In their inability to sell tickets, the Wireless Festival decided to send me a load, without me asking, which was much appreciated!! After getting back from holiday, I decided to at least go along and check it all out. The festival occupied a large site in Hyde Park, which would later (minus the tents, minor stages and other attractions) be used for Live 8. But my first thought on entering the venue was how empty it was - the organisers had advertised that it was deliberately like this, but I suspect that ticket sales must have been poor too. The arena was great, not too big, not too crowded, and with some very interesting minor stages, food stalls and diversions to make it a really relaxed festival. A good effort considering it is in the very centre of London.
Given that we had Keane and James Blunt playing, I suppose that a fairly boring crowd was to be expected - I didn't quite expect the number of people with picnics, wine, olives, breadsticks and houmous though - very posh for a music festival. After catching a bit of Echo & The Bunnymen (very predictable, I have heard their greatest hits a hundred times before, and they don't sound different now!), some of the crowd even managed to stand up for the arrival of James Blunt.
An incredibly posh man who used to be in the army, James Blunt came across as extremely smug and annoying, as anybody that's heard You're Beautiful (which much be everybody in the UK by now) will probably know. Between songs, he remarked that he could see a girl's breasts in the crowd - it sounded like he'd never seen a pair of tits before in his life. He did also swear at one point, but he's such a nice chap that the middle aged Keane fans forgave him! Jolly japes!!
By the end of James, I was getting ready to go and see the one act actually worth trekking across London for, Brendan Benson. Recently with a second album, and a reportedly well-received set at Glastonbury under his belt, he treated us ("us" being an almost-empty tent) to a mixture of old and new album, and some friendly chat between songs as well. After Brendan finished, there was time to catch a bit of the Supergrass set, which is considerably more polished than the last time I saw them play.
Keane came on stage at about 9pm, and, as they played the first song, I noticed that James Blunt was standing about 2 yards away from me. I also noticed that he is a midget!! After about 3 or 4 songs of Keane, I could take no more, and left to go home - a great festival in that you sleep at home and have a shower in the morning. Overall, a good festival in a nice, relaxing venue, with some great "festival" attractions - unfortunately today, the bands (with Brendan Benson notably excused) were barely worth the £0.00 I paid for the ticket. Better bands on offer tomorrow.
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