Post by emma on Jul 31, 2007 13:01:05 GMT
i was one of the 60,000 people who witnessed the arctic monkeys/amy winehouse/the coral/supergrass play at old trafford cricket ground over the weekend, and i have to say it was thoroughly enjoyable 
the ground itself is kind of dwarfed - no, wait, EXTREMELY dwarfed - by the football stadium, with its ridiculously pretentious billboard-sized photo of manchester united on the front - but is never the less a nice venue, perfect for cricket.
however this weekend it was packed with mancs and northerners and ME
didn't see much of winehouse, heard the end of 'rehab' and her cover of 'valerie' by the zutons, but she was so far away i wasn't that bothered - i really like her music but i'd rather go to see her in a smaller venue.
the coral were good musically but didn't really engage with the crowd much... having said that the crowd were very drunk so didn't mind... they played 'dreaming of you' and 'in the morning' and that got everyone going, their most famous songs, they seemed to enjoy those the most.
throughout the intervals there was an advert for a movie on the big screens, on repeat - it had andy constatine in it from Hot fuzz and bits and pieces of arctic monkeys videos intermingled with it....... bizarre.
supergrass were fairly crap to be honest - the lead singer just looked smug - so we went to get food. the queues were massive except for the Australian pie company, presumably because their pies were £4.50, but we had a couple anyway and they were very nice to be fair!
got back into our position in front of the camera tent and waited for the monkeys to come on. got chatting to some bloke who commented that the kid in front of us looked like a member of the irish quidditch team. guess you had to be there
the monkeys at first had to keep stopping because the crowd were surging forward - and chucking bottles of piss, oh that was just LOVELY, it went on for HOURS, people were buying drinks just to chuck - but from our position we couldn't really tell what was going on, it just seemed like alex was having tantrums.
anyway, they were brilliant, they played to a level far beyond their years, the audience went nuts and alex was very gracious and said "thank you for coming" more than once... very good. '505' as the encore was class. some woman in front of me heard me singing and turned around and started singing at me lol.
i don't normally go in for indie bands, let alone indie bands who've become a worldwide success in the space of 2 years, but there is something special about this lot, lyricswise especially, i can relate very specifically to a lot of their songs, which rarely happens with a band, particularly with a male lead.
theres a few videos on youtube - search for lifedrinker (tahts mee) and look at my favourites.
the ground itself is kind of dwarfed - no, wait, EXTREMELY dwarfed - by the football stadium, with its ridiculously pretentious billboard-sized photo of manchester united on the front - but is never the less a nice venue, perfect for cricket.
however this weekend it was packed with mancs and northerners and ME
didn't see much of winehouse, heard the end of 'rehab' and her cover of 'valerie' by the zutons, but she was so far away i wasn't that bothered - i really like her music but i'd rather go to see her in a smaller venue.
the coral were good musically but didn't really engage with the crowd much... having said that the crowd were very drunk so didn't mind... they played 'dreaming of you' and 'in the morning' and that got everyone going, their most famous songs, they seemed to enjoy those the most.
throughout the intervals there was an advert for a movie on the big screens, on repeat - it had andy constatine in it from Hot fuzz and bits and pieces of arctic monkeys videos intermingled with it....... bizarre.
supergrass were fairly crap to be honest - the lead singer just looked smug - so we went to get food. the queues were massive except for the Australian pie company, presumably because their pies were £4.50, but we had a couple anyway and they were very nice to be fair!
got back into our position in front of the camera tent and waited for the monkeys to come on. got chatting to some bloke who commented that the kid in front of us looked like a member of the irish quidditch team. guess you had to be there
the monkeys at first had to keep stopping because the crowd were surging forward - and chucking bottles of piss, oh that was just LOVELY, it went on for HOURS, people were buying drinks just to chuck - but from our position we couldn't really tell what was going on, it just seemed like alex was having tantrums.
anyway, they were brilliant, they played to a level far beyond their years, the audience went nuts and alex was very gracious and said "thank you for coming" more than once... very good. '505' as the encore was class. some woman in front of me heard me singing and turned around and started singing at me lol.
i don't normally go in for indie bands, let alone indie bands who've become a worldwide success in the space of 2 years, but there is something special about this lot, lyricswise especially, i can relate very specifically to a lot of their songs, which rarely happens with a band, particularly with a male lead.
theres a few videos on youtube - search for lifedrinker (tahts mee) and look at my favourites.