Staffordshire, England, 22 August 2009
Ozzy and I woke up really early, my brother Paul picked us up from Bloemendaal and brought us to the airport. Bless him. He had to work there. We didn’t have the tickets yet, hope it will be OK at the festival with our order confirmation. Ted said it would ok.
We got the flight at about 9. When we arrived in Birmingham, we needed the train to Wolverhampton. When we arrived there we saw the bus stop, that we needed later that day for the shuttle bus, around the corner. And on the other side on the corner our hotel. We stayed in Brittania Hotel… BRILLIANT!!!
The room wasn’t ready yet, ‘cos we arrived really early. We went across the street for brunch.
When we came back to the hotel, the lady was still busy cleaning it, but I could charge my phone already. She was nearly finished. After 10 minutes, when we went back to the room, she was finished and we could get ready to go to the festival.
It took us about 30 minutes on the shuttle bus. We had to collect the tickets at the entrance. V festival was very late with giving out tickets, so they didn’t send them overseas, we had to collect them… but they were there! We didn’t have to call Ted for help.
The festival ground looked a bit like Relentless Boardmasters festival, only bigger! Much bigger!
We had to survive a few hours before the Streets came on. Thankfully the weather was lovely so we were relaxing. After Nathalie Imbruglia (we listened to her on the grass outside the tent), we tried to go to the front, that meant that we would miss the go low plane, but being up front was more important, as I saw the plane in Kendal already.
It took us 3 acts including Human League I didn’t like them really, but their last song did well, so the tent was “rammo in the main room”, as Mike would say.
2nd row, not too bad, I had to be happy with that, I wouldn’t get any closer. The people in front of me weren’t there for The Streets, possibly for Lady Gaga, she was on after Mike, so they stayed calm, I would survive.
Mike came on, he saw me and let me know he did. It was really warm there in the tent.
Mike kept an eye on me… to see if I was OK (that’s how it felt anyway). When I jumped about, Mike said “calm down its very warm, we jump all together in a minute”.
It was a really good gig, couldn’t move really, “go low” meant I had to sit on somebody’s lap. Getting bonkers was hard to do myself, but people behind me were jumping, they kept me moving.
It was Wayne‘s birthday. Happy birthday Wayne!
Didn’t know how fast I had to get out of the tent when it was finished. It was so warm, I nearly collapsed, I needed to sit down and a sugar rush.
Guess I had to stay in the tent, cos Mike and Ted were watching Lady Gaga. After I calmed down a bit, and my body temperature got back to normal.
We went for some food. Getting ready for Oasis.
What a crowd! We were no where close to the front, but when we left we were no where close to the end either, so many people!! I couldn’t believe it! But I was lucky enough to see them at V, ‘cos that seemed to be their last performance ever. I never really liked Oasis, but knowing that I’ve seen their last gig ever sounds cool.
Only the beer, cider or pee that I received from people I didn’t really like…. English audience are different 😉 …. I really love these flags. They look amazing. You don’t see that anywhere. Not like this anyway.
The next day August 23rd
We went back home to Bloemendaal.
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