Live Review: Wireless Festival at London Hyde Park - Saturday 25th June 2005

Author: Dollyrocker

There really wasn't a lot of competition for me line up wise between the four dates that wireless had announced. The Saturday one that I am about to review boasted a line up including Death In Vegas, MIA, Mylo, Basement Jaxx, LCD Soundsystem, Roots Manuva, Vitalic and erm, The Mitchell Brothers. Just to get it into perspective, the other three dates were headlined by New Order, Keane and Kasabian respectively. I guess they were trying to cater for all tastes?

Once inside Hyde Park it became VERY apparent that a lot of people were just there to see Basement Jaxx and have a few beers despite the other bands that were playing rather than because of them, but I was on a mission to see Vitalic. So, a quick beer stop involving me asking for a pint and being given two small bottles of Carlsberg for six quid and I scuttled into thelittle xfm tent to catch the last of a band called Gram Rabbit, who had a very enthusiastic middle aged bearded keyboard player and a small army of fans (mainly Japanese) at the front, dressed in, yep, bunny ears. It was pretty cool actually, and about a BILLION times more interesting than The Mitchell Brothers over on the main stage. 'Ere mush, it's that geezer outThe Streets innit, come dahn man'. Yeh, like really.

Vitalic was onstage getting applauded even while he was soundchecking. There were obviously quite a few people who (like me) were really excited about hearing 'OK Cowboy' played out live. I first wigged out to Vitalic a few years ago now when a lot of DJ's on the electro scene were thrashing out 'La Rock' to riotous reactions, so it was good to see the fella put anLP out and then it getting a lot of good press. Vitalic is not an egotistical man though, he looked very modest whilst playing a mix of electro, appegiated synth lines, downright groundbreaking beats and neo industrial techno. The atmosphere was electric and it was probably one of the first gigs I have been to where I have been like; 'Feck, is that the end?' when he finished a 35 minute set.

To be honest, I wasn't really in the mood for Death In Vegas who, lets get real, haven't put out a good tune since 'Dirge' and that was only good cos of Dot Allison's vocals, so I skipped over to get some beers to caine before LCD Soundsystem and watch a bit of Lady Sovereign whilst waiting. I'm sure that the ironic chav thing was wasted there though, so I went to get some sweets and managed to find some liquorice buttons in exact BDD colours, which was pretty cool!

LCD Soundsystem came on to a pretty small audience, mainly due to the fact that a lot of people had squeezed into the Mylo tent early. They played a brilliant set, playing a sped up version of 'Daft Punk Is Playing In My House', James banging two tambourines hypnotically into a microphone, an ecstatic 'Disco Infiltrator' (big cheers all round) and then changing the words of'Losing My Edge', (I'm losing my edge, to Mylo..). LCD work really well as a live act, James often going over and doing a bit of random drumming, the set ended with a long climatic version of 'Yeah' and then they were off. Destined for bigger and better things eventually, I'm sure.

By the time we got to the Mylo tent it was already completely rammed, even though he wasn't on for another 40 minutes, so we queued patiently. And then not so patiently, and then we just lifted up the side of the tent and stormed in anyway, genius! Mylo was on within 5 minutes, the intro to 'Destroy Rock n Roll' belting out of the totally inadequate soundsystem. It was finewhen we were watching Vitalic down the front but squeezed at the back forMylo, the sound was REALLY crap. Managed to get towards the front in timefor 'Drop The Pressure', which is without a doubt his standout track, theatmosphere was wicked.

Basement Jaxx arrived on at 9.00pm and I was really looking forward tothem, even though the last LP was pants, Basement Jaxx had been one of my'moving to London' type bands around the time of 'Jump n Shout' etc comingout, so I was really psyched out about seeing them. It seems like I shouldhave made the effort back then though to be honest, the tracks mainly hada self indulgent kinda feel to them live, the cover of Kylie was just insulting, and middle aged blokes standing around doing lines of coke is not my idea of a good time. There were still some great moments though, 'Do Your Thang' is the most infectious slice of disco house you can imagine, 'Red Alert' still sounded funky as hell, and 'Jump n Shout' still made me grin.

So, the overall experience? Good. Still, glad I managed to blag FREE tickets for the Babyshambles wireless date this Thursday, let's put it like that.

Live Review: Hard-Fi at London Wireless Festival - Friday 24th June 2005

Author: Claire Mackie

Hyde Park's Friday was an all-round mixed-bag. Characteristically wet, but just not as muddy as some other British summer festivals, the day offered a concoction of the unique and unconventional vs. the predictable and generic bands of the British music industry. Most notably, Hard-fi's performance was a highlight, excelling against other acts of the day. This predominantly owed to the bands ability to get the crowd going with an effective melting pot of dance, indie, electronica, punk, reggae, soul, and even jazz to make a poppy sound which seemed to embrace the whole of the audience packed into the buzzing tent.

These proud Staines lads did it all. They undoubtedly entertained but also seemed to deliver a message about the reality of life in working-class West London, punching their on-lookers with 'Does anyone 'ere 'av a sh*t job, I said does anyone 'ere have a shit job?' 'This song's for you.' Crowd-pleasing tracks included the The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army' cover which differed from the original due to its eerily thuggish edge and their single 'Hard to beat' which seemed to please the street-chic expectations of punters. Whether the boys will follow in the footsteps of their evergreen street-savvy predecessors such as The Stone Roses or The Happy Mondays remains to be seen. What was clear however, was that their songs were enjoyed, their gritty message just may have been heard, and requests for a reprise filled the space as they made way for the next act, which made their performance in fact very hard to beat.