The British summertime is a brief and fickle affair. So when it does come around, cheap toilet paper and disposable barbeque kits enjoy their best sale period of the year as the masses prepare for the annual festival frolics. If sodden tents, warm beer, and navigating your way across a no-mans-land of trodden pizza and unconscious bodies sounds like a bit of a lark, the V-Festival has it covered.

The weekend of August 20 marks the return of this oft maligned festival. V tends to get a bit of a bashing not only for the ‘thuggish’ nature of the punters, but also for the less than subtle corporate offensive. Sure, the beer selection is monopolised entirely by Carling (the sort of stuff you’d be embarrassed to serve from a home-brewing kit), and the entertainment between sets is not so much about peace, love and music, but a sponsored attack of pointless cell phone offers on giant screens. Such is the way of the world it seems. But if you can get past the bombardment of ringtone advertisements and £10 festival guides (not to mention the shoddy security and pre-lunchtime drunks) then you might just be in for a great weekend of music – and that’s why Losing Today is here.

Now in its tenth year, and in the face of such criticism, V2005 has to pull out all the stops. And it does. This year’s line-up has its fair share of chart flannel (Maroon 5, Joss Stone et al) but a carefully calculated mid-afternoon detour away from the main stage will lead to more than just a few hidden gems – this festival has an abundance of quality to find in the smaller tents. The weekend’s best music comes from these much neglected stages; where emerging artists take there chance to shine. So here is a brief run-down of V2005’s winners and losers:


WINNER

THE MAGIC NUMBERS – without doubt the toast of the British summertime. Every housewife’s dream and yet at the same time they offer ubiquitous hope to the not-so shiny, happy people. Fresh from their walkout on BBC Chart show ‘Top of the Pops’ (after a subtle dig at their weight by presenter Richard Bacon), the Numbers launch into possibly the happiest 45 minutes of the entire weekend. It seems a shame to pluck the band from the sweltering, mid-afternoon sunshine that their music so perfectly compliments, but this time next year, the Magic Numbers will be playing such festivals at night, with their name hovering right at the top of the bill. Amen to that thought.

LOSER

MAROON 5 – They don’t do anything wrong. To be honest they don’t really do anything. This is pop at its blandest. The question must be asked, why are they here? And more to the point, now that they are here, why are they so far up the running order? Down at the front there’s a plethora of screaming fourteen year-old girls, while at the back it seems the majority of the crowd are utilising the time to make use of the now fairly hazardous portable toilets. Naturally, singles like ‘This Love’ and ‘She Will Be Loved’ receive the squeals and screams you would expect from two UK top ten hits, but Maroon 5 are no more than a toilet break for the majority at the Staffordshire site – and the ensuing evacuation towards the portaloos is far more entertaining anyway.




WINNER

THE FRAMES – forget U2, forget Westlife, this is Ireland’s biggest band. The Irish know it, so why has it taken 15 years for the rest of us to get a good glimpse at Dublin’s The Frames? Pushed onto the Channel 4 stage early in the afternoon, they are greeted by just a handful of die-hard fans, endlessly grinning because they finally have a chance to see their hitherto unknown heroes. The band open with the winding and rising ‘Finally’, and twenty-five minutes later as the band leave, there are thousands of punters screaming for more. Never has a brief set done so much to forward a band’s popularity. Its epic, its romantic, its exciting – it’s a wake-up call to those in the campsites still nursing last night’s hangover. They should have been here.

LOSER

TONY CHRISTIE - Seventies pop crooner Tony Christie was announced as a main stage performer on the back of his March single ‘Is This the Way to Amarillo?’, a re-release of his first top twenty hit. Unbearable as it was…it was for charity. Unfortunately, for the ten thousand indie kids looking up at him, that’s the only song from his 45 minute set that they recognise, and the only song that doesn’t have the crowd’s attention wandering to thoughts of pasties and cider. That said, he holds the crowd far more successfully than Maroon 5 – this is cheese….he knows it….the crowd knows it - there is no effort to be artistically resourceful or reinvent himself in the way Tom Jones tried to. Unfortunately, it’s more suited to pre-dinner drinks on a Caribbean cruise rather than this festival. The Tony Christie revolution is over before it got started….here’s hoping.

WINNER

KAISER CHIEFS – Front-man Ricky Wilson hops on stage with complete disregard for the remaining ligaments in his ankle (torn while performing in Portugal the week before) – but he has no intention of letting a few vital muscles ruin the Kaiser’s first ever V-Festival performance. The Kaisers are a great example of the risks involved in naming the line-up six months prior to the event. Since February, the Kaiser Chiefs have risen to unimaginable heights of popularity – as the hordes of people making mass exodus from the other tents would suggest. A late arrival to this stage by yours truly has left Ricky as just a mere speck on the Staffordshire horizon. But that’s no problem, the atmosphere is booming, sweaty and loud – perfect. This is the most energetic crowd of the weekend and the Kaisers fully deserve it.









ROB WILKINSON