T in the Park 2007

Another T in the P, another great day out J. This year only went to the Saturday because last year we felt we really did not make the most of the Sunday at all due to being totally shattered.  Although the number of days decreased, the number of people I went with increased to 5 from 2 last year, which made it even better! Thanks to you all for making it such a laugh!  Anyway here’s the run down of all the bands I went to see this year…

Charlotte Hatherly – Pet Sounds Arena

Although the tent was only half full, it was a good start to the day. At the moment Charlotte’s sole stuff appears to be going largely unrecognised which is surprising considering the success of her former band Ash. The early slot probably did not help either as people were still trying to sort themselves out after the trouble with the weather the previous day.  Charlotte’s set itself spanned her two albums full of catchy punchy pop rock tunage.

Camera Obscura – King Tuts Tent

This is one of those bands I’d heard of, just not heard anything by them. What I got was like a very pleasant stroll in the park in the height of summer.  The female vocalist’s soothing vocals and laid back guitars created a wonderful soundscape making it a very enjoyable set.

Calvin Harris – King Tuts Tent

After a fairly chilled out start to the day, Calvin Harris changed that pretty quickly! Full of energy and boundless enthusiasm; Calvin blew the roof off the King Tuts tent as if he was a festival veteran.  The whole place was just going wild.  Especially “Acceptable in the 80’s” and “Girls”.  Having completely low expectations of the set before he came on, I was literally transformed into a dancing monkey by the end of the set.  What I expected was a guy to come on with a laptop, press play as if he was doing something then nod his head every so often (believe me, I’ve seen it before!).  This was very different; as Harris was singing, jumping around and playing on the laptop, while being accompanied by a full backing band.  Definitely would recommend seeing this live!

Reverend and the Makers – Scottish water future stage

After seeing three acts in a row beginning with the letter ‘C’.  As you can imagine you can get a bit “C’d out” and could start suffering from “C” syndrome if we listened to anymore acts beginning with that letter, so we felt it was time to move on to ‘R’.  Only to find the tent was so full there were people hanging out the entrances trying to catch a glimpse…………so we just dingied that!

Lostprophets – Main Stage

So it was onwards to the Main stage to catch the last half an hour of Lostprophets who were on top comedy form.  Having the job of fitting on to a bill where none of the acts could really be put in the same category as them.  Not because they are highly original but because they are the remains of the nu-metal scene which started in the mid 90’s. They certainly went the right way about getting folk to listen, even if it did mean taking the piss.  As they blasted through their catalogue of hits, I couldn’t help but notice they’ve never really bettered ‘Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja’.  If they don’t come up with anything better soon they will be joining the other Nu-metal bands on the scrapheap…

James – Main Stage

Only caught the first 3 James songs, including ‘Sit Down’ which, as expected, felt like they were born to play at festivals, but had to head off to catch Air Traffic.

Air Traffic – Scottish Water Future Stage

Having listened to Air Traffic on XFM the previous week and consequently buying the album; I was delighted to find them playing T in the P.  Originally I was more inclined to see Black Rebel Motorcycle club at this time, but having seen them before, I decided I wanted something fresh.  Air Traffic are exactly that with a good mix of songs ranging from the epic ‘Shooting Star’ to the punchy ‘Charlotte’.  This is a band who are making waves and destined to get bigger and bigger.

DJ Shadow – Slam Tent

Having had a bit of food and nothing really worth seeing it was time for a bit of random tenting! So destination was the Slam Tent for a laugh only to find DJ Shadow playing who I thought was headlining that night.  It was impressive stuff, with a cool video backdrop.  The crowd itself was comical! As one of my friends stated ‘Do you not notice, the nearer you get to the slam tent, the weirder people get’……………..oh it was so true!

Razorlight – Main Stage

Pretend its battle of the bands.  You’ve got the choice between Razorlight, Klaxons and My Chemical Romance.  First to be eliminated was My Chemical Romance for the easy reason “Nobody liked them!”.  So it’s down to the Klaxons or Razorlight.  Not really a big fan of either but decided to go for Razorlight (majority vote).  Klaxons I felt didn’t really have enough material yet to pull off a festival storming set, as although the singles are good, they would just be rehashing the only album they have.

Razorlight were ok, good sing-a-long music.  ‘Golden Touch’ and ‘Stumble and Fall’ are good tunes.  However in the end with all the mediocre impromptu bits in the last song which seemed to last forever, it was clear they don’t have enough material to pull off that slot, and I seriously worry about there capability to headline Leeds and Reading festivals.  I think festival organisers generally should implement a minimum 3 album rule for headliners and co headliners, this way the slots would be more prestigious and not given to the latest hype band with a lack of good material.

