bookmark_borderThat's me in the corner…

The rain stayed off, there was a surprising lack of the usual idiots and all in all it was a great day.

We met up my friends house for a BBQ first, he lives all of two minutes walk from Balloch Park, and finally dragged ourselves out around 4pm. By the time we got into the park and found a decent spot – which just happened to be about 40 feet from the bar – the Zutons were just starting their set. They sounded a lot more “rocky” than I would have thought, and they got things going nicely, although I heard that Aberfeldy and Ambulance Ltd were pretty good but we missed them, preferring to sit in a quiet garden munching on carbonised burgers.

Feeder were up next and fairly romped through their better known stuff, although it did seem like they were only on stage for about 20 mins. Maybe it was the beer, or the vodka we’d smuggled in…

Then all of a sudden, although not until after we’d had some chips, everyone started cheering and the opening chords of “I took your name” rang out. The set was a good mix of old and new, with a few surprises thrown in, most notably “Cuyahoga” and “So Fast So Numb” and all too soon “Man on the Moon” was finishing, the lights went up then it all started to go downhill.

To say the organisation for moving people out of the park was bad is an understatement, and whilst I know they were trying to control things it wasn’t handled well and left large sections of people stuck inside the park for over an hour. Anyway, we’d purloined some inflatable chairs so just plonked ourselves down on the grass to wait, but I feel sorry for those who would have missed the last trains.

Despite it not feeling like a “gig” – there were loads of people there just to be there rather than to see the band – it was a great day. Hearing Michael Stipe live adds a new realm to their songs, he’s got such a powerful live voice, and the company I was in was pretty good too.

The full setlist, for those interested, is below. More thoughts and photos later.
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