V Festival 2012

Yesterday, for the first time ever in my 20-something year old existence, I went to Essex. Having managed to avoid Essex for the past 20-something years, there had to be a very good reason for this unprecedented visit*. That reason? The Killers.

About three weeks ago I spotted that The Killers were playing in my (more-or-less) home city of Leeds. Having just been North to visit my new nephew, I poked around further and saw they were playing at V Fest. Dilemma. I am not a festival fan. At all.

After the horrific disaster that was Reading (never blogged about it, that bad) last year and Leeds the year before, the last thing I wanted to do was see them at a festival. But, I had heard that as far as festivals go, Leeds/Reading are at the top end of the extreme festivals and that V Fest is much nicer. It was. (And the music was much more my cup of tea, too.)

Before The Killers, we saw a little bit of Tulisa on the way in as we were walking over to see The Feeling at a different stage, but mainly stuck to the main stage to see Olly Murs, Madness, Tom Jones, Tinie Tempah and Snow Patrol play. I'd seen a bit of Snow Patrol at my uni's Fresher's Week, but that was before they struck the big time, aka before Chasing Cars. 

The Feeling were good - obviously didn't like their new stuff as didn't know the words - and I only knew one Olly Murs song to sing along with (until he covered The Jam and Supergrass, that is). I was at V Fest with (my) Olly's sister who did though, and she rightly pointed out that both Ollys dance the same. Make of that what you will. He seemed a bouncy enough likeable chap though and could sing, which is always a bonus. (Major disappointment last year with 30 Seconds to Mars.)

Next up were Madness who I was excited about but then you sort of remember that Suggs comes across as a bit up himself, to put it politely, and that you feel sorry for Carl because he gets maybe 1% of the attention that Suggs gets - he's the other singer - but, my goodness, how does Lee Thompson manage to play the sax like that without passing out! Tom Jones followed - no Sexbomb - but bloody good, nevertheless, despite the horrors of seeing pikey full-frontal nudity as some of the audience decided to take You Can Leave Your Hat On seriously ... *shudders*

Tinie Tempah wowed the crows, and, yes!! He did Miami to Ibiza - hurrah! - and then it was time for Snow Patrol and The Killers. Both brilliant, but The Killers more so, even though they had wrapped up by 22.30 and then their encore was wrapped up by 22.45. Brandon Flowers is an utter delight though, even if he did deprive me of fifteen minutes. Very happy that they did play For Reasons Unknown, which is probably my favourite song of theirs, if I *had* to pick one ... and why would I do that when I can have them all? Cue evil laughter. Coughs.

There were other bands that I'd like to have seen that were playing V Fest but couldn't because of clashes, but it was definitely worth going and I may not hate festivals as much any more. Well, I don't hate V Fest. Are you a festival fan? x 

* I am joking, of course. Am certain that Essex is lovely, despite the TV show. I mean, Chelsea is ... Also, I've never been to Cornwall,which just proves that there are some very nice counties in this country that I've just not managed to visit yet, OK? {^_^}