V Festival - Elbow, Duffy, The Do & others

The festival this year should really have been named "All British People Currently In Melbourne Gather Here" - I swear I haven't heard so many British accents around me outside of UK! Perhaps not surprising considering the line-up which also included Madness, Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight and Killers (who as I understand are darlings in UK). This may or may not have accounted for the amount of smokers at the festival - never seen so many.

Anyway, this year it was held at Melbourne Showgrounds, which was a relief after my previous festival experience, Big Day Out at the dismal Flemington Racecourse. Plenty of places to sit, okay food, easy to get around and normal bathrooms rather than those dreadful portable cabins.

I got to the venue just in time to see Duffy on That Stage. I like her album and as a performer she's vocally spot-on, looks great and has the sultry onstage strutting down pat. What I felt was missing, unfortunately, was a sense of personality and spontaneity - there's just something a bit overly careful and dead-eyed about her.



I left Duffy mid-set to catch The Do at the Other Stage. Which was a stage inside what you could describe as a giant barn - a shame that they had to be stuck in there because the sound wasn't that great and made me wish for ear plugs. The lead singer, Olivia, was a great antidote to Duffy: cute, quirky, lively, endearingly childlike. A bit like a cross between Bjork and Karen O. They had a roadie who was dressed in a black Dracula cape and one of the strangest drumkits I've seen, with random metal plates hanging over the drummer's head. The audience was so different to the one at Duffy's it was funny, mostly arty and alternative types.



Next up were Elbow back at That Stage, who sadly clashed with Jenny Lewis who played at This Stage in the same slot. I considered splitting my time between the two since I've already seen Elbow before, but in the end they were the main reason I went to the festival at all so they won. As much as I'd have loved to see Jenny I didn't regret the decision one bit because once again Elbow were just amazing. Their set was dominated by the material from their latest and Leaders of the Free World; after seeing them live twice Guy Garvey is firmly established as one of my favourite frontmen - funny, charming, likeable, intensely into the music he's making, and possessing one of the finest voices in music today. One Day Like This got a huge cheer from the Brits in the crowd, which in a way made me feel sad that while Elbow finally got some recognition back in UK they're still largely unappreciated here.



After Elbow I went for a bathroom break, and was puzzled to see a huge crowd gathered around one of the minor stages, with people spilling on to the streets. I had no idea why until I looked at the schedule and realised that Vanilla Ice was performing Ice Ice Baby was starting up just as I went inside.

Then I was back at That Stage to have some butter chicken curry and Madness. Before the band came onstage they played a reggae cover album of Dark Side of the Moon which was just... wrong I thought I'd watch Madness from the seats and have a nice break, but once they started they were so much fun that sitting down felt like a crime In a hurry to get down I grabbed what I thought was my bottle of water, only to realise a few seconds later that my bottle was actually in my bag and that the woman I robbed was looking at me with a shocked expression. Very embarrassing to say the least.

Near the end of Madness I went back to the barn to check out The Kills. I don't know why, but for some reason I decided that they wouldn't be all that good live. Um, wrong. I ended up being sorry that I missed most of their set and their sideshow earlier in the week. The lead singer (who I keep thinking of as "Meg" - her long dark hair and fringe always make me think of Meg White) had attitude and intensity and their nervy-jerky minimalist sound was quite powerful live.

Then I moved on to This Stage and Kaiser Chiefs. I've seen them once before, they're a fun live band and Ricky Wilson certainly gives it all to entertain the crowd, jumping around like a maniac and climbing the scaffolding. My interest kinda dipped during the songs from their latest album, but sheer energy and exuberance always saw them through. I sneaked out near the end to have a peek at Snow Patrol, who bored me almost instantaneously.



It was half an hour left before The Killers were due onstage, so I debated on whether I could be bothered considering that a) I saw Killers at Big Day Out and wasn't that impressed, and b) according to the interview with Mr Flowers the set was going to draw heavily on Dull & Average. So I decided to skip The Killers and beat the crowds. While waiting for the train at Flinders Station I ate a dark chocolate spanish donut with caramel filling