Live Review

O2 Wireless – Hyde Park, London

• 11th Jul 2008

If you missed out on the O2 Wireless Festival- don’t be too sad, as Glasswerk reviewer Jessica Kempner has let us have a sneaky peak into her o2 Wireless diary…

Friday 4th July

Friday morning comes round and the trek into London begins, the sun is shining for once so I’m really looking forward to the day ahead. Once we get into Hyde Park, you can see it’s going to be a mad busy day, full of lots of freebies and promotions trying to publicise the 3 company’s involved, but I don’t really blame them, they’ve provided me with some sweet music so I can’t complain!

Walking in to the end of Lightspeed Champion’s set on the main stage was a bit of a bummer, but the sound didn’t sound quite right, and he was still pulling out the same tricks as normal with his star wars spoof! We sat down, got comfortable and watched the Dirty Pretty Things storm the crowd from afar, and although the whole park was still fairly empty they had a good crowd, even if the atmosphere was rather damp. Not wanting to stay at the Main Stage the whole day we trundled off to the wrong tent to find Black Kids, and when we eventually did, it was well worth it. They seem to be unphased by hecklers, though why they were heckled is still unknown! Guillemots put on a very plain and simple show, but it was classy, it went down well and sounded great, so it showed that keeping it simple was probably the best way to keep it chilled and classy. The Wombats however disagreed. An absolutely mental set, keeping the crowd well involved and really setting the scene and making it suddenly feel like a summer festival. The mediocre turn out for Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly makes you wonder if he’s had his time, but he does have a talent, he captures you with his lyrics and his band really capture the essence of ska, even though it’s taken down a big notch.

What was supposed to be the highlight of my day, headliner Morrissey, was actually just a distinctly average performance, with Mozza ranting on about not eating meat and how silly his curfew was. He played some of the greats, and lots of his new stuff, and he played them well and they were received well, its just it wasn’t that exciting!

Saturday 5th July

After a heavy night, it was back on the tube to Hyde Park for what seemed a perfectly fantastic day, weather and music wise. We started the day off catching Manchester band The Whip, and as per normal they put up a good fight and had a great set. We accidentally stumbled across Sam Sparro’s secret set, and it was great, we saw him twice on Saturday, and both times he was just as great. He is and incredible singer, and had a gospel choir on stage with him which just made everything far more intense. The best part of his two sets though had to be his cover of Daft Punk’s “Around the world”! In between the two Sam Sparro sets we saw Inner Party System, who have this ambient indie sound about them, almost like Minus the Bear on speed, and they were fantastic! Does It Offend You ,Yeah win the weekends award for biggest mosh pit and most involved crowd though, it was massive, and the crowd were loving every moment of it! I really thought MSTRKRFT’s set was good, although a little…damp?! It was lacking something that didn’t make it fantastic, and they had no banter or anything to do with the crowd it seemed. DeadMaus were just a great fun band to go and see, it was incredibly busy and everyone seemed to be loving it as much as the next, but it got boring towards the end of the set, and we left to go for a drink listening to them in the background! The man I was most looking forward to seeing, Fatboy Slim was not a let down, thankfully! They had an awesome light show going on, played all their hits and more, and were all round great!

Sunday 6th July

Sunday the weather was not with us. The sky blackened and the heavens opened, and it got very wet. Thankfully someone somewhere was looking out for us, and after gaining a free lunch from o2 we managed to catch the end of Sons of Albion’s set which was fantastic. So full of charisma and energy that the massive crowd that turned out to see them were not disappointed at all. The sun finally poked its head out for Eddie Grant on the main stage, who considering he’s never toured before, is now embarking on a UK tour, after doing Nelson Mandela’s birthday party, and it was just good fun. His music in general just brings up a smile, yet loud on a massive stage surrounded by people enjoying it was even better! It started spitting for the Goo Goo Dolls’ performance, and fittingly so, every song was performed well, but it just didn’t shine and wasn’t anything particularly special, Iris seemed particularly clichéd with the amount of couples around, but it went down well.

Next we hopped along to one of the tents just as the rain started again to see The Delays. It was actually a brilliant set, full of energy and enthusiasm, and the tent was very busy. The next act we saw we didn’t stay long for. On our hunt for Joe Purdy, recommended by a friend, we ended up at the wrong stage and watched one song of Dawn Kinnard’s and had to leave; not my cup of tea. Very Katie Melua, and a bad one at that. Joe Purdy, who we eventually found lurking at the small o2 stage, and it was a good find, his thick South of America accent and the way he spoke to himself more than at the actual audience really reminded me of festival favourite Seasick Steve, however the music was different, and this guy actually had something special. After him, and a couple more drinks I had to drag the other people I was with to come and see my guilty pleasure for the day – Bowling For Soup. I have to admit they were a few songs into their set when we got there, but, aside from the tent being packed out, the crowed were loving it! In other words I wasn’t the only one singing along! They had a technical hitch halfway through, which meant one or so songs less, but decided it would be the prefect time to pose as a band for a “sweet group shot”. Genius.

Ben Harper had a lot of hype surrounding him, and unfortunately I had high expectations that were immediately blown out the water once I’d had a listen, showering me with depression and disappointment after the party times we’d just been having. However, I pushed through and stuck it out, more though just so I could push my way nearer to the front of the crowd for The Counting Crows. Adam Duritz took to the stage, and I knew it was going to be a good one, he started off playing lots of his songs from their new album, and unfortunately it was more of the slower “Sunday Morning” songs, but they were performed well, he then picked it up a bit and bust out a few of his more popular, older hits, and even their cover of Big Yellow Taxi. It did seem like he was off his face the whole way through, but it was definitely the highlight of my weekend, even him leaving to the Mama’s and Papa’s song, “California Dreamin’” getting everyone to join in as they left. What a great end to a fantastic weekend!