life - FEATURE
country park, featuring left field acts among giant
carved squirrels and Victorian bandstands.
Lou Reed 2006
Saturday saw Ray Davies take the “veteran”
afternoon slot – never has ‘Sunny Afternoon’
sounded so appropriate – followed by the
notorious Pete Doherty and the aptly named
Babyshambles with Kate Moss sitting at the
side of the stage. Even if the set was tune
free, Pete climbed all over the crowd, in his
trademark felt hat. Star quality, despite the
musical racket. Equally entertaining were Goldie
Lookin’ Chain, white Welsh parody-rappers,
who showed us some new wave formation
dancing, and got the crowd laughing. Roxy
Music had reformed specially, but were too cool
to party – far more appealing were headliners
Travis, who proved human and affecting,
especially when Fran forgot the words, and
had to ask a member of the audience to help
out. One of those festival moments, special
because so obviously unplanned. ‘Don’t Let
It Rain On Me’ had the whole field singing.
And before REM brought their own,
private magic to Sunday night, a friendly bill
saw Caravan resurrect the best of melodic
prog, the Magic Numbers resurrect the
‘summer of 67’ harmony pop of the Mamas and
the Papas, and a returning Snow Patrol crossing
the divide between also-rans and stars. “When
50,000 people sing back to us, it is a truly magical
moment. This is really relaxed. People come
here to have a good time”. And watching the
band having a kick around backstage, between
the giant tour buses and media t ents, Snow
Patrol were practising what they preached .
2006 saw a further increase in audience
numbers, and the size of the Festival village,
Afton in 1970, just installed at Dimbola Lodge,
Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest,
within sight and sound of those momentous
“Be not afeard. The isle is full of sweet noises,
events in a now unreachable past, but with live
Sounds and sweet airs that give
footage which could have been taken yesterday.
delight and hurt not.
Plus highlights from the new IOW Festivals,
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
which have already grown their own legends.
Will hum about my ears, and sometimes voice
Now, with the Rolling Stones soon to take
the stage at their first outdoor festival since
That if I waked after long sleep
Will make me sleep again”.
the late 60s –and their first appearance on the
Island since Ryde Pavilion in 1964 – the IOW
For a fuller history of the IOW Festival, read
Festival is about to take another giant step, with
Brian Hinton’s Message To Love (Sanctuary,
the greatest rock band in the world. As they
1995) and Bold as Love: Return of the
once put it, “it’s only rock n’roll, but I like it”.
IOW Festival (Solo, revised ed 2006)
Long may the Isle of Wight act
as a magnet for music lovers. As
now even with its own Marks and Spencers.
Friday night saw a dance spectacular with a
heavily erotic set from Goldfrapp, complete with
The Who 2005
dancers dressed as horses, and the terrifying
Prodigy starting a musical fire. The Foo Fighters
blazed too as Saturday headliners, with Primal
Scream injecting some rock n’roll attitude.
Sunday saw a lovely afternoon set from Procol
Harum, strange avante-garde ramblings from
Lou Reed, complete with kung fu master, and an
impassioned anti-government rant by Richard
Ashcroft, whose super-slow ‘The Drugs Don’t
Work’ pierced the heart. And then Coldplay
bigged things up with giant balloons and lazers,
but retaining a humanity and sense of passion in
their music which sent everyone home happy.
And the giant screens showed the newly
installed statue of Jimi Hendrix, onstage at
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