Looking back on 2009’s T, once the tent and wellies had been safely packed away for another year, I reckon it will go down as a solid year’s version, if not a truly memorable one. It was maybe the first year for a long time that there were a lack of ‘must see’ acts performing. With The Killers, Snow Patrol, Kings of Leon and Razorlight all high up on the Main Stage bills you could have been at any T in the Park over the last 6 years such was the lack of imagination in this year’s headline acts. If that was not bad enough, a look to the NME stage on the Sunday night saw the anaemic Keane headlining; I understand that there are tickets to shift, but surely there are more deserving bands who could have justified the closing slot on the 2nd biggest stage.
With a lack of stand outs, it allowed more of a pick n mix approach to the line up. A late arrival on the Friday night meant missing Edwyn Collins’ triumphant T in the Park debut (how good would ‘A Girl Like You’ have sounded on the Main Stage is something we will hopefully discover soon) but Camera Obscura‘s set in the Red Bull tent almost made up for it. A band who have beefed up their live sets and with pop gems like ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken’ and ‘Let’s Get Out of This Country’ sounding like true pop classics they kept both the indie kids and the more ‘mature’ indie kids happy.
Franz Ferdinand on the main stage oozed confidence and looked like they owned T in the Park as they played a mixture of old hits such as ‘Do You Want To’ as well as the mighty ‘Ulysses’ from this year’s Tonight:Franz Ferdinand album but the one that had everyone jumping was ‘Take Me Out’ which sounds as fresh now as it did on its 2004 release.
Over on the Radio 1/NME stage things were turned up a notch by Karen O’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs who blitzed their way through an hour set before Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds took to the stage with an intense 90 minutes of wrath, fury, damnation and… eh… a cheeky version of ‘Happy Birthday’ for bassist Martyn Casey that I’m almost sure brought a smile to Nick Cave’s face. With the legendary mad monk himself Warren Ellis also on full flow playing everything from violin to guitar to cello, The Bad Seeds brought Friday night at T to a close with a few classics – ‘We Call Upon The Author’ and ‘Red Right Hand’ and ‘The Weeping Song’.
Saturday afternoons at T have now come to include a bit of a dance session (are ye asking?), with Scissor Sisters and CSS performing in recent years and 2009 saw Lady Gaga take the baton with a highly camp hour long performance that had the kids dancing and screaming for more and everyone else just screaming for more drink. Paolo Nutini appeared next and, but not before he had spent an hour being interviewed backstage fuelled by some Tennents and an obligatory scotch pie, gave a performance that continues proving the doubters who thought he was nothing but a pretty face wrong.
With the sun shining it was the reformed Specials who gave everyone the first perfect T moment of the weekend with ‘A Message To You Rudy’, one of the great summer tracks of the last 30 years. Whether they sound as good when they play Edinburgh in the cold and grey of November is another matter but for an hour on the Saturday afternoon they were the perfect soundtrack.
Undoubted highlight of the weekend for this writer was in the King Tut’s tent, where Glasvegas‘s appearance had the ‘tent full’ signs up some 50 minutes before they took to the stage. In the year since they have gone ballistic, not much has changed song wise from their set with the crowd singing every anthemic word of every anthemic song. Supporting U2 at Hampden in August will merely raise their profile further but the real challenge lies in taking the next step with their second album. A cover of The Proclaimers ‘Sunshine On Leith’ showed the band can do no wrong even with their choice of cover as the 13,000 capacity lapped up every note.
On to Sunday and Regina Spektor in the King Tuts tent who can be filed along with Tori Amos and Rufus Wainwright appearances in 2007, in the category of mid afternoon singer songwriters who the majority of the T crowd would never dream of going to see, but, like the former two, knows how to put on a show. Further cabaret later on with Pet Shop Boys who played a hit-filled set accompanied by a troupe of dancers and more costume changes than the woeful The Saturdays who must have performed at T only after having taken a wrong turn on their way to ‘E4 on the Beach’ and someone taking pity on them, as they certainly were not there for their musical ability.
Stirling’s Little Eskimos restored a semblance of my faith in music with a half hour set in a packed T Break Stage. The band have been touring relentlessly over the last year or so and have recently been in the studio working on new material with Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake, so it was great to see them responding to the enthusiastic crowd by belting out a great version of live favourite ‘Mixtape’ during their 30 minute set.
Over on the Radio 1/NME stage Doves suffered from some poor sound quality with a subdued set but Elbow on the Main Stage played set mixed with both tracks from the recently crowned Mercury Music Prize winning Seldom Seen Kid album as well as singer Guy Garvey’s patter, culminating with ‘One Day Like This’, played in glorious sunshine and which had everyone singing the lines “Throw those curtains wide/One day like this a year would see me right.” As mentioned elsewhere on this website, a perfect T in the Park moment.
It was left to Blur to close the 2009 festival and, after a 50 minute food poison induced delay, the reformed band took to the stage for what may turn out to be their last ever performance. Crowd pleasers like ‘Boys and Girls’, ‘Song 2’ and ‘Parklife’ were performed to an ecstatic crowd, while ‘Tender’ reminded everyone that they could write a Beatles like anthem as good as anything Oasis have ever attempted. Fireworks greeted the end of the epic ‘The Universal’ and what may prove to be Blur’s last ever gig.
All in all another good T in the Park, but with early bird tickets still on sale a week after their release, as opposed to selling out in the usual 70 minutes of years gone by, it remains to be seen whether T in the Park fatigue is setting in.
Something special in 2010 is surely required to put T back amongst the best UK festivals.
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