Hyde Park goes all skinny tie and straw trilby

So Fringey are at this years O2 Wireless festival. Again.

HURRAH!

We kick off in the Xfm tent, with the Pigeon Detectives, who are pretending to be the Kooks covering Hot Hot Heat, blah, - but they are very bouncy – (and the singing chappie will have someones eye out with that mic!) - Then its to the main stage for Gogol Bordello, doing their fabulous screwball gypsy folk thing, they steal the show and own that main stage with their cymbals, drums and bucket bashing - mad as nails! - Next up are the Young Knives, who do have good tunes, but are not as good as I hoped they’d be, they cover by being funny and charming. - Then was the Dirty Pretty Things - yummy. Unfortunately it was very windy and the sound was totally pants, we couldn’t tell the difference between 'Death on the Stairs' and 'Gin and Milk'. (And I'm not being sarcastic.)

Phew! A quick breather and more pimms, then its off to the Myspacca tent for the Cazals, who try to sound like Dogs or Weller, but rubbish vocals and a singer who looks like a rat lets them down somewhat. - So we bin them and go to the O2 Blueroom for a bit of Dirty Little Faces, (average garage rock). - Before hightailing it to the xfm stage for Super Furry Animals! - (we walked past the mainstage while the Rac*ntours were on. They do annoy me, but that Brendan Benson looks a bit filthy.)

AND WE CAN'T GET IN!!! So while Bellend and Sebastian were boring everyone to tears, tweeing their tits off all over mainstage, the Super Furry tent is completely oversubscribed and can't squeeze us in. We danced about under the trees outside for a bit, but not being in the tent was well annoying, so off we went to catch the end of White Rose Movement. Who were ... ... surprisingly quite good!! So not at all like the last few times we’ve seen em, when they were utter crap. The God of Large Corporate Sponsored Music Events must have been smiling down on us, as the Movement kept all their excellent singles for the end of their set and we didn’t have to sit through any of the album filler. Also, Finn has finally had that rod removed from his arse, or maybe they’d just had access to a free bar somewhere? Anyway, this was kinda how we always thought they should/could be. A bit sleazier, a bit dirtier.

So we danced and danced and danced out the tent, to the loos (using the fairground music from the dodgems to keep going), to the bar and down to The Strokes - we may have been a bit tipsy.

The thing about the Strokes is they’re a rubbish festival band*, they have no big singalong chorus’ ('Last Night' is an exception) and most of the vocals are mumbled. Yet tonight they are on form, Julian is chatting with the front rows and is not pissed, they seem to be having a 'fab' time. But their edgy New York cool does not work on a breezy summers evening in Hyde Park. (If ever a band needed to be under a low ceiling in a dirty club somewhere!) And, as with the DPT’s, the wind snatches the sound and flings it into the ether and away from our ears. Most inconvenient. I still love em tho and they cover ‘Walk on the Wild Side’.

Doo da doo da doo do doo de do ……

So then its onto a Sunday night out with the Goths!


* Except at Benicassim, where they were completely brilliant. I obviously don't know what I'm talking about.