. the bass getting far too much emphasis (or perhaps that was just from where I was standing), they gave an outstanding performance, with dancers!
Finally then, the headline act, the one I'd really come to see, even though I'd only just seen them 2 months ago in Birmingham: Depeche Mode. Prior to the show, I'd stated that what I would most like to hear them do, was Martin sing Shake The Disease, my favourite DM-song at the moment, and as with 2 months ago, when it had been Leave In Silence, I got my wish. The set list wasn't radically different from the other Playing The Angel-tour ones, and not even noticeably that much shorter, although there was a predominance of greatest hits, which is to be expected for a festival gig.
We got back to the hotel around midnight, had a post-squee drink in the bar (minus
When Monday dawned, grey and wet,
But guess what? We've made plans to meet up again in August, to go see Beneva, and Guys and Dolls starring Patrick Swayze!