Depravity

Following the incredible mediocrity that was my last entry, I figured I'd actually write something vaguely interesting. Please keep voting in my [poll], since the results are tied right now at one vote for each outcome. And yeah, as Indigo says the submit button doesn't appear to be loading -- but it's right above the link to the website, so just click immediately above that and you should be fine. I'm hoping this is what is stopping the hoardes of voting.

So anyway, last weekend was spent with San -- and others -- at the "[V] Festival" as it is now known. Why they changed it from "V(whatever year)" I don't know. V is a funny kind of festival, not least because it is held simmultaneously in two locations (the bands swap sites at the end of the day), and one of the festival sites is just up the road to me. I think the convenience of being able to go home at night was what convinced San to go.

Dave Grohl was saying during the Foo Fighters set that in the industry V is considered to be a "posh" festival, that it's very clean and organised. I would say it's more corporate than posh -- with V standing for Virgin, the organisers, and various stages being sponsored by the likes of Tommy Hilfilger and JJB Sport. Not to mention the lucrative deals the festival has with Budweiser, Bacardi and Strongbow. Not that we were complaining at the start of each day, when we were getting trashed in the Bacardi bar.

But yeah, I'm starting to prefer real gigs over festivals -- although when the sun is shining and you're feeling fine, festivals are a lot of fun, the bands just don't play for long enough for my liking. Ash played on Saturday and I liked them a lot, although I used to be a big fan of theirs years ago I haven't bought anything since their debut 1977. But I bought San their greatest hits last Chirstmas, and rediscovered how much I liked them. So it was good to hear them play newer songs like 'Burn Baby Burn' and 'Envy', and a couple of unreleased songs but they just didn't play for long enough. What they did play was fantastic, but there was no 'Jesus Says', or 'Jack Names the Planets', and watching at a distance on the video screen just isn't the same.

The same could be said for a lot of the bands. Foo Fighters were on top form, and Feeder were possibly my favourite act of the whole weekend -- but they just didn't have the time to play everything I would have liked them to. It was strange watching Feeder on Saturday headline the second stage, and remembering how we used to see them play in small local pubs.

These small local pubs have now been transformed into sports bars. Is there anything more depraved? I don't think so.