Field Day was a hipster watching paradise. There were so many unusual hair cuts! So many all-in-one jumpsuits! There was a woman wearing 5 inch heels and a bathing suit!

We got inside at about 3:30pm. I’m not sure who we saw first. I was told that it was Egyptian Hip Hop, but it didn’t sound particularly Egyptian or particularly Hip Hop, so not 100% sure about that. Possibly Fact? Whoever they were, they were really good. Much better than Simian Mobile Disco who was playing in the tent next door and who I had actually planned to see at 3:30.

Next we headed over to The Fall, who I did not rate at all. It sounded like an old crazy man shouting.

Then Hudson Mohawke was on. I saw him DJ before Phoenix earlier this year and he was fantastic. This set was really good but the tent was way too crowded. I think he has a lot more fans than the organisers anticipated. It was absolutely packed with people wearing t-shirts of the album cover. I tried to sneak my way in, but without much luck. So I bopped about at the back, enjoying the music and the atmosphere, which was pretty friendly.

We then had some pretty delicious food (although were SHOCKED by the prices at some stands. £1 for GRAVY?! Wtf?) and headed over to the Archie Bronson Outfit. I can’t remember them to be honest, I think because we were sat on the outskirts eating and chatting. We found a pair of Guess sunglasses at that tent, that is my main memory.

8:30 saw James Holden take to the stage and Peter patiently waited outside while my friend Eleanor and I went a little dancing mad. Dancing dancing dancing, breathe, dancing dancing dancing. He was awesome. I am going to download his album and pay actual pound for it, it was that good.

And then finally Phoenix were on. They were a bit disappointing, compared to the last time I saw them. I guess I just like their older stuff I lot better, so was disappointed that they didn’t play very much of it. I think they actually only played one old song, which luckily is my favourite, If I Ever Feel Better. Everyone in the crowd went wild for that one, so maybe they all felt the same way I did.

Once Phoenix was over, the festival was pretty much done. We did try to go dance in one of the dance tents, but that shut down about two minutes after we got there. That’s the trouble with festivals in urban areas – the noise pollution issue means everything ends really early. As a Victoria Park neighbour I am usually grateful for that, as you can hear the music pretty clearly when the wind is right, but on Saturday I was ready to go out and dance for the rest of the night. There was some kind of after party, but that was miles away in SE1. As it was, the park is a 5 minute walk from my house and the allure of my bed was calling pretty strongly once the dance tent shut down. Watching all the other trendies make their way to the tube, I was so glad that I just had to cross the canal to get home.

Good points: James Holden; Gucci Sunglasses; really good burrito; Hudson Mohawke; hanging out in the beautiful weather; hipster-watching

Bad points: The Field Day website is ATROCIOUS; gravy = £1; terrible reception, which meant I didn’t find some of my friends for the whole festival and had SEVEN voicemails when I got home; ending too early

I wanted to write a big long thing about this, but haven’t had time. I still don’t, so this will be brief.

Things that stood out:

1. Heat! 40+ degrees during the day - the walk from the hotel to the beach seemed to take an hour, even though it was only 10 minutes. I barely tanned as being in the sun was to be cooked alive.
2. Bodies everywhere - because of the heat, campers took refuge wherever possible, meaning every shady area of town was covered in sleeping bikinied bodies - a bit like a beach side massacre
3. Music - lots of good stuff - I loved Mumford and Sons, Ellie Goulding (who was amazing standing in for Lily Allen), Two Door Cinema, Vampire Weekend, Dizzie Rascal - so much fun
4. Food - a lot of oily food with a lot of garlic, but tasty - lots of squid and octopus and paella three times
5. Wine - a lot of this

Lots of pics and videos online on my Flickr

The friend I went to see Jonsi with is a massive Sigur Ros fan. I am not. I find the music incredibly bleak and depressing. Apparently ‘shoe-gazing’ is for teenagers, but I think Sigur Ros is the adult version of this – pretty emo, good for when you’ve been dumped and want to wallow in your own misery OR good background music when you want to take a nap. But I do actually like quite a lot of the songs on Go more than anything I have heard from Sigur Ros, so I was quite looking forward to this gig.

The first song he played was very pared back – him standing on a stage with nothing going on around him. The venue was really, really hot and my feet were starting to ache a little bit from standing, and the song had a lyric about something being endless. It was quite slow and I found myself looking at the audience more than the stage, and I thought to myself, ‘this night is going to go on forever.’ Luckily, it did pick up.