The Killers – Main Stage

In saying that The Killers had it a bit easier because although just having two albums they have a lot more good tunes than Razorlight, so maybe there could be some exceptions.  The Killers set was magnificent, all I really remember is bouncing up and down continually for an hour and a half, singing every word.  I always felt the first album ‘Hot Fuss’ was half good, half bad, but ‘Sam’s Town’ was a lot more complete. With the new album though it means they could afford to just not play the weaker songs from ‘Hot fuss’ and concentrate on the classics. Still ‘Mr Brightside’ is still sounding as good from the first time I heard it.   It was a great end to the day and The Killers were worth the price of the ticket alone, never mind getting all the other treats and bonuses along the way.

Air Traffic - Fractured Life

There seems to be so many indie bands nowadays that it is becoming increasingly more difficult for bands to break through. Air Traffic have managed to get over the first massive hurdle, by signing to EMI. Fractured Life shows exactly why they managed to stand out, through a well balanced album, delivering one good song after the other. 

On first listen to the album, the first band which sprang to mind as an influence was Coldplay. However although some of the songs do have that sort of ring to them, with little more investigation it became apparent that the more punchy/upbeat songs, have a lot more sharpness about them, such as `Charlotte' and `Just Abuse Me'. This shows that they have a side which sets them apart from the likes of Coldplay. For instance you wouldn't hear Chris Martin singing `I'm wasted, face down on the floor...'. These songs really do have the `feel good' factor about them, making for good festival tunes. Reminds me a bit of `Guillemots', especially with the upbeat piano in some of the songs. 

One song on the album that does have a Coldplay feel towards it is `No more running away', as it feels like they trying to achieve the same kind of impact on the listener as `Fix You'. Although not quite reaching the same standard; they're certainly not too far off, which is impressive considering this is only their first attempt, and `Fix you' was Colplay's third! The song itself starts off with 3 members taking up drum duty for the first half of the song, creating a great rhythmic back drop to Chris Wall's vocals and piano. In the second half of the song, the guitarist and bassist take up their `preferred' instruments, taking the song up a gear with Chris Wall's vocals in full flight. 

Although I feel `No more running away' is nearly there in terms of greatness. `Shooting Star' definitely is there and would not look out of place on any `Best of Festivals this summer...' type albums. Unless of course the rest of the songs on the album were rubbish! This song has everything; catchy chorus, guitar solo (simple but effective) and a good mixture of slow build ups alongside crashing guitar bursts. Its one of those songs you can picture yourself being in a car; accelerating and decelerating in time with the music, like in the Snow Patrol video for `Open your eyes'. Nevertheless, this song is a lot more dramatic in terms of quiet and loud bits. Especially at the start of the song, as it goes along quite nicely around 30mph. Then around the 25 second mark where it accelerates ferociously up to 70mph in matter of seconds. Another example is the guitar solo, as it slowly builds up giving you a breathier after the chorus. At this point it feels like your back down, driving at 10mph until eventually you are driving at 70mph once more. 70mph is good analogy in terms of the song as whole as well, as you never feel like its going over the speed limit, i.e. - out of control, but it does reach what you feel is the acceptable limit. For me, this is by far and away the stand out track of the album. 

The album finishes with the song `Fractured Life' , in which you can almost feel the pain and suffering talked about in the song through the emotion in Chris Wall's voice and through lyrics such as "Cos if it can't work out what's right and fair its time to escape". This combined with the slow piano adds to the emotion. It is very similar to Coldplay's `Amsterdam' on their `Rush of Blood to the Head' album, as it has got the same sort of structure to the song. In the same vain it is a cracking end to an album. Until, you turn round to your CD player realising its still running! Yes, it is one of those albums with a `hidden' track. For this one you only have to wait over ten minutes! Even with the fast forward button it's an irritating effort. However it is worth a skip to every now and then as it's a well crafted instrumental. 

Overall though, this a fine debut and I think they have the right ingredients to make an even better album. In order to have any kind of longevity I think they need to be more adventurous with the structure and depth of the songs, which I'm sure will come in time as their abilities and band chemistry improves. Not only to distinguish it from this album, but also from bands like Coldplay. I know I have mentioned that band a lot as a comparison, and to be honest if you don't like Coldplay I very much doubt that you will like this album, especially the softer songs. However, Air Traffic do have a great vocalist and with a mixture of the softer piano-laden songs with the punchy more upbeat songs, they can set themselves apart from the rest. Definitely a band to look out for in the future!