Planet Notion - V Festival/Hylands Park/Chelmsford/August 19th and 20th

There were so many signs that V was not for me this year – the hammering down rain when we arrived at Chelmsford station and the feeling that everything was not going as it should. But I persevered, and it was well worth it. Entering the arena much later than planned on Saturday afternoon, we could see the Divine Comedy on stage, with the crowd already pretty big for the time of day. Instead of heading to watch Neil Hannon and co, we decided to venture off into the unknown and find out where everything was for the day. First for our listening pleasure were The Magic Numbers. Having toured several times in the last year, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting their performance to blow me away. I was in for a surprise however, as alongside tracks from their hugely successful debut, they played some new material. The standout track had to be the beautiful ‘I See You, You See Me’ with the shy Angela’s solo getting its usual rapturous applause. Next, we headed to the Channel 4/E4 stage, where we caught the end of The Cardigans’ set. Nina looked as fab as ever, and her limited English combined with her Swedish accent gave her banter a funny edge. “Here is a song that is not about love, at all… so if you don’t like love… this is a good song for you” is the perfect example, before the band launched into ‘I Need Some Fine Wine…’. Back at the main stage, Keane played a truly energetic set, with keyboard player Tim hammering the hell out of the keys and stamping his way through every song. ‘Put It Behind You Now’ from the new album and ‘Somewhere Only We Know’, with the entire crowd singing along, were the high points. Heading over to the Channel 4 stage, we caught a couple of tracks by The Ordinary Boys, with Preston’s new wife Chantelle’s image appearing intermittently on the big screens as she looked on from the wings. That soon became pretty dire, and so we headed off to catch Girls Aloud at the JJB tent – unfortunately so did the rest of the festival goers it seemed. The tent was packed with the crowd spilling out and from what I have seen from the highlights, the poor gals were wet through from the heat and sweat in there. They rocked apparently! Returning to the JJB stage on Sunday, we caught new chav gal Lily Allen who arrived on stage in what resembled a wedding dress. ‘Knock em Out’ was performed with gusto, as was ‘LDN’ – complete with a three man horn section adding to the sound. Lily said she wished she had more time to perform for us – and so did we! Back at the main stage, the Sugababes emerged from backstage and kicked off proceedings with ‘Freak Like Me’, before playing ‘Round, Round,’ ‘Push the Button’ and a medley of their slower tracks. Despite being one of the poppier acts at V, the gals held their own complete with a live band and spot on vocals. Norman Jay played a blistering set on the Sunday at the Bacardi B-Live tent, but the place was so packed all weekend, it was hard to stay for long despite the temptation of the cocktails on display. Finally, we caught Hard-Fi before heading off – who were a complete disappointment. The band sounded terrible live, however the sound wasn’t great at the main stage on the Sunday so who knows, but their rendition of ‘Seven Nation Army’ wasn’t the best. All in all V was pretty good – you couldn’t help feeling however that this year’s V line up was slightly disappointing in comparison with headliners Oasis, Franz Ferdinand and Scissor Sisters from last year. There seemed to be a lot of confusion amongst people regarding camping, tickets, directions and the toilets, but then again what’s new about that?