From the second song onward, the show really came into its own. Songs like Go Do, the single from the album, and Animal Arithmetic were amazing and the audience was obviously absolutely loving it. It is the only gig I have ever been to where the audience actively shushed people during the quieter songs, and there were several (male!) shouts of ‘I LOVE YOU JONSI!’ in between songs.

The stage direction was outstanding. The music most came alive for me when there were visuals running on the projection screen behind and next to the band. It started off with a simple image of a wolf and a deer, drawn in the style of a cave man. Then fire burned across the screen and with the next song we had the wolf chasing the deer in a beautiful black and white line animation where all of the muscle lines were drawn on to the bodies, giving the imagery a real sense of movement. Then the animals caught one another and turned into owls and suddenly we were soaring above the forest, rather than running through it.

At other times there were simple beats translated into moving blocks, hummingbirds made of fire flying around plants that grew up as the song progressed, other animals like ants and rats crawling across the screens in huge numbers, rain falling and filling the backdrop with water, and the whole show ended with a massive storm – animated rain pounding across the backdrop with lightening flashing in time with the music and drums echoing thunder. It was absolutely fantastic. By the end I felt invigorated and awake, something I really did not expect at all from the show.

Unfortunately, despite the visuals being my favourite thing about the show, I have no photographs as my camera charger no longer works and Peter’s camera is shite. There is a group set up on Flickr though, just of photos of him playing live, so make sure you take a look. The pictures don’t really do it justice, but might give you a bit of a sense of what the experience was like. 

Jonsi – Go

The Ellie Goulding gig was, unsurprisingly, full of The Young. But from what decade? There were a lot of pastel acid washed denim skirts with flowers on them, lots and lots of bleached hair, and a general sense of having just stepped out of a Madonna video from 1986. I also saw a young lady wearing sequinned peach hotpants with black leggings. Now there’s a look. There were a lot of fifteen year olds and men who were either creepy pervert types or, more likely, dad/chaperones. It is a week night, after all.

The gig itself was great. Quite small, even thought it was much more produced than last time I saw her (with no band - just her on a stool, basically), but a lot of fun and a few great songs.

One thing I definitely did not notice when I saw her last time is: how freaking hot is Ellie Goulding? Who knew!? She was wearing micro shorts and a tight t-shirt tied in the back. She moves her hips slowly when she dances and when she was drumming with the light behind her she looked like something out of flashdance. I’m specifically reminded of this image:

Seriously. Wow. No wonder all the musos raved about her. I bet she came on stage and did her drumming and flipped her hair about and stuck her chest out and every man (and woman!) stared at her hypnotised and said ‘she is freaking hot’ and next thing you know she is ‘the one to watch of 2009’.

I mean, this picture doesn’t do her justice, but you would, wouldn’t you?

Anyway, good gig and I’ll definitely buy a couple of her singles. Until now I only had Under the Sheets, but Starry Eyed is a really pretty song and I think there were a couple of others that I liked too, but will have to Spotify to figure out what they were called.

This gig was awesome. Aside from the guy standing next to me who TALKED THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE THING (WHY ARE YOU HERE, FRIEND???), everyone was dancing and singing and having a great time.

They played a good mix of new songs and old songs, including my favourite, which I thought they weren’t going to play, but they did. They played Listomania to start which is my favourite song from the new album, and Lasso and If I Ever Feel Better and Funky Squaredance and a couple of acoustic versions of songs, which I didn’t think worked as well, but overall a brilliant gig. I will definitely see them again (hopefully this summer in Victoria Park!).

The opening act, Hudson Mohawke, was completely different, but also really talented. He looked like he was about 12, and he probably was. But very talented DJ and I bought his album yesterday morning, so looking forward to listening to it.

Went to see The See See (that’s a lot of sees) tonight in Stoke Newington. I liked them a lot. Their sound was very familiar, even though I’d never heard them before. I don’t know masses about music, but they sounded a bit like late Beatles. Three guitarists and a drummer with a 60s vibe and some proper rocknrolling.

There were two bands playing after them, which I wanted to stay on and see, but my feet were hurting so badly I had to leave. The trouble with wearing super comfortable shoes most of the time is that when I wear even slightly uncomfortable shoes these days my feet can’t handle them. Sad.