The Who, Primal Scream, Mobile - Hyde Park Calling, Hyde Park, London - Sunday 2nd July 2006

On the scorchingest of scorching hot days, the Hyde Park Calling festival happened, on the same patch of the park as the Wireless festival had taken place on the previous week. Heavily sponsored by Hard Rock Cafe (instead of O2), the venue had all of the markets and extra stages removed, to become just a huge outdoor arena, all facing the same stage. There was also a small second stage in a tent, hidden around the back, along with some shade - which I made a beeline for.

Lounging under a tree to avoid dying of heat exhaustion, I caught the band Mobile, playing in the tent as a support band. They sounded like Radiohead in parts, with slow, meandering, guitar-led songs, accompanied by a wailing singer. Not bad, but it did seem slightly out of place to be hearing such moody music on an unbelieveably hot and sunny day! Towards the end of their set, they livened up, and left me wishing that the whole of their set had been as interesting as the last couple of songs.

Avoiding the main stage and sunburn became a full-time job at this festival, so after some more lounging, I emerged at around 7pm to catch Primal Scream in the tent. The support bill included 2 decent bands (Primal Scream and Razorlight), so it was a shame that they both played at the same time - forcing the choice of one over the other.

Primal Scream won for me, and they drew an impressive crowd. Starting with Moving On Up, they showcased much of their new album, before wrapping up with a riotous version of Country Girl, followed immediately by Rocks. A clearly fantastic live band (that I had not seen for a while), they were well worthy of the crowd they drew. Bobby Gillespie was in great form, jumping around like a madman! I also saw a Gallagher brother in the audience, shame it was the non-famous one though, rather than Liam or Noel.

Whilst watching Primal Scream, then whilst waiting for The Who to come on stage, I was finding it hard to take in the number of middle aged, middle class people in the arena. Not terribly surprising given The Who's longevity, but the vast majority of the crowd were very irregular watchers of live music, certainly in this setting.

Queueing for the toilets with people old enough to be my father, and hearing surprised complaints about the queues and food and drink prices, confirmed that lots of the audience do not do this very often. Annual gig-goers, at best. The more shocking thing was the number of people in the audience that really should have been wearing more clothing, given how out of shape they were. It was a very hot day, but seeing fat women in their 50s in bikinis is not at all attractive!!

The Who came on stage at around 8:20, and started straight away with I Can't Explain. The oldies started phoning their mates from the pub, saying "listen to this, listen to this!" The set was a showcase for their greatest hits, as well as some of the new songs from their forthcoming album. The former were loved, the latter merely tolerated as interludes between the hits. They are quite obviously a great live act, but I did get the feeling that they seemed a bit pedestrian - to be expected I suppose for a bunch of men in their 60s.

Like seeing the Rolling Stones a few years ago, I was glad to see The Who, legendary band that they are. However, hearing the greatest hits was not that much better than listening to them on CD (although Pete Townshend's windmill guitar action was good to watch). A great experience, but I wouldn't go back in a hurry - and further convincing for me that I don't like big "stadium" gigs, and the once-a-year attendees they bring out.