General collection of irrelevant drivel and sporadic venting of spleen, with a dash of intelligent journalism and incisive debate.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Hyde Park Calling 2 July 2006

Finally the day.

Second day of Hyde Park Calling. A mouth-watering line-up -
1. Ocean Colour Scene. Quite an under-rated band, with a classic 90's brit-pop sound (whatever *that* is).
2. The Zutons. My new favourite. They absolutely rock.
3. Razorlight. Hadn't listened to them much before the show, apart from the songs that they play on the radio.
4. The Who. Of course. This is what we shelled our money out for.

In that order. There was another group which opened, but we missed it as we were at The Carpenters Arms, erm...preparing ourselves for the day :-) And there was another stage where Primal Scream was headlining with some other bands, but we didn't venture there.

How was it?

Pretty &%$*ing amazing is how it was. The music just kept getting better and better as the day went on.

OCS were good. The Zutons (Did I tell ya I love them) and Razorlight were amazing.

And then The Who came on.

The combined age of this band is probably equal to the combined age of the previous two bands, but in terms of sheer energy and performance, in the words of my dear friend Maithu, they made the others look like they were out for a gentle amble in the park. Roger Daltrey belting it out (and he's still got the lungs for it), Pete Townshend windmilling at every given (or not) opportunity, truly an amazing sight.

No broken guitars, unfortunately - I've heard that Pete's given that up. No explosions as well, Keith Moon being dead and all. Yeah, I know - bad taste.

The play list AFAIR:

I can't explain
The seeker
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere
Who are you
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
Who are you?
Bargain
Behind blue eyes
Drowned
Baba O'riley
Reign O'er me
The kids are alright
My Generation
Won't get fooled again


I'm sure I've forgotten a couple of songs.

They came back for their encore, and I and Maithu were wondering what they'd play next. They hadn't played Pinball Wizard yet, and there were murmurs of 'Magic Bus' around us. Finally, they played
Substitute,
Pinball Wizard
See me, feel me

The visuals were mesmerising as well. For 'Who Are You?' they showed a speeded-up b/w video taken from the front of a train so all you can are tracks and the countryside rushing by at great speed. And the song ends when the train reachs its destination and the passengers disembark. Gimmicky maybe, but it worked very well.



Click here for more pictures of this event.

All in all, Total paisa vasool!

They are streaming their concert footage here.

And when you're there, look out for us. After 'Who Are You?' and after Pete says 'You guys are younger than us' there is a crowd shot. In the upper right of the frame, you can see Maithu in his orange t-shirt.



Next to him, if you look closely, you can see about half my face.



Our claim to fame.

